Recently I have heard of various class or grade wide punishments being handed out. By this, I mean those punishments where the Administrator, Teacher, Staff, etc decide that the whole class or grade needs to pay for some particular misbehavior.
Having been an incredibly well behaved NERD in my personal K-12 experience, I always found this incredibly frustrating. I mean, why was I paying for the inability of the adult to control their classroom, assembly, etc? The punishment I am referring to usually consisted of extra homework, quiet time, everyone pulling a slip, lost privileges, etc.
Based on my experiences, the root causes I found were:
- The adult was too focused on gaining the kid's friendship instead of their respect.
- The adult was disorganized and did not keep the kids engaged.
- The adult did not proactively address the problematic few quickly enough. (ie infection spread)
- The adult did not punish consistently, appropriately or effectively.
- The adult typically then reacts due to their strong emotion, not out of helping the kids learn.
My view is that Adult / Kid relationships operate on a continuum that has Friendship on one end, Respect in the middle and Fear on the other end. I think adults need to show enough self control to stay in the Respect zone. The other 2 ends are simply unhealthy for kids as they develop, as you can see in the behavior of many children.
I love my daughters enough to know that once in awhile I have to be an adult to help them learn. I do this no matter how frustrated or angry it makes them in the short term. Its just part of the job of being the adult.
What good examples or memories of class / grade wide punishments do you have?
What adult beliefs or behaviors made these necessary?
What do you think of my continuum concept and parental responsibility in America.
7 comments:
The "we all had to suffer because of the jerk over there" concept is a life lesson, too. It happens. It keeps happening.
I agree it is a life lesson, and that kids can learn from it. (ie life's not always fair)
However, like being mugged, swindled, harassed, etc. Which also are unfortunate events that we can learn from.... Is there a way to reduce the number of occurences? Or do we just accept it?
This subject is a huge sore spot for me. Both my kids have had to endure countless punishments as a result of those few kids who can't or won't follow the rules. I think it is laziness or incompetence on the part of the teacher/playground monitor or whoever. They are unable or unwilling to pinpoint the perpetrators so they punish the group and delude themselves that some kind of social pressure will make the naughty kids fall in line. What actually happens is the group punishment gives the "naughty kids" such a feeling of power that it only encourages them to continue the bad behavior.
Along the same vein, another person I was talking to about this mentioned that often this leads to "trouble making loners" being even more shunned by their peers. Therefore aggravating their problems and likely escalating their bad behavior.
The peer pressure rationale only works if you are part of the group or want to be part of the group.
Much more productive if the Adult could help that child correct their behavior and fit in. (ie Praise in Public and Coach in Private)
A note from my Facebook comments:
"Amen John! As a classmate of yours I can attest to your behavior...lol. I totally agree with you here and I am quick to correct a problem on the individual level. I did learn in the Army about the effectiveness of punishing the whole on account of the few. It created a self governing entity and cohesion. This is a separate situation from a group of kids and I don't think this style should be used on children. Terry"
I agree with Terry that group rewards and punishments can be very useful when trying to promote teamwork. Especially when the team has or should have a common goal. As long as the goal is clearly defined/communicated, and the rewards/punishments are planned to be carrots and sticks. (ie not reactive or emotionally driven)
A note from my Facebook:
"My son (sixth grader) complains about "punishment of all" almost daily. He's tired of it and so am I. I think it is the result of a lazy teacher - unable to engage the kids as individuals. S"
Based on my limited experience, it does seem to be worst in Middle School. I understand that the kids are a wee bit crazy and peers are everything at that age. Maybe it is a good technique sometimes. Though it does seem over used at times.
I think this subject (punishing everyone)is the main reason my daughter went into the application IB program. It's been great for her. They spend time in class on the subject matter. The teachers don't have to be cops. The teachers and kids can actually joke around sometimes and get to know each other and have fun without it degenerating into chaos. The kids have the ability to control themselves and the desire to learn. Now my son is planning to go to PMS into pre-AP so I'm hoping it goes OK there.
Post a Comment