Should Students be Punished? : Based on My Teaching Experience

Dear steemians, Today we are going to discuss about school punishment. To start today discussion, we can start by asking a question "should teachers be allowed to punish students?". Some people argue that the teacher should punish the students while the others should not. This question has revealed pros and cons on the answer among educators and education stakeholders. Some people say that punishment is a good way to make students become discipline, but some others say that punishment has no consequence on students discipline.

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Before we answer the question, I want to tell the readers how teachers work in classroom. Typically, a teacher in a large classroom deal with 25-30 students. At some points, some students will misbehave for some reasons. In this kind of situation what should the teacher do to overcome such students?. Of course , one of things that teacher can do is punish the students. The classroom would be complete chaos if there is no consequence for bad behaviors.

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Why the teacher should punish students?

Because if the teacher do nothing or allow the student to misbehave in the classroom, probably, the other students will do the same action. Or, it will disturb the others student while learning. This is what frequently happen in my classroom when one of my students misbehave like they do not bring learning stuff such as pens or books or they do not want to work on assignments. If I do not take some actions on thus students, it will lead other students to make the same mistake, or they will invite the others talk when I explain the lesson. So that it is necessary for me to give punishment to discipline their misbehavior. In the same vein, I also believe that giving punishment for students has the certain purposes. In my point of view the purpose of punishment is as a rehabilitation action for students' bad behaviors. Like Kyriacou (2009) says in his book that:

One of the purposes of punishment is rehabilitation; it is the idea that the pupil will be helped to understand the moral wrongdoing of the misbehavior and the need to behave well in future. (Kyriacou, 2007)

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What kind of punishment should teachers give for their students?

This is main question that each teacher should answer. By understanding the punishment consequences teachers are able to give appropriate punishments. Punishment should always be age appropriate and NO PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT.

These are several types of educational punishments suggested by Kyriacou (2007) that can be given by teacher when the students wrongdoing:

1. Writing task : the teacher asks students to write why they are naughty and promise to behave better in the future.
   This punishment aims to make students aware of the delinquency they have done. By writing their mistakes, they are expected to realize and accept the consequences for what they do.

2. Exclusion from classroom : the teacher asks students to wait outside classroom, or to take place in another classroom for a few hours. This punishment aims to make students to think and realize why she or he excludes from the others.

3. Reporting to significant persons : the teacher can inform the school principal or the parent about student's misbehavior. For some students, it is very punishing. But,by telling the principal and parents the next step to overcome with students misbehaving can be handle quickly.

4. Exclusion from school : this is a final punishment for a student. This punishment by asking parents to move students to another school for a few moments as well as for a permanent time. This is a punishment for long-term misbehaving or for serious misbehaving committed by students such as drug use. Usually, this punishment is given so that students get a new learning environment to change their behavior.

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In conclusion, by understanding the main purpose of giving punishment to students, teachers are expected to punish students when needed. Not all misbehavior should be punished. Sometimes, teachers can tolerate some misbehavior by applying a good approach to the student to know the reason the student misbehaves. So, teachers can prevent such misbehaving action by providing advice or reprimands.

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References

Kyriacou (2007) Essential Teaching Skills
Tracy A. Stanciel (2013) Should Teachers be Allowed Punished Students?

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Regards,

@affiedalfayed
(a teacher and writer)

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