Modern education needs modern approaches to flourish in the real sense. Punishing the students in the name of teaching them better was a method employed by the teachers in the past. The teachers who failed to teach otherwise would use Corporal Punishment as an alternative. Some teachers even began their practice with this method because they had learned it from their elder generations and carried it forward, thinking that teaching was not possible without corporal punishment. When we were reading in schools in the past many of our teachers used corporal punishment without any kind of fear or a second thought. They considered corporal punishment their basic right and hardly gave any attention to the rights of their students.
The complete banning of Capital Punishment was a paradigm shift towards creating a model education system in the whole country. Even bullying, scolding and harassing the students by mentally torturing them is now considered an offense and the teachers are time and again asked to avoid such harsh and futile techniques which are considered hindrances to the emotional development of the students.
However, even today many teachers in our department think that the standard of our education system has deteriorated because of this ban on corporal punishment. They feel that the status of a teacher has mainly been downgraded in the absence of corporal punishment. Because they feel that indiscipline in the schools is the main result of this ban. I think many among us are yet to understand the importance of making teaching attractive and tempting rather than fearsome.
Emotional punishment:
- Labeling the child according to his misbehavior and sending him around the school
- Making the child stand at the back of the class to complete the work
- Suspending the child for a couple of days
- Pinning a sheet of paper on the child’s back and labeling her, “I am a fool,” “I am a donkey,” and so on
- Taking the child to every classroom and humiliating her
- Removing the shirts of the boys
Teaching is an art and the teacher as an artist needs to be as attractive as he can during the presentation of his or her art. It is unfortunate that even during this modern age we see a lot of teachers around us who keep employing those outdated and outdated methodologies which have proved futile long ago.
Teachers always evaluate their students but the truth is that the students are better evaluators of their teachers. During those days when we were students, we were attracted by those teachers who were more lively and vibrant. We loved those teachers who blissfully taught us. We hated those who scolded us now and then and we criticized those who kept telling us dogmatic stories and who used boring methodologies while teaching. How can be today’s students different from us? They are also like us. They too crave love and are attracted to wonderful behaviors.
According to James Clear the author of ” Atomic Habits”, the second law of behavior change is to make it attractive. He means to say that we should make the thing attractive which we want to adopt as our habit. Have you ever wondered why more students feel that languages are more interesting or easier to learn than sciences and maths? One of the main reasons is that many science and maths teachers are not able to relate their teachings to life. Some of them even just try to transfer the things without making it interesting to the students. Some teach sciences and maths without having their faith in them. They believe in other dogmatic things and keep teaching their subjects which they consider nothing more than useless and a burden for themselves. I believe you can never do justice to teaching a subject unless and until you love that subject.
Teachers are considered as the role models. Our behavior must be so attractive and tempting that it forces the students to act more interestingly. We can build better habits among our students by tempting them through our attractive behaviors. If we make teaching and learning boring we should not dream it might bring great results. Education is now considered a fundamental right in our country. We can hardly dream of a perfect society in the modern world in the absence of a proper educational system. Those countries which have achieved more development and progress due to better education are without any doubt our inspirations for providing better and proper education to our young generations.
Types of corporal punishment in schools
Physical punishment:
- Making the child stand as a wall chair
- Keeping the schoolbag on the child’s head
- Making the child stand under the sun for the entire day
- Making the child to kneel and do the work and then enter the classroom
- Making the child stand on the bench
- Making the child raise his hands
- Making the child hold a pencil in her mouth and stand
- Making the child hold his ears by looping the hands behind the knees
- Tying the hands
- Making the child to do sit-ups
- Caning and pinching
- Twisting the ears
However, living in these so-called third-world and backward countries, we still doubt the modern and more progressive approaches employed by the developed societies and keep dreaming about those age-old methods of teaching which have never helped us in the long run. How can we motivate those teachers who feel that teaching is impossible in the absence of Corporal punishment? If it had been the reality then the Western education system would not have been better than our reflecting better, more reliable, and enduring results.
How can we inspire our teachers to learn love despite scolding the students? How can we make them understand that love has more power to achieve great things in this world than its opposite? As Laszlo once said, ” A genius is not born, but is educated and trained.” So it is the hard work of a great teacher who persists with patience till he discovers the gems by breaking the hardest stones.
It is easy to blame others for their failures. It is called the fixed mindset. It can not take us toward real growth and progress. The growth mindset is when we own our failures with an open heart ponder over our faults and work hard by learning how to correct our past mistakes to bring better results.
A teacher has to be attractive physically, mentally as well as emotionally so the students are motivated automatically to pursue the path he or she is treading on. A teacher’s smile can be so soothing and blissful for a student which has much might have more power to shape his future than the frown which may often be disgusting and discouraging for their tender hearts and minds. A teacher must avoid the habit of bullying his or her students after the assessment of their academic and behavioral achievements. A student might be average academically in the present but we can not anyone by assessing his or her present only. Chanakya the great Indian thinker says, ” Do not judge the future of a person based on his (or her) present condition, because time has the power to change black coal into shiny diamond.” We have witnessed time and again that many students who were considered average achieved great things in the future.
Negative reinforcement:
- Asking the parents to meet the teacher or asking the child to get explanatory letters from the parents
- Sending the child back home or making him stand outside the school gate
- Making the child sit on the floor of the classroom
- Making the child clean the premises
- Making the child run around the building or the playground
- Sending the child to the principal
- Making the child teach in the class
- Making the child stand until the teacher comes
- Giving oral warnings and writing letters in the school diary or calendar
- Threatening to give TC
- Forbidding the child to participate in games or other activities
- Deducting the marks
- Treating three late-comings equal to one day’s absence
- Giving excessive imposition
- Imposing a fine
- Not allowing the child to enter the class
We could hardly achieve anything substantial in the name of proper discipline, fear psychosis, and punishment. I feel we have not learned the great lesson of practicing before we preach ourselves. How can a teacher force his or her student to read and study the books when he or she ignores their importance altogether? A teacher can become a real role model for his or her pupils through his behavior. We have to learn the basic meaning of that great proverb,” Practice before you preach.” Then and only then may we hope to build a model society consisting of great persons.
Capital Punishment with its different offshoots is already dead and dormant now. We only need to bury its decaying corpse now which might be reeking in our minds. It was not better than a monster for us and our tender generations since ages. We must learn to apply the alternative techniques properly so that our education system perfectly competes with contemporary modern societies fruitfully and brings the desired results efficiently and effectively.
The author can be mailed at bukhari.hilalahmad5@gmail.com
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