When students are not afraid, punishment loses its effectiveness. Go ahead give the student more detention that he simply won’t show up.
This negative, coercive discipline and punishment approach is based on the belief that it is necessary to cause suffering to teach. It’s like you need to hurt in order to instruct. The fact of the matter however, is that people learn better when they feel better, not when they feel worse.
Remember, if punishment were effective in reducing inappropriate behavior then there would be NO discipline problems in schools.
The irony of punishment is that the more you use it to control your student’s behaviors, the less real influence you have over them. This is because coercion breeds resentment. In addition, if students behave because they are forced to behave, the teacher has not really succeeded. Students should behave because they want to – not because they have to in order to avoid punishment.
People are not changed by the other people. People can be coerced into temporary compliance. But instead motivation- where people want to change – is more lasting and effective. Coercion, as in punishment, is over the student feels free and clear. The way to influence people toward internal rather than external motivation is through positive, non coercive interaction.
By: ROWENA S. CUEVA
