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Child Behavior & Discipline (Other)
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| Yes | 18% | 86 votes | Total: 490 votes | |
| No | 82% | 404 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesFrom an elementary school teacher's perspective, yelling is a somewhat effective way to get children's attention and reinforce discipline. Unless you have a child's full attention, any attempted discipline will ineffective. This is only the case for some children the children who are strong-willed, and stubborn. A strong-willed child must be met with a strong-willed and strong-voiced adult in certain situations.
For example, Mrs. Bradley's Second Grade class is standing in line at the library. Little Johnny, who is 7, starts grabbing Nicole's arm in attempt to skip her in line. In the process, he is scratching her arm. Mrs. Bradley steps in to instruct Johnny to go to time-out. The words "Johnny, you are not respecting others. Go to time-out, now." spoken softly and sternly, pales in comparison to a yelled, "JOHNNY, YOU ARE NOT RESPECTING OTHERS. GO TO TIME-OUT, NOW!" The former might possibly be met with smiles and Johnny thinking that he isn't in as much trouble as he really is. Yelling and using a loud voice quickly gets Johnny's attention, stops the action, lets him know that he has done wrong, and delivers his consequence.
The discipline then has three elements. The elements consist of physical consequence, which could be going to time-out. The angry look on your face would be considered the visual element. And finally, there is the auditory element which is the sound of your voice during disciplining. With the three elements combined a clear message is sent to the child and there is no mistaking on their part.
A good portion of today's children, when being dealt with by strangers, such as teachers, do not respond in an appropriate manner when disciplined with a quiet "inside" voice. Children tend to ignore you, or smile at you when being disciplined in such a way. They know that there is nothing you can really do to them with the absence of corporal punishment, and lack of administrative support in their schools. Because of this, it appears that yelling makes teacher-given consequences more serious to them. Who likes to be yelled at in front of others? I can't believe that there is anyone who would enjoy it. Yelling during discipline also promotes better behavior in the children who are observing the situation. Yelling is all that some teachers have, even though it is not totally acceptable in the teaching profession.
As I walk down the halls, I hear other education professionals, more experienced than I, yelling at their students while administering discipline. The yelling is not excessive, nor is it abusive. It is just enough to get the student back on track. For teachers, yelling stops the action immediately which is what is most desired. It may very well be the same situation with the children's parents at home. The students snap up, look you directly in the face, and take you a little more seriously when yelled at with a strong voice.
Learn more about this author, Calder Taylor.
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No
As parents, we teach our children how to respond not only to us, but to the world in general. If we consistently yell at our children as a means of enforcing discipline, we've indeed taught our children many lessons, but unfortunately none of them are what we were hoping to teach.
Most parents yell out of frustration. Perhaps we've asked our child to clean his room or to put away her toys multiple times, with no results. Finally, we lose our patience and we yell. Realizing we're angry and that we really are about to enact some consequences, the child finally responds and does the requested task. But think about what this teaches the child.
By doing this, we've taught our children that they don't really have to listen to us until we yell. We've taught them that polite requests and conversations can be ignored, and that they don't have to take us - or other authority figures - seriously until our voice is raised. We've taught them that we won't really dole out consequences or punishment until they push us to the point of yelling.
When we respond to our children in this way, we've virtually guaranteed that we're going to spend a lot of time yelling at our children. Otherwise, they won't take us seriously.
Children who are yelled at on a consistent basis quickly learn to ignore normally pitched questions and requests, whether those requests are made by teachers, coaches, or other parents. By teaching our children that they don't have to take polite requests seriously and that we mean business only when we yell, we ensure that our child will get yelled at a lot, not only by us, but by other authority figures in life.
When we yell at our children, we teach them that we don't know how to control our own emotions. They learn that when they're angry, the correct response is to yell at the people around them. Instead of learning to problem solve, resolve conflicts, or negotiate, they just learn to yell. When we yell at our children, we deprive them of learning many of the social skills they need to learn in order to live a healthy life.
When we yell at our children we teach them that it's okay for people to use force to get their own way. We teach them that the loudest, most angry person wins. By doing so, we ensure that they will attempt to become the loudest, most angry person.
When we yell at our children, we create an atmosphere of anxiety, frustration, and disrespect, and that sort of environment isn't good for anyone. Far from enforcing discipline, we've now simply guaranteed that our children will be undisciplined.
Learn more about this author, Melinda Clayton.
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