by Alexa Lurie

Created on: May 04, 2008

While teaching can be an incredibly rewarding job, it also has the potential for being a very frustrating job. There are always going to be many levels of competence and performance within any given classroom. Each child comes with their own strengths and weaknesses, their own personal baggage/ family situation, and of course individual personalities and characteristics. On top of that, there is a difference between educational difficulties and behavioral difficulties.

BEHAVIORAL DIFFICULTIES
There is something to be said for holding a group accountable for each others actions, given that it is not preventing the others from receiving their education. A child is much more likely to change their behavior if their friends and peers are asking them to do it rather than the teacher, and kids are more likely to choose the right path and make better choices when they are given a choice. Once kids reach mid to upper elementary school, they are naturally inclined to assert their independence. A teacher (or parent) who does not respect the child as an individual can not expect to be given respect in return. And, lets not forget that good old peer pressure can do wonders to change behaviors. Positive peer pressure can make the difference between a peaceful and a chaotic classroom.

Here's where the word "punishment" comes in to the picture. As does the problem.

In every dictionary that I could find, the definition of the word "punishment" includes words such as "mistreatment", "Severe handling" and "inflicting penalties". Punishments often have absolutely nothing to do with the behavior that brought it on. What needs to replace this word in a place as important as a school are terms such as "responsibility", "accountability", and "natural and logical consequences". Some examples of natural & logical consequences are:

1. If a child is misbehaving when it is time to line up to go to recess, the class can't go into the hallway if they are going to disrupt other classrooms. They will just have to stand in line until everybody is ready to go. If the class misses recess once or twice because of a couple of clowns in the classroom, how long do you think it's going to take for the kids to start realizing that they are doing harm to nobody but themselves, and their classmates are going to turn against them?

2. If a child is disrupting others when they are trying to do their work, then they must be separated. Give the working kids a more rewarding place to go, such as at the teacher's

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