Durban - Punishing pupils for bad behaviour with humiliation or by administering corporal punishment only aggravates disciplinary problems at schools, a new research paper has suggested.
What was required at schools was an approach to discipline which considered the personal circumstances and needs of children, a senior social work lecturer at the University of the Free State, Roelf Reyneke, argued in his paper.
The work, published in the latest issue of the Perspectives in Education Journal, explained that children brought the social ills they were exposed to in their communities into their classrooms.
Harsh punishment was “toxic” to children who had experienced rejection and abuse – leading to more disciplinary problems, ranging from tardiness to assault.
The usual methods of disciplining children included giving them extra schoolwork, detention, taking away privileges, humiliation, having them do menial tasks, and administering corporal punishment (even though this has been outlawed).
Data released by Statistics South Africa last month showed that 13.5% of pupils in South Africa still endured corporal punishment, and it was most prevalent in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
“A punitive approach to discipline is not what is needed in the present day. Punishing children for misbehaviour is not the best way to teach them to be responsible …A punitive approach actually aggravates disciplinary problems,” the research paper argues.
“Punishment is seen as an acceptable part of discipline, but it should be the last resort … To discipline a child is not per se to punish the child, as so many adults would like to think.”
Reyneke explained: “To give detention to a child who damaged property is not necessarily going to teach him or her to respect the property of others.
“If the child has to fix what was damaged and experience working to get the necessary money to pay for the repairs, it is much more logical and teaches that bad behaviour has consequences. Illogical punishment will only fuel the anger of troubled youth and make them more uncontrollable.”
Punishment, Reyneke contended, would only temporarily suppress negative behaviour in troubled youths, and add to the stress of children dealing with trauma.
A punitive response created fear and mistrust, and did not teach appropriate life skills such as assertiveness, negotiation and problem solving.
Reyneke said it was crucial to create a caring and safe environment, where children could express their pain. Children felt “disconnected” from school when punished, and that disconnection increased drop-out rates and contributed to truancy and substance abuse.
A restorative approach to discipline was less adversarial, with a focus on who was affected by the misconduct, what the needs of the victim and the wrongdoer were, and how the wrongdoer was going to make things right. The main difference between the two paradigms was that the restorative approach focused on trying to identify why the child needed to misbehave, through dialogue and healing.
The Mercury