Teach English in Yadu Zhen - Aba Zangzu Qiangzu Zizhizhou —

During the lesson, the teacher begins a study phase activity, giving each of the student’s a worksheet that they are to complete on their own without any help or guidance from other students. The goal in this is to see each individual student’s progress and where they need assistance with regards to the topics discussed. During the activity, a student consistently speaks to another student occupying a neighboring desk. The teacher asks them once to please focus on their work, as it is important that they focus. Again, the student ignores the teacher’s wishes and makes conversation with the student beside them – a second infraction. The teacher says again, “please focus on your work individually. I want to see what you can do, not your neighbor.” The student is not convinced by this, so they continue to disregard the teacher’s requests. What then is the teacher supposed to do? If they let this kind of insubordination continue, they could potentially lose rapport with the classroom and risk losing authority. Will the classroom no longer have order? If the teacher punishes the student, there could also be some negative implications as well. The teacher could then ask, will the class be fearful of them? If punishment is carried out, the vibe of the class could drop and people will not be as comfortable, leading them to be less motivated to learn. The teacher knows however, that something must be done so that both a comfortable classroom environment and a sense of order is sustained. Unfortunately, the teacher is not in the position to be judge, jury, and executioner. Therefore, a teacher should not be allowed to punish students directly, as it could make the class atmosphere dismal and is ineffective in changing the student’s behavior. Instead, the teacher should give warnings to the students in an attempt to control behavior, which can result in reports to other administrative positions for further review if the warnings are not acknowledged. There are certainly teachers out there who view punishment as an effective method to keep order in their classrooms. There are some who yell at their students when things are not going their way, or when students are being disruptive and unruly. The reason why they do this could be because they lost their temper, or because they actually believe it works. To an extent, they are correct. Punishing the students by yelling at them, banishing them from the room for a certain amount of time, or threatening to have them removed from the class keeps the class from disobeying not out of respect, but out of fear. If this is the way that the teacher can keep control of the class, then so be it. However, much is lost by punishing students. If the environment around them is one of fear and not comfort, it is unreasonable to expect much from the students. This is because learning while motivated is drastically different than learning by fear. Fear will make the students anxious every time an activity is being held, for they may mess up and anger the teacher, resulting in punishment. Students will then associate learning to punishment. If this environment becomes the norm, students will not want to learn, attend class, or be motivated because as soon as they step into that classroom, they will be on guard every single time someone opens their mouth. This is no way to run a classroom or a student’s educational experience. If a teacher punishes one thing, there is no telling what else is a punishable offense. There will be a cloud that constantly hangs over that classroom, and it will no longer be remembered by the knowledge that was gained by attending, but by the demeanor of the teacher, effectively making everything taught matter less and more easily forgotten. Let’s say the teacher punished the student by sending them outside the classroom for fifteen minutes to “reflect on their bad behavior.” Sure, the teacher accomplished the goal of reestablishing order within the borders of the room, but does that teacher honestly think they can change how the student behaves? In most cases, being punished by a teacher does not give the student a divine awakening, prompting them to change their ways for the better. One offense will likely grow into another, punished or not. There is also nothing saying that the student does not act this way outside of class as well. If the teacher then believes that they can fix this by punishing the student, they are mistaken. Punishing students not only destroys the atmosphere of the class, but it also contains no real benefit other then the temporary snap back to order. Since people in general are reluctant to break bad habits or personality molds, it can be expected that the students who are disruptive will likely be disruptive in the future. Punishing them directly holds now benefit. Instead, it creates an air of fear and stunts educational progress as the shift is no longer on knowledge, but on behavior. Indirect punishing is not off the table though. The teacher can file a report and take it to an administrator such as a dean or a principal – someone who holds more authority in the school. They are the ones who can facilitate more measured actions, such as contacting the student’s parents or giving out warnings for harsher, less reversible punishments like suspension or expulsion. Power is more fearsome in a higher authority – an authority the teacher does not have. A teacher’s role is to teach and give the best learning experience and education they possibly can. Punishing students can severely damage the dynamic of the classroom and reaps no benefits. The best thing a teacher can do is give warnings, for if they are not followed, a higher authority can remedy the problem. Without teacher-distributed punishments, the classroom dynamic will be more comfortable, inviting a more welcoming learning experience which will make students remember the class for its knowledge, not punishments.