All teachers want the best for their students. But when your students don’t listen to you, refuse to do what you ask, defy or ignore you, it is easy to become annoyed and frustrated. The temptation can be to take the ‘quick way out’ through severe punishments to try and stop - but not necessarily correct - the student’s misbehaviour, such as corporal punishment or humiliating forms of emotional punishment. In our frustration, we often forget that students misbehave for many reasons. Some of these reasons may be personal; others may result from the way they are being taught, such as when they become bored with the lesson or constant lecturing; still others come from external factors associated with the family and community that may cause the student to be frustrated and unhappy.

The use of corporal punishment can create a negative self-enforcing cycle. While the teacher feels that the fear of future punishment will prevent the student from repeating negative behaviour, evidence links corporal punishment of students to a number of adverse outcomes. This can lead to increased aggressive and destructive behaviour, increased disruptive classroom behaviour, vandalism, poor school achievement, poor attention span, increased drop-out rate, school avoidance and school phobia, low self-esteem, anxiety, somatic complaints, depression, suicide and retaliation against teachers. There is also a risk that corporal punishment in schools can foster the impression among students that violence is an appropriate means for managing others’ behaviour.

This can lead to increased aggressive and destructive behaviour, increased disruptive classroom behaviour, vandalism, poor school achievement, poor attention span, increased drop-out rate, school avoidance and school phobia, low self-esteem, anxiety, somatic complaints, depression, suicide and retaliation against teachers. There is also a risk that corporal punishment in schools can foster the impression among students that violence is an appropriate means for managing others’ behaviour.

Physical and Humiliating Punishment signals to the student that a way to settle interpersonal conflicts is to use physical force and inflict pain. The use of corporal punishment in schools promotes a very precarious message: that violence is acceptable in our society. It encourages young people to resort to violence because they see their authority figures or substitute parents doing it. When we hit students instead of talking with them, we teach them that violence is okay, and that is not a good message for teachers to give. It is better to explain to students why their actions are wrong and find different forms of consequences that do not physically or emotionally hurt students. Student discipline should not:

• Intent to give discomfort

• Threaten students

• Be shaming, controlling or ridiculing

• Criticise the student, it should be specific

• Be unrelated or personal

• Be reactive and out of anger

• Be physically or verbally violent

An alternative to corporal punishment is Positive Discipline. With positive discipline you teach a student how to correct their behaviour and make better choices to prevent misbehaviour. That’s not to say positive discipline should be enjoyable. There can still be negative consequences for behaviour. But there should be a clear learning moment in those negative consequences. Positive discipline is about teaching your student about rules, how to make the right choices, and how their behaviour has consequences. It is not about causing suffering after the student makes a bad choice. Positive discipline ensures kids are actively learning from their mistakes. Consequences for bad behaviour should be logical and related to the behaviour of the student, for example if a student breaks something they should be asked to spend time fixing it; if the student insults someone they should write a letter of apology. The consequence for bad behaviour should promote responsibility.