In this piece, I will discuss how to discipline a child in school. The article will be pragmatic enough and based on my experience as a teacher.
In Nigeria, one of the most used child discipline methods in public schools is corporal punishment, i.e., a type of punishment intended to inflict physical pain on a person, e.g., flogging or hitting a child.
This method isn’t always useful at some point in a child’s life, and most often, it is misused by teachers. I still believe that most teachers hit or flog their students out of anger.
Any child you beat out of anger in the name of discipline has made you abuse the very essence of training.
You must understand that discipline is a form of training or correction done out of love for the child.
Read: Indiscipline in school causes and remedies
As a teacher, you must know that some of your students will display bad behaviour in your class, and you need to learn how to discipline them to instil the right virtues in them.
To apply any method, you must have a clear goal before implementing them. It is this goal that will help you in choosing the most appropriate way to go about it.
Also, the present circumstances, urgency, and creativity will help you choose the best discipline method.
But for this article, I will give my view on how you can go about it, and you can read through and add yours to it to get the best result.
Effective communication of wrongdoing
I have observed that telling a child his wrongdoing is a way of registering a value system in him/her. Not only that, it must be communicated in such a way to show him/her that you want the best for him; hence, the reason for calling his attention to it. After you have done the above, you should also tell him the right thing to do; perhaps he is confronted with a similar situation.
Withdraw some privileges
There are some privileges that children don’t want to miss. For instance, a child will want to go out and play with his peers during break time. As a teacher, you can deny him such privilege for that day.
Such a child won’t be happy to be alone in class when others are playing and having an excellent time outside. You should seize the opportunity to let him realize what he has done and to let him assure you that he won’t repeat the same.
Give More Classwork
Sometimes, you may choose an exciting approach, like giving the child classwork far more than the ones you give other students. In a way, you are helping him academically and passing crucial information to him/her.
Also, you can use the opportunity to tell a story of persons who have done similar bad behaviour and the consequences they suffer for such misdeeds.
Finally, the method of discipline to use must not be the one that will pass the wrong information to the child or let him feel hated.
