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Show Know Your Schools . . . . Discipline, Is It Handing Out Punishment? . . . What Is Discipline, Is it handing hand-ing out punishment? Is it using rewards? Is it "being tough?" Is it appealing to the child's "better nature?" Is it producing produc-ing conformity to adult standards? stan-dards? Is it. helping the child conform to his own standards? It may be' any or all of these. The object of discipline, is to help an individual do what is expected of him. For a child, what is expected of him is determined largely by parents and teachers When he is young, by other children and adults as he grows, older, and eventually, if the process is carried to its ideal end, by the individual himself in the light .of his understanding of his society and the situations he faces. This is the desired end product self-discipline. If a child is to do what is expected of him, he must know what that is. Goals and limits must be clear. Children need the security that comes from feeling there is a guiding, protective, benevolent authority author-ity that will watch over them and keep them from bringing upon themselves harms they cannot forsee. They need, too. to try out that authority to see if it is firm and reliable. A child needs to understand and accept behavior goals and ! limits. They must look reason-I reason-I able from his point of view. I Nothing is more harmful to his personality and his development develop-ment of self-discipline than to feel that the consequences of his actions are determined by the whims of an adult. The Child needs help to see . the reasons for rules, and to trace the cause-and-effect relations between be-tween his choices and the results. re-sults. He needs to- have an area within which he can experiment experi-ment with his own choices and make mistakes which will not be permanently harmful. Then he needs sympathetic help from an adult to' appraise what he has done. He needs the experience exper-ience of working with others on the problems of living to see what goals and limits are needed for a solution. The child must feel that he is able to meet the demands that are made of him. He needs a feeling of personal worth, which gives him confidence confi-dence that he can face his problems. prob-lems. If he lacks this, he may express his doubts about himself him-self by showing hostility .to the society that overtaxes him; by retreating from problems; or by demanding reassurance in the form of attention. If a child conforms to limits and rules he does not understand under-stand or accept, it may be because be-cause he wants approval, or it may be because he is afraid. In either case, when the source of approval or the cause of his (Continued on Back Page) Know Schools. . . (Continued from Page 1) fear is not present, he no longer long-er has a reason to conform or obey. It is necessary, therefore, there-fore, that he base his conformity confor-mity or obedience on his own self -approval 'or on a rational and emotional understanding of the consequences of his behavior. behav-ior. A child needs to see goals and consequences for his behavior be-havior that are near enough to be real for him. Miss Jones may see clearly that Johnny needs to have good manners to be a socially agreeable person. Biuit to Johnny, being a socially agreeable person may have little immediate meaning and therewards mlay seem remote in time and probability. The child wants to do what his adult friends expect of him this is a major purpose of his activity. But he must also release his energies, satisfy his needs for understanding the life around him, and build up his own self-respect. To do these things. ; he needs sympathetic help which accepts without question his basic desire to do the right thing, no matter how 'bad" he appears to be at the moment. To provide the kind of discipline dis-cipline all children need, the good teacher and the good parent: par-ent: (1) Shows that he respects every child's personal worth:. (2) Sets clear limits for behavior be-havior and helps children understand un-derstand them. (3) Traces with children the cause-and-effeot relations between be-tween actions and results. (4) Gives them a limited and safeguarded area within which, they can experiment and, if necessary, make mistakes. (5) Helps children understand their mistakes. (6) Works with children to show how' problems of living call for certain kinds of behavior behav-ior as solutions. (7) Examines the: background of each child to understand what self-concepts and understandings under-standings or misunderstandings he has already built up. (8) Encourages each child to Work for his own self -approval rather than approval by teach-, er, parent, or other pupil or from fear of punishment. |