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Carrot and Stick: Tried, Trusted, but Inappropriate

By Bill PagecloseAuthor: Bill Page Name: Bill Page
Site: http://www.teacherteacher.com/
About: About Bill Page ... Bill Page, a farm boy, graduated from a one-room school. He forged a career in the classroom teaching middle school “troublemakers.” For the past 26 years, in addition to his classroom duties, he has taught teachers across the nation to teach the lowest achieving students successfully with his proven premise, “Failure is the choice and fault of schools, not the students.” Bill Page is a classroom teacher. For 46 years, he has patrolled the halls, responded to the bells, and struggled with innovations. He has had his share of lunchroom duty, bus duty, and playground duty. For the past four years, Bill, who is now in his 50th year as a teacher, is also a full time writer. His book, At-Risk Students is available on Abebooks, Amazon, R.D. Dunn Publishing, and on Bill’s web site: http://www.teacherteacher.com/ In At-Risk Students, Page discusses problems facing failing students, “who can’t, don’t and won’t learn or cooperate.” “The solution,” he states, “is for teachers to recognize and accept student misbehavior as defense mechanisms used to hide embarrassment and incompetence, and to deal with causes rather than symptoms. By entering into a democratic, participatory relationship, where students assume responsibility for their own learning.” Through 30 vignettes, the book helps teachers see failing students through his eyes as a fellow teacher, whose classroom success with at-risk students made him a premier teacher-speaker in school districts across America.See Authors Posts (56)

kids has the most spankings. Southern states in what is now known as “the belt belt” use paddling most.

19. Kids who are angry, fearful, and hurt do not necessarily learn about the intended lesson. Younger kids learn not to trust teachers, who should protect them from harm.

20. Who and where are the punishers at the malls, the theaters, the parks, and on the streets, city buses, and convenience markets.

21. Has anyone asked the dropouts what they liked best about school, what they learned, or think of school or teachers, or rules? I wonder what they say?

Punishment breeds, fosters, and encourages undesirable responses including resentment, retaliation, aggression, passivity, anger, reprisal, deceit, dependence, violence, and contemptuous attitudes or feelings of shame, guilt, discouragement, and futility The phrase, “Hurt people hurt people” says it succinctly. While rewards appear to be the opposite of punishment, once they are established, withholding them constitutes a form of punishment. When my daughter picked up her son from nursery school one day, she found him crying and sobbing because, “Everyone got a package of (three) candy kisses but me.”

For those who say, “I use positive reinforcement and rewards, not punishment.” They are fooling themselves; reward and punishment are on same continuum. They are different and at opposite ends but they give the power to the controller, and the response of the kid, as victim, is essentially the same. Have you never resented someone manipulating you, by tricking, bribing, flattering, or conning you to do his or her will? Don’t you recognize pretty quickly when you are being manipulated—sure you do, and so does the youngest and slowest kid?

Something to think about

To check whether your students are dependent on the reward and punishment method, and whether they do things because they understand their responsibilities and obligations, here are some questions to ask and some answers you can expect;

Questions: “Why do you do homework? Why do you study for tests? Why do you come to class on time and have your materials? Why do you follow class procedures and rules? Answer: “I have to.”

Why do you have to? Answer: “Or Else!”

Or else what? Answer: “Or else I don’t get to go to recess.” “Or else I have to do extra work.” “Or else I get a bad grade.” “Or else I don’t get a treat.”

You may also expect that the work done under the “carrot and stick” approach will insure the following characteristics and problems:

Procrastination: Kids will avoid the work and put it off until the last minute hoping for a lucky break, a reprieve, or a last minute excusable disaster. “I forgot.”, “I didn’t have time”, “I was going to do it — later,” “I promise I will do it tomorrow”, “I am doing it.”

Sloppy and careless: Kids will turn in “anything” however careless, incorrect, incomplete or inappropriate hoping to meet partial demands. “It is too legible.” “I can’t do any better than that.”, “I didn’t know you meant all of it”

Absolute Minimum: Kids will rarely ever consider quantity or quality. “You didn’t say to write the question too.” “I didn’t know it had to be in ink.” “I thought you meant to skip that part.” “I didn’t see that part of the assignment.

With joy in sharing, mailto:billpage@bellsouth.net http://www.teacherteacher.com/

Further information

Listed below are some web sites that offer information on corporal punishment. There are many other state and local organizations.

http://www.nospank.net,/ http://www.stophitting.com/ http://www.corpun.com/ http://www.geocities.com/forkidssake http://www.neverhitachild.org/ http://www.templeedu/education/pse/NCACPA

And, for Parents

Dr. Marvin Marshall’s book Discipline Without Stress, Rewards, and Punishments, is well known and well used among teachers, worldwide. For Parents he has a brand new book, www.Parenting Without Stress.org which was just announced to be the:
Winner of the Eric Hoffer Book Award
“Congratulations on your Eric Hoffer Book Award. Your book endured rigorous judging and surpassed dozens of others. This book was determined to be unique, worthy, and well produced in all aspects of writing and publishing.

With joy in sharing, Bill Page.

Comments and Questions are welcome and will be answered mailto:billpage@bellsouth.net

Bill Page is author of “At-Risk Students” http:// www,At-RiskStudents.com for information and for Bill’s monthly newsletter and free articles.