Underdisciplined Students
When it comes to the education system, there have been many flaws brought to the public’s attention. A wide variety of issues from underfunded schools in low-income areas to school lunches continue to undermine basic educational outcomes. Sadly, this issue is something that is rarely brought to the attention of the public, namely the disciplining of students. While discipline may sound like a harsh term, and in some cases, it may be, discipline is a must when it comes to education.
Many may ask who would want to scold a young child for doing or saying something wrong? Not many apparently. These days, in schools, many students who have been labeled as “troublemakers” are often let off easy and not given proper discipline for their actions. As a result, the education system enables these children to think their behavior is acceptable, or at least that they can get away with it.
For example, in personal experience, when in middle school, if a teacher was absent, the class would have a substitute teacher, and the so-called “class clown” would cause problems with the sub, constantly challenging the interim teacher and acting out no matter how many times the teacher would ask them to stop and behave appropriately. The consequences this student would get for this behavior would essentially be a slap on the wrist, and because of this, the student would not stop the behavior. At times the outbursts of misbehavior would disrupt lessons and cause the teacher to focus solely on the student while ignoring the rest of the students in the classroom.
The problem with this situation is not the teachers most of the time; instead, it is the administration that does not want the students to feel “targeted” or “punished” for their behavior, regardless of whether they should be or not. It is also an issue for the parents. Most of the time when there is a problem like this with a student, parents want to meet with the principal to sort out the issue. And rather than try to solve the problem properly, some parents can become defensive of their child. While the defense of the child may seem reasonable and what most parents would do in a situation, this only furthers the issue as most administrators feel like they cannot properly discipline this child without the parents becoming involved and fighting against the school’s discipline policies, or even taking the child out of the school for “so-called” wrongful treatment. It is a constant battle of parents thinking their child can do no wrong and completely ignoring what educators report about the child’s behavior.
Situations such as the above bring forth constant stress to teachers, who simply want to do their job and educate children without having to worry about their students having disruptive outbursts. As for consequences, something as simple as detention would go a long way to help the student change the way they act, by seeing that there are consequences when they act out and disrupt the education of their peers.
