Discipline vs Punishment

There are very different feelings toward each of discipline and punishment. To me punishment seems harsh and extreme. Whenever I saw individuals being punished when I was in school it always seemed to be very personal. Punishment carries with it the impression that it is the student that is the problem rather than the behaviour because you are not punishing the behaviour but the student. Conversely, discipline while structured, has never struck me as being overly harsh or restrictive. Instead it has always appeared to me to be a framework within which you can operate freely, discipline defines where the boundaries of proper behaviour are. Due to this, when a student does step outside the boundaries it becomes the behaviour that is being disciplined, or corraled back into place so to speak, not the student. In this way discipline is by far the better choice in dealing with misbehaviour, because it can help to prevent misbehaviour in the first place by provding the students with a frame of reference for them to gauge their actions against, but also because it does not serve to shame a child by attacking them personally, but instead allows them to maintain their respect and dignity.

This idea of allowing the child to maintain their respect is very important to me. Just because they are children does not mean that they do not deserve to be treated with respect, and I am also a strong believer that in order to get respect you must also give it. I especially liked B&S's technique for giving choice as a means of discipline because it places the responsibilty entirely on the student and allows them to maintain their dignity, because instead of cowing to the demands of the teacher they were given options and then made the choice themselves. This shows that the teacher respects the student's right to make their own decisions regarding their behaviour, but it also means that there is likely to be less conflict in the teacher-student relationship when discipline is required because in the end it was the student's choice to be disciplined.