How about staying in and completing the homework?
I mean, that seems to me to be the really, really, really obvious, logical, and most pertinent punishment you could possibly come up with.
Sure, in the microcosm of the teacher and student, that’s an easy solution. But there are things that go on behind the scenes that keep schools functioning. You can’t just cough up an extra teacher to sit with a student inside at recess, for instance. And what about the school policy (I’m making this up…) of never having a student alone with a teacher? What about the janitor that needs to vacuum that room while the kids are outside? What about the upperclassmen who use that room because it has the only appropriate A/V equipment?
It’s only really, really, really obvious and logical if you don’t consider the other logistical factors at play, here. Considering those possible limitations, it seems taking away fun time while keeping the kid with the appropriate teacher and class is really, really, really obvious and logical.
Perhaps, but it also seems like taking away the only exercise and fun part of a day is counterproductive for discipline and concentration.
Why can’t you? Ubless it’s an awfully small school, “nobody can be found to monitor the homework-finishing room” sounds a lot to me like “we’re lazy.” Isn’t a teacher going to have to keep an eye on the Wall of Shame?
I’m sure there are little lgoistical issues here and there, although I’ve never heard of a janitor cleaning a classroom during recess. But there are little logistical issues to everything. It’s why you have a school full of teachers, with a principal and everything; to figure this stuff out without resorting to lazy and stupid shortcuts.
Like others above, I think this is acceptable but not productive. There should be a monitored ‘study hall’ where these kids go to finish their homework.
When I was in elementary school, if you had to stand facing the blackboard (and this wasn’t for not doing homework, but for more serious offenses) you had to hold an eraser against the blackboard with your forehead, no hands. This was in New Jersey, in the 1970’s.
Once I was substitute teaching (in the 1980’s) and a girl returned to the classroom, sobbing. Her friend told me, “The gym teacher beat her!”
However, once the girl calmed down, she told me that the gym teacher hadn’t beaten her, but had told her she couldn’t go to recess until she finished the nutrition worksheet she hadn’t done in class because she’d been talking to the friend. Not exactly the same thing. It took her all of three minutes and she (and the friend) left smiling.
Tell your daughter to not talk during the “quiet” study break.
I personally would be more worried about the fact that my child keeps repeating a behavior that has a well established negative consequence.
I think this punishment is absolutely ridiculous.
First, why have them face the wall? If they're facing the wall, they're less likely to actually long to play because they're not watching the other kids and they're just sitting or standing there playing?
Second, they aren't getting the homework done as as already stated earlier in the thread. It could work during the classroom if they're getting rowdy or they could make them go out in the hall, but why at recess? They could at the very least make them go inside and finish it during the time and get a grade out of it, even if it's a higher F at the end of the nine weeks, it wouldn't hurt.
Third, they need to blow off some steam, whether it means socializing with other students and learning that way and/or calming down after the fidgety students have to sit quietly and still for about eight hours.
I'm thirteen years old right now and I certainly would've laughed at the teacher in that situation, possibly getting me into even more trouble, but I *probably* could not resist the urge to do so and this is coming from someone who's an excellently behaved student all their life.Welcome, Frosteagle. It’s nice to have you here. Thanks for your thoughts, but please note that this is an old thread, so you may not get many responses (and you may get some teasing about zombies). Look around and join some more recent threads, and have a good time.
I too went to school in the days of corporal punishment.
While the right of teachers and prefects to beat children with a stick was much abused, there was little undiscipline in those times, and we did all know the rules.
Standing against a wall, by comparison, is merely boring.
This was how my private (Montessori) school worked. But then actually completing the assignment had more of a point, since you couldn’t move on to the next lesson until you got 100% on the previous one. (You’d get a new set of the same level of problems to work on for the next day.) I find that, in public school, homework is mostly busy work. In Montessori, you had few enough that you could get it done during the school day–and, in fact, were required to do so as you couldn’t take the materials home.
Still, in public school, we had a punishment wall for recess, but we didn’t face it. I agree with our new poster that that is stupid. It’s better to be watching others. And I disagree with Chessic Sense–it’s really, really easy to watch in either scenario. You don’t need as many teachers at recess as you do during regular school (as classes are combined) and there’s no reason you can’t do homework outside if you have janitors cleaning rooms during recess. You have the extra manpower.
When I was in middle school (child in the OP was 12 yo), if you didn’t do your homework, you received a “zero” for the work and it brought your your grade down. If you didn’t turn in X number of assignments. You received detention and had to stay after school to presumable, do your homework.
When my son was in middle school, the only consequence for not doing your homework was receiving no credit, and thus your grade going down, and you could not make up the work.
I don’t really see the point in make someone stand idly by as a punishment. Better to have them miss recess and finish their assignment, either in the classroom, or on the playground.
Also, 12 year olds (7th or 8th grade) have recess? I never had recess after I got out of elementary school and neither did my son.
And our nation’s proud traditions of “everyone thinking they know how to teach better than teachers” continues.
- When kids are watching other kids, they’re talking with (or otherwise communicating with) other kids. If the point of the punishment is to deny them social interaction, then you fail by having them face the other kids. They’ll still hear the noises of recess and can imagine the fun others are having. (This is not to defend the punishment–I’m not at all convinced it’s a good idea–but simply to say this objection to the punishment fails.)
- You need plenty of teachers at recess because kids are engaged in unstructured play, and if some kid is going to go out of control, recess is a prime place for it to happen. This is especially true if you have any interest at all in reducing bullying: kids who want to bully will look for places to do so outside of teacher supervision.
- Doing homework outside is a great idea. I’ve tried it many times. It almost never works, for a variety of reasons.
Or made to finish the homework and receive no credit or partial credit for its completion. Welcome to the real world.