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Essay on School Discipline
The word discipline, which comes from the root word “disciplinare” — to teach or instruct — refers to the system of teaching and nurturing that prepares children to achieve competence, self-control, self-direction, and caring for others. An effective discipline system must contain three vital elements: 1) a learning environment characterized by positive, supportive parent-child relationships; 2) a strategy for systematic teaching and strengthening of desired behaviors (proactive); and 3) a strategy for decreasing or eliminating undesired or ineffective behaviors (reactive). Each of these components needs to be functioning adequately for discipline to result in improved child behavior.
School violence and ineffective disciplinary practices have become perennial problems in public schools (Devine, 1996). School violence, (inclusive of disrespect for authority and school procedures) fighting, gang-like behaviors, and bringing weapons or drugs to school, are catalysts to disciplinary actions. Historically, the objective of discipline has been to bring the impulses and conduct of the students into harmony with the ideas and standards of the school, administrators, teachers, and community. As administrators seek to eradicate school-wide issues of safety, teachers are challenged by attempting to solve the problems of students not learning. The National School Safety Center (1993) reported that disruptive behavior occurs about every six seconds that school is in session.
Anderson and Prawat (1983) and others have noted that many students simply do not perceive a connection between their level of effort and the academic or behavioral outcomes they experience. These students have what psychologists call an "external locus of control," and do not believe in their own ability to influence events. Nor, oftentimes, do they have the skills to identify inappropriate behavior and move from inappropriate to appropriate behavior. Researchers have observed behavioral improvements in settings where students are taught to attribute their success or failure to their personal effort............
