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Discipline: It’s not about punishment, it’s about achievement
Published Tuesday, May 05, 2009 9:48 AM
By Valentine Williams
The Gazette
When most people think about discipline or hear about discipline thoughts of punishment quickly invade their minds. They think of what they heard teachers say about disciplining them or what happens at home. Parents do say they are going to discipline a child and teachers do say the same things. In a sense they are both wrong. No one can discipline anyone. Teachers or parents can correct and punish but they can’t discipline anyone. The only person who can discipline you is you. Anyone can correct you.
Some people might even be in a position to punish you, but they can’t discipline you. Only you can do that for yourself.
It is the hope of the parent or teacher or authority figure that their correction and punishment will result in your developing discipline when it comes to that matter, but it is not a given. Some people would even go as far as to say that in the majority of cases certain kinds of punishment doesn’t yield or produce discipline. Fear of punishment will quickly yield obedience or compliance, at least for a while. But that doesn’t mean the individual has learned or developed discipline.
My experience with the school system for example is that their focus is not discipline. It takes more time and effort than they can give. Their goal is obedience or compliance.
What they call disciplinary measures are really steps to stop a particular behavior that they consider unhelpful, distracting, or even detrimental to learning or a learning environment. Their goal is compliance.
With compliance, if you take away the threat of punishment in most cases the individual will return to the old behavior. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek obedience or compliance. Sometimes it takes obedience for a person to discover the value of doing or not doing certain things. Once they have internalized that doing or not doing the thing they were punished for is of great benefit to them, and it is a benefit they desire, then they begin to behave in a disciplined manner in regard to that thing. In other words whether the threat of punishment is present or not they will do that thing because they have learned and they desire the benefits. Discipline is a wonderful thing. Here are three reasons why.
When you are a disciplined person you can obey or comply with a request without the threat of punishment. With a disciplined person the question is not whether punishment is attached to the request or not. The issue is it is a reasonable request given the situation, so they comply. A disciplined person does not look around to see if anyone is watching or if they will get caught. They don’t play hide and seek. They do it because it is the right thing to do.
The second reason is a natural progression from the first. They do not get into as many conflicts with other people and others don’t have to be constantly watching them. Working with a disciplined person is a breeze. You know they are going to do what they are supposed to do. There are no negative surprises. If there are surprises they will be pleasant ones.
The third reason is that you cannot excel in any area in life unless you are disciplined in that particular area. Look around you and identify anyone who has experienced great success in any area of life and you will observe that they were very disciplined in that particular aspect of their life.
Published Tuesday, May 05, 2009 9:48 AM
By Valentine Williams
The Gazette
When most people think about discipline or hear about discipline thoughts of punishment quickly invade their minds. They think of what they heard teachers say about disciplining them or what happens at home. Parents do say they are going to discipline a child and teachers do say the same things. In a sense they are both wrong. No one can discipline anyone. Teachers or parents can correct and punish but they can’t discipline anyone. The only person who can discipline you is you. Anyone can correct you.
Some people might even be in a position to punish you, but they can’t discipline you. Only you can do that for yourself.
It is the hope of the parent or teacher or authority figure that their correction and punishment will result in your developing discipline when it comes to that matter, but it is not a given. Some people would even go as far as to say that in the majority of cases certain kinds of punishment doesn’t yield or produce discipline. Fear of punishment will quickly yield obedience or compliance, at least for a while. But that doesn’t mean the individual has learned or developed discipline.
My experience with the school system for example is that their focus is not discipline. It takes more time and effort than they can give. Their goal is obedience or compliance.
What they call disciplinary measures are really steps to stop a particular behavior that they consider unhelpful, distracting, or even detrimental to learning or a learning environment. Their goal is compliance.
With compliance, if you take away the threat of punishment in most cases the individual will return to the old behavior. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek obedience or compliance. Sometimes it takes obedience for a person to discover the value of doing or not doing certain things. Once they have internalized that doing or not doing the thing they were punished for is of great benefit to them, and it is a benefit they desire, then they begin to behave in a disciplined manner in regard to that thing. In other words whether the threat of punishment is present or not they will do that thing because they have learned and they desire the benefits. Discipline is a wonderful thing. Here are three reasons why.
When you are a disciplined person you can obey or comply with a request without the threat of punishment. With a disciplined person the question is not whether punishment is attached to the request or not. The issue is it is a reasonable request given the situation, so they comply. A disciplined person does not look around to see if anyone is watching or if they will get caught. They don’t play hide and seek. They do it because it is the right thing to do.
The second reason is a natural progression from the first. They do not get into as many conflicts with other people and others don’t have to be constantly watching them. Working with a disciplined person is a breeze. You know they are going to do what they are supposed to do. There are no negative surprises. If there are surprises they will be pleasant ones.
The third reason is that you cannot excel in any area in life unless you are disciplined in that particular area. Look around you and identify anyone who has experienced great success in any area of life and you will observe that they were very disciplined in that particular aspect of their life.
Nice article 116520! Thanks!!
than i will run like Olympic runner all over the house away from my mother's rotan...
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