Discipline in Schools

[bluesqueak]

Cindy wrote: 
> The punishment is that the girl was made to stand holding the  
> chair at chest level for about a minute.  I've never heard of this 
> in schools.  Is it a typical and recommended punishment?  I did 
> raise an eyebrow because I believe that prisoners of war are 
> tortured by requiring them to hold a heavy object to muscle 
> failure.

> Don't worry, I'm not gonna make trouble.  I like and support this 
> teacher, and a little discipline never hurt anyone.  But I was 
> wondering what is and is not permitted by way of discipline in 
> schools these days.
> 

It's legal in the UK. There was a re-enactment program on 1950's 
schools recently (i.e. a bunch of 16 year olds agreed to spend a 
month at a fictional boarding school run to 1950's rules, 1950's 
food and 1950's teaching style).

Because the cane (which was very definitely used in 1950's UK 
schools) is now illegal, holding weights at chest level was one of 
the punishments used as an equivalent.

[They made a point of having one of the teachers say that he'd tried 
it out himself before making the child do it - and the teacher had 
lasted two minutes longer than the child did ].

It was a fascinating programme for the HP fan - because there was 
the Snape teaching style, in all its glory. Teachers in gowns,  
silence in class, detentions or other punishments for 'minor' 
offenses, absolute insistence on 'sir' and 'miss' or the teachers 
title. Shouting, sarcasm, publicly humiliating students by pointing 
out their mistakes to the entire class.

The interesting thing is how quickly the kids adapted to this very 
harsh style. Out of thirty, only one had so many problems with the 
discipline that they had to be told to leave the 'school'. 

Three kids got gigged for breaking the 'six inch rule' (boys and 
girls may not be closer together than six inches). The punishment 
was to get up an hour early and go for an invigorating swim in an 
icy cold pool.

The director asked one of the kids how he felt about it. The reply 
was 'It achieved its purpose. I won't be breaking that rule again.'

Pip!Squeak