What are the limits of teachers punishing students?

A teacher at Tran Van On Primary School (Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City) has just received a disciplinary reprimand for punishing a student by slapping himself for making noise. Not long before, a teacher at Le Loi Primary School (Hue City, Thua Thien Hue) was also criticized for forcing a first grader to hold a pencil in his mouth for talking to her.

These two cases have caused controversy, with many teachers asking: what is the limit for punishing students?

Do not punish children will be spoiled

"Never before has the teaching profession, especially primary school teachers, seemed as dangerous as it is now. Just touching a student even slightly can lead to accusations of violence, anti-pedagogy, and merciless criticism," Ms. Tam - a primary school teacher in Bien Hoa City (Dong Nai) expressed her indignation at the story of the two colleagues above.

According to Ms. Tam, primary school children are very immature and lack concentration, so they often talk and misbehave. Many children who are spoiled by their parents are often very difficult to manage, or to put it mildly, "stubborn". "Punishing naughty and disobedient children at this age is necessary. If you don't punish them, they will be spoiled forever and never be good," she said.

This teacher said that most parents in the first meeting of the year agreed to "allow" teachers to punish their children so that they would be better behaved. However, there were also parents who did not accept any punishment, even if it was just making them stand still, so they reacted.

"Each parent has only 1-2 children, but raising them is already tiring. When angry, many people beat their children because they do not listen. But teachers have to take care of dozens of children in the class. Just 5-7 children being stubborn can ruin the lesson. We have to punish them," Ms. Tam asserted.

Sharing the same opinion, a teacher in District 1 (HCMC) said that in the past, he was beaten by his teachers on a regular basis, but now he is still grateful. When he meets his teachers again, he still respectfully bows his head and folds his hands, no matter what their position is.

"What are students like today - like machines with no knowledge in their heads, and nothing else. Is it because of parents spoiling them too much? Let's face the truth of today's society, because there is no discipline, children do not learn self-control, so when they grow up, they fight at the slightest provocation," she said.

According to this teacher, punishing children properly is necessary. Parents need to give teachers "space" to educate and correct children instead of finding mistakes in every little thing, gradually teachers will not dare to do anything to children anymore.

Understand children before punishing

Recently, public opinion has been outraged because many teachers have punished students by slapping them. Photo: Internet

With more than 20 years of experience, Master Vu Hoang Son (teacher at Binh Hoa Primary School, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) believes that for primary school children, being naughty and stubborn is natural. Punishment is necessary, but before punishing, you need to understand the child and control yourself to avoid outbursts of anger or rude, careless words.

"I often remind children when they are not well-behaved. If they do not improve after being reminded many times, I will make them stand up, analyze right and wrong, and then make them stand in place for a few minutes to remember. If the children continue to do so, I will contact the parents to inform them and suggest cooperation in disciplining the children," said Mr. Son.

According to Mr. Son, many colleagues seem to forget the step of contacting parents or are careless, leading to a lack of empathy and understanding between the two sides. Just seeing a mistake and punishing the child, punishing a lot without changing, then ignoring it all makes parents mistakenly think that the teacher has animosity towards their child, causing bad rumors.

Primary school students tend to be hyperactive, have short attention spans, and have low discipline. Photo: Manh Tung

In addition, primary school teachers can also coordinate with psychologists in each school to discipline unruly children. Usually, these experts are knowledgeable about psychology and will have more appropriate ways to discipline children.

"Teachers also need to interact more with the school board in educating naughty children, even in punishing them. This interaction will help teachers provide timely advice, and when there are reactions due to misunderstandings from parents, there will still be timely responses from the school," Mr. Son advised.

Mr. Son's principle when punishing children is never to punish a group of children, but to punish each child who misbehaves. The main purpose of punishment is to let the children know what they did wrong, so that they will not repeat the mistake next time because they understand the mistake.

"Anti-pedagogical punishments will make children resistant. No matter how much punishment is given, children will not make any progress but will even become more negative," the teacher believes.

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