Recently our education department held a brief training session on Positive Discipline. The main aim of this initiative is to end the curse of corporal punishment completely in our schools and replace it with a more efficient and effecasive technique. Many of our lectures, masters and teachers were (wittingly or unwittingly) already aware about this technique and were practicing this nonviolent and fruitful technique wholeheartedly.

However, some of us might not be aware about the definition and the features of positive discipline.

Positive Discipline is a program designed to teach young people or the learners to become responsible, respectful and resourceful members of their communities.

Positive discipline is a more effective way to manage misbehaving students in the classroom, rather than using punishment or rewards. It allows students to learn and adapt their behaviors to meet expectations in the classroom, while simultaneously teaching them how to make better choices in their path to adulthood.

Many of our teachers have already given up the habit of carporal punishment which they had learnt from their elders influenced by the traditional methods of teaching. Although, some teachers even now a days think that carporal punishment must be an integral part of a successful education system but due government’s ban on it they hardly dare to practice it anymore now.

Now a days we don’t see any sticks or other punishment tools in our schools which have been a norm while we were learning in the schools in the recent past.

Many teachers are bewildered about the dearth of discipline among the students and they are unable to understand how they can make their students behave properly in the classrooms in absence of any kind of carporal punishment. The contemporary education system does not allow even a teacher to scold a student violently in the school. Some teachers even feel such a system  more derogatory for themselves. But that is mainly due to lack of proper training of these teachers. Those teachers who are not aware about the great features of positive discipline or lack their belief in these features still hope to bring back that outmoded system which was only devastating for the learners physically, mantally as well as emotionally.

Positive discipline is a brilliant strategy. It believes in the following features mainly for a perfect classroom situation.

It gives importance to Mutual respect in classrooms. Both the teacher and the learner must respect each other for an ideal learning to prevail.
Positive discipline teaches the teachers particularly the main skill of identifying the belief behind the behavior. The teacher has to take each learner as a proper case study a ponder deep to decipher the complex behavioral pattern of any learner.
Positive discipline also gives importance to effective communication and problem solving skills in a proper and skillful manner. Proper communication between the teacher and the learner can solve all the learning issues properly.
Positive Discipline is the discipline that teaches focusing on solutions instead of punishment. It is neither permissive nor punitive in nature. It is rather progressive in its approach.

Positive discipline believes in Encouragement instead of praise. Praise can be a sheer flattering often which may lead to dangerous consequences in the long run. Encouraging a learner keeps him or her on the right track always.

Positive Discipline is not aimed to create better classroom and school environments only. It is an approach that may help us in better paternting also. In fact, we have to practice it everywhere to get the better results. When we learn it wholeheartedly we understand about our mistakes during nurturing the tender minds of our children and learn how to take care of them in a proper manner.

 In a nutshell we have every right to believe that if all the basic features of positive discipline are applied properly in our homes and schools we shall be able to bring revolutionary results beneficial for the whole society and the nation for sure. The main thing is that the parents and the teachers must believe that this technique is going to help everyone in the long run. We must learn to change our rigid attitudes and embrace the changes wholeheartedly which are necessary to bring the revolutionary results in our education system particularly.

Author is a Teacher in Education Department. Can be reached at [email protected]

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.