Several days ago a woman, Elizabeth Prezio, was attacked here in Dallas. This is what she said happened: "I saw them look at each other and smile and say, '1, 2, 3.' Then they decked me with all their might. They slammed me to the concrete ." And then they took her iPod and cell phone. She has multiple broken bones. They were 17 and 15.
These two boys weren't out to steal this woman's iPod and cell phone. They were out to beat someone up. She's lucky they weren't out to kill that night. This reminds me of something Nietzsche said about there being people out there who want to murder, but don't want to think that they are out there primarily to murder, and so steal from the person they kill. Considering the countdown that occurred, and the smiles, there is little doubt in my mind that they were out to beat someone up -- more, they picked a woman because that's the kinds of cowards they are. They didn't want someone who could fight back.
My wife, in talking about this incident, said it reminded her of A Clockwork Orange. I agree. If the U.S. is turning into the society of A Clockwork Orange, we have only ourselves to blame. This is what happens when you eliminate shame and discipline from a culture. And yet we see discipline being driven out of our schools and, even, out of our homes in places like Massachusetts. The reason? People can't seem to tell the difference between discipline and abuse. And that is me being generous. I suspect that it's really because those against discipline know the ignorant masses are easy to control, and there is a correlation between discipline and education. Indeed, "discipline" and "disciple" have the same origins -- and "disciple" of course means "pupil." If you want to get rid of pupils, get rid of discipline. If you want a culture of thugs and thuggery, get rid of discipline. If you want a culture where children control the parents and the teachers -- that is, where the inmates run the asylum -- get rid of discipline.
6 comments:
Discipline is about choices with consequences. Fortunately I never had to spank either of my children, but I am sure there are children who require a swat on the rear end in order to get their attention.
Children learn very quickly, at an early age, just how much they can do without consequences. My teacher friends tell me the problem kids simply tell them, "If you touch me, my parents will sue your a**." And of course, these parents will never believe their children do any wrong.
Parents of these children are as much to blame as the public schools.
When I was teaching middle school, I ended up having to go to a conference with a parent and the vice principal and the principal because I told her precious darling to settle down while hovering a few inches from his face. He was the worst-behaved child I had, and his mother was even worse-behaved. When a child is disruptive in class, that is when CPS should be called on the parents, because clearly the parents aren't doing what they need to be doing to keep their child out of prison.
Interesting piece about discipline. I just want to add to that.Society today globally suffers from what I call the "victim syndrome". There is always a reason or justification for actions.If you are a delinquent it is because of.... This becomes true for whole populations through media etc.Or learned behaviour.Our bad choices needs justification not consequences - or so it seems.Focussing on self-discipline (a learned behaviour to a large extent) and consequences for bad choices in our education systems would help. So would less of a focus on individual rights and acceptable behaviour in group context.
By the way I am not such a fan of capitalism. Nor of soscialism. Our consumer driven society is unsustainable and destructive. There must be something in between.Mondragon?
Pieter
It is Marx who coined the term "capitalism" -- and if we use his definition of it, then I too am against capitalism. I tend to prefer to use the term "free markets" for what I support (though I do sometimes slip). Free markets are different from what Marx calls capitalism.
And you are right about self-discipline. I would much rather have that taught. I would love it if martial arts could be taught to every child in every year of their schooling, precisely for the benefits of self-discipline. Free markets work best ith an ethical populace anyway.
I agree with you about the correlation between discipline and education. My worst behaved students are also my least academically capable, the most likely to produce excuses that blame their failures on others and to mouth off at me or other teachers.
I am against corporeal punishment in schools and I don't hit or spank my own children, but I can't help but think that ours is one of very few times in human history when a skinny 12 year old kid would dare take an insolent, smug and confrontational tone with another human who has 16 years and 200 lbs on him, let alone 2 university degrees. I'm not saying it's OK to abuse kids, just that a well-deserved ass-kicking or dressing-down can do wonders for a personality. Over the years such experiences have certainly trimmed much of the baby fat from my own ego.
Not all children need to be spanked. There should be a varied repertoire available of punishments, including things like standing in the corner (which always annoyed the hell out of me) and being grounded. Things like corporal punishment were successful in schools primarily because of the shame and embarrassment factor. You have some thug who is terrorizing other kids reduced to tears when he leaves the principal's office, and he's too ashamed to continue with his behavior, now that everyone's seen him cry. He doesn't want to get spanked again for that reason. Shame works -- and that should be the goal of punishment for disciplinary purposes: to shame the student so he will behave. If we can do that without spanking, so much the better.
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