Discipline for Educators: Consequences Vs. Punishments

When a student breaks a rule, the teacher has three choices: to ignore the behavior, administer a consequence or determine a punishment. You may think consequences and punishments are one and the same, but, in fact, they are quite different.

The most important quality of a consequence is that it is designed to change behavior. An effective consequence will not only stop the undesirable behavior but will cause the student to be responsible and to make better choices in the future. Consequences are what students do to themselves as a result of choices they make and should result in students looking within themselves and taking responsibility for their choices.

The misbehaving student makes a decision in choosing his or her consequence. Consequences can't be predetermined because they are the result of something that hasn't occurred yet. Consequences make sense to the student as they are directly related to the offending behavior.

Consequences preserve the dignity of the students. Once the consequence has been determined and administered, the waiting game begins. Has the consequence worked to cause a positive change in behavior? Only time will tell. The consequence itself is not the important thing, but rather the outcome of the consequence.

Punishments are different. They are designed to inflict enough emotional pain and humiliation so that the undesirable behavior is not repeated. Punishments are something that people in authority do to students and often humiliate children and strip them of their dignity. Punishments are predetermined, i.e., stay after school on the first offense, phone call home after the second offense, etc.

Many punishments aren't related to the undesirable behavior. For instance, a student may write sentences as punishment for running in the hallway or empty wastebaskets for causing a disturbance during an assembly.
Punishments are least effective with our students with the most challenging behavior. Most of the time, life has already done quite a job of punishing these kids, and there's not a lot school officials can do to make an impression upon them.

Repeat offenders become acclimated to detention and other similar punishments, and they quickly lose their impact.

My experience with the students of today has shown me that old-style authoritarian discipline and punishment doesn't work for so many of these children. Logical consequences make sense to kids and can teach them responsibility. A good place to explore using logical consequences with misbehaving students is the Love and Logic Institute's website.

Sources:
Discipline with Dignity by Richard L. Curwin, Allen N. Mendler and Brian D. Mendler, copyright 2008, ASCD, Alexandria, Virginia.
http://www.loveandlogic.com/what-is-for-teachers.html