Derived from another thread: Essay Punishments

[Conkozan]

Back in the stone age what punishments did you receieve for school infractions. I remember:

Essay- Life as a teen age werewolf with a set number of words (handwritten so you had to count)

Essay- Life as a car (same rules, same teacher)

Writing/copying dictionary pages

Writing/copying Bible Pages (church school)

Starting off with a really high number, finding square root and then that numbers square root, then that numbers square root.(math teacher punishment)

and the good old stand by:

I will not..........(written how ever many times)

How about you?

 

[Nancy]

I was the perfect student I never had to do any of those

Seriously the only thing I ever had to do was stand in a corner in kindergarten. I was talking during rest time. I don't remember having to write anything as punishments, so if I actually did it obviously left zero impression on me.

 

[CheshireVal]

I remember copying dictionary pages.

 

[Conkozan]

I was the perfect student I never had to do any of those

Seriously the only thing I ever had to do was stand in a corner in kindergarten. I was talking during rest time. I don't remember having to write anything as punishments, so if I actually did it obviously left zero impression on me.

well.........good thing you were not sitting next to me or you would have been! I liked to socialize-which is what earned me all those dandy assignments.

 

[CathrynRose]

Im not going to say writing 5 pages of non-sense is the end of the world....

ALTHOUGH - I wasnt an ideal student in school, and I cant sit here and say that all of the teachers are just gems, looking out for our kids. I can not say that.

I had teachers that were flat out MEAN. Even looking back on it, I can say some of them must have gotten a thrill being blantantly cruel to kids.

So, I dont agree with 5 pages of nonsense, for a child whom is a "star pupil", who stays out of trouble, does their word. etc. Its absurd.

Should a child whom does good in school, does what theyre told, etc be allowed a hall pass, or equivelent??? Absolutely...

I'd be ticked if I were that Mom, and her letter was tame compared to what I would have written.

 

[Disney Ella]

I was afraid of the teachers (this was back when the teachers could hit the students), so I never made a sound and never had to write anything, but other kids had to write sentences. Things like "I will not talk in class." From what I could see, it didn't curb the talking in class. The talkers kept right on talking, whether they had to write sentences or not!

I always hated the "If everyone isn't quiet, no one is going to recess" tactic. The one or two kids who wouldn't be quiet didn't care if everyone else in the class was upset with them. Why not just keep those kids out of recess instead of punishing everyone else for the actions of a few people?

I've actually worked places where the same stupid tactic was used. If Bob is doing something you don't like, talk to Bob about it instead of making a new policy for everyone based on what Bob is doing wrong. "Since some people are taking advantage of whatever, we're not going to allow it anymore." It would be much more effective to say "Bob, employees are occasionally allowed to skip lunch so that they can leave early for an appointment. You've been doing it every day, and we can't allow that. You have to stop doing it." Not "everybody has stop doing it" just Bob who is taking advantage of the policy.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I was afraid of the teachers (this was back when the teachers could hit the students), so I never made a sound and never had to write anything, but other kids had to write sentences. Things like "I will not talk in class." From what I could see, it didn't curb the talking in class. The talkers kept right on talking, whether they had to write sentences or not!

I always hated the "If everyone isn't quiet, no one is going to recess" tactic. The one or two kids who wouldn't be quiet didn't care if everyone else in the class was upset with them. Why not just keep those kids out of recess instead of punishing everyone else for the actions of a few people?

I've actually worked places where the same stupid tactic was used. If Bob is doing something you don't like, talk to Bob about it instead of making a new policy for everyone based on what Bob is doing wrong. "Since some people are taking advantage of whatever, we're not going to allow it anymore." It would be much more effective to say "Bob, employees are occasionally allowed to skip lunch so that they can leave early for an appointment. You've been doing it every day, and we can't allow that. You have to stop doing it." Not "everybody has stop doing it" just Bob who is taking advantage of the policy.

I always hated that mentality too. I was always a good student. I don't remember ever having to do any punishment assignments. But I have gotten punishments for things other students did.

I did have a teacher in HS that was just off his rocker. He had many OCD's and was going through "changes" at the time. It was senior year and it was nearing summer vacation. Yes, kids were doing stupid things, but nothing harmful. So some kid in class decided to hide the whiteboard eraser. My nutty history teacher got mad and punished the whole class by giving oral notes that day. He purposly talked fast and named countries that no one could spell. Oh and you couldn't look up the information in the text book because he made up his own history. Just one of his many annoying quirks. Let me just say that I was so glad when I was done with his class. And I think the school was glad when he retired, his "changes" would have led to many questions from students.

 

[jennyl772003]

I remember having to write things like, "I will not talk in class" 100 times. 100 times was the standard.

As an aside, when my 8 year old DS comes home with a note from his teacher about being too pokey, or talking too much, *I* make him write something like an apology or ways he can be a better student. My thought on this is that it makes him really think of what he did, plus he practices his penmanship and grammar.

 

[barkley]

my mom tells the story of my oldest brother (now in his 60's) who was def. a "goody-goody" and never got into trouble. one day he mouthed off to one of the teachers and was assigned to do as punishment a 1000 word essay on "my life as an inanimate object". my brother wrote his on "my life as a ping pong ball" ("i am a ping pong ball, i bounce and bounce and bounce and bounce and bounce and.....). needless to say she made him re-write the essay.

 

[Nancy]

my mom tells the story of my oldest brother (now in his 60's) who was def. a "goody-goody" and never got into trouble. one day he mouthed off to one of the teachers and was assigned to do as punishment a 1000 word essay on "my life as an inanimate object". my brother wrote his on "my life as a ping pong ball" ("i am a ping pong ball, i bounce and bounce and bounce and bounce and bounce and.....). needless to say she made him re-write the essay.

That is actually funny and very clever too! I bet the teacher was a bit ticked at seeing "I bounce and bounce" over and over and over!

 

[Feralpeg]

I can't say that I every had to write something like that.

When I was teaching, I would give out punishment assignments on rare occasions. I did not have them write something repeatedly or copy something from a book. I once had a student write me a 300 word essay on why it was rude to interrupt the teacher in class.

I think it makes more sense to have the student write about why their behavior was inappropriate.

 

[DisneyCP2002]

I had a few times of bad behavior through out school. I think the worst was when my Economics teacher assigned us a 3 page household budget. I didn't mind doing it, it was a great real-life experience. The problem was all of his calculations were off, so the ones of us that got the punishment had to figure out what was right and fix the wrong numbers. I think he did it on purpose to make sure we paid attention in class.

 

[Jockaroo]

I remember having to do lines. Our whole class got in trouble for giving a substitute a rough time--it was just a few students who were the trouble-makers, but the sub didn't know our names to report to the teacher. I quickly found out that you can write with 2 pens at one time--if you hold them correctly! And half the punishment for an uncommitted crime was still horrible.

 

[luvmydogs]

I never had to write any essays for punishment, but the nuns used to smack us with rulers on the palms of our hands.

 

[Marseeya]

I never had any teachers who gave writing as punishment and I don't agree with it at all. If someone gave my kids (both learning disabled) writing as punishment, I would be walking into school with them, handing over a big blank page.

Needless to say when I'm teaching, writing won't be a punishment.

 

[barkley]

I never had any teachers who gave writing as punishment and I don't agree with it at all. If someone gave my kids (both learning disabled) writing as punishment, I would be walking into school with them, handing over a big blank page.

Needless to say when I'm teaching, writing won't be a punishment.

you may not have a choice in the matter (as a teacher not a parent). there are plenty of public and private schools where administration/school boards determine "punishments" not the teachers. if everyone is on the same page regarding disciplinary actions expectations and consequences can be clear cut and farily administered across the board (and i don't believe any capable teaching professional would use writing as a "punishment" for a learning disabled child-unless the learning disability had no impact on their ability to read or write).

 

[Shugardrawers]

I was never one to act up in school so I never did get punished for anything. But I sure must be a dinosaur because I remember the days of spanking in school.

 

[Marseeya]

you may not have a choice in the matter (as a teacher not a parent). there are plenty of public and private schools where administration/school boards determine "punishments" not the teachers. if everyone is on the same page regarding disciplinary actions expectations and consequences can be clear cut and farily administered across the board (and i don't believe any capable teaching professional would use writing as a "punishment" for a learning disabled child-unless the learning disability had no impact on their ability to read or write).

I sure do have a choice! I don't have to work in any school district whose philosophy differs so much from my own. I'm going into the profession because I want to, not because I need a paycheck.

 

[Marseeya]

I was never one to act up in school so I never did get punished for anything. But I sure must be a dinosaur because I remember the days of spanking in school.

Me too! I got spanked in the second grade and it devastated me -- moreso because it was completely unjustified. I remember, I'd gotten sent to the principal's office for testing of some kind (speech, I think), and I didn't get to finish my workbook with the rest of the class. We didn't even have homework back then. Wow. Anyway, the teacher was pretty old, so I think she was just a tad forgetful. The next day she started asking questions from the workbook and I didn't have any answers. She told me that if I didn't have the next question done either, she was going to spank me. The other kids even spoke up for me, but she wouldn't listen. She actually took me into a first grade classroom and spanked me in front of that entire class.

Can you imagine something like that happening these days?

 

[DisneyDotty]

As a former high school English teacher, I wince whenever I hear of writing used as punishment. Many students already dislike writing--must we add fuel to the fire?
Anyway, in my day (mid '70's to early '80's) "problem" students were paddled. Imagine that now! I remember one incident when Brian was being chased up and down the halls by my 7th grade teacher who was holding a paddle. Can't remember if the teacher ever did catch him. Very silly.