Self-Discipline People who possess self-discipline are much more in control of their lives and more equipped to manage their affairs in a positive way. Traditionally society has attempted to instil discipline through rewards and punishments. These approaches require the discipline to be imposed by others, others-discipline if you like. This essay explains how teaching actions and consequences support the development of real self-discipline. A regular criticism of the youth of today that is trotted out by politicians and the ‘shock-jocks is that they lack self-discipline. Invariable they see the solution in punishment. At the other end the preferred approach to discipline is to reward good behaviour. Both approaches reflect the ideas of the sixties when Skinner’s …show more content…
It validates the belief it is acceptable to manipulation others for our gain. You need to pay others if you want them to do something. 5. Rewards decrease self-directed learning because students only work to get things. An alternate idea that often gets a lot of attention, especially around the time of elections when ‘law and order’ issues are of concern is that punishment is the way to motivate behaviour. Just like rewards the use of punishments by schools has problems. These are: 1. Punishment teaches us what not to do. If a child is misbehaving to get attention and they are punished they may well stop but they are not shown how to get their need met, how to get attention in an appropriate way. 2. Punishment diverts attention from intended lesson. Students will focus their energy on ‘not getting caught’ rather than behaving in a way that is best for them. 3. Much like the previous point, if you use punishment the child will focuses their attention on how not to get ‘caught’; they can become ‘sneaky’ just to survive. 4. If they see others using punishment to get compliance then they will believe it works. This will teach the students to be punitive in their own dealings with