The following is an excerpt from The National Journal of Education, a quarterly periodical that focuses on critical issues and current trends in education. This includes exploring significant themes, exceptional programs, promising practices, and evolving policies in the academic field. [Article originally published one year ago.]

The Disciplinary Dilemma
By Dorathea Gray

Even the most tolerant of teachers would agree, student misbehavior, negative classroom attitudes, and recurrent disruptions should have consequences. Over the years, many educators have adopted new strategies to tackle these issues, ranging from proactive—not reactive—approaches and encouraging positive reinforcement in hopes that such measures would reduce the need for frequent disciplinary action.

While most schools have abandoned harsher disciplinary policies in favor of progressive methods, some institutions continue to utilize extreme procedures of behavioral correction, including corporal punishment. Though these schools are few in number, and predominantly relegated to select private institutions, they show no signs of changing their practices, many of which have been implemented for decades.

Methods of corporal punishment may include physical “correction” such as spanking or paddling, along with isolation from classmates and solitary confinement—typically in small, uncomfortable rooms or spaces. Additional methods might incorporate prolonged exercise drills, adopting fixed—often painful—postures for extended periods of time, and even physical labor or excessive cleaning duties.

Danger Zone One. Story by Midnight. Art by Salaiix.