Fair Punishment: A Guide for Parents and Teachers

Punishment. A difficult topic for parents, teachers & students, but an essential one.

It's tough to get it right, isn't it? No child enjoys being punished, and no adult enjoys the experience of punishing. For parents or tutors who are struggling with the concept of punishing unwanted behaviours in your child or tutee, you are not alone.

We hope the following information can be helpful to you in some small way:

At MOE, we were trained on the three basic rules of punishing undesirable behaviour:

The punishments had to be:

1. Immediate

2. Fair

3. Consistent (Most important)

Immediate

Deliver the punishment the moment you spot any misbehaviour. Why? Because immediate punishments ensure that the consequence directly follows the action, creating a clear cause-and-effect relationship that reinforces accountability and discourages repeated offenses by providing instant feedback.

Fair

Make sure that your punishment is proportionate to the misbehaviour noticed. If you over- or under-punish, you might fail to address the root problem of the bad behaviour effectively.

[Parents and tutors, do take note, 'fair' punishments do not have to be equal across all children or students; but they have to be equitable].

(We cover the important difference between 'equal' and 'equitable' punishments in one of our pedagogical workshops - write to us if you're keen to learn more).

Consistent

This is the most important one. Apply the same consequence each time a specific behavior occurs, regardless of the circumstances or emotions involved. Do not let your punishment strategy depend on your moods, and remember to remove your emotions from punishment.

Ultimately, consistent punishments establish predictability and reliability between child and adult, fostering trust and respect for the rules by demonstrating that similar actions lead to similar consequences. It also discourages favouritism or arbitrary decision-making in us, the adults who are ultimately responsible for the child’s learning.

Punishment is a large topic, and even teachers don't always get it right. Tomorrow we'll share a story from our time in the classroom that made us rethink how we punished our students. Stay tuned.