Backward Punishment

I am a 2nd grade teacher in the Los Angeles area. Lately there has been a resurgence of giving children standards to write as a form of punishment.

Since we struggle to help our children reach grade level in writing, I find this way of punishing a student (making him write) rather backward. I seem to be the only teacher who feels strongly about this? What do you think?

Sincerely,
Karen Schwarz
 

Dear Karen,

I’m with you. I do not believe in punishment of any kind. There have been so many research studies that demonstrate the long-range ineffectiveness of punishment — but most of them are buried in academic journals. Alfie Kohn has done a good job of presenting them in his book “Punished by Rewards”, a book that shows that punishment and rewards are not effective long-term.