Back in 2017, a judge in Hawaii ordered a defendant to write more than 140 “nice” things about his ex-girlfriend after he violated a protection order.
“For every nasty thing you said about her, you’re going to say a nice thing,” 2nd Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo told Daren Young. “No repeating words.”
Young was ordered to stop contacting his ex. But two months later, he called and texted her 144 times over about three hours.
As a result, he was arrested and spent 157 days in jail.
Young was also placed on two years of probation, fined $2,400, and assigned 200 hours of community service.
Then the judge gave him the writing assignment.
I love this judge.
About a decade ago, I punished a student for not completing her homework by assigning her weekend homework:
Knowing that she and her sister fought all the time, I required my student to write 100 lovable things about her sister. Then I framed the list of compliments and passed it on to the sister.
Her parents thought the punishment was hilarious.
So, too, did our class.
My student wasn’t initially amused, but the story became part of the classroom lore, and she eventually loved telling the story and laughing at herself. She has even visited the class from time to time over the years and told the story to my latest batch of students.
She also never forgot her homework again.
As a teacher, I assigned many consequences like this over the years:
Novel, amusing, unusual, personalized consequences for students failing to follow the rules.
I will miss this dearly now that I am no longer a teacher.
Maybe someday I’ll make a list of some of my favorites.
But as teachers prepare to return to the classroom, I thought I’d offer my wisdom on the topic.
I was an excellent punisher of children. When a student behaved poorly, I was at my best.
I have five rules about imposing consequences on students:
- The student can’t like school any less because of the consequence.
- The best consequence is specific to the student’s needs, wants, and preferences.
- Waiting to discover what the consequence will be should be an integral part of the consequence.
- Whenever possible (and therefore almost always), the teacher should impose the consequence. Involving the principal or any other administrator in classroom discipline undermines the teacher’s authority and makes them second fiddle. Avoid this at all costs.
- Consequences must be unpredictable.
That last one is extremely important. As a kindergartener, I realized rather quickly (and perhaps disturbingly so) that punishment was simply an exchange of time for freedom:
If I want to finish building my tower of blocks after Mrs. Dubois has told me to put the blocks away, I must trade 15 minutes standing in the corner for that freedom.
The corner was nothing to me. The corner was pain-free. I could do that time all day long. That was a solid trade.
The predictability of punishments allows for students like me to calculate the cost and make equitable and egregious trades.
Eventually, this understanding led to decisions like:
I want to sneak into the rafters of the auditorium during study hall with Derek Reynolds so we can explore the school’s heating and cooling conduits and eventually find our way onto the roof. To do so, I’ll need to trade 2 to 4 hours of time in after-school detention. I’ll spend that time reading and completing homework. Also, I’ll only pay that reasonable price if we are caught.
Deal.
We never got caught.
When students see punishment as an exchange of a predictable outcome for a choice not normally allowed, they begin to make those calculations and strategically choose when misbehaving makes the most sense.
Not all students, of course.
Most students want to follow the rules. Even when they don’t, they are rarely violating rules strategically. They are simply making mistakes, blundering into trouble, responding without thinking about the consequences, and making regrettable decisions.
But these kinds of students don’t pose problems for teachers. They are not your chronic offenders.
It’s the students who understand how to game the system who can make a teacher’s life difficult. It’s students who don’t fear authority. Students who are seeking freedom from rules, expectations, and norms at all costs.
Students like the one I was years ago, and in some ways, the person I still am today.
The last thing you wanted was for a student like me to accurately predict the punishment for every infraction.
When the consequences are unpredictable, unknown, and novel, kids like me are less likely to take those chances and more likely to behave.
Of course, the best way to get kids to behave is to set clear expectations, help your students experience success daily, let them know unequivocally that you love them, and, for God’s sake, make school fun.
If you do that, most of your problems disappear.
But when you need to punish a student, my list makes a lot of sense.
It can also be great fun for the teacher, the students who witness the punishment, and sometimes, eventually, the student being punished, too.
Follow my five rules of punishment, teachers, and you won’t go wrong.
