Content on discipline problems in school free essay sample

The purpose of discipline is to help the individual to gain knowledge, habits, interests and ideals which conduce to the well being of him, his fellows and society as a whole. Besides that, discipline should be taught in school by teachers since young. Giving discipline lessons to the teenagers is able to guide them proper discipline which is necessary in their growing process including mental development. To be more precise, teenager are trained to be more able to maintain a good behavior through what they have learn in the discipline lessons as they were introduced with the concept of discipline. As education researcher Daniel Duke (1989) points out,† the goal of good behavior is necessary, but not sufficient to ensure academic growth. † But, a well academic growth strongly depends on how an individual was taught since young which includes how they were trained in discipline and maintaining good behavior. Teenager can avoid the feelings of guilt and shame by avoiding improper behavior if they have self-discipline. Besides, Discipline acts as a standard for teenager to be judged by society to see whether they are mature enough in various situations. Other than that, discipline motivates children to behave well in order to be praised by society for their well-being. Moreover, discipline guilds children to make their own correct decisions and control their own behavior. For disciplinary problems, there are causes to it for sure. The causes are categorized into two parts, which are the out-of-school causes and the in-school causes. In out-of-school causes, we can see that students who are involved in disciplinary problems, usually get the influence from media. It is believable that media like television and the Internet have a potentially damaging effect on children. According to Media Education, 2005, studies reviewed ten years of research concluded that children would have viewed 200,000 acts of violence, including 16,000 murders by the time they are 18 years of age. Besides that, quality of home life is a big influence on children. Two working parent families, single parent families, two mommy or daddy parents, blended families are likely to exist in every community. From this cause, insecurity is the main reason that causes one to be involved in disciplinary cases. Students are more concerned fore basic security needs than for learning. These security issues have a created a large group of children seeking emotional support from just about anybody available. Some students might pay to a certain gang of friends for protection purpose. This encourages some students to use this opportunity to bully people who are threat to students under their protection, and this is how discipline problems occur. Another out-of-school cause is the concentration of poverty. Studies over many years have shown a strong connection between socioeconomic status and success in school. Easy said, mostly students from wealthier families do significantly better than those from poorer families. National statistics indicates that growing up in a background of poverty is more likely than race to put a child on a route of misbehavior and punishment. Children in poor families experience regular stress from economic hardship are likely to be involved in unlawful acts and antisocial. Children raised in poverty often choose to behave differently, which will cause disciplinary problems in school. Like mentioned above, in-school causes are also big influences to disciplinary problems in school. Competitive environments are remained in most schools where students compete for recognition, grades, and spots on sports team. Limited spots exist, and they’re always for the best people. Jealousy and envy will occur, and it turns into a disciplinary problem when it comes to an argument or a fight. Powerlessness is another factor in school discipline problems. Some students rebel as a way of voicing their dissatisfaction with their lack of influence. Students are told the rules, the consequences, what to do, when to talk. When the school creates rules and procedures that define behavioral standards for students that have had little or no input, a conflict of control and power can happen. Last but most definitely not least, many students with constant discipline problems believe that they cannot and will not be successful in school. They do not believe they can get the attention and recognition they need through school achievement. Their self-message is â€Å"Since I can’t be recognized as anything other than a failure, I’ll protect myself from feeling hurt. † They believe to be recognized as a troublemaker is better than being seen as a failure. When there are causes, there will definitely be effects as well. Effects of discipline problems in school on teachers will occur. The teacher’s mood may have an unfavourable effect on the pupils’ behavior. The teacher might enter the classroom with trembling nerves and nothing seems to be done to please him. Perhaps when one student commits a minor error, the case will be exaggerated in his mind, and his or her sharp criticisms are given, and it creates a bigger issue. It is said that good discipline and behavior are the conditions for a successful school. But when a school has lots of discipline problems, teachers will think of leaving the school. They said they had left because student discipline was such a challenge. Many complained teaching is about being more in the crowd control business than in teaching. In fact, the most worrying effect is the effect on the other students. Bullying cases increased in the past few years which shows that the discipline problems in school have not yet to be under control. Videos are uploaded to the Internet, showing how a student is being bullied, being called â€Å"ugly-looking pig†, hair being pulled, face being slapped, and body being kicked. The reasons why the particular students is being bullied, sometimes is just plainly because he or she looked unattractive or unsightly, which frustrates the bullies. There are some cases which had happened in Malaysia. Bullying in schools has been a major issue with several high-profile cases surfacing in Malaysian over the past year. Just before Chinese New Year, a group of secondary school boys from Limbang, Sarawak, ganged up on two students and â€Å"rained blows and kicks† on them in their dormitory. Besides that, there was a bullying incident happened in Butterworth. Three secondary school students posted the video of how they bullied their classmates on YouTube. Violence and bullying in schools are not something new, however the extent of bullying is not usually reported, let alone recorded. A video on YouTube emerged on Facebook showing a Malaysian teenage schoolgirl being physically bullied by classmates in a horrific way. Other than that, the SMK Raja Abdullah bullies attacked the victim by yanking her hair, strangling her, cutting off her hair and hitting her in the head with books. The victim cried and pleaded for her classmates to stop but her classmates continued to jeer and attack her. In another incident on May 24, 2011, eight secondary school students were sent for a two-year community service program with the state Welfare Department, with a 1,500 ringgit bond for good behavior after they were found guilty of trespassing into a school and beating up a student. Solving this issue is not an easy task, it requires involvement of all parties, including teachers, parents and students themselves. Parents really make a difference in student achievement behavior. Parental involvement should be increased where schools should establish a policy where teachers are required to contact parents throughout the year. Parents will understand how their kids are performing in school. If the kid has discipline problems, parents should be informed as soon as possible before things get serious. This is not to say that all parental involvement have a positive effect on student behavior. Even so, this is an area which many successful schools claim to make a huge difference. Besides that, discipline plans are a way to provide students with a persistent and fair plain of what will happen if they misbehave. Schools should not only create a schoolwide discipline plan, but truly enforce it as well. Teachers and administrators should often follow the discipline plan created by the school board. Effective classroom management should include posting and use of this discipline plan. Furthermore, counselors in school play an important role in this case. Students with issues can often consult the counselors. The counselors should give them proper advice and motivation to get rid of the bad habits. The only way to help the students is to understand them. They should walk around the school and observe students with discipline problems and also get information on their background to help know them better. This is how to understand the problematic students well, in order to lend a hand and solve the problem.