Discipline is usually a sensitive topic for parents, teachers, and children alike. Everyone has his/her own way of disciplining children but some methods may not be effective. Imbibing positivity while correcting behaviour is crucial because positive reinforcement is the best form of teaching.
This is why the management at Presidency High School decided to discuss Positive Discipline during the Parent Education Day held for classes 3, 4, and 5. Now, some got worried that this means that we will let children get away with things and become lenient. That’s actually far from what Positive Discipline does. The program curbed such misconceptions and helped parents.
What does positive discipline mean? It means being firm but kind, flexible but consistent, and respectful but authoritative. It simply means taking a positive approach instead of giving children the idea that discipline is a negative, taxing thing.
We started the program with a graphical representation, which showed feedback that children gave about their parents’ reactions in different scenarios. How would they react if they misbehaved? Children wrote their hearts out! The slideshow itself was an eye-opener. Furthermore, we also decided to shed light on why kids misbehave in the first place, how we must handle kids who use bad words, and how to use positive discipline in the process of behaviour correction.
Multiple studies reveal that students mostly misbehave because they want their parents’ attention or because they are being forced to do things that they don’t like. They may also get cranky because they are upset, hungry, or sleepy. Yelling at a child, or worse, hitting a child may seem like a great solution but that’s temporary. It can also have adverse negative effects on the child such as fear and aggressive behaviour. This is why parents should adopt positive discipline and try understanding their children.
The same holds true when you hear children speak swear (bad) words. Our instant reaction may be angry but we must understand that children hear and learn. They probably heard those swear words from us! So, to get to the root of the situation and to solve it there is crucial. If you ever speak something bad in front of them, do not hesitate to apologize. Your children will pick up the same behaviour.
At the end of the session, we were happy to see that many parents were happy and realized that positive discipline is indeed the way to go. A few parents also shared that they realized that shouting and hitting children is wrong.
Positive discipline brings families closer and gives children an outlet to share and confess. It also makes behaviour correction easy. We hope all parents take this up seriously and practice it.
Thank you, parents, for continually attending the PED sessions and supporting us. We hope to continue our efforts with your encouragement.
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