Parents Debate Teaching Discipline After New Ruling Sets To Bring It To The Classroom

Schools in Australia may see big changes after parents have brought up traditional discipline, which they want to see make a return to the classroom. Their urging has sparked a huge debate amongst parents as they discuss subjects and values that adults want to see their kids embody.

The debate follows a Senate inquiry into classroom behaviors that recommended an introduction of discipline lessons to get students to behave appropriately in class. The recommended guidelines, made available in Australian schools, include lessons on how to sit, walk, and ask questions properly.

Education specialists want traditional discipline taught in the classroom

Doctor Jenny Donavan, the Australian Education Research Organisation’s CEO, spent a decade working in the classroom before transitioning to the Department of Education, then her current role. In her opinion, students need to be taught outright how to behave respectfully, both in an educational environment and beyond.

Dr. Donavan believes that teaching old-school discipline is both perfectly feasible for teachers and should be considered part of classroom maintenance, as necessary as keeping supplies stocked up and desks tidy.

But parents are having mixed reactions about this new curriculum, with some believing this is long overdue and others asserting this won’t address the root cause of the discipline problem.

Parents and educators react to the idea of lessons in respect and traditional discipline in the classroom

The proposed changes to primary and high school classrooms will be available across all of Australia, with instructors tasked with deciding how to implement them. Some parents are glad their children will have a sure source of education in respect. “They need to be taught to listen and learn to take direction,” one parent asserted, “Just no respect [in the classroom]. That’s the biggest problem.”

Another countered, “I think you need to cane the parents, to be honest,” adding, “That’s where it is at for me. Kids are a product of their mum and dad or their parents… discipline starts at home.” This, the parent believes, leaves the core source of the problem unaddressed.

Former principal Adam Voigt, however, argues that this will cause more problems for everyone involved, hypothesizing, “Let’s say you are 15 teachers short and already got teachers frazzled, what do they do when they have eight kids who don’t enter the classroom the right way? 15 kids who don’t speak to the teacher the right way? Are they supposed to show them a red card, hand it off to an assistant principal? Or some other tactic? … There are risks to the old days, and saying the answers must be there [is risky].”