Put Punishment Behind Bars

Ok first off punishment doesn’t work – FACT. I didn’t just make that up there’s bags of research to back it up (if you really want to look).

My stand on punishment is that it doesn’t stop kids doing whatever you punished them for, it just makes them savvy at not getting caught!

So, I hear you say, what do we do? Just let them get away with it?

Of course not

There need to be consequences. There is a lot of natural justice in the world and that’s basically consequences to our actions.

There’s a saying the punishment should fit the crime and there’s some sense in this in that the consequences should relate to the behaviour.

So the consequences to a broken window could be window cleaning until the cost of replacement has been covered.

When I was about 6 I stole a balloon from a shop, when my Dad found out he took me back to the shop. I had to explain to the shopkeeper what I had done, apologise and return the balloon. I’ve never forgotten it (and it was a seriously long time ago!) Oh, and I never stole again either!

This is something that in very simple terms is known as restorative justice (to know more read my article ???? (link)).

So punishment doesn’t work but rewards do (and for the more cynical amongst you I’m not talking about bribes or giving kids things to do what they should be doing anyway ●)

I have a simple article on rewards and a more ‘sciency’ (is that even a real word?) one about how to increase desired behaviour if you want to know more