Keeping Discipline

Dear dedicated reader,

My methods of discipline since I’ve arrived here have become, by American standards, slightly unorthodox.

To frame what I’m about to say, I’d like to point out that while corporal punishment is technically illegal here in India, that is a mere, er, technicality. After all, as some (cynics) would say, the law is only good as its enforcement and the Indian legal system leaves something to be desired when it comes to swift recourse. To illustrate my point, we can look to a conversation we recently had with Dhirinbhai, one of the computer teachers here.

The interns have been taking 8th standard classes for the past three weeks. This arrangement was meant to be temporary until a new teacher was found to take these classes, though the “ten days” this was supposed to last has been stretched to “indefinitely”. For many students, this is their first exposure to English as they come to Kadod High School from other rural primary schools. Some teachers have had to start from the basic alphabet. Though from what I can see the interns have managed this with their other responsibilities beautifully, this comes with definite challenges, and one of those has been discipline. Priya in particular has been having extreme trouble with one unruly class of 60 boys who refuse to respond to cajoling, bribery, yelling or threats of the principal. The monitor, or the student whose most basic responsibility in a class is to tell other kids to “shut up” is the worst of the lot, talking while Priya is talking and being unstoppably distracting.

Priya finally said something to Dhirinbhai about the situation to see what he recommended. His response was to come to her class and scream at the students continuously for five minutes and then to pull two students out of the class and leave with them. She didn’t know where they were going, but she had 58 still rambunctious 8th standard boys to worry about so she wasn’t overly concerned. Of course, as soon as he left, the boys were just as disrespectful as they had been previously, except that there were two less to add to the general mayhem.

Later, a despondent Priya spoke to Dhirinbhai about where he had taken the two boys. One is from his village outside of Kadod and takes a ride home with him everyday on his motorcycle.

“Oh, I beat him with my belt,” Dhirinbhai responded casually. Uh, come again?

Now, I have not beaten any children. But, when faced with the job of keeping a room of sixty children quiet and attentive enough to teach them anything, I find that I must employ tactics that I would never resort to in the US.

First, I constantly exploit the students’ absolute and utter terror of the principal. His name is evoked in response to any overwhelming noise problem. This creates the appropriate atmosphere of fear; you know, the kind that is conducive to learning.

Second, the fixed stare (a favorite from my class in Boston) is remarkably effective here for any individual noise problem. Students here, unlike some of my students in Boston, are exceptionally aware of where the teacher is looking at any given time and ‘the teacher look’ creates a gratifyingly instant response. Sometimes it is so effective that the offending student will immediately volunteer the next time I ask for someone to read or the answer to a question in order to get back in my good graces.

It is for repeat offenders (thankfully few) that the guns come out. I am reminded of a time that I was doing my French homework in my history class and my history teacher, Mr. Wrangham, slammed a book down so hard on my desk that I almost fell out of my chair. Believe me, I never tried that trick again. I can understand his frustration: I simply confiscate any books or materials that are not written in English here, but have used the slamming book trick at least once in all my classes.

Another favorite has become the “stand at the front of the room with your arms crossed”. I don’t really know why this is so embarrassing; if I had tried this particular punishment in the US, my students would have reveled in the attention and probably created unspeakable amounts of problems. However, any student here called for this particular punishment is so ashamed that they meekly stand at the front, looking at the ground. I know other teachers make them stand the whole period; I can’t bear it and usually let them sit down after 10 minutes.

I have never sent a student to the principal. At least, not yet. Some of my 11th graders are really asking for it. I am aggressive when it comes to test-taking: if I catch any students talking or copying, their test paper goes in the trash. This breaks my heart, even though my grades probably don’t count for anything, because the students here study really hard and taking their test paper tears me up. However, I am incredibly clear about this both before and during the test, so as much as I hate it, they have no excuse for not following the rules.

It absolutely amazes me, however, that as difficult as keeping sixty students in line might seem, it is a far simpler task than keeping my 12 students in Boston on task.

Which leads me to wonder: Why?

Best,
Cat