Study On The Rationality And Limit Of Punishment In Primary And Secondary Schools

In the past few decades, various social thought and educational thought continuously come forth. Along with the implement of Convention on the Rights of the Children and the quality-oriented Education, it is becoming a consensus that teachers should guarantee the children's rights, respect subjectivity of the children and care about the growth of them. Affected by this, punishment in schools, as a means of education, has gradually been suspected and opposed by us. Why did punishment encounter such kind of question and opposition? And whether it has its value rationality or not? If yes, how can we grasp the scale of the punishment? The central focus of this article is to deal with these issues through documentary analysis and case study method.The first section is mainly concerning about the situation and the encounter of punishment. Here are the standpoints of this part. First, during the process of democratization, people put extreme emphasis on students' rights and students' subjectivity which destroyed the psychological foundation of believing that punishment is correct in schools. Second, as the schools became more market-oriented and more administrative, it has less and less autonomy which can guarantee the teachers' rights of punishing students properly. Third, the emotional foundation of punishment has been shaken because of dissimilation of relations between students and teachers.The second section is going to demonstrate the value rationality of punishment in theoretical. Here are the four grounds of argument:firstly, in spite of constraints, punishment is a necessary means to keep the schools in order. Secondly, punishment is the inherent demand of sound relations between students and teachers. Thirdly, punishment is also the requirement for children's growth. Lastly, punishment is still the teachers'natural rights by authority of the teaching profession. An additional viewpoint is necessary here:people usually question the value of punishment in methodological aspects but not in theoretical. So coming up next is the research on the scale and limitation of punishment in practical terms. The third section consists of four parts:the recognition on the properties of punishment, the understanding of the form of punishment, the analysis on the scale and limitation of punishment and a case study applying theories in this article. The article thinks that punishment is not aim itself but just an approach in cultivating children. Considered that children are people with subjectivity, teachers should take the process of punishment as an interactive moral process. As to the form of punishment, the article thinks that whether the traditional way or the modern way of punishment in schools, they could not be regarded as reasonable or not just by its form. To figure out the main application range of punishment, we should accord to the following three essential conditions:rules, motivations and frequency. Furthermore, it is important to consider the subjective perception of children. At the end of the article is an example of how to grasp the scale of punishment.