#011 - Why Punishments Don't Work On Children 🚫👶

When we have this kind of punitive form of punishment, what I would ask is what is it teaching children in the long run? Punitive punishment is not the answer because it doesn't teach our children anything. Welcome to Neuroeducation, where we're exploring the neuroscience of how to switch on the brain to supercharge learning. I'll be sharing with you innovative teaching techniques, effective parenting strategies, and educational advocacy. I'm

your host, Angie Deeee. Together, let's revolutionize children's learning. Hello and welcome back to Neuroeducation with Angie Dee. Thank you for tuning in for this episode. We're going

to be diving in deep to looking at the reality of punishments and restorative justice within education, but this is also something that we can reflect on at home with how we treat our children and what kind of consequences punishments we're giving our own children and

what really works in the long term. Traditionally in school we have what you would call a punitive method of punishment. That means if you've done something bad you get punished, you've been naughty, here's your punishment. You get a detention or you get a suspension or you get expulsion if you've done it enough times. But I would ask you to think, what

is this teaching our children? If they've done something that's incorrect, if they've misbehaved and you give them a punishment that doesn't fit the crime, they bully somebody, they get a detention. Has the bullying stopped or will it stop? Maybe, maybe not. But has the child learned anything to improve that behaviour? So has they learned something to be, how to be more compassionate, how to relate more empathetically to, let's say if they bully Jessica, have

they thought about that more deeply? Have they changed their morals to be kinder to others? So when we have this kind of punitive form of punishment, what I would ask is what is it teaching children in the long run?

Is it teaching them to be responsible for their actions? Is it teaching them to make amends? to resolve their problems, to resolve their actions and ideally to reconnect with whoever the person is that they've done it to, to make sure they have made amends for the whole situation. Because ideally that's the kind of skill we want for life. If we fast forward 20 years and they're in a relationship and we have a husband and a wife partnership, what do we want each adult to be able

to do in that relationship. If they make a mistake, if they've messed up, if they've done something wrong. We want them to be able to make amends. We want them to be able to talk about it, maybe to say sorry. We want them to have some kind of interception which means understanding what happened, what was going on in their mind, what was going on in their bodies, why did they act like that and how can they make a positive change not to do that in the future. So

they're not re-acting negatively but they're responding consciously. If we want that to happen between husbands and wives or

in between co-workers, in between adults, we have to coach children how to be able to do that from a young age. Punitive punishment is not the answer because it doesn't teach our children anything. Yes, they get disciplined for something they've done, but it doesn't teach them how not to do it in the future or how to change their behaviour.

Restorative justice is the new buzzword in America and it's a buzzword for a big reason. It is working and transforming the lives of parents, teachers, and students in American schools. In one American school where they implemented restorative justice, which means we're going to restore relationships and restore what has gone on to make amends. So where they've implemented restorative justice, they have seen misbehaviour. That means students acting out, and suspensions and expulsions reduce by

50%. Now if you could go to any teacher in a primary school or a high school around Australia and you could say I can reduce misbehaviour, suspensions and expulsions by 50% I'm sure they would be all ears. tell me how you're doing it, because it's something we all face. Unfortunately,

with the demands of the curriculum, which we can debate later about how appropriate these demands of certain curriculums are in Australia, with the demands of the curriculum and the pressures that teachers face and the pressures students face, They are literally on a steam train going through subject after subject. How engaged are they? How interested are they? How empowered are they in their educational journey? Unfortunately for the teacher and the student, not a lot in

our educational structure in Australia. However, this is something all teachers and even parents at home can do to improve student behaviour. And that is called connection.

Restorative justice is about preventative first. So we're preventing the behaviour by connecting with a student. And if you think about this, if there's a teacher that you really like, how often did you misbehave for that teacher? Very rarely. If there's a teacher you didn't like, how often did

you misbehave for that teacher? In Montessori, The first few weeks of any schooling year is really about bringing the students and the teachers together and making sure there's a cohesive classroom environment. So just like when you get to finally go on a school camp and they play all these team games, This is what is done at the beginning of every school year in Montessori and

I feel like if teachers invest more time at the beginning of the school year, yes demands aside, into allowing children to build those relationships in the classroom and consciously building those relationships with their students then what we see is better and better behaviour. And the restorative justice and the research on it in America is so clear. It works. Yes, it takes time. It's not a one stop shop. It's going to be fixed in a minute. It takes time, but it works. It's an approach that

works for the long term. And if you want a positive classroom environment, if

you want your children to feel connected and to be working positively with you and with others around you for not just fear of punishment but for the joy of connection then this is something you want to be able to implement and research more on. Restorative justice, it's a buzzword and that's just because it works. Thank you for tuning in

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