Consolidate Your Vision to Navigate through Challenging Educational Landscape

The medias, both social and mainstream, is both frenzy and abuzz with the news of a teacher being implicated by court for using corporal punishment as a method to punish underachievement in academic outcome and as possible means to boost future performance. Although corporal punishment has been legally banned in education/ school, the practice still find its spot for numerous reasons. In my analysis, teachers personal belief system on half truths of educational theories and system induced stress on teacher performance tops the reasons for the existence of corporal punishment in schools.

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1. The educational Trap of Omnipotence, cultural beliefs on adverse conditioning, and misinterpreted theories

As our teachers long ago believed that corporal punishment can induce learning behaviors boosting academic achievement, do today's teachers believe the same? I have seen many do hold on to those believe. It is either because of ignorance or cultural tendency to disbelieve and discard the wisdom of learning theories. Corporal punishment is primarily used to induce fear, as many teachers holds the archaic view of aversive conditioning that fear, pain, and harsh teachers are essential instrument of learning and behavioral correction. Modern psychology consistently prove that fear lead to cognitive inhibition, shutting down higher-order thinking, and development of maladaptive phobias. Thus, teachers holding the teachers instilling fear to boost learning behavior as primal necessity is nothing short of personal ignorance and cultural misconception. 

The ultimate goal of educating a child may be is to create enlightened citizen, but it is not teacher's duty to create Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan. We have consumed so much about nurtured intelligence, neuroplasticity, and multiple intelligence that induce a false educated belief that all students are capable of learning under any circumstances. For this reason, when a students fails or doesn't perform well, we develop an unconscious instinct to believe we need to fix the child or even resort to brutal punishment to make them learn. However, many educators hardy understand that we cannot work against the nature of child's natural intelligence (baseline intelligence set by genetic traits). A child's brain may be undergoing maladaptive plasticity that inhibits learning and that the theory of multiple intelligence is still contested for lack of empirical and scientific evidence.  Since we fail to recognize the drawbacks of the what we learnt and know, we are often forced to force learning and punish for not achieving the expected outcome. Although we strive to achieve hundred percent result, be it pass percent or achieving the set standard, we have to acknowledge that it is not always possible and we cannot make everyone Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan. Thus, our hands and cans should not be forced on anyone simply for not achieving the academic target. 

Some of psychological doctrines we have learned has permanent, misleading, and toxic legacy on our belief system that orients to teaching and student outcome. Overrated statements such as B.F. Skinners rhetoric "Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything" and J.B. Watson's claim being capable of making a dozen of healthy infants to train them to be any type of specialist he selects regardless of child penchants, background, and abilities often unconsciously or consciously determine the educational narrative and expectations from their children. The linearized interpretation and application of other cognitive, psychological, or learning theories also fit the narrative of may parents, educators and decision makers because we want out students to succeed despite the limiting conditions. The unquestioning and sometimes unconscious acceptance and application of such philosophies by teachers and people involved with education system, often lead to uncheck stress, frustration and fatigue amongst teachers that compel them to react in legally unacceptable ways, such as resorting to corporal punishment in the face of adversity. 

The point I am making is not a blind rejection of any cultural beliefs, learning theories, or any body of knowledge. We must learn to acknowledge and consolidate our knowledge of the teaching-learning philosophies when its application fails to achieve the intended result. Rather than looking at any body of knowledge and accepting in its crude, isolated, and independent form, teachers must embrace the complexity of education system, philosophical foundations, and most importantly the complex, different, and chaotic (not the literal chaos but chaos described by Chaos theory) nature of learners. This goes against our current and superficial understanding of cause and effect. Teachers stubbornly and ignorantly hold on to the belief that because I (teacher) has scarified so much time, pumped so much  content, and used all available strategies and resources to teach(cause), all students (like Watson claiming he can change anyone to anything)  should realize and understand everything that has been taught and produce good, if not excellent academic outcome (effect). When, students fail to achieve the expected academic result, teachers loose their emotional control and consequently using counter productive punishment to bent their emotions. 

2. Downward Pressure 

We have given ourselves too much to system induced stress and pressure. When teachers are measured on a linear metric that puts teachers to limit, it is only natural pass that stress and pressure downward and eventually to students. Under such system induced stress, when academic outcome fails, teachers automatically resort to all sort of behavior, because we are flawed human being after all. Although this paragraph deserve many more line, let me sum up by pointing that teachers shouldn't give in ourselves to system induced stress and resort to self-endangering circumstances such as use of corporal punishment that could result to legal actions against ourselves for having good intentions. 

Easier said than done, as much as we believe that every students can learn, we must take it with a pinch of salt that not every one can excel academically. 

3. Consolidating the vision

To achieve complete dismantling of corporal punishment in schools, teachers, society and education system/school adopt the nuanced paradigm shit. This article is intended to promote and advocate following paradigm shifts. 

i. Abandon linear determinism: We must recognize that learning is chaotic, multifaceted and non-linear. Teachers are only facilitators of the learning environment, not biological programmers. 

ii. Accept human constraints: Celebrate growth, progress, and beauty of difference rather uniform, elite academic output from unique brains. Hundred percent achievement of the targeted result is always expected but never guaranteed as there is usually long tail of underachievement. 

iii. Be resilient towards downward pressure: High stake accountability metrics applied based on linearized understanding of education system usually yield toxic classroom dynamics. Teacher must learn be resilient to relieve the pressure. 

iv. Professional emotion regulation: Teachers must realize that systemic induced pressure and personal expectations can  push ourselves towards dangerous emotional activity. We must be equipped to handle our emotions especially when were are overwhelmed and on extremes. Good intentions never justify harmful methods.