Another area where cultural differences show themselves frequently. Since the "children" at Hammer and Dela's house are ages 13 and up, most of my experience of this topic comes from the correction and punishment of the kids at school.
I learned today (February 1) one thing that apparently does not show up in disciplining children at home. The teacher decided that the kindergartners needed to be able to introduce themselves, so she was having them come to the front of the class and tell their whole name. They worked long ago on asking for and giving their first name (in fact, for several weeks it was the only thing they knew how to say to me, so I had to answer that question hundreds of times a day. I started telling them that my name was one of the other kids in the class, which they found uproariously funny), and they recognize their whole name, because the teacher calls the roll each morning using that. However, many of them had a hard time giving their whole name. As they struggled, I thought that their mothers must not have done like many American ones, calling a child by first, middle, and last name when they were in trouble. "Chris Janine Moore, you get in here right now!" Or maybe they're so well-behaved that they don't hear that, but I doubt it.
Just another aside--here, as in many places other than the US, one gives one's last name first. That makes it quite difficult for me, because the last names here are long with lots of syllables, so it's hard for me to tell when one is over and I'm hearing the first name.
School discipline falls into two categories: behavior towards others and school performance. The preferred punishments differ according to the category. On the playground or in class, if a teacher witnesses misbehavior, he (most of the teachers are men; only the kindergarten and the first-grade teachers are women) calls out, "Hey!" That alone usually puts a stop to unruly actions. He may tell the children involved to go sit under the tree or somewhere else. If a child comes up to a teacher complaining of another child's improper behavior (and I'm afraid that we Americans would consider these children terrible tattle-tales, because they tell on each other a lot), the teacher sends that child to find the miscreant and bring him or her to him. And they do! The teacher listens to both sides of the story, and the misbehaver gets his punishment: frequently, he or she is told to draw a circle in the dirt and stand there until the teacher says he can move. Another punishment might be to pick up the leaves on the playground until the teacher says the child can stop and go back to playing. I am always amazed because it works.
School performance punishment usually involves "le bâton" (the switch). Even the older kids can be at the receiving end of it. Usually, the inattentive or unprepared student receives a swat on the palm of the hand. More serious offenses merit a swat on each hand. If the child withholds his hand or withdraws it at the last minute, the swats increase in number or severity. In the middle school, there may be only one baton--today (February 2), for example, a student from another grade came to the 7th grade class to collect it. Then, once the French teacher and I had moved on to the 8th grade, he sent a student to go collect it so that he could use it on someone. That student behaved more as I would expect: he came back saying he couldn't find it. If the bâton is not handy, the French teacher may use his knuckles on a student's head to get his point across.
In kindergarten, the students may get the bâton or a thump on the head if they are not paying attention or if they can't recite the lesson, which, it is assumed, is the result of inattention on the part of the students. Occasionally, they are shamed or taunted for their poor academic performance. Tata will repeat what the student said or did and ask the children if that was the right answer. She will go on to ask if it is good to do as the student did. Occasionally, she gives an order which I still can't decipher, and all of the kids leave their chairs, swarm around the unsuccessful student with their backs turned to him or her. They clutch their buttocks and bend over as if they are passing gas or defecating. After a few seconds, the teacher sends them back to their places. Recently, when one of the students offered several unsuccessful attempts to count to 8, the teacher started a chant with the rest of the class: "Tu ne sais pas compter. Apprends à compter!" (You don't know how to count. Learn to count!)
Of those punishments, only sending the child to sit under the tree or to pick up leaves would probably be acceptable in an American school. And, certainly, punishing a child for not knowing an answer would not happen. However, I occasionally wonder about that. I would think that the children here would learn that they have a job to do while they are in school. They need to pay attention and try to remember the information so that they can answer correctly.
Occasionally I have had occasion to deal with misbehaving children. I have to admit that it is only in the past two weeks or so that I have had any kind of success with that. Even now, it is only the kindergartners who will obey me.
At first, every child I tried to correct thought that it was a huge joke. I suspect that the language barrier played a role in that. Although school is conducted in French, my French sounds different from the local variety, so it must have been akin to Charlie Brown's teacher. Especially as I would get frustrated when they didn't obey. One day I was trying to keep children out of the kindergarten class during the lunch hour. We had a couple of students napping and older kids were coming in to play with the toys. I ended up closing and locking the doors of the church from the inside to keep them out. Another day, there was a group of girls (3rd to 5th grade, perhaps) sitting on the edge of the baptistry, which is outdoors above ground. I told them to leave, as I had heard Dela and others do so in earlier days. They would go away briefly and then return. I began to get angry because then the kindergartners began trying to climb up and sit on the edge. The next time the group of girls ran away, one left her uniform shirt behind, so I picked it up and told the girls that I was going to talk to the director about their behavior. They followed me, begging for me to return the shirt and not speak to the director, but I continued. I explained the situation to the director and told him that what was most upsetting to me was that the girls seemed to think they did not have to do what I had told them. He assured me that he would handle it, gathered all the girls together, gave them a talking to, and put them to work picking up leaves.
I expect that many of the older kids still would disobey me, but I have made some progress on keeping the kindergartners in line. Occasionally the teacher will leave the room. If it's just to make copies, I don't usually do much of anything, but if it stretches to longer than 3 or 4 minutes, the kids start getting out of their chairs and running around. I could even handle that--they are, after all, little and active. Invariably, though, a physical altercation breaks out or someone falls. One day there were about six children crying because of that. I can't seem to make them see that, if they would obey the rules they wouldn't get hurt. So on that day, I grabbed the switch and started using it, telling people to sit. And swatting them if they didn't do so immediately. So then I had kids crying because of that. However, they finally settled down. I think the really effective action was swatting my favorite little guy when he deliberately did something I had told him not to do. It broke my heart, but hat quieted them all and they tend to act as they are supposed to now--as long as I have the switch! Teddy Roosevelt was right!
No comments:
Post a Comment