Classroom Teachers Students Discipline Behavior Past School Sit

Classroom "discipline" (ways of controlling behavior by rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior) has changed a lot over time. In the past, teachers used "humiliation" (making people feel embarrassed) and "pain" (physical suffering) to discipline students who were "misbehaving" (behaving poorly; not doing what one is supposed to do). For example, in the past, a teacher would make a student sit or stand at the front of the classroom while wearing a "dunce cap," or a pointed hat made from a piece of paper. In the past, teachers could also tell a student to hold out his or her hand with the "palm" (the soft, inside part of a hand) facing upwards and then "slap" (hit hard) it with a ruler several times.

"Nowadays" (in modern times), teachers are much less likely to use humiliation as a discipline technique and they almost never "inflict" (cause) physical suffering on students. Instead, students who misbehave might be sent to the "principal's" (the leader or manager of a school) office or to "detention" (a period when the student must sit quietly in a special classroom and/or do homework while other students are enjoying their lunch, recess, or free time after school). Teachers might call the student's parents for a "parent-teacher conference" (a meeting where teachers discuss a student's academic progress and behavior with the parents).

If a student continues to misbehave, he or she might be "suspended" (not allowed to go to school for a period of time) or "expelled" (never allowed to go to that school again). These punishments are "reserved" (used only for) "serious" (major; important) "infractions" (violations) of the rules, such as bringing a weapon to school or "otherwise" (in some other way) creating an "unsafe" (dangerous) situation for other students and teachers.