You get a call from your child's principal stating that he/she was not at detention for some sort of rule breaking. Had you known about the rule breaking (of course your child did not tell you) you would have made sure that your little brat was there for detention. Now he or she is being suspended and you have to take off work.
Here is the idea. Arm educators with paintball guns with a balls that are color-coded to a rule infraction sheet. Example: A student forgets his/her homework...bam he/she is hit with a green paint mark squarely in the chest. Talking back to the teacher...whack hit in the buttocks with a red paint ball. Caught cheating...thwack, right in the gut with a black paintball.
Consequences: 1. The student would receive an immediate negative (pain) reinforcement. Discipline and order would increase. 2. Teacher/parent communication of issues would increase. As soon as Johnny showed up at the door looking like a rainbow his mum would know how his day had gone. 3. Student would bear the scarlett / purple / green blot which could be akin to the stocks of yesteryear, and thus serve as a visable reminder of the rules and consequences for others. 4. The educator would be able to release his/her frustration on the source.
The paintball ink would be washable, but the redmark would remain for about a week. I know, this sounds like cruelty and abuse; however, I contend that a moment of pain and consequently learning from one's mistake could save that person and others of a lifetime of misery from a moment of lack of self control, delayed gratification, poor judgement, and/or discipline.
The headmaster would also be armed with a paintgun as well for rogue teachers.-- Monty6, Jun 16 2004 Of course you'd have to bring back corporal punishment in schools first. Couldn't the teacher just phone the parents?
A comment specifically added to say 'no comment?' That's very zen of you [Zanzibar].-- harderthanjesus, Jun 17 2004 While I love paintball, and know firsthand the frustration teachers feel with disruptive students, I have to vote no. The use of paintball guns in a school environment would force everyone, the good students included, to don protective eyewear.
That said, I have no problem with corporal punishment in schools. Just be 100% sure that you can apply it selectively.
[harderthanjesus]: Just call the parents? Unlikely to make a difference. You'll probably get as much grief from them as you do from the problem student.-- Guncrazy, Jun 17 2004 Calling parents = bad idea. A lot of times, kids learn this crap at home. It's much more immediate to just thwack the kid with something.
I don't like the paint idea, just because of its permanence - even acrylic, which is waterbased, can stain clothes pretty well. If the kid gets in trouble at 8:00 AM, his or her clothes are ruined by noon.
Also, no problem here with corporal punishment - it didn't work with me, although it did give me something to bitch about on slow days.
I'm positive on the idea of a public mark of infraction, but negative on the implementation. Overall, neutral.
EDIT: Saw your change to make the ink washable, and to incorporate a police system for the teachers. Now it's a plus.-- shapu, Jun 17 2004 There will never be discipline in classrooms (at least not to the extent that learning is enhanced) from the outset. The teacher in me knows that every year there are fewer buzzwords to draw back students' attention and there is less differentiation among kids. One reason my lecture isn't so compelling to generation less is that these kids can't relate empathetically to 'your parents', 'our culture', 'what really matters', or 'we can agree on what we see'. It's very sad, but society isn't evolving from a sound inside.-- dpsyplc, Jun 17 2004 I like it, with one change, the paintballs are a little smaller so they don't welt so badly, but sting on impact. there are also beebee sized paint pellets.-- dentworth, Jun 17 2004 Spray all the kids with a substance (urea?) that reacts to a specific wavelength of light by forming bubbles ... then start teaching. First to wiggle in a seat and **zap**: "Blown away"-- dpsyplc, Jun 18 2004 [scout]: No, good teachers don't need corporal punishment. They've made their futures and already get a paycheck. It's the good students who need corporal punishment.
It is impossible for good students to learn when assclown punks cannot be prevented from disrupting the class. It is not fair to those who want to learn to allow those who do not want to learn to define the educational environment.
If school attendance is to be compulsory, at least make it useful as well. If a disruptive student is hindering the learning process, he must be stopped. Beat him until he stops. Or until he is incapable of disrupting the class. Whichever.
Education is too important to allow classroom time to be wasted on touchy-feely psychological games between instructors and problem students.-- Guncrazy, Jun 19 2004 Just use TASER's. More painful, less mess, does away with incompetent teachers getting the color code wrong. Better yet, drown all children at birth. :)
All seriousness aside, I agree 100% with GC. Send that man a bedded and crowned, classic model '77!-- bobad, Jun 19 2004 bobad was never a child?
amusing that his most successful idea involves babies
[half], glad this did not involve bananas.-- po, Jun 19 2004 //negative (pain) reinforcement// umm...paintballs don't hurt that bad, which is why kids still go out and recreationally shoot each other with them. Eventually you'd have to come up with something worse, ending up back at square one: trying to decide if beating schoolkids is /is not wrong.-- echo, Jun 20 2004 Added bonus: kids would get to wear those nifty plastic science goggles all day long.-- Monty6, Feb 25 2007 My old teacher used to spray-paint kids that were in trouble. It worked for most cases, but I just changed everytime I got sprayed. That could work here. And for the pain, a hard leather vest works fine to dull paintball shots. The rich kids could probably get Kevlar though. Totally unfair.
Plus, you forget the framing aspect. This one guy used to spray kids and show a teacher. The teacher belives the guy and the victim is unlawfully incarcerated. A paintball gun smuggled in using a project could be the same in this idea.-- Shadow Phoenix, Nov 14 2007 random, halfbakery