INTRODUCTION:

The human child is the most vulnerable amongst the kids of all animals. While the kids of many other animals start taking independent leads of life soon hours or days after birth the human child needs a lot of time (say, moths and years to reach different significant mile stones of life. Besides the biological cycle of growth, the life cycle of the human child/being is also influenced by the need for it to be a social/cultural being. At home, as Parsons would make us believe, the atmosphere is that of a world which nurtures the child. The world view of the child are particularistic¹; i.e. they hover around the comfort needs of the child. He/she remains the centre of his/her world where others are perceived by him as beings who are there to protect and nurture him/her. The

mother being the most important or prime human being in his/her life, is the first and foremost significant other. With himself/herself as the centre of life and the mother being the prime teacher who introduces him/her to the external world, the human child gradually learns how to react not only to natural stimuli but also to the stimuli received from fellow human beings. The primary socialization of the learner thus begins at home. Thus what we call education, in fact, starts at home. Rather as psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar would put it, the learning of the Indian persona starts at the human womb and ends at the funeral pyre². To make it more clear, However, as the human child grows further, his need of orientation to the world changes. His sphere of interaction moves from home to play group and to the school which is there as a grand bridge that prepares him/her to enter the bigger/intimidating and all encompassing and all-impinging society that exists there in its own right. The movement from home to school is in fact a journey from the narrow, comforting and particularistic sphere of the private home to that of a world which calls for universalism, discipline, morality and life-skills to cope with. A Durheimian viewpoint would thus place school in a perspective where it is seen as fulfilling the function of preparing a child for a particular occupation and bequeath to him or her the core collective/mutually shared values that are essential for the continuity of the community or collectivity³ The school is viewed as the most potent social institution for providing this function as it is a link between highly impersonal, universalistic nature of operation of the society and the personal, emotional orientation of the family environment. The end of education, Durkheim would argue, is to build up the “social being” in each individual of the society(Ibid. P.72).

The Quadrant of Self Control, Discipline, Punishment and Morality:

Durkheim would see education as an agency that equips the child with self control and enable him contain his ego in his journey towards attainment of higher social ends. Durkheim regards the child’s mind as raw as that of a subject of hypnosis. He can be led through examples as imitating others is one of the most likely features of a child. Besides, the teacher is an elder- superior in both experience cultural repertoire. According to Durkheim, both teachers and parents have to be consistent and vigilant in their behaviour and speech in front of the children. He does not believe that child can be influenced through violent reprimands.

Now the question that arises is whether the self control in the learner is to emerge out of physical struggle for survival or should self restraint be used by the child on moral grounds? Durkheim prefers the later. He sees the child as too young to face the odd realities of life and then develop self control without risking his existence. A functionalist like Durkheim would rather like the child to be taught self control before he faces the tough realities of life so that he faces no real danger. Durkheim, here, assigns a still greater role for the teacher. It is more so because the child has to display self control not because of coercion by the elder, i.e. the teacher. He has to do it on moral grounds. It is through the moral authority that the teacher can impress upon the conscience of the people. And, it is worthwhile to mention here that such moral authority of the teacher does not contain either the elements of violence or that of repression.⁴ Needless to mention, the source of the teacher’s authority does not emanate from the fear of punishment on the part of the student. What is important note in a Durkheimian paradigm is that even the punishment is regarded as moral only when the students subjected to it regard it at just and the teacher/elder exercising it as legitimate⁵. What then is the function of punishment? The function of punishment, Durkheim would argue, is to instil in the mind of the child the inviolability, indispensability and the sacrosanct nature of rule of the school- that they must not be violated at any cost. Discipline must not suffer. Any violation of discipline is bound to cause disturbances in the consistency of the pupil’s behaviour. Should we say yes to corporal punishment? Durkheim would unambiguously and vociferously oppose corporal punishment as a mode of bringing in discipline. Corporal punishment, is a token of the defeat of moral authority- it is so to say- a moral handicap⁶.

While Durkheim has dealt the four quadrants of self control, discipline, punishment and morality in a very detailed manner, Sri Aurobindo, the Indian philosopher has also very precisely talked about moral education and discipline. In his scheme of holistic education Sri Aurobindo has given a cardinal space to what one calls moral education. Sri Aurobindo, nevertheless, is very loud and clear while advocating that moral education cannot be taught to any body through any curriculum or syllabus. He regards such exercises as a mere display⁷. Moral Textbooks, may cause something in the direction of morality but the thinking generated would be by and large mechanical and artificial, and would thus be non-durable. What is required for moral education, according to him is the training in the three dimensions of emotions, the formed habits and associations(samskaras) and the nature (swabhava) of human beings. Thus the pupils need to be trained/oriented with the habit of right emotions. He should be provided the appropriate environment to associate with good people(satsanga) and to inculcate right kind of physical, mental and emotional habits. He has in turn to convert these right habbits to right actions⁸. Discipline in the classroom cannot be maintained through the imposition of codified rules The best way of imparting moral education is by way of leading through personal example⁹.

It is worthwhile to mention here that teaching of religious dogmas by themselves to the children does not make them moral. Religious teaching is of no value, he says, unless it is lived.

METHODOLOGY:

With the above theoretical inputs in mind the researcher went on for empirical studies at two select schools in Sambalpur city of Odisha. One of the schools was a government School while the other was a private School. Class VIII was choosen for the Study. Questionnaires were administered to parents and teachers of both the schools for collecting data on the best way of disciplining students and for imparting moral education. Besides, in depth interviews of both parents and teachers were taken on these issues.

The most efficient way of disciplining the students:

The teachers and parents were administered questionnaires as to what is the most efficient way of disciplining the students. They had to choose from four options: reprimand, mild beating, elders leading by example, sending out of class and calling the erring student’s parents to school.

The Private High School:

This is run in line with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s philosophy. Questionnaire administered to the teachers revealed that of the twenty teachers administered the questionnaire, 65% of the teachers believed that discipline could best be imparted by leading a disciplined life oneself while 20% suggested that it could best be done by reprimanding them). But 5% of the teachers still believed in mild beating. The percentage of teachers who will like the student causing indiscipline in the class to send out of the class till the end of the period. 5% on the other hand preferred to call the parent of the unruly parent to school. It has taken into consideration the views of 60 parents (mostly fathers) As compared to the 5% teachers who thought that discipline can be best maintained through mild beating, 20% of the parents perceived it as an efficient mechanism. On the other hand, only 50% of the guardians out of a total of 60 believed that discipline can best be maintained by elders leading by example themselves. What it implies is that the teachers are a little bit more sensitized in this matter vis-à-vis the parents. The reasons can be many. While the contribution of the teacher training course is one such source of teacher sensitization, the govt. circular banning corporal punishment is another source. Besides, for the teachers of private school in particular, the Saturday seminars that discuss Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s discourses are a major source of sensitization as regards ways of disciplining the students. Both of them strictly advised against punishment and advised the elders to lead by examples. In the course of the in depth interviews conducted by the researcher the teachers who supported corporal punishment put forward the argument that for the unruly students self discipline of the teacher is seen as a weakness. Reprimand has very negligible effect and sending them outside the class is just a fun for them. As reported by a teacher, parents these days, if asked to come to school for appraising them of the indiscipline of their children, question the competency of the teachers saying it is the job of teachers to maintain discipline at schools, not the parents’. The teacher expresses her helplessness while handling an unruly boy with whom no reprimand or sense of morality of the teacher worked. It was very difficult to deal with such unruly students in the face of banning of corporal punishment, she said on conditions of anonymity. The version of the teacher is also corroborated by the data which says that rather than coming to school for their wards’ indiscipline more parents prefer them to be mildly beaten. One to one interaction with parents also revealed certain reasons why some of them prefer a mild beating of the ward than coming to school for attending to behaviours of their wards. As Bibekji, the father of a student laments, the children of this generation are too smart to listen to elders and they need mild physical punishment to be disciplined.

The same view is echoed by Raghunathji when he says that he does not mind his ward being given a mild beating so long as it did not affect him physically and mentally. He too concludes that the onus of maintaining discipline at the school is that of the teacher and not of the patients.

In the Govt. High School:

In a questionnaire administered to 14 teachers and 60 parents, majority of both the teachers and the parents were of the view that this could be best done by elders themselves as being self disciplined and providing for the role for emulation. Unlike in the private school, where more percentage of teachers supported this view than the parents we see the opposite trend here. 42% of parents as against 35.71% of teachers hold this view in the government school. More importantly, the percentage of parents supporting (as many as 23% of parents) mild beating as the most effective way of maintaining discipline is substantially high as compared to both teachers and parents in the private school and teachers of the govt. high School ( 7.14%). However, reprimand as the second best option gets sway both among the teachers and parents at both the schools. In the govt. school ‘sending the rowdy elements out of the classroom till a class is over’ is seen as the least appreciable mechanism of maintaining discipline by both the teachers and the parents. Brajakishoreji, a parent , for instance prefers mild beating to his son as a form of punishment rather than sending him out of the classroom. He regards sending the student out of the class as a scope practically for enjoyment to the pupil rather than a form of punishment.

Imparting Moral Education: The Best Way to Go For Another aspect that one wants to know is, regarding the teachers’ and the parental views on the most effective way of imparting moral education.

The Private School:

Majority of the teachers (70% off a total of 20 teachers) and the parents (41.67% out of a total of 60 parents) converged on the idea that the best way of imparting moral education is by way of the elders leading themselves by examples. The biggest divergence between the two group of elders (teachers and parents) is seen in the efficacy of the reading of religious texts in imparting moral education. Only 5% of the teachers as against 25% of the parents of the parents believed in the effectiveness of this method. What is remarkable, however, is the fact that only 5% of the respondents of each category believed in the effectiveness of any kind of prescribed textbook on morality. As Sureshji, a parent says, morality cannot be learnt from a prescribed textbook since it is neither a skill nor a subject like mathematics which has a formula that can be read from the textbook.

Chart-1

One can also look at Madhabji’s ( a parent) reply on why he feels that moral education could best be imparted best by reading of religious texts. As she would argue, every religion has some good points offered towards the benefit of human kind and there is a need to to impart moral education from scriptures.

Rajani Ma’am, a teacher in the school, nearly agrees with the above view but slightly differs as well. She opines that it is wrong to assume that morality is something that binds/ties us. She advocates for celebration of religious festivals of different religious groups as each of them has some message for morality

However, the majority of the teachers and parents viewed that ‘leading a life of discipline oneself and setting in the process a role model to be followed by the student’ is the best bet for imparting moral education.

Imparting Moral Education : Views from the Govt. School

Out of sample of 14 teachers and of 6o parents who were administered the questionnaire, 42.86% teachers and 33.33% parents viewed that moral education could best be imparted by the elders by way of living moral life themselves. Another important point one discovers from Chart 2 is almost one third of the parents also hold the view that moral education can best be instilled in the minds of the pupils by way of offering them stories from the lives of great people.

Chart-2

Prescribed morality texts on the hand are believed by few teachers and parents to be able to impart moral education. Celebrating religious festivals of different religions as a means of imparting moral education is viewed by very small share of teachers and parents as an effective mode. As Sudamji, a parent says:

Students may enjoy cheerfully in the celebration of religious festivals but it may be too much to expect that such celebrations will educate them in moral education. I think, we can do it better by inspiring the students telllingthe stoies of great men and women.

Pradyumna Sir, a teacher on the other hand believes,

All religions have their scriptures giving moral lessons of different hues. But their moral lessons have one aim- the welfare of mankind. Why cannot we read a selection of those texts to motivate the students for moral education?

One trend is common in both the schools- the efficacy of any specific text prescribed as morality textbook is ruled out by most teachers and parents.

CONCLUSION:

There is a near unanimity of scholars like Dewey¹⁰, Tagore¹¹, Durkheim¹² regarding the quintessence of discipline in the classroom/school. One finding that is encouraging is that very few teachers in both the government and the private school have supported corporal punishment as a means of bringing in discipline. However, several parents of both kinds of school still feel that a mild beating, without affecting the physical and mental health of the children is required for instilling a sense of discipline. Another inspiring thing is that a substantial fraction amongst the teachers and parents regarded that morality can best be imparted by way of elders leading through personal example.

REFERENCES:

1. Parsons, T. The School Class as a Social System: Some of its Functions in American Society. In Shukla S. C and Kumar et al(eds.) Sociological Perspectives in Education Chanakya. Delhi.1985. PP. 50-75

2. Kakar, S.1978. The Inner World: A Psycho-analytic Study of Childhood and Society India. Oxford University Press. Delhi.1980

3. Durkheim, E. Education and Sociology, The Free Press. New York.1956.

4. Durkheim, E. Moral Education: A Study in the Theory and Application of the Sociology of Education. The Free Press. New York.1962

5. Ibid

6. Ibid. P. 183

7. Shri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on Education.Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry.1956. p.27.

8. Ibid. p.28

9. Ibid.

10. Dewey J. Experience and Education. Macmillan. New York.1938

11. Tagore R N. A Poet’s School in Elmhirst, L.K. (ed.) Rabindra Nath Tagore, A Pioneer in Education. Sahitya Chayana. New Delhi.1994

12. Durkheim E. 1956. Op.CIT

Received on 18.11.2018 Modified on 16.12.2018

Int. J. Rev. and Res. Social Sci. 2019; 7(1):199-203.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2687.2019.00013.3