That's a Lap
By DW Davis
@DWDavis (25797)
United States
December 10, 2018 5:26pm CST
Teachers in the US these days have very few options when it comes to giving consequences to a student who will not behave and follow the rules. This is catastrophically true in public schools, and one of the reasons I left public education.
Even at the private school where I teach at now, we are limited in options when it comes to discipline. One of the few things we can do, and that the parents have little success in stopping, is giving the students laps to walk around the soccer field during recess if they misbehave in class.
The contract the parents sign makes it very clear that recess only means the child will get a chance to go outside in the fresh air, weather permitting, for twenty minutes a day for a chance to stretch their legs and get some exercise. Walking laps around the soccer field fulfills this requirement.
For most of the students, avoiding having to spend recess walking laps while their classmates get to play is incentive enough to curb their talk and keep them on task. There are always those one or two in a class who just don't get it. They complain about having to do the laps, but cannot comprehend that it is their own fault they have to do the laps.
My students rarely argue with me when they get a lap. They know I don't give laps lightly and for every little thing. If I give them a lap, they know they deserve it.
Honestly, as dangerous as playground equipment tends to be, and as often as I've seen kids get hurt playing kickball, soccer, or touch football, I'd just as soon have them walking laps at recess as doing almost anything else.
Do you think having the kids spend part of recess walking laps is a good way to try and keep them behaving in class?
17 people like this
20 responses
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Dec 18
You should just go back to beating them upside the head with your ruler! haha
A much worse penalty than walking laps would be cutting down their lunch time, or making them sit by themselves at lunch while all their friends get to eat and socialize together.
But I still like the ruler option!
6 people like this
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
11 Dec 18
@moffittjc It's actually the secretary/receptionist who winds up having to watch the kid, and she doesn't play.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Dec 18
@DWDavis Is that a penalty for the kid, or a penalty for the principal? LOL
1 person likes this
@shaggin (74987)
• United States
11 Dec 18
I was so hyper and couldn’t behave if I had ADHD medication I think I could have been a very different student.
On another note I hated going out at recess in the cold weather so I got myself detention every day so I could stay inside. Just enough bad behavior to get the detention but not enough to get in bigger trouble then that.
2 people like this
@shaggin (74987)
• United States
11 Dec 18
@DWDavis my daughter hated recess so she would ask if she could stay inside to work on her homework and reports etc and the teacher would let her and thought she was so studious and she really just hated recess lol she is very studious though. She has a 98 average in 9th grade.
2 people like this
@Tina30219 (82978)
• Onaway, Michigan
11 Dec 18
I think it is better than what some schools done when Inwas in middle school a teacher I had if you was late he would make you hold your ha d out and he smacked it with a yardstick he broke many. I like this idea and it gets in some as one of my daughters teachers would say you need to go outside and get some vitamin D.
1 person likes this
@Tina30219 (82978)
• Onaway, Michigan
11 Dec 18
@DWDavis I was one of the lucky ones I was a good girl never got paddled in school.
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
11 Dec 18
@Tina30219 I was paddled twice. Once in 5th grade by a substitute who handed out bubble gum to the class and then paddled us for chewing it. He was fired and blacklisted from ever subbing in the district again. The second time in 6th grade for admitting I was one of the boys who threw paper airplanes while the teacher was out even though she said anyone who confessed wouldn't get punished.
@wolfgirl569 (135847)
• Marion, Ohio
11 Dec 18
I had no problem with my kids being stood in a corner,sitting in the class room during recess or sent out to the hall. They would have loved that by comparison. At least they would have got some fresh air.
2 people like this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
11 Dec 18
@DWDavis that's probably good overall. My husband was sick a lot for his s first two years of school and said that both teachers put him in corners with s dunce had on. I sometimes wonder whether he really had to wear that hat or was just so mortified being in the corner so much that his mind went there by association. Before his story I thought those were only in cartoons.
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
11 Dec 18
@just4him My boys both understood from an early age that their mother and I were in charge and that carried over to their teachers, coaches, and Scout leaders. We didn't pound it into them or anything, so I don't know why or how it worked so well. If I did, I would sell the secret and make a fortune.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11134)
• United Kingdom
11 Dec 18
It's a good form of punishment until they all start wanting to do it. Some of the repeat offenders may have a reason for doing it, as with the comment above about the daughter not liking break/play- times {as we call it over here!}
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
11 Dec 18
Yes, they must learn discipline and that there are consequences for actions. You don't do that now and they will be horrible adults.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
11 Dec 18
If it works for your classes I have no problem with it. What at grades do you work with?
@Elizaby (6902)
• Pensacola, Florida
11 Dec 18
Since most forms of real discipline have been taken out of the schools Teen crime has grown and they wonder why
@andriaperry (118793)
• Anniston, Alabama
11 Dec 18
I think they need to walk anyways, kids do not get exercise anymore.
@Jeanniemaries (8237)
• United States
11 Dec 18
I had a fifth grade teacher that did that. Not during recess though.... but anyone who acted up in class was sent immediately to run to the fence and back. The fence was quite a distance away across a large field. You had to run, not walk. I only remember having to do it once.
