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investigation motivation

not long ago, the "opinions of the cpc central committee and the state council on carrying forward the spirit of educators and strengthening the construction of a high-quality and professional teacher team in the new era" (hereinafter referred to as the "opinions") was issued. the "opinions" clearly stated that "teachers' educational and disciplinary rights should be maintained, and teachers should be supported to actively discipline. schools and relevant departments should ensure that teachers perform their educational duties in accordance with the law." this clear statement has aroused social attention and heated discussions.

a head teacher of a primary school in beijing recently called to say that in teaching practice, many teachers dare not punish students who violate rules and disciplines. if they are too strict, it may be considered corporal punishment and may even be complained by parents. "where is the boundary of the right to punish?" the head teacher asked. she hoped that with the release of the "opinion", "protecting teachers' right to educate and punish" can be truly implemented.

"is this li mu (pseudonym)'s mother? hello, li mu cheated in the final exam."

at the end of june this year, beijing resident zhang wei (pseudonym) received a call from her child's class teacher. her heart sank: this is not a small problem. when zhang wei wanted to ask the teacher to deal with it seriously and punish the child appropriately, the teacher sighed and said, "what do you think we should do?"

faced with this question, zhang wei was also stunned. she realized that this matter was related to the basic integrity of being a person, and the child should be punished, but the child was indeed young and psychologically fragile. during the conversation, zhang wei also heard the teacher's implicit meaning: if the child is punished, will the parents accept it and will they have any objections?

in a recent interview, the head teacher told the legal daily reporter that when faced with children who violate rules and regulations, teachers definitely want to give appropriate punishments in a timely manner, which is not only conducive to teaching order, but also beneficial to the healthy growth of children. however, teachers often have many concerns, and "some parents do not agree and have complained to teachers."

"when we were young, we were severely criticized and punished by teachers, and because of this we deeply realized our mistakes. why are some teachers afraid to 'manage' children now?" during the interview, many parents in beijing, jiangsu, anhui and other places raised questions, saying that if their children made mistakes and violated school rules and regulations, they hope that teachers can give their children appropriate punishment in time.

so, where is the problem and how to solve it?

it is difficult to grasp the degree of punishment

want to "manage" but dare not "manage"

a teacher named zhao has been working at a primary school in tianjin for more than a year. she told reporters that when she first started working, a teacher who had been in the job for many years reminded her not to be too strict with the children. previously, a colleague criticized a student who did something wrong and his tone was a bit harsh, which resulted in complaints from parents. in the end, the teacher was also criticized by the school leaders.

teacher xue from a middle school in suzhou, anhui province, is a teacher with more than ten years of rich teaching experience. she has her own set of methods to deal with students who do not abide by classroom discipline and are difficult to manage, such as sitting down with students and chatting and talking with them face to face. when she encounters students who are really difficult to manage, she will give appropriate criticism, but basically will not punish students by making them stand in the corner, because "i am not sure where the scale and boundary of punishment are."

"punishment may lead to some unforeseen situations. if teachers do not grasp the intensity and method of punishment well, it may cause conflicts between home and school and may also cause harm to teachers." teacher huang from a primary school in guangzhou, guangdong said that some parents cannot bear to see their children suffer any "grievances" at school, which is also one of the common obstacles for teachers to exercise their right to punish.

many teachers interviewed said that individual students' feelings vary greatly, and if the degree of punishment is not carefully grasped, it may have a negative impact on students and teachers. "i want to 'manage' but i dare not 'manage'." a teacher said frankly that the loss of the right to punish may lead to a distortion of the relationship between teachers and students, and campus bullying cannot be stopped in a timely and effective manner. in some schools, students even beat teachers.

cai hailong, deputy director of the institute of education policy and law at capital normal university, believes that from the perspective of individual teachers, exercising the right to discipline will cause a lot of "trouble", including dealing with students' psychological pressure and stressful behaviors, coping with possible conflicts between teachers and students and conflicts between families and schools, etc. in addition, if teachers' behavior involves improper discipline, they may also be subject to teacher ethics sanctions and other forms of internal handling by the school; in serious cases, they will bear legal responsibility.

"because the current rules on educational punishment are not perfect enough, their applicability and operability need to be further enhanced, and they cannot provide teachers with due norms and guidance for implementing educational punishment, some teachers will feel at a loss as to whether to punish or how to punish," said cai hailong.

in the view of chu zhaohui, a researcher at the chinese academy of educational sciences, some teachers "dare not and cannot manage" because the relationship between responsibilities and powers between some local relevant departments and schools is not smooth. "front-line teachers have too many chores to take care of, and their educational rights are difficult to exercise effectively, resulting in 'their words have no say' and they do not have enough energy to 'manage'."

parents have different levels of acceptance

“difficult to manage” and “poorly managed”

the recently issued "opinions of the central committee of the communist party of china and the state council on promoting the spirit of educators and strengthening the construction of a high-quality and professional teacher team in the new era" (hereinafter referred to as the "opinions") clearly stated that teachers' right to educational punishment should be maintained, and teachers should be supported to actively discipline. in fact, the "rules on educational punishment in primary and secondary schools (trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "rules") implemented on march 1, 2021 have made it clear that primary and secondary school teachers can use a variety of educational punishment methods. at the same time, it also draws "forbidden zones" and "red lines" for the right to punish, gives students and parents the right to appeal, and emphasizes the importance of home-school cooperation.

with relevant regulations as a "backbone", why do some teachers still say that they are "difficult to manage" or "cannot manage well" in teaching practice?

teacher wang, a chinese teacher at a primary school in beijing, expressed his confusion: if reasonable disciplinary actions cause students' physical and mental safety problems, should teachers be held responsible? if "suspending or restricting students from participating in group activities" causes adolescent students to rebel or act radically, how should teachers deal with it?

ma hui, a teacher at a school in beijing, raised a question of general concern to the public, namely: the difficulty of educational punishment lies in the lack of a fixed scale for punishment, different parents have different degrees of acceptance of punishment, and what teachers see as punishment may be corporal punishment in the eyes of parents. "can punishment and corporal punishment be specifically regulated through objective description?"

another teacher told the reporter that the "rules" stipulate that necessary punishments can be imposed on "deliberate failure to complete teaching tasks or disobeying education and management", but the word "deliberate" is difficult to define and can easily cause disputes between teachers and parents. common situations include disputes caused by parents arbitrarily exempting their children from homework.

in this regard, cai hailong believes that this is mainly because the current standards of educational punishment are still not clear enough.

"the rules mainly adopt an enumerative approach to the educational and disciplinary measures that schools and teachers can take. among the listed disciplinary measures, some types are clear in meaning and easy to implement, such as naming and criticizing, ordering written reviews, etc. there are also some that are unclear in meaning or difficult to implement, such as additional teaching tasks or class public service tasks, standing in the corner for less than one class hour, suspension or suspension of classes for no more than one week, etc. there are also some types of disciplinary measures, such as guidance, admonition, teaching, and discipline, which have no clear provisions on their meaning and form, leaving schools and teachers with a large amount of choice and discretion, and it is easy to create loopholes or unclear explanations during the implementation process." cai hailong said.

yao jinju, a professor at the law school of beijing foreign studies university, told reporters that it is unrealistic to require the "rules" to regulate everything in detail as a regulation of the ministry of education. the key point is to pay attention to the popularization of concepts and whether schools have implemented the educational punishment rules and whether they have been specific in school rules and regulations.

yao jinju pointed out that article 20 of the "rules" clearly stipulates that local governments can formulate implementation rules based on local conditions, or guide schools to formulate implementation rules, "so the focus still depends on the schools themselves to implement them."

yao jinju also said that more attention should be paid to the communication and coordination between parents and schools on the issue of punishment. "after the students are dealt with appropriately, i think parents should be informed as soon as possible, and attention should be paid to the students' psychological state to form a kind of coordination."

professor cheng fangping of renmin university of china suggested that teachers can clarify specific boundaries by refining case interpretation. "we should not shy away from some problems in education. we should record and analyze these cases, and clarify when it is the teacher's responsibility and when it is the student's problem. this will help teachers to manage education and even punish students."

full cooperation between home, school and society

provide specific regulatory guidance

after the "opinion" was released, many netizens expressed their opinion that "the power of punishment should be returned to teachers", which represents the respect of the entire society for the teaching profession.

in this regard, the experts interviewed pointed out that if we want to truly play a good role in educational punishment, it is far from enough to rely on teachers alone. we must establish and improve the implementation, supervision and relief mechanisms of educational punishment in the process of exploration, so that schools and teachers can use, dare to use and use educational punishment with caution, and let parents and society understand, support and cooperate with the education and management of schools and teachers, and jointly achieve the goal of cultivating morality and building people.

yao jinju told reporters that the "opinion" reaffirms teachers' right to disciplinary action in education and strengthens teachers' responsibility to manage education. "this is very important" and aims to further strengthen the implementation of education management rules. "for example, the "opinion" clearly mentions 'maintaining and supporting', which is an encouragement for teachers to exercise their rights and has positive significance for the actual situation."

in cai hailong's view, the government should actively promote the introduction of relevant implementation rules and supporting documents, further improve the normative system of educational punishment, and provide more operational norms and guidance for teachers to implement educational punishment; schools should provide support and guarantee for teachers to implement educational punishment through institutional and cultural construction, and at the same time supervise teachers to implement educational punishment in accordance with the law to ensure that the power of educational punishment is not abused; from the perspective of family and society, we should cultivate scientific educational concepts, correctly recognize the important role of punishment in cultivating students' sound personality, support, understand and cooperate with the educational management of schools and teachers, and achieve the goal of cultivating morality and building people through coordination and cooperation between home, school and society.

yao jinju said that in order to achieve better results in teacher punishment, it is important to promote the integration of school education and family education. in addition to the existing parent classes, parent meetings, and parent committees, a mechanism for communication between parents can also be established to create a positive energy among parents and work together to do a good job in student education.

cheng fangping believes that in order to build trust between schools and parents, in addition to sincere communication between both parties, it is also necessary to improve the comprehensive qualities of teachers, strengthen pre-service training of teachers, and cultivate insight into student problems and the wisdom to resolve conflicts as a very important quality of teachers.

it is worth noting that there is only a fine line between discipline and corporal punishment. teachers need to grasp the degree and principles in the actual exercise of normal educational discipline rights. the "rules" clearly state that the implementation of educational discipline should comply with the laws of education, focus on the effect of educating people, follow the principle of rule of law, and be objective and fair. in the process of education and teaching management and the implementation of educational discipline, teachers shall not use corporal punishment that directly causes physical pain by hitting, stabbing, etc.; stand in the corner for more than the normal limit, copy repeatedly, force students to do uncomfortable movements or postures; insult or infringe on students' personal dignity with discriminatory and insulting words and deeds.

chu zhaohui said: "the purpose of punishment is education, and non-educational behavior is not within the scope of punishment. the right to punish should be used according to the actual situation of teachers and students. different teachers have different educational wisdom and their degree of control is also different. if other methods can be used to solve students' problems, there is no need to use punishment."