Discipline is a word which can be defined differently depending on the context you are in. For many, the definition of discipline that comes to mind is that of “punishment for the sake of enforcing obedience” – that’s certainly the case for me. When I was at college discipline meant getting into trouble, being sent to the principal and having to pay the price for the silly crime you committed, be it talking out of turn or answering back to a teacher. You were punished in order to become more compliant with the behaviour that was expected.
Often in a college setting there is an expectation that the teacher’s job is to discipline students, to keep them in line, to keep control of the class. While I don’t disagree with this expectation, I would question whether there is a different definition of discipline which could be brought into the classroom.
Scrolling through Facebook the other day, a different definition of discipline came up in my newsfeed, it read “Discipline: doing what you know needs to be done, even though you don’t want to do it”.
I think it is this type of discipline which should be an integral part of IFS students’ day-to-day thoughts.
Personally, I don’t do vacuuming because I want to; I do it because I know it needs to be done. I am sure many parents would agree, that they don’t do the washing and the ironing because they want to, they do it because it needs to be done.
What I would love is for all IFS students to want to complete their projects and want to train everyday to become better footballers and tennis players. At the very least, I would encourage students to take on the definition of discipline above and “do what they know needs to be done, even though they don’t want to do it”.
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