Much has been said on discipline. The adage, ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ is old. Now no question of rod (cane) for teachers. Govt. has recently banned physical corporal punishment in schools. As charity begins from home, similarly discipline begins from home. In schools there are rules for observing by which children will be disciplined. What is discipline? It is a kind of behaviour which each child has to exhibit. Untoward behaviour of children (even High school and college students) is very harmful. Incidents of students killing their classmates or school-mates, even their teachers or professors are a common phenomenon now-a-days.

So from the very beginning of the school days, children should abide by the rules. A teacher in the contrary should fully comprehend the rules. Some of these rules are noted below:

(1) Behaviour expected of children should be known by them. It is important that the teacher tell the children how they would behave and what types of behaviour is expected from them.

(2) Children should be told why rules are in effect. Even if children cannot fully understand the reason for behaviour in certain way, they must be told the reasons why they should behave as expected at the situations. This means how they behave in the class, in the play ground, in the mid-day meals, even in school bus.

(3) Child should have opportunity to observe and practice proper behaviour. Simply telling children how to behave is not enough. They need demonstrations from teachers for the types of behaviour for different situations. The teacher practically demonstrate such baheviour by dramatics, by story telling or by his own behaviour. Here teacher will be role model and in the home parents will be role models. Parents who use to see T.V. for  3 to 4 hours daily, can not stop their children from watching T.V.

(4) The behaviour expected from children should be possible for them. Children are not miniature adults and cannot behave like adults. This theory is outdated when 300 years back children were deemed as miniature adults. Children are growing beings and have to pass different stages of development before they reach adulthood.

(5) Children cannot be always expected to behave properly at all times. To err is human, so always in all situations proper behaviour cannot be expected from them. If they fail, the teacher should remind them, not rebuke them.

(6) Teachers should behave consistently. Consistency means without change. Teacher’s behaviour is not only model to children but also it communicates a message to the children about what is acceptable and appropriate and what is not.

Behaviour plays a great role in  people’s life and such behaviour is learnt from the very beginning- more in schools and less in homes. Value of discipline can not be overemphasized. Research Findings have shown that disciplined  children are well up in mathematics and science. Nobody likes wayward children, even the society does not need them. Then why not make our children disciplined  ?