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When I was in CE1, the mistress had invented a singular punishment: rather than sending the children dissipated to the corner, she ordered them to go “to the niche”, that is to say under her office, truly between her legs. We had all the time to observe these comrades relegated to the mistress skirts – mostly boys -, since the office was on the platform, near our children’s eyes. They spent a part of the morning, continuing discreetly their undermining business through grimaces and other clowneries from the “niche”. If the goal of the maneuver was desexcitation, it was missed. Sometimes also, when stupidity was deemed serious, the teacher resorted to the spanking quoted in front of the class. (I specify that it was a public school, thirty-five years ago.)
Today, it seems incredibly to me that no pupil’s parent complained at the time of what was clearly similar to humiliations, and which would now be punished by law ( spanking has been prohibited since 2019 ). Perhaps there were complaints of which I have not been informed. This testifies, in any case, the extraordinary evolution of the relationship to the physical integrity of children, but also to punishment.
I know that the teacher of my daughter, herself in CE1, excludes from her classroom those who are too turbulent. They stay in front of the door while they have understood that their actions embarrassed the collective. Unlike the “niche”, it seems to me that it is a healthy and reasoned interpretation of the famous “at the corner!”, The alpha and the omega of generations of teachers and parents.
A symbolic chair
In English -speaking countries, the corner is a method theorized under the name of “Time Out” – in French, “dead time”. Parents will easily find explanatory guides online in their implementation, step by step: warn the child he will be punished; Punish it if it does not stop, putting it on a chair symbolizing the time out for a given time; Do not speak to him during this period; extend this period if he goes down from his chair; put an end to punishment; Ensure that he understood the stake. In the United States, where parenting science has been institutionalized for decades, we go so far as to specify the number of minutes of exclusion according to age. In France, where we can still hope, from time to time, be an empirical and approximate parent, the “corner” is subject to various interpretations of place, name and duration (“we take the opportunity to drink a p ‘Share as long as we are quiet? Come on! “).
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