They were quite open about the fact that what they were teaching us didn’t match the rest of the course, but they said that they were trying to give us the realistic tactics we needed to teach, rather than just the theory.
Once I started teaching, the same thing applied really – the people in charge of the school – the Principal and other people who hadn’t been in a classroom in twenty years all took the line that bad behaviour was a sign of a bad teacher, and that punishment should be avoided. But those teachers still teaching used it when they felt it was needed – and by doing so, managed to use it as little as possible. You don’t avoid using it a lot by trying to never use it at all. You avoid using it a lot by using it quickly and decisively before a small problem becomes a big one.
