Spare the rod, find a solution

With recent instances of corporal punishment stirring up a hornet���s nest, the issue has hit a raw nerve. While it is true that corporal punishment cannot be used as a means to enforce discipline in a civilised society, there are questions that, perhaps, need to be addressed.
How do you handle a classroom when you have 70 students to take care of? Even one rowdy or disobedient student can cause enough disruption to ruin a class.In such cases what are the ���classroom guidelines��� that a teacher should go by?
Most educators feel that punishment and discipline doesn���t go hand-in-hand. Instead, it can be achieved by re-enforcing positive qualities in children.
To start with, Lilly Vishwanathan, advocacy manager, project on corporal punishment, Plan India, feels that there is a need to foster a primarily pro-active attitude, empathy from teachers, encouragement techniques and so on ��� both at the adult level and in adult-student relations.
However, most teachers admit that initially they warn students, but when things get out of hand, they are forced to take ���action.���
Monika Chopra, a PGT in chemistry from N C Jindal School, Punjabi Bagh, says, ���We have a system where we write a note for parents in students��� diaries. Once the student gets three remarks in his/her diary, the parents are called. They, along with the teacher, talk to the child and arrive at a solution.���
Sharing an instance of good practices, Chopra cites an example of a class IX student, ���This child was indisciplined and never followed instructions in class. We could figure out that he had a strong desire for stage and public speaking. So, we made him the class monitor as well as the house prefect. This worked and we saw a marked improvement in his behaviour and academic performance.���
On the other hand, Deepak Dahiya, a teacher with the Delhi Government School, Roop Nagar, says punishment may be necessary. He says, ���I do believe in punishing students to ensure discipline, but one should know where to draw the line. Since our students are first generation learners, we have to teach them everything ��� behavioural issues, discipline and learning.��� He adds, ���But once I have punished them, I use various therapies to help the child understand why I punished him, so that he doesn���t repeat it again.���