PUNISHMENT and REWARD. – Punishment is the chastisement or penalty inflicted for the violation of a duty. Reward is the recognition of a service rendered or of a duty fulfilled.
When studied from the perspective of their educational value, both present certain characteristics that converge towards an inner harmony.
a) They respond, in fact, to a requirement of human nature itself, which feels a keen need to see the concepts of good and evil, of law and arbitrariness, of virtue and vice, of justice and injustice, effectively translated into practice through the positive or negative sanction that accompanies and represents them. If we give a person what pleases them, they are easily led to do our will; if we threaten them with what displeases them, we instil fear and they are more readily deterred from what they might otherwise wish to do, though to their own detriment.
b) Yet punishment and reward must not signify merely a pleasant or unpleasant sensation, as if they were a fine or a wage, for otherwise punishment would be to evil and reward to good merely as an addition, a chronological succession, and the person would not see in them the effect of their own conduct and action so much as the effect of an external will seeking to impose itself. For punishment and reward to assume their true educational value, they must be like the external expression of the inner state of our spirit when we do evil or perform good: punishment becomes a symbol of our inner diminishment or impoverishment; reward a symbol of our inner enrichment. In this way, punishment and reward guide us to discover the values of the spirit, bring to light the dishonour and dignity of conscience, and lead to an awareness of our own inner happiness, which flows from good, with the honour and approval bestowed by others outside ourselves, and conversely to an awareness of our own inner diminishment or cowardice, which stems from evil, with the disapproval and hostility encountered outside ourselves.
c) Reward spurs us on to good and to our own perfection (how often a simple word of understanding or praise brightens the monotony of the day and drives us to work with greater diligence and inner commitment!); punishment is a restraint, a check, a call to order (how often a father’s stern glance or a mother’s furtive tear glimpsed at the corner of her eye has set a life back on the right path!). Punishment and reward are highly effective means of awakening latent energies and transforming an entire existence.
d) Finally, reward is a kind of glorification that comes from without to add to our inner satisfaction and to highlight the effort made; punishment is an expiation and a purification, a deprivation of what is licit for having first touched what is illicit.
These four fundamental characteristics must harmoniously generate the educational act in its entirety; it will then be the educator’s prudence, studying the character of the one being educated, to apportion punishments and rewards in practice according to a certain gradation, now appealing to one motive and now to another.
I. PUNISHMENT.
1. Why punish
Punishment is a requirement of justice, which demands that evil be met with its due penalty and that the one being educated recognise that they deserve it if they transgress their duty; it is therefore a means that serves to correct, amend, and set right. It will thus be good in itself when inflicted with this spirit and disposed towards it; when it is so arranged as to be morally salutary without being physically harmful; when the educator is not dominated by personal feelings of resentment. Otherwise, it will lead to various evils, quite common in education.First among these is the sentimental approach, which under the pretext of a misguided delicacy leads many educators to become, in reality, slaves to their own comfort and indolence. Never or almost never punishing is not always a sign of mildness, but merely a convenient letting things take their course so as to avoid trouble or conflict; education that claims to be all mind and concentrates on saying, “This will be the last time” or “Next time you misbehave, I really will punish you,” reveals that one does not understand one’s own responsibilities or human nature.
Secondly, many think they are good educators only if they know how to punish. But punishment is a medicine, and one cannot live on medicine alone. Thus, the issue is not so much punishment as a brute fact, but rather knowing how to punish as an act of intelligent and reflective spirit. It can also happen that one punishes not for virtue, but with defect. For just as one can punish virtuously out of duty, so too can one refrain from punishing out of virtue. Yet in this case, refraining from punishment must clearly appear as an act of courtesy, forgiveness, or love that engages the heart of the one being educated to become better, and not as an act of weakness on the part of the educator or a victory for the guilty party who has known how to persist, weave excuses, whine, and use this as a pretext for amendment (do we not often hear: “If I ask for forgiveness, I avoid punishment”).
2. How to punish
Punishments can be physical or moral, depending on whether a corporal or moral chastisement is inflicted. Excessive physical punishments that harm the body must not be used, for they not only humiliate but irritate, and ultimately prove inadequate to the end of education; they have too little hold on the inner person and rely entirely on fear. Yet some physical punishments are not always or entirely to be condemned: “He who spares the rod hates his son” (Prov. 13:24) and “The rod and reproof give wisdom” (Prov. 29:15), as Scripture observes. The one being educated has many hedonistic impulses and inclinations, does many things merely for the pleasant sensation they bring, and avoids or neglects many others because of the pain or effort they entail; it is therefore good to make them practically aware that by failing in their duty they expose themselves to the loss of a pleasurable sensation or to a feeling of discomfort.Nevertheless, moral punishments are always to be preferred: warnings, verbal or gestural reproaches, through a glance or silence, etc., for in these lies the living seed of individual improvement, namely shame, remorse, disappointment, and regret for the wrong done. Moreover, punishment must be taken as a starting point, not an endpoint; it should serve for the early years, when sensitivity and indolence predominate in the one being educated, to prevent the formation of dangerous habits, while awaiting the awakening of intelligence and conscience, the feelings of dignity, esteem, and altruism that will provide valuable support; indeed, one should strive to awaken these as soon as possible and strengthen them as much as possible.
Some other guidelines help to keep punishment within its proper limits:
a) Punish the one being educated only when they truly deserve it; otherwise, a deep aversion will arise in their heart towards the educator, whose influence will thus lose all efficacy.
b) Do not punish in moments of anger, passion, or selfish resentment, for this leads to no improvement (one might say, for example: “Today the teacher is on edge”; “Something has gone wrong for him,” etc.). The one being educated must instead understand that if the educator punishes, they do so with regret and out of a sense of duty, and that it is the latter who forces them to resort to this means.
c) Punishment must be the ultima ratio, when other means prove insufficient.
Punishment can breed indifference and even a certain harmful pride. d) Punishment must be proportionate to the fault—neither too severe nor too lenient. Just as undeserved punishment wounds the pupil’s conscience, so disproportionate punishment distorts it, leading him to regard a minor fault as grave or a serious one as trivial. The gravity of the fault must be judged by the pupil’s age and understanding, and by the educator’s examination of conscience to see whether his methods, impulsiveness, or conduct may have caused or at least contributed to the fault.
e) Punishment that is humiliating, laced with insults or sarcasm, or based on physical defects, hereditary weaknesses, or family shortcomings is likewise outside the realm of sound pedagogy. Such treatment embitters the pupil and exposes him to ridicule among his peers, undermining the moral education and compassion that are among humanity’s dearest affections.
f) Punishment must be impartial; favoritism and preferences have no place, especially when grounded in the pupil’s social standing or family influence. Favoritism breeds resentment, envy, and sometimes outright rebellion against the educator.
g) Once punishment has been administered, it should be seen as concluded. The educator must avoid harboring grudges, harping on the past, or heaping fresh reproaches on the pupil; otherwise the pupil will conclude, “They’re picking on me!” and the punishment’s efficacy is lost, breeding only pernicious obstinacy.
II. REWARDS
3. Why reward
Reward, like punishment, is a requirement of justice and of human nature itself, which demands that just as evil merits chastisement, so good merits reward. In the moral sphere, reward embodies the principle of positive sanction: it stimulates and reinforces the pupil’s inclinations, arouses emulation, sustains effort amid the monotony and distractions of daily life, awakens hope of gratifying recognition, fosters ambition for esteem and good repute, prepares one for competition, sharpens the deployment of one’s abilities, and spurs one to overcome setbacks without succumbing to paralyzing discouragement or depression.Critics argue that rewards can foster vanity, selfishness, and self-satisfaction, breeding an insatiable craving for display, publicity, and honors—leading almost inevitably to deception and trickery in the pursuit of primacy, success, or advancement, even at the expense of others. Yet this portrait, however psychologically vivid and sadly confirmed by experience, does not contradict the reasons for using rewards; indeed, it harmonizes with them. Moreover, within the broader framework of a total education, there are norms designed precisely to curb such tendencies and impulses that could lead to deviation. Even the passion for recognition must be educated to stay within proper bounds and avoid trespassing into injustice. Abuse must not prejudice or destroy proper use, and victory must be learned to be borne with naturalness and simplicity, without ridiculous boasting or ostentatious displays.
Others dismiss rewards as unjustified because “they falsify the ethical ends inherent in spiritual activity and thus amount to a genuine corruption... To accustom the young to look outside themselves for a goal whose attainment does not depend entirely on them... is to replace in their souls the certainty of an intrinsic and abiding worth with the uncertainty of a prize, in whose light life may gain value” (G. Gentile, op. cit. in bibliography, pp. 56–57). Leaving the philosophical and theological resolution of this moral question to those disciplines, we observe:
a) Christian doctrine does not grant the individual that self-sufficiency which would enclose him in himself as an absolute or regard himself as absolute. Instead, it situates him in relation to God—distinct from, transcendent over, and perfectly good—who justly rewards good and punishes evil “not arbitrarily or capriciously, in a childish externalism, but as a consequence bound to the spiritual state the subject has voluntarily embraced and formed... To place oneself within the order and harmony willed by God cannot and must not be frustrated by ultimate failure; rather, it will logically entail providential reward, while failure will entail its just penalty” (D. Bassi, op. cit. in bibliography, p. 203).
b) Education, which is not merely theory but practice, cannot ignore the inclinations of human nature. Interest is an instinctive drive that, though easily corrupted, can and does operate for good and for personal and social efficacy. Morality cannot be isolated from the complex interplay of forces, motives, and tones that constitute the human person. Extrinsic motives—including the interest that reward embodies—could and should prepare the formation of conscience, initiating a movement that gradually ascends toward ever nobler ends—what may be called moral and spiritual interests. Yet at bottom the question of happiness remains: whether one wills it or not, it is the supreme interest of every individual.
4. How to reward
For a reward to have its full educational value, it must be used according to the following guidelines:a) The reward should not be regarded merely as recognition of the result achieved; more important than the result itself is the energy expended and the individual effort of good will.
b) The purpose of the reward is not only to compensate the pupil for the good done, but rather to keep him on the path of goodness, strengthening him in it more and more and better and better.
c) To reinforce in the pupil the conviction that the best reward, the noblest and most consoling, must always be the approval and contentment of his own conscience.
d) Rewards should not be distributed too frequently, for then they will be received with indifference and lose their edge.
e) Even praise, which in a certain sense represents the most perfect reward, must be used sparingly, perfectly measured and proportioned to the merit that produces it, especially when given in the presence of others. Excessive ease or indiscriminate use of praise empties it of all its efficacy, gives the educational effort a cloying, saccharine tone that can easily foster insincerity, hypocrisy, and pride.
f) Above all, care must be taken that the pupil does not consider the reward as the principal motive for the effort he makes to act well. The reward may be enjoyed as a recognition and support for progress in one’s own improvement; one may aspire to it; but at the same time, one’s spirit must be tempered by duty, and the will strengthened, so as to behave well even if the reward should for any reason be withheld.
g) Those who are not rewarded should not feel envy, but emulation; all should always rejoice sincerely and wholeheartedly in the triumph of others; and consider in their rewards not so much the effect as the cause that produced it, namely, application, study, and effort. Thus the reward will become an object of noble emulation, and the demoralizing, paralyzing envy will cease.
PUNTA ARENAS, DIOCESE OF — View of P. A.