Ball And Chain To Force Children To Study

You haven't tried everything to get your kids to study until you've tried the Study Ball. The Study Ball is a 21-pound prison-style device that locks onto your child's leg and only unlocks after a predetermined amount of study time has passed. The homework manacles can't be locked for more than four hours, and come with a safety key. The product website states, "Quite often, students who are having problems concentrating tend to get up every ten minutes to watch TV, talk on the phone, take something out of the fridge, and a long list of other distractions. Were they to dedicate all this wasted time to studying, they would optimise their performance and have more free time available. Study Ball helps you study more and more efficiently." Stop Teasing Your Brother Pepper Spray coming soon.

Comments

Laughably Medieval

[eldavojohn]

Make the act of studying have a negative association with it in the child's mind. That way when they depend on themselves to learn things later in life, they'll be reminded of your horrible freedom inhibiting imprisonment technique.

This should work exactly as well as physically abusing your child when he or she does something wrong. That way when they are faced with conflict later in life, they follow in your steps and resort to violence.

Oh, by the way, 9.5 kg (21 pounds)!? What kid is that going to inhibit? I was walking up and down fields picking up rocks heavier than that by the time I was in grade school! If that stops your kid from moving, you've got other parenting problems to worry about ... or is this just about wearing a red letter 'A' around so everyone knows you should be studying right now?

Were they to dedicate all this wasted time to studying, they would optimise their performance and have more free time available.

Not always true. Read this article.

Re:Laughably Medieval

[Anonymous Coward]

Make the act of studying have a negative association with it in the child's mind. That way when they depend on themselves to learn things later in life, they'll be reminded of your horrible freedom inhibiting imprisonment technique.

Actually, this is why I still resent my 3rd grade teacher, one of only two people in my life that I still hold some sort of grudge against. Not only did she practice collective punishment for the actions of a single student, but her favored form of punishment was extra homework, and she didn't assign homework on the weekends because she didn't want to "ruin" our weekends.

It was the first time in my childhood that I was introduced to the idea that homework wasn't fun. What a great life lesson, huh? I wonder what kinds of things I might have accomplished later in life if I hadn't had the joy of studying drained out of me at that age.

Re:Laughably Medieval

[eldavojohn]

Make the act of studying have a negative association with it in the child's mind. That way when they depend on themselves to learn things later in life, they'll be reminded of your horrible freedom inhibiting imprisonment technique.

This should work exactly as well as physically abusing your child when he or she does something wrong. That way when they are faced with conflict later in life, they follow in your steps and resort to violence.

Utter BS. I was physically punished when I did not do well in school by my mother in the beginning until I became an A student. Later in life I graduated college Magna cum laude and did my Ph.D.

The older I get the more thankful I get to my mother for those lessons.

You can claim other negative effects of corporal punishment later in life, but that particular effect you wrote about is complete nonsense.

Ah, the magna cum laude doctor cites an anecdote of their own personal experience and considers my point rendered complete nonsense. I bow to your supreme intelligence, my lord.

So I assume you beat your child when he or she does poorly at school?

Nowhere did I say that corporal punishment leads to violence 100% of the time or that it has no positive effects. You could be a straight A student and still physically attack your opponents. Not that child psychology is a solid science but I think studies support my argument (there's more than just that).

Re:Laughably Medieval

[mosb1000]

I've never met a person who was a PHD, or who had straight A's that didn't have a personality disorder of some kind. Something has to be wrong with anyone who would be willing to put up with that much bs for that many years for almost no reason at all. It says something about your priorities.

Re:Laughably Medieval

[Anrego]

In this debate people always assume corporal punishment means beating the daylight out of your kids.

I`m also in the same boat as mapkinase. If I didn't do homework (my parents never demanded I get straight A's .. but I had to at least be putting in reasonable effort) I'd get punished. As it turned out, this method worked very effectively.. and I did very well in school.. and now have a great job/life.

And despite what various extremist think-of-the-children types will say.. I`m not some seething bottle of rage who has flashbacks of getting yelled at and attacks people at random as a result.

The problem is that people try to think of kids as little adults when they are in fact just kids. You can't always reason with a kid.. because they don't have the same ability to weigh options that adults do (I know when I was a kid I sure didn't). A little negative re-enforcement (do something wrong.. get punished) is sometimes the best way.

And I truly believe that kids today have more problems as a result of being treated as fragile ornaments who will be screwed up for the rest of their life if you even look at them in a menacing way.

Re:Laughably Medieval

[Fallingcow]

So? I've never met a person who didn't have a personality disorder of some sort.

It's so true. A big part of getting to know someone isn't figuring out whether they're fucked up in the head, but how.

That goes double for getting to know yourself.

Re:Laughably Medieval

[amilo100]

Not only did she practice collective punishment for the actions of a single student,
Collective punishment is a bad thing. But in a large way teachers are forced to do this because they are backed into a corner. There is simply no way to punish a problem child â" the best thing you can do is to phone their parents. But the sad fact is that the parents did not raise the child with discipline and that is why it is the teachers' problem.
Some teachers try to do the collective punishment so that the other kids resent the guilty kid. This is extremely bad and it can completely alienate an already problemed child.
In my experience children usually form strong relationships with a strict but fair teacher. They quickly see a strict teacher as a father figure. Maybe this is just in my country where most people often grow up without a father figure.

I wonder what kinds of things I might have accomplished later in life if I hadn't had the joy of studying drained out of me at that age.

The right way is to have negative reinforcement at the very bottom and positive reinforcement above that. It is sad when I see people who screwed up their life and limited their opportunities just because they couldn't be bothered to do their homework.

Re:Laughably Medieval

[JCSoRocks]

I absolutely agree. I've spent years working with middle school and high school aged kids. Without a doubt, the kids with parents that don't believe in punishing them have zero self discipline. I honestly feel sorry for them. At times they know they're not making the right choice but they just don't have the discipline to do what they know they should.

People that pamper their children are doing them a disservice. Don't get me wrong - You should absolutely love and care for your kids, but part of that is teaching them some self control.

Re:Laughably Medieval

[Runaway1956]

Branding all corporal punishment as "abuse" is totally moronic. The ills our society suffers today are due more to permissiveness and lack of responsibility than any imagined affects of "abuse". There are any number of individuals in history who suffered genuine abuse, who went on to become famous. Does Alexander Graham ring any bells?

The individual who can use corporal punishment as an effective teaching tool is far superior to either the child abuser, OR the child "protector". Both the abuser and the overly protective idiot harm the child.

The magna cum laude you mock has most definitely put things into perspective, and found that a swat on the ass now and then is beneficial for irresponsible children. Prove him wrong, if you can.

Re:C'mon Fess up.

[Malenx]

Most parenting techniques these days are stupid. It's about spineless parents who can't say no to a child.

My Dad used to spank me with a belt if I acted up too much. But situations like studying, I'd just start losing all privileges until I was bored out of my mind. Give that a few months and you'll study just to be entertained.

When he did spank us, he'd send us to our rooms until he could calm down and think about it. Usually 1/2 hourish later he'd have us come in and talk about what we'd done. Then he'd have us pick a belt. His belts were arranged by thickness and hardness. If you picked too pansy of a belt then he'd make you get this thick huge rhine-stone covered cowboy belt that hurt like crazy. If you picked a heavier belt, you'd usually get off with less punishment.

Man, I didn't realize my dad was doing psychological warfare until I was twenty.

Oddly enough, I think he did the best he could, and the fact that he's never hit us while angry or unfairly made me really respect that form of punishment.

It wouldn't work for every kid, and I hope I'll never need any kind of punishment for my future kids like that, but for me it was probably the only punishment they could do. (ADD incarnate)