Does the word discipline in schools need to be changed?
I bought Patton on Leadership for my brother a couple of Christmas ago and I recently was flicking through it and one or two articles caught my attention. Patton for those who don't know him was regarded of one of the better generals of the WW2, a strict disciplinarian and tactical genius who was noted for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
This book attempts to relate some of the maxims of Patton into a corporate business environment. Topics such as leadership, planning, decision making are covered well in it but the articles on discipline within the army have some interesting notes for education.
He was well known for being very strict on little things such as dress code (for example that all his men would wear clean shirt and tie when not on the front line) as he felt that if they did not feel part of a team, they would not succeed as one. Uniform helped to enforce that sense of belonging. More interesting was what he equated discipline with. To Patton discipline equaled Obedience - where obeying orders without question were drilled into his men. To which he got the nickname "old Blood and Guts"( his men's blood and his guts).
The American army has changed its outlook in demanding obedience as they have seen than proper man management techniques as professed in corporate America achieve better results rather than blind obedience. Even the words discipline and Obedience is been modified in the lexicon of the average GI's as seen as recent events in Iraq. Yet Patton rewarded soldiers for disobeying direct orders but achieving their goal by their own means with reducing the risk of death at the same time.
Corporate America look at ways of achieving the goal without the iron rod of discipline yet schools have still stuck to the out moded "people management model" reminiscent of before Patton's time. Even the word discipline has military sigma to it.
People Management skills in the classroom anyone ?
I bought Patton on Leadership for my brother a couple of Christmas ago and I recently was flicking through it and one or two articles caught my attention. Patton for those who don't know him was regarded of one of the better generals of the WW2, a strict disciplinarian and tactical genius who was noted for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
This book attempts to relate some of the maxims of Patton into a corporate business environment. Topics such as leadership, planning, decision making are covered well in it but the articles on discipline within the army have some interesting notes for education.
He was well known for being very strict on little things such as dress code (for example that all his men would wear clean shirt and tie when not on the front line) as he felt that if they did not feel part of a team, they would not succeed as one. Uniform helped to enforce that sense of belonging. More interesting was what he equated discipline with. To Patton discipline equaled Obedience - where obeying orders without question were drilled into his men. To which he got the nickname "old Blood and Guts"( his men's blood and his guts).
The American army has changed its outlook in demanding obedience as they have seen than proper man management techniques as professed in corporate America achieve better results rather than blind obedience. Even the words discipline and Obedience is been modified in the lexicon of the average GI's as seen as recent events in Iraq. Yet Patton rewarded soldiers for disobeying direct orders but achieving their goal by their own means with reducing the risk of death at the same time.
Corporate America look at ways of achieving the goal without the iron rod of discipline yet schools have still stuck to the out moded "people management model" reminiscent of before Patton's time. Even the word discipline has military sigma to it.
People Management skills in the classroom anyone ?
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