Research On Kant’s Educational Punishment Thought

As a negative way of education,educational punishment has always occupied a significant place in the controversial topic of education.With the newly-released of the National Educational Punishment Rules for Primary and Secondary Schools,now it has re-entered the public’s field of vision,causing a hot discussion among the public.Though,the problem of educational punishment has been formed for a while,a reasonable solution cannot be accomplished in an action.Therefore,the theoretical discussion and reflection in practice is urgent demanded.To investigate the issue of educational punishment,from the perspective of Kant’s pedagogy,is of great theoretical value and practical significance.The formation of Kant’s educational punishment thought has been influenced by many factors.The "re-examination" of "rationality" in the late Enlightenment directly triggered Kant’s reflection and criticism of "rationality";Leibniz-Wolff school’s philosophy and the human nature thought had a profound impact on Kant’s philosophy;enlightened family education,godly school’s moral concept,and the sharp contrast between repressed middle school experience and free university life,contributed to the formation of his educational punishment thought.Kant’s educational punishment thought has a profound philosophical foundation.His educational thought is consistent with his critical philosophy system in essence,in which the concepts of "freedom","obligation" and "morality" provide the ideological source for his educational punishment thought.Kant divided education into "natural education",aiming at physical nurturing activities,and "practical education",with the purpose of shaping free actors,and put forward relevant educational punishment thoughts on this basis.Referring to the "natural education",Kant considered that the natural consequence law is the best way of punishment in the early stage of children’s physical upbringing.As for"practical education",Kant adopted the strategy of discussion in stages,and held that children,in the childhood stage,should be exposed under the discipline of external norms as early as possible.To cultivate their ability to act according to the rules through both natural punishment and moral punishment.Meanwhile,children,in the adolescence stage,should be formed the perception and recognition of the rational law.To lead them understand the rights and obligations of people through examples and regulations,gradually guide them from heteronomy to self-discipline,and realize the ultimate complete development of human natureIn this paper,on the basis of the Kant’s educational punishment thought,several enlightenments have been concluded.Firstly,the aim of educational punishment is to cultivate moral people,which requires teachers to clarify punishment purpose,and the joint efforts of teachers and students.In educational punishment,we should regard the perfection of each child’s moral character as the goal,thus to truly show our concern for the shaping of children’s moral personality.Then,the divisions of education punishment should be cautious treated,and much attention should be paid to the complexity and vulnerability of children’s moral personality growth during the complement of education punishment.Thirdly,when dealing with the relationship between punishment and freedom,we should strive to achieve the unity and coordination of these two.With the consideration of embodiment of freedom in punishment,educators should,in an inspiration and guidance manner,let children realize that real freedom is based on the restrict of rationality and morality.Finally,we should pay attention to the stages and levels in the implementation process of educational punishment,resulting in a fact that corresponding educational punishment start from family education,run through the whole process of children’s education,so as to realize the educational purpose of cultivating people by virtue step by step.