Writing Lines Exploring The Tedious Yet Creative Punishment

Teachers need a calm environment to do their job. Many try to get their students to have fun while learning, but some students can be disruptive, break the rules, and need some disciplinary measures enacted. After more severe forms of punishment were declared too extreme and cruel, writing lines became popular.

But writing lines also came with its own unpleasant qualities. This strategy exposed students to long bouts of monotony and frustration. Ideally, it inspired children to not misbehave again. Sometimes, though, it instead sparked their creativity. If they had to face this punishment, some students found a way to make it fun – or even speed up the process. Did you ever need to write lines? Did you try similar strategies?

If you have to write lines, it might as well be fun

With each successive year of schooling, classes are supposed to teach more sophisticated methods of problem-solving. Ultimately, even some punishments made people think creatively too. For example, one earnest writer on Medium shared his experience with writing lines. Looking at his background, A.G. definitely has the basis for a mind that thinks creatively and critically. So, his approach makes a lot of sense.

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After gaining the teacher’s ire, A.G. would have to write lines, such as the phrase “I will follow the rules.” The amount of times depends on the teacher. But it was never an easy task. When confronted with this punishment, A.G. found the typical way of writing to be boring. He hated the method of writing the line fully first, then a second time fully, then a third, and so on. So, instead, he mixed it up. Maybe that involved writing “I will” all the way down the page, then putting ” follow the” after each of those. Or he might write random words around the page here or there until everything was filled in. Ultimately, these approaches helped make line writing less of the repetitive nightmare it usually was.

Or you can speed the process up all together

Six-year-old Isabella Collier faced a similar situation as A.G. She too needed to write lines, her phrase being “I will make better choices.” Similarly, she took a unique approach that involved writing down the page. But she sped the process up even further with one simple observation. Many letters had lines that could be drawn all the way down the page. For example, “I” could be completed for the whole page with one stroke of the pencil. Other letters provided similar opportunities to a lesser but still helpful extent.

The image went viral through a friend of Isabella’s mother. The family friend captioned the image, “My friend’s kid is going places.” And, really, that’s probably true. That’s a smart observation by Isabella and probably saved her wrist a lot of aching. Writing lines is a less aggressive punishment than some used in the past. But it still takes a toll on the hand and mind. These creative shortcuts help get through the monotony while hopefully still teaching an important lesson about behaving in the classroom. It is, after all, still crucial to get a quality education and to not disturb others wanting the same.

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We couldn’t leave this article without showing some of Bart’s Best Chalkboard Lines! My personal favorite is “Underwear should be worn on the inside,” at the 2:00 mark of this compilation. Enjoy and try not to laugh too hard! 🙂