Yup. If a school limits itself to en masse modes of discipline, then shaming and taking recess are all that's left, neither of which is actually effective.
You know, I think it's really the same problem as the GT issue in some ways: "I'm sorry. We can't do any sort of individualized discipline. That would be too hard/expensive/unfair/much work. Instead we'll do this other thing that doesn't work well at all, but that fits within our narrow definition of what discipline should look like and that we can adminster en masse."
Substitute "education" for discipline, and it starts to sound really familiar, doesn't it?
Ugh.
Oh, and in my experience, even with kids who are rough around the edges, if you give respect to them and demand respect from them and if the expectations for classroom behavior are clear and fair, then all you have to do is give them "the look" and they straighten up 9 times out of 10. (I worked with some inner-city teens a couple of summers while I was teaching, so I know whereof I speak!) Teachers who lose control usually aren't meeting one of the conditions I listed, or else the kids just flat don't believe the teacher wants them to succeed. In my experience, these teachers are the ones who have to rely heavily on sticks and carrots.
Fair teachers who care and who both give and demand respect, well, they almost always get it.
