On a Culture of Punishment

Today is January 14th, which has been designated Blogging Against Aversives Day in support of those attending a hearing regarding the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center and those who put in the valuable work to get the Massachusetts legislature to hear four bills against this Center.

"The facility, which calls itself a "special needs school," takes in all kinds of troubled kids—severely autistic, mentally retarded, schizophrenic, bipolar, emotionally disturbed—and attempts to change their behavior with a complex system of rewards and punishments, including painful electric shocks to the torso and limbs. Of the 234 current residents, about half are wired to receive shocks, including some as young as nine or ten."

As an animal lover and a person who has trained dogs, horses, and even a few cats and rats, my first reaction to those sentences from the Mother Jones article is to wonder exactly why their system needs to be so complex- or, rather, why the administration of this center thinks it does.

Let me elaborate. Let's say that I have just acquired a biting dog with some possible neurological problems. It's safe to say that if a dog in this situation has a home, it's lucky, and that it's probably on its last chance to learn to behave in a socially acceptable manner. Similarly, the JRC paints itself as a last-ditch effort to modify behavior of extremely troubled children who have not been successful in other behavioral intervention programs. However, the consequences of my new dog's failure to learn to behave itself are far more final: A dog that bites repeatedly is put down, often by Animal Control following a court order. It is arguable that the fate awaiting a human who continues to behave aggressively could be worse- prison- but the death penalty is given only to a small percentage of human repeat offenders. The dog will not have more chances to modify its behavior in its lifetime. The human likely will continue to live, and thus continue to have opportunities to change.

It makes sense that, in saving my biting dog from euthanasia, I would want to use every possible method of education, correct? After all, if the dog bites again, I don't get another chance to train it- it gets put to sleep. Are we on the same page?

Now, here's where the direct comparison comes in. I would not use a complex system of rewards and punishments no matter what the consequences. In animal training, the more complexity there is, the more opportunities for failure there are. You set animals up for success in training- not offer them a thousand windows for failure.

In fact, I would use one, very simple, system of rewards and negative punishment. I would use clicker training, a method developed from dolphin training in which a marker signal is used to signify that a behavior was correct and will be rewarded. If necessary, I could utilize this system from outside the room to remotely reward signs of calm and submissive behavior. The only punishment is negative- if necessary, I subtract a reward from the situation. For example, my biting dog is playing nicely with a guest when suddenly he growls playfully. I instruct my guest to turn her back and ignore the dog for 30 seconds. The dog's actions were punished not by a shock collar, not by a beating, but by the very simple subtraction of the play and attention he was receiving from my guest. When my guest counts 30 seconds and turns back around, the dog is rewarded with play, and gets a click and a treat for rolling over on his back submissively. Simple, right?

So why would you need a complex system of rewards and punishments for children, when hundreds of thousands of animal trainers worldwide have experienced results with possibly the most simple behavioral modification system ever conceived- Clicker Training. You click the box and give a treat when the animal does something right. I successfully taught my seven year old niece (using a marker signal and rewards) to train her Chihuahua using a marker signal and rewards. How much easier does it have to be before the punishment advocates see the light?

Aversives are part of everyday life. If I am clumsy as I walk around the corner, I stub my toe. If I am rude to a coworker, she avoids me for the rest of the day. But, as Karen Pryor says...

"In general, all that we learn from the inevitable aversives in daily life is to avoid them if we can."

Avoid the teachers.

Avoid the professionals who are tasked with protecting your safety.

Avoid them because they are the ones who administer shocks and punishments.

Even when you are being abused- physically, emotionally, sexually.

Because, more than likely, the teachers are the ones abusing you.

Just avoid them- you're on your own.


....Is that what we want to teach children with behavioral problems?