Discipline

By Lin Stone

"Discipline is what you do for a child, 
not what you punish a child with."  
Keith Willsey.

This article may be quoted from and even reprinted without charge PROVIDED you attribute the work thusly: "As Lin Stone says on the web." No link is needed. All the people that enjoy my writings are smart. Smart people know how to find Lin Stone on the web.

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One time Keith Willsey was at a track meet when another coach advised him that one of his star athletes had been in the bathroom smoking.  With that coach still there Keith called the athlete over.  "Bill, were you smoking in the bathroom?"

Bill rushed to defend himself.  "It was only three puffs, coach.  Honest!  It wasn't even my cigarettes.  I got one that was almost finished from another guy there."

"You dummy," Keith told him.  "As a long distance runner your lungs are your most important asset.  You take on off and I'll let you know later what we are going to do about this."

After Bill took off Keith turned to the other coach who was known for his stern disciplines.  "You are probably wondering what I am going to do to Bill.  So let me tell you a little bit about him first.  His father left home years ago.  His mother could care less if he comes home or not.  When he first began running for me sometimes he would show up, and sometimes he wouldn't.

"One time when he didn't show up I went out to his house.  The front door is just a board with a string latch on it. I knocked, but nobody came.  So I went around the side of the house and knocked on his window.  His window is two boards with hinges.  I pushed the boards open and there was Bill.  His bed is a board.  The board is only half long enough and it is stuck between piles of junk that might topple over at any minute.  His knees were doubled up almost to his chest so he could get into that space to sleep.

"I yelled at him.  BILL, COME ON, LET'S GO RUNNING."

"OKAY COACH, he said, and just a few minutes later he is piling into the car with me.  There was no time in between that he could have gotten any breakfast, and nothing in his hand.  When I asked, he said he would have to scrounge for food when he got to school."

Keith paused and gazed off into the distance.  "So, how am I going to discipline a kid like this, one that's got nothing and nobody?  

"If I pull him out of the three mile race there is nobody to replace him.  Not one of the boys over there would even try.  Now if it was basketball, every one of them would jump at the chance to get in the game.  But the three miler?  No, not a chance.  Those kids don't have what it takes, and they don't want to have what it takes; as you know, there is no applause for the athlete who wins the three miler.  Nobody really cares who wins.  The long distance runner is out there because S/HE cares."

Keith turned back to the other coach.  "So, how am I going to discipline a boy like that?  I'm going to ask him to run in the mile race too, BEFORE he runs the three miler, and I'm going to do it so he can clean that smoke out of his lungs."

With his racing successes Bill has gone on since then 
to earn a full scholarship at a major university.