Discipline was wrongly taught to me

In my earlier days in school, discipline was presented as unquestioning obedience.

It was a word used to control our behavior and box us into a homogenous group with no space for divergence.

The principal focus was near the idea of being subservient kind of learner whose only duty was to accept instructions as given without room for being creative.

You could see this even in how questions were framed and how their answers were arrived at. For instance, having read a passage, a question like "Why do you think...." should not have a single answer. But you recall the teachers had a specific answer which if yours differed from it you were wrong!

Those who were seen to be disciplined were the guys who were quiet, never asking many questions, following instructions, reporting private discussions of fellow students to teachers, reporting to school in time and looking neat in full school uniform.

Disciplined students were also found active in helping teachers do their work at their homes, something with which I have a big problem.

Recently, a headteacher in my village was in big trouble for using students to offer free labor in his farm!

This idea of discipline is quite unsustainable. It is simplistic and is likely to make people susceptible to abuse (like working in the teacher's farm during school days).

I have had trouble with this kind of view of discipline because it does not fit the reality of life. It makes discipline useless when no one is watching or when you are pursuing personal goals.

Such kind of discipline will not be applicable when writing your first novel or building your house.

This matter disturbed me so much while in high school. When I got to college, I was even disturbed the more because I saw how the bent approach to discipline had left so many students in the abyss of unguarded life, frequent debauchery, shameless vacation of personal goals and bending of personal principals to fit in.

It was the reason why when I wrote the book, The Smart Student Guide, in 2013, I sought to define this concept to the high school students for whom the book was written.

"A disciplined student knows their motivation. They have internal drive to do what is right, under supervision or otherwise. With this intrinsic motivation, they are always willing to face discomfort if that is the only way to achieve beautiful results. Also, they are never willing to bend their principles. It is better to change your friends because of your principles than changing your principles because of your friends." (Erick Arwa, The Smart Student Guide, Aura Publishers, 2013, pp 44).

Without self-discipline, you will easily be distracted by noise. Noise may be unworthy conflicts (from friends, family and acquaintances), irrelevant philosophies (over-the-counter ideologies that don't help your personal ambitions), frequent distractions (from friends or relatives), etc.

These are greater threats to life than a teacher holding a rod or a boss holding a show cause letter.

But the risk is even bigger because without discipline, one can easily harbor overblown ambitions without a corresponding disposition to input focused effort to achieve those ambitions. This is one of the greatest recipes for unhappy, unfulfilled and depressed life.

A life full of ambitions without commensurate patience, effort and discipline is more likely to generate heat than light. Without light, the future is like an endless darkness.

Many have been lulled by the small wins that the former definition of discipline gave. Such wins included scoring A's, getting to a prestigious college and taking a "marketable course" (o how useless that term is in matters education!).

But with these small wins, many are still left wondering what their A's, prestigious colleges and "marketable courses" had to offer them in life. They feel cheated, but do not know whom to be angry at.

They cannot feel angry about their teachers or parents because religious indoctrination (a tool used by the masters of the former discipline) won't allow them.

It takes a lot of soul-searching to walk out of this darkness. To me, the journey has been rough, and I believe it has been worth the effort.