Discipline and Schooling

When discussing power, Foucault intended for us to reflect on our commonly held

notions of power through the most graphic examples, like that of a king ordering a public

execution of a regicide. This should, as intended, conjure the conception of power as a

repressive force. A sort of power exercised by people of high social, political, or economic

status. It could be a dictator commanding his military to invade a neighboring country, a judge

sentencing a criminal to death, or even a parent grounding their child. This repressive concept is

not what Foucault sees as the most important, or even most prevalent, form of power in

normalizing power.

To Foucault, power is not merely something held or brandished, only exercised. The

repressive form of power is that they are exercised in response to an action, or inaction, of the

repressed subject. The dictator invades when the neighboring country does not cooperate with

the regime, the criminal is condemned when they break a law, and the child is grounded for

misbehaving. What does it mean, then, if these subjects of repressive power had not acted in

these ways? Surely, the most powerful dictator is one that does as he pleases without firing a

single weapon. Likewise, the best parent is one with children that behave without being told.

This sort of power is brought about by discipline, which is in turn, driven by observation and

normalizing judgments. These normalizing judgements bring about “norms”, or standards. They

are constructive, forming “norms” that individuals are measured against.

Foucault’s analysis extends far beyond the prison. He remarks that these normalizing

judgments can be seen exercised in all disciplinary apparatuses, in the prison, military, hospital,

and schools. It is somewhat obvious how disciplinary power can operate in prisons and military,

as Foucault gives examples of the idea of the good soldier, or the psychiatric evaluations of

prisoners. The normalizing judgements and disciplinary methods found in hospitals and schools
are of particular interest to me. Exploring these topics should provide a better understanding of

the nitty-gritty “microphysics of power”, and further illuminate the disciplinary methods that are

found even beyond these institutions.

When Foucault speaks of discipline in the school, I imagine he means something along

the lines of the student/teacher relationship to some degree, but to a greater degree, the

relationship between student and upper-administration. In most public schools, students are

complete a number of assignments and and projects over a school year. Their performance is

graded and these grades must average at minimum to C or higher. Failure to reach these

academic requirements means that the administration will hold back the student until they

retake their classes. These grades are measured by a degree away from an “ideal”, A-level,

100% work. The good student is one that regularly receives high grades and does not need to

be punished into academic excellence. While grades are administered by the teacher through

exams, ultimately these grades are meant to be a reflection of the actual performance of the

student, not of the teachers opinions. From this perspective, the quality and value of the student

is ultimately a subject of their own individual control.

Through this perspective, some ties to Foucault’s disciplinary theory become clear. The

normalizing judgments placed on the student are not a hard-line distinctions. This normalizing

standard of student performance homogenizes the “society”, or the school. Every student is

measured by the same standards, and take the same tests as their peers. There is a also an

individualizing component within this homogenization, as each student can be ranked and

measured against one another. This homogenizing yet individualizing component is important to

Foucault’s analysis, reflecting his earlier claims of disciplinary power as a method employed by

all people, in even the lowest of social strata.

 It’s not difficult to recognize the parallels between the prison examination and the

academic “exam”. Assignments and exams are the methods of observation and examination

employed by teachers and administration to identify and record the progress of students, and

determine their position against the normalizing academic standards. No student, ideally, earns

perfect scores perpetually without effort. It is expected that a student will fall short of this

standard in at least some way, and this grade will be presented to them without any

accompanying punishment. To correct to a more perfect grade, the student themself must study

harder, or revise their methods, until they reach higher grades at their next examination. This

sort of self-regulating correction is characteristic of disciplinary power. The student is not

forcefully punished, but are self driven to correction. That is, until the end of their school year, in

which case if they have fallen behind the academic expectation, the school administers

punishment to hold the student back and start again.