Um, this is news to me.
According to The New York Times, school officials are still allowed to hit kids:
While the image of the high school principal patrolling the halls with paddle in hand is largely of the past, corporal punishment is still alive in 20 states, according to the Center for Effective Discipline, a group that tracks its use in schools around the country and advocates for its end. Most of those states are in the South, where paddling remains engrained in the social and family fabric of some communities.
Apparently, in those 20 states there’s an annual debate over “whether corporal punishment amounts to an archaic form of child abuse or an effective means of discipline.”
That’s still a question? Seriously?
In the 2005–2006 school year, over 220,000 children were subjected to corporal punishment, according to the Department of Education. Over 220,000 children were hit as a form of punishment.
There’s even a formal organization called People Opposed to Paddling Students. That would make sense … if we still took dumps in outhouses and each had to milk our own cows. Now, I don’t want to step on the toes of the different cultures and traditions throughout our country. Actually, screw it. Yes I do.
If you still support corporal punishment in schools, you need a straitjacket. You should be locked in a room with padded walls until you change your mind. In fact, that’s a more civil punishment than paddling a kid.
How is it OK to hit a defenseless student with a wooden paddle? How do 20 states still allow this?
A school official in Kansas said that corporal punishment is “one of the tools in the tool box we use for discipline.” If you need a metaphorical tool box to discipline kids—one that contains an actual paddle—you suck at your job. Plain and simple.
Another school in New Orleans argued that “paddling for minor offenses has been instrumental in helping St. Augustine build character and achieve high graduation rates.”
Do these people still think that smoking is good for you? Is the Earth the center of the universe? Do you not go swimming because you’re afraid you’ll fall off the edge?
You know, we’re all lucky as hell to be living in the U.S. It’s great to be a member of the “First World.” But stories like this make you realize how fundamentally screwed up some things still are. Sure, we’re in the First World—compared to everyone else. But really, until crap like this stops, we’ll never be as advanced as we like to think we are.
Go read this Times article. Come back and tell me I’m not mad.
—Photo Damunique_pics/Photobucket
Spanking is an effective, benevolent form of punishment. Don’t take this away from schools or parents. If you do , you’re disrupting the family and causing unneeded problems for schools. Witnesses and nurse can be present if there is any hint that a spanking my be too harsh. Bruises are not an indication of abuse. Bruises go away and there are no negative side effects, only the positive benefit of better behavior from students. Parents should spank there young children starting early. Parents who are reluctant to do this lack courage or have been overly influenced by the liberal, unreliable… Read more »
I’m sorry but I have to say this because I say it all the time when I hear this topic. We actually had this discussion at work. I’m for spanking a child when it’s needed and you’re not going to change my mind no matter how crazy people may think I sound. I myself from the south I was spanked by my parents, best friend’s parents, relatives, teacher and principal. I can say whole hearted and 100% believe and know I deserved every spanking, paddling or punishment I got. I recall as a young kid one year I don’t remember… Read more »
I don’t argue that spanking is a good form of discipline for the PARENTS. No other adult should have to worry about going that far with a child IF their parents are doing their job and raising them properly. I have 3, none of which have EVER had problems at school. Raise your kids right and spanking in schools wouldn’t even be an issue.
I think “real men” are men who DO realized that whacking isn’t the answer. Those who don’t are simply big boys who haven’t learned. Perhaps they could be taught, though, with a lot of explanation, praise for change, and sympathy (for past abuses).
I think there are plenty of other methods of discipline that we can use, spanking is not necessary. Hitting a child so hard that they pass out and break their jaw or end up hospitalized from severe bruising is child abuse, plain and simple. If a parent were to hit their kid that hard they would most certainly end up in jail, no questions asked. So why is it ok for a principal or assistant principal to hit a kid that hard!!!? Punishments are not supposed to be humiliating and spanking is precisely that. It also teaches the child to… Read more »
Spanking serves a purpose as part of discipline…..as a last option of correction. The butt is connected too the brain via pain sensors and sometimes that is the only way too correct rogue brain activity. I don’t believe in striking anywhere else for discipline just the butt….it does a good job relaying tardiness.
I don’t agree that hitting is the right answer either. I think it teaches kids that it’s ok to hit someone when they don’t do what you want them to do. But, I don’t have any evidence that either method is more or less successful. How about some data Ryan. It’s fine if you want to vent, but you might want to support your claim with some data.
Otherwise, I agree with the first sentence of the first comment. “pathetic”. As in… A pathetic attempt at expressing a valid viewpoint.
Because a “real man” is someone who don’t know how handle a conflict and so must employ either violence or submission to pretend the conflict isn’t there?
I can see both points of view, but one thing I know is that since corporal punishment has been banned here in New Zealand since 1990, there has been a correlation of rising bullying, students assaulting teachers, etc.
I think it’s wrong that a teacher only uses that as a disciplinary measure, but I’m not sure that it can’t be part of an arsenal of measures.
What do you recommend as better alternatives? Do they actually work?