Corporal punishment

If corporal punishment is done in anger, then it is wrong. But it is right and proper when done correctly.

 

Personally, I like the way my high school did it back when it was an all-boys school - several years before I attended btw.

If you got caught fighting on school property the punishment was stepping into the school boxing ring (yes, boxing ring) and going three rounds with one of the priests who happened to be a former Golden Gloves boxer.

They didn't have many fights at school back then.

 

That is the key distinction, one that seems to escape the mental grasp of people on both sides of this issue.

If anybody hits a kid in anger, even a parent, it is abuse. Period. That said, it can also be a useful and sometimes necessary disciplinary tool when used correctly.

If nothing else, there are times that a very small child needs that type of correction if they are engaging in dangerous behavior. I'm talking about children who are old enough to do something dangerous, but young enough that verbal communication is a problem for them.

Does corporal punishment belong in schools, though? No, I don't think so. I certainly wouldn't send my daughter to a school that allowed it. But she's at an age where I think it should stop altogether, anyway.

 

What? No repercussions? There are plenty without corporal punishment.

Unfortunately, the result of them would be much the same -- parents coming in to bitch because their kids were singled out and disciplined.

So I guess I might agree with some of what you say. I also should add that when I first came to this board, there were 2-4 topics where people seemed to be against rules or standards. So I guess people want what you want -- except when they want to tell the boss to fuck off or when they are against an honor code that prohibits premarital sex.

 

That's just it. It's not the teacher that administers it. It's someone in the front office. That's just part of the job description for the administrators. So it's not the teacher who is "acting in anger" .... the paddling, if you old folks might remember, didn't but about one percent of the time happen in kindergarten. It's more of a elementary/middle/high school thing.
Yes, I am fine with school officials, trained and educated to be "educators", redirecting my kid's bad behavior. A good idea would be to let behavior happen a few times with parent's being contacted and briefed on what the kid is doing.
That gives a chance to try and handle it at home.
But they would understand that eventually it was going to lead to corporal punishment.
Yes, I'm fine with that.
Some of these posts paint with such a broad brush.
"go back top beating our kids and we'll see a better economy" ???
Please ....

"Give kids stern consequences for disrupting the classroom process" ...that's what I'm saying.

Bet most of them won't keep doing it.

 

I don't think paddling is a stern punishment. So what it hurts for a minute.

Now make a kid who normally rides the bus stay after school so that a parent has to leave work and come get him at 3:30, that's a punishment with repercussions.

 

Did you go to school in a Robert Cormier book?

 

Blitz, I suspect I'm a good older than you, so my memories of corporal punishment are that it happened a lot more frequently than the occasional trip to the principal’s office. I recall being terrified that I'd get Mrs. X in the third grade, because when I was in the second grade I’d see her walking up and down the lunch table pulling kids out for a paddling right there for the offense of not cleaning their plates. I recall plenty of occasions when paddlings were administered in the front of the classroom for the offense of not having homework done. Heck, I saw a kid get a paddling once for crying because his best friend got one.
I don’t think that corporal punishment is necessarily a bad idea in all cases. However, I’m absolutely not willing to grant some piddly-ass school administrator license to inflict physical pain on my child. If my child is that distruptive, then you can kick him/her out if you see fit, but you leave the beatings to me.

 

You are a grown man and I see where you are coming from, but I'm certain that kids look at it different. I am certain that a paddling or two will make them think twice before acting out again in class.

To each his or her own on this thread, for sure, and I am all for the parent/teacher conferences ahead of the paddlings to "inform" the parent about repetitive poor behavior.

Paddlings are not going to ever be administered in front of the classroom as you are recalling, doctorquant, unless it's some private or boarding school that the parents have sent their kids to.
Not cleaning your plate...I can't remember big discipline over something like that.
I'm referring to the standard out-of-line behavior and disruptiveness that's exhibited every day, at most public schools in America.
Failure to conform to policies ... attempts to draw attention to one's self ... bullying ... lack of respect for fellow classmates who came to school expecting to get an education.

These kids need to be spanked at home and/or at school, but somewhere. That's going to make at least 75 percent of them stop misbehaving and wasting the valuable teaching time of the educators.
I'm certain of it.

 

I got spanked in third grade, in front of the whole class, for having a little play fight with a friend. The friend didn't get anything because the teacher hadn't seen his part of it and wouldn't listen to my feeble protests. He bent me over at the waist and whacked me right then and there.

I've never forgotten the humiliation. The last thing I wanted to do was tell my parents when I got home because it was the first time I'd ever been in trouble - I was genuinely a good kid and straight A student at that time - and I figured for sure I'd get it again from them.

Looking back, I should have told. I realized later that, even if I had been in the wrong, my mother still would have ripped that fucking teacher's head right off.

 

I remember watching several documentaries (HBO and some elsewhere) on schools where kids are given a choice between Saturday school detention and a paddling. The kids almost always took paddling because it only hurt for a minute. No need to mess up a Saturday that way.

 

FWIW, that line was meant for comic relief.