Corporal Punishment
| April 15th, 2008 by Robert | Word Count: 811 | Reading Time 3:18 | 2,376 views |
It’s been quite a while since I was in the public school system, but I remember a much different world from what I see, hear, or read about today. I remember the days when teachers and principals had the authority within the classroom. The days when what the teacher said, meant something, and the kids respected their position of authority. Corporal punishment has been all but removed from the public school system in favor of more “accepted” methods of rule enforcement. With the removal of corporal punishment and thus the removal of authority from the school’s staff, the kids have gained the position of authority within the school system.
This is, of course, completely opposite of how the system was designed. Kids went to school to be educated and also learn how to become a member of society. They learned from books, but they also learned how to respect authority and become a valuable member of our communities. Our public school system in the world today has become nothing more than a day care center. Kids go to school because they “have” to and the vast majority of them do just enough to get through. Very few kids are challenged by their school system due to the fact that teachers are also just doing enough to get by. It’s become a job, and not a very good one at that.
Think about the ramifications of having a public school system that churns out kids that believe they are the authority figure and are lacking in social skills. Our current generation of kids is just that. We can plainly see their needs for instant gratification, needs for instant power, and needs for attention. The younger generation lacks the stability of family life with structured boundaries and proven authority figures in their lives. The onslaught of American wants and needs along with the priority of being number one in all things have led to a disintegration of one of our most valued assets. That asset would be trust.
Outside of your most intimate family members, can you count enough people that you TRULY trust on more than just one hand? Can you even name one? By TRULY trust, I mean can you trust them with your family’s livelihood, can you trust them with your life, can you trust them with your children? Acquaintance or good friend trust is not enough. Yes, you can trust people enough to walk down the street and be unharmed (for the most part). But, can you place TRUE trust in more people than you can count on that one hand? Can you even count one?
It’s scary to think of such things and I’m not someone who is skeptical of everyone, but I am one who makes people earn their trust with me. If the school system were still capable of teaching our kids more than just what is in a book, I believe our communities would have far less problems. Respect for authority through a kid’s developmental period leads to a well rounded individual. Respect and trust go hand in hand, you can’t respect anyone you can’t trust, and you won’t trust anyone you don’t respect. If we take a step back and allow our schools to become what they once were, our kid’s lives will be greatly changed for the better. With the presence of authority figures in society, outside of their home, kids will once again, learn that they must have social skills outside of their own one person universe.
I support bringing back corporal punishment to our school systems. Suspensions and detentions are nothing more than vacation time for our kids. I’m not for abusing kids either, you can punish without going over the edge of reason. As an analogy, how did you learn to not touch hot things? I would guess at some point in your life, you touched something very hot and your brain now tells you that before you touch another hot item, the last time you did it, it hurt. It was a pretty painful experience. However, through this painful experience, you have learned a lesson. It’s not about inflicting pain on kids, it’s about teaching them at a young age that you must abide by the rules and if you don’t, there are consequences. Consequences generally infer something bad. If you do something wrong, you must pay for your mistake.
Teach our kids respect and in the end, they will trust more. Our world is greatly lacking in both. Starting here I believe, will have the second greatest impact on our kids with the first being changes in their home life. If we can alter the distorted paths our school system and home lives have taken, we will be rewarded with a generation of well balanced individuals who will have a better value system to rely upon.
on April 15th, 2008 at 1:37 pm:
Great article…A lot of truth but how does it change? Where do you even start? It is hard for Diane at FCS to get parents involved. We pray that lives are being touched. Have you checked out my blog @ http://www.pastorcowboy.com I have been doing it for awhile now. Leave me a comment on what you think.
on April 16th, 2008 at 2:47 pm:
Probably the best place to start is with the parents, then with the school boards, and on to the state governing bodies. You would have to generate enough interest at the local level to get a large enough movement together to actually create change. However, this would involve parents actually being held more accountable for their actions.
on April 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 pm:
i go to a private school and know lots of kids who go to or have gone to public school before and i just wanted to say that in the area i live in, the public schools are horrible. almost every kid is flunking every subject. the kids have to have very strict uniforms. there are only certain colors of socks you can wear, certain colors of jackets you can wear, and even certain color hair bands. the reason for this is because the kids in the schools were forming gangs. so one gang would wear this color hair band or sock and the other gangs would have their color. most of the kids i know have been suspended or expelled at least once in their life. in the classrooms there is no order. the kids just have their backpacks thrown all over the floor. they talk during the whole class. the teachers do not punish them at all. the kids aren’t learning anything because the teachers can’t/won’t keep the kids quiet long enough to teach them. the kids don’t do any of their homework because when they get home they sit around and watch tv, play video games, and talk on the phone and the parents don’t care. i think it is very sad that when a kid comes home from school everyday he can honestly say that they didn’t learn a single thing at school.
on April 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 am:
Sadly, I think more of our school system functions as what you have described than what our public acknowledges or wishes to believe. Even with millions of dollars of government and local aid for our school system, we still can’t seem to get something right that used to be one of the best in the world. Where did it break? Where did things go wrong? Why are we allowing it? There must be a way to start up a grass roots program to take back one of the most important aspects of our country, and that’s providing a free, and REAL, education to all people.
on May 7th, 2008 at 10:12 am:
All discipline now seems to be “positive reinforcement.” I had my ass beat a good many times in school, but by God I learned a thing or two from those, especially when Dad did it. School kids today are soft. They can’t play tag anymore. They can’t have races or games where there is a winner. Everyone gets trophies for participating. We are teaching are kids that losing is okay. Is that what you want your kid to think when he gets into the real world? As long as you try, losing is ok? No. Trying is important, but so is the final outcome. Ahh, sidetracked.
on May 7th, 2008 at 10:34 am:
Positive reinforcement has it’s place. Some people respond well to it. However, it’s not the only solution. It’s an additional reinforcement ideal that should be used in conjunction with other forms of reinforcement. Removing all so called “bad” things from people’s lives only leads to a society of me first individuals. There is nothing detrimental to doing whatever you want.
I wanted to make the most money so I decided to step all over my coworkers to do so. Well done sir, you showed the necessary traits required in our management program. Nope. That’s completely wrong. If the stepped on coworkers would stand up for themselves and use some negative reinforcement, then they would be treated better in the long run.
Punishment, it’s a requirement for things you do wrong. Otherwise, what’s to stop you from doing whatever you want? The word no doesn’t do a thing.
on August 25th, 2008 at 10:12 pm:
Recent statistical information regarding corporal punishment in the United States via a report on CNN:
“More than 200,000 children were spanked or paddled in U.S. schools during the past school year (2006-2007), human rights groups reported…
Corporal punishment in schools remains legal in 21 U.S. states and is used frequently in 13…
The highest percentage of students receiving corporal punishment was in Mississippi, with 7.5 percent of students. The highest number was in Texas, with 48,197 students.
Overall, 223,190 students received corporal punishment in 2006-07, according to the Department of Education statistics. That number is down from 342,038 students in 2000-01 as more and more districts abolished corporal punishment.
James Dobson states… Corporal punishment is not effective at the junior and senior high school levels, and I do not recommend its application.
He continues… It can be useful for elementary students, especially with amateur clowns (as opposed to hard-core troublemakers). For this reason, I am opposed to abolishing spanking in elementary schools because we have systematically eliminated the tools with which teachers have traditionally backed up their word. We’re now down to a precious few. Let’s not go any further in that direction.”
on December 31st, 2008 at 8:59 am:
It’s not about inflicting pain on kids, it’s about teaching them at a young age that you must abide by the rules and if you don’t, there are consequences.
If it is not about inflicting pain, then why are we doing it? I do not have to teach a kid ‘the rule’ that a flame is hot. If he puts his hand on the flame, he will learn it for himself. I am not needed. If I punch him for putting his hand on a flame when I told him not to, it teaches obedience to “my rule” and the kid loses the important lesson that the flame could have communicated to his hand. When a parent does this too much, it screws with the child’s ability to communicate with reality since all lessons are learned via a punitive authority that one needs to obey. In the end it teaches him that we must obey the ‘rules’ of overwhelming physical force. It will teach him to obey tyrants.
on December 31st, 2008 at 1:14 pm:
Joe, I understand your point of view and I realize there are those “parents” and “guardians” who do not fully understand the line between disciplining children and tormenting and abusing them. Teaching children discipline and respect for authority and their elders can be done with appropriate punishment that does not enter the realm of abuse or beating.
My parents raised me with a strong hand and I fully understood the consequences of my actions. I suspect the vast majority of our Christian society was raised in a similar fashion – previous to our current generation. Children and young adults cannot be expected to simply learn from trial and error without leadership in their lives and sometimes, that leadership needs to punish the students.
True parents understand how to punish their children without allowing anger, resentment, and other nasty emotional breakdowns to enter into the teaching of the child. Obeying rules is one thing, succumbing to tyrannical authority is another. Punishment is a necessary consequence in a human’s life and sometimes, it requires a smack on the behind or on the hand.