MORE SCHOOL SYSTEMS should follow this format.
TEMPLE, TEX. -- In an era when students talk back to teachers, skip class and wear ever-more-risque clothing to school, one central Texas city has hit upon a deceptively simple solution: Bring back the paddle.
Most school districts across the country banned paddling of students long ago. Texas sat that trend out. Nearly a quarter of the estimated 225,000 students who received corporal punishment nationwide in 2006, the latest figures available, were from the Lone Star State.
But even by Texas standards, Temple is unusual. The city, a compact railroad hub of 60,000 people, banned the practice and then revived it at the demand of parents who longed for the orderly schools of yesteryear. Without paddling, "there were no consequences for kids," said Steve Wright, who runs a construction business and is Temple's school board president.
Since paddling was brought back to the city's 14 schools by a unanimous board vote in May, behavior at Temple's single high school has changed dramatically, Wright said, even though only one student in the school system has been paddled.
"The discipline problem is much better than it's been in years," Wright said, something he attributed to the new punishment and to other discipline programs schools are trying. Residents of the city's comfortable homes, most of which sport neighborly, worn chairs out front, praise the change.
"There are times when maybe a good crack might not be a bad idea," said Robert Pippin, a custom home builder who sports a goatee and cowboy boots. His son graduated from Temple schools several years ago.
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Corporal punishment remains legal in 20 states, mostly in the South, but its use is diminishing. Ohio ended it last year, and a movement for a federal ban is afoot. A House subcommittee held a hearing on the practice Thursday, and its chairman, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), is gearing up for a push to end the practice once and for all. She plans to introduce legislation within weeks.
"When you look that the federal government has outlawed physical punishment in prisons, I think the time has come that we should do it in schools," she said.
A joint American Civil Liberties Union-Human Rights Watch report last year found that students with disabilities were disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment, sometimes in direct response to behavioral problems that were a result of their disabilities. Many educators and psychologists say that positive tools, such as giving praise for good behavior and withholding it for bad, are far more effective for discouraging misbehavior.
Those techniques "encourage them to behave well in the future," said report author Alice Farmer. Paddling "makes students lose respect for their teachers."
Rules about paddling vary from district to district, but typically only administrators, not teachers, can mete out the punishment, which is done in private. Usually, a long, flat wooden paddle is used to give as many as three blows across the student's clothed rear end, although Farmer found students who had been hit many more times. Boys are overwhelmingly the target.
Not everybody in Texas is gung-ho about paddling. The practice has been banned in the state's big cities, and its use varies from campus to campus in districts that allow it.
washingtonpost.com
MORE SCHOOL SYSTEMS should follow this format.
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Too many problems with this, never would want a stranger ever laying a hand on my kid.
^^^Originally Posted by starbuck
"There he goes, one of Gods own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die"
The question is would you ever lay a hand on your kid?
"Call me crazy, but I want to buy the Dallas Cowboys end zone and have the star right at the foot of my bed. That way when I score, I can spike the ball right on the star!" -Woody Paige, Around the Horn 10.9.08
Will I whip my kids? Absolutely. With that said, there's many family members I wouldn't want ever whipping them, let alone some teacher. There are so many things wrong with it, it's not funny. Will it be done at just the elementary level? At what grade would it start? What constitutes a paddling? What about parents who don't believe in spanking, are their kids exempted? - I know there would probably be a permission required, but that would cause problems with students who don't understand why he's getting paddled and johnny isn't. What about force used on a boy compared to a girl? I believe there was also a study that showed race played a big role in who was spanked in southern schools. Way too many factors, with the potential of way too many lawsuits that would cost millions. If someone wants to stick their kid in one of these religious private schools that uses it, go for it, but never in public schools.
I am wondering how do they differentiate paddling (corporal punishment) and child abuse. I ask that because anymore you cant lay a finger on your own kid without the fear of someone calling DSS.... Don't get me wrong, I am a spanker. I feel like spanking never hurt me at all and it will not hurt my son. To me there is a HUGE difference between spanking for correction and child abuse. 99.9% of these teens in school could use a good spanking.. If they restarted paddling in schools the person doing the paddling should have one or two witnesses there to verify the way the child was spanked and what the reason for paddling was. At the beginning of the school year each year there should be a permission slip either authorizing or declining paddling for each child. Those are just some of the things that need to be put into place before paddling starts.
They shoulda never stopped bustin' a$$ to begin with..discipline in schools would be much better and there would be a lot less disrespect in today's teen if a mis-step meant a date with Poss Bolling and his woopin' stick.. The misinformation in that article borders on comical tho.
...And if you ain't down with that, I got 2 words for ya....
What would be the purpose? And what's wrong in the article?
A joint American Civil Liberties Union-Human Rights Watch report last year found that students with disabilities were disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment, sometimes in direct response to behavioral problems that were a result of their disabilities. Many educators and psychologists say that positive tools, such as giving praise for good behavior and withholding it for bad, are far more effective for discouraging misbehavior.
Those techniques "encourage them to behave well in the future," said report author Alice Farmer. Paddling "makes students lose respect for their teachers."
^^^^ whats going to make you respect your superiors more? them ignoring that you are running around acting like a badass or the ones who push you to be harder and maybe even smack you around a bit to keep you in check? id hate to know the **** id have done if my parents never spanked me. you ever hear of operant conditioning? it works...... and MOST not all but MOST of the "behavioral disabilities" that are labeled on children are bull****. these kids just need structure in their lives. like i have said before some of the kids i worked with were "problem adhd add, "practically mentally retarded" children and all they really needed was somebody to push them and work with them and love them. you cant ignore kids and expect them to do right.
Cant we all just get along?
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