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Thread: Corporal punishment

  1. #21
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
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    2
    I taught for twenty-two years in schools that had corporal punishment, then another twenty in a school that did not. I didn't see that it made a great deal of difference in either case. If there was any advantage to paddling, it was that problems were dealt with swiftly (however, only if the parents were on the same page), and everything got back down to business quickly. What I did see, however, over that long career was that a higher and higher percentage of kids that attended school were "troubled" or "challenged." It seemed to me to parallel the breakdown of a society that was losing its common moral compass. The increase in dysfunctional , parents, homes, communities, and -yes- teachers has led to an increase in dysfunctional students. I think very few people now can even agree on the most basic ideas of "good" and "bad", or "right" and "wrong." To be functionally effective, organizations (families, schools, communities, nations) must operate with a set of standards for which there is common acceptance and agreement. That seems to be what we have largely seen disappear over the years of my teaching career. I hope it's not to late to turn that around.

  2. #22
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Oklahoma
    Posts
    7
    Very well said. I grew up in rural Oklahoma, in a small, homegeneous community. Our school had corporal punishment, but it was accepted by everyone and it was never abused. That's because the community and the teachers were all reading from the same page; the teachers represented the morals and values of the community. A paddling was meted out by an appropriate authority, i.e., the Ag teacher usually did the honors. In all my years there, I never knew of a girl getting a paddling. Today's schools are nothing like that; multiculturism and the social and legal ramifications of our progressive minded educators has given us a system that is beginning to fail, given the money spent and the product society receives. When we graduated, we all knew who the smart ones were; they made "A's" and "B's"; the rest of the class didn't. We all knew who the good athletes were; they made the team, the others didn't.

    A segment of today's product is beginning to look a bit different; the “millennials,” as they’re called, are the first generation spawned from the progressive idea of equal outcome disguised as equal opportunity. They are the “Participation Ribbon People” – a generation rewarded and praised simply for showing up. The result of social promotion, time-outs over spanking and the misguided concept that reward is deserved and not earned. This is of course not just a product of the school system, but a culmination of a breakdown of the moral fiber of our society as a whole, and of the failure of the family to provide structure and stability.

    I have great empathy for the teachers of today, particularly those who really wish to make a difference and especially those who stick with it. In my years as a supervisor, I have seen numerous bright young teachers seeking employment with the state out of frustration with the challenges they faced, not particularly in the class room, but with school administration and the government. Stick with it dedicated teachers; our future depends on you.

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