For "grossly misbehaving", removal from the classroom. Expulsion. As much as I detest indifferent parents, they do not cede the physical welfare of the child to the school (although they may to the state at some point). Also, what about those children that are not "grossly misbehaving" (the vast majority). The girl that spawned this was apparently an honor student who had not had problems before. An incident occurs and she comes home with welts from the teacher.

 

I wouldn't want to find out how "well" any teacher could spank my kids. I'd show them the wrong side of years of karate training and they would certainly learn a thing or two about personal boundaries.

Seriously, corporal punishment is an admission of defeat. It means that you are not creative enough to instruct your children by positive example. If I, as a parent, find myself in a position where hitting is the only option -- I am a failure. Let me repeat that -- parents that hit children have failed as parents. They're turning their own inadequacies against their children. There's no justification for that. If you need to remind your kids that you're Alpha Dog, go climb freakin' Everest. Go pick a fight with Roy Jones, Jr. and WIN! Go win a marathon. Do something that instructs and inspires awe and REAL respect.

If a teacher finds themself in the same position with my kids -- if I don't lose it and hurt them very, very badly, I will sue them into oblivion and find every other way to extract revenge for their transgression.

Any teachers out there can keep that in mind. My opinion is that most teachers are people without real skills.

 

I remember back in the day that the neighbor could punish you and you'd go home and tell your parents, and then they punish you again. And if the neighbor told your parents before you owned up to your parents, it'd be over. This was effective....kids grew up with respect for their parents, their elders, and the community. Somewhere along the way, kids grew up into ineffective community members, and grew up to be ineffective parents....raising disrespectful little snots.

I say we go back to the way things were.

My .02 cents, and if you don't like my opinion, disagree...but please disagree respectfully.

Urmil

 

Sunchild, that's all fine and good for your children. But not all parents take such a fine approach. For example, when my mother was pregnant with my sister, one of her elementary school students, complete with his own probation officer, threw a desk at her and struck her in the abdomen. When the child was, again, turned over to the police their parents were outraged the police had to be involved and threatened to sue etc. When the child returned to school eventually he continued to harass students and teachers and would remind people his parents would will "sue them into oblivion". What a wonderful conditions to attempt do your job under and what a lesson to teach children, "I'll sue, I'll sue."

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Silver S2K
[B]Sunchild, that's all fine and good for your children. But not all parents take such a fine approach. For example, when my mother was pregnant with my sister, one of her elementary school students, complete with his own probation officer, threw a desk at her and struck her in the abdomen. When the child was, again, turned over to the police their parents were outraged the police had to be involved and threatened to sue etc. When the child returned to school eventually he continued to harass students and teachers and would remind people his parents would will "sue them into oblivion". What a wonderful conditions to attempt do your job under and what a lesson to teach children, "I'll sue, I'll sue."

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Luder94
[B]I remember back in the day that the neighbor could punish you and you'd go home and tell your parents, and then they punish you again.

 

I don't yet have an opinion on this. I went to a Catholic school and once got 3 of the strap for running my fingernails down a black board. This wasn't the last time I got corporal punishment. Not by a long shot.

I came out of it alright. No fetishes, but also very little respect for the Catholic schools system.

That said, are there effective alternatives to corporal punishment which actually work? Does detention or expulsion form the classroom or whatever have the same effect? I dunno!

 

unfortuantely situations as described by silver are all too common. Yes, we preach the golden rule but if it is broken WE do not practice. That basically tells kids that their punishment will cause much less harm than the bad act they performed. I believe that if someone hits you hit them back. If someone breaks your rules, you break theirs.

Or even better, we could stop having two working parent household so that parents can teach their children responsibility. Remove about 70% of the government influence in our daily lives and increase punishment for the remaining restrictions to relearn the sense of personal responsibility that seemed to have disappeared from American culture sometime in the last century.

We live in a disgusting world where any problem you have can be blamed on someone/something else.