Those amateur clowns.
2008 August 20
In previous posts I discussed corporal punishment and my Texan friends’ acceptance of it. Looks like CNN followed my lead.
While James Dobson is against corporal punishment in middle and high schools, he agrees with teachers physically harming the young and vulnerable elementary school students:
“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.”
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Physically harm? I had quite a few spankings back in the day and I can say that I don’t think any of them caused any physical harm. If you are causing physical harm, then it isn’t a spanking. My feeling is that boys especially respond to spankings. It is a tangible quick consequence.
Over the last 4 years, I have been on the receiving end of many many many stories from my wife (4th grade teacher) about students that are “un-disciplinable” by modern methods. By “modern methods”, of course, I mean non-physical methods i.e. “Oh no, little Johnny, you shouldn’t flush the bathroom pass down the toilet… for the 6th time. I’m going to have to take away your 3rd recess privileges for that… again.”
Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which way you look at it, my wife is a no-nonsense, extremely structured type of teacher. As a result, she has a much higher number of the “difficult” students placed in her class as a last ditch effort to try to get them engaged. Non-touch discipline is very effective in many cases, but far from all. So, I’m not saying that physically enacted discipline is the end-all method, but I do think that it is effective where other methods fail.
Obviously, I am speaking from limited experience with physical discipline as well, and perhaps my wife just doesn’t have that “magical non-touch” that is required to instill discipline, but take a look at the youth of today compared with the youth of 10 years ago… 20 years ago… 50 years ago. As the number of options for discipline that can be used by teacher’s AND parent’s continues to be constricted – respect, discipline, and, as a result, academic performance will continue to decline.
I’d agree that spanking might be beneficial for parents to discipline, but I don’t agree if teachers are expected to — or at least given the option — to use corporal punishment. Of course, this is coming from someone who hasn’t had to discipline her own kids, or anyone else’s, and who didn’t attend schools that allowed it.
So I’ll check back in 10 years down the road, after the terrible twos, and we’ll see what I say then.
see… it’s just like CNN to scoop your story.
I always knew that Scroggles! and it’s writers would be on the cutting edge
But as for spanking… I hear that it has almost no effectiveness for children under 2 and past age 5-7 it has decreasing effectiveness as well.
Physical violence is always a last last resort… and is usually a problem with the spanker not the spankee. Not saying that I wouldn’t do it, but if I did it would likely be out of extreme frustration and lack of emotional control on my part… not because it would be good for the child.
yeah, i’ve heard the same stats as Theo… i guess that’s why Dobson said he’s fine with spanking in elementary schools, which are in that age range. I grew up in schools where corporal punishment was allowed, and just to set some people’s minds at ease, you had to have written permission from your parents for the school to either be allowed or not allowed to spank you. Mine always told the school it was fine, which made me extra dilligent to not misbehave in school, and luckily, i never had to have one (at school at least). Interesting that James Dobson lives and works in Colorado, isn’t it