What motivates a student to learn? The quest for perfectionism, the promise of a new car, competitive drive? A Snickers bar? Some schools in the U.S. are still saying: the threat of physical punishment. This morning's story in the New York Times reveals, shockingly, that many U.S. schools, particularly in the South, still resort to "small-scale" corporal punishment to get students to behave. Physical punishment in schools is still legal in twenty states, which amounts to nearly half of the United States.No, it's not 1825. And yes, administrators such as Steve Harris, superintendent of City View Independent School District in Wichita Falls, Texas, labels practices such as "paddling" (using a paddle to hit students who misbehave) as "one of the tools in the tool box we use for discipline." It turns out that the recent use of this "tool" landed one of City View Junior/Senior High School students in the hospital for deep bruising. Parents at the school are protesting the use of physical punishment, but this is almost an anomaly. At St. Augustine High School in Louisiana, students and administrators both turned out to protest a recent ban on paddling, claiming that corporal discipline successfully put students in line at the school.
Violence as the way to success? In light of recent outbreaks of gun violence, perhaps it's time to think again, America - what are you teaching your students?
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1 comment:
Punishments that are done physically should not be done. There are other disciplinary punishments that are quite effective as well. If only other school will adapt to such methods then violence as a means of discipline will no longer be done.
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