Bring back corporal punishment in schools

After hearing about a mother being followed and reported to Social Services after an off-duty policeman heard her chastise her misbehaving children in a supermarket, I felt compelled to type this rant about the way children are behaving in this day and age.

I'm only 30 (nearly) but I remember when I was a child, if I was naughty my parents wouldn't hesitate to give me a smack on the legs or bottom. It was a short, sharp shock which didn't really hurt, but was sufficient to shock me out of doing whatever naughty thing I was in the middle of. I grew up knowing right from wrong, and with, I believe, a sense of decency, morals and respect for others.

Sadly, kids now don't seem to have that same respect or parental guidance. To be fair, I don't think the parents can be entirely blamed; this is yet another legacy that our useless government is bestowing on us. By removing all parental and authority's rights to discipline children, they're growing up completely out of control. Why, I've just read an article from the Mail about a gang of 6 year olds who stopped paramedics from treating a toddler who'd burnt her back on a radiator. Apparently emergency services had to come to the scene armed with tazers. Protection against 6 year old thugs. Would this have happened 30, 40 years ago? I don't think so.

We need to bring back corporal punishment I am worried my daughter will grow up to be a yob...

I'm all in favour of bringing back corporal punishment in schools. A radical idea perhaps, but if regulated and monitored I think it would go a long way to solving the problem with kids today. A cane across the palm or backside for serious misdemeanours in school would stop a lot of bad behaviour which children are starting younger and not growing out of. But no, teachers are given no leeway whatsoever to deal with bad behaviour in their classes. I've heard that it's now even forbidden to send a child out of the classroom when naughty, because some health and safety policy says they may hurt themselves. I say, better themselves than some other poor child who probably hasn't done anything wrong, or their long suffering teacher.

I'm now a mother myself and I am worried my daughter will grow up to be a yob, or worse, because of peer pressure and lack of discipline in her school. I'll do my best at home to instil values and good behaviour in her, but children are influenced by so much more than their parents and I fear my efforts may not be enough. What this country needs is a government who isn't afraid of everything, and to allow schools to be run by teachers again, instead of the pupils. And allow parents to discipline their children instead of letting them run wild for fear of Social Services. A deserved smack on the bottom does not equal child abuse. It's far more abusive to the child in the long run to let them get away with everything.

By: Mallory

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i agree. i dont want my kids to grow up like yobs

-2

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LOLLOU - 18-Sep-11 19:50

Corporal punishment at school, yes definitely, but not the kids. The parents should be brought to the school and given the punisment instead cause that's where the problem is, at home.

-1

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Jethro - 8-Mar-11 14:35

With reference to at least corporal punishment occurring at home,even if it's outlawed or totally outlawed in Britain like it is outlawed or totally outlawed in some other European nations,some South American nations,Israel,Kenya,New Zealand ,Tunisia and perhaps other nations from what I've researched, the thing is that in all these nations there must be parents who have the attitude that the government(s) and the authorities aren't raising our kids and as long as we physically punish our kids with reasonable force and with good reason the government(s) and authorities should have no right to interfere with our parental rights.

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ACM - 7-Feb-11 14:06

New guidance on school discipline cautions teachers against repeatedly praising the "same good pupils", suggesting that rewards also be given to persistent miscreants who show an improvement, however small. It says schools should not "over discipline" persistently unruly pupils for fear of alienating them and should instead hand out praise five times more often than punishments.

This is, of course, what teachers have been trained to do for the last fifty or sixty years at least. Teacher training colleges are pretty useless, to be honest, but that is one thing they've always had right - a good teacher praises, a bad teacher criticises. All teachers know that. Almost all of them do it.

But the government advice cites research recommending a "rewards/sanctions ratio of at least 5:1". Oh, now I see. Teachers may have known all about this already, but because it wasn't backed up by research, they obviously didn't know it properly so it didn't count. Another piece of common knowledge among teachers is that educational research is carried out by people who either failed in the classroom themselves, or couldn't face it in the first place.

The guidance also tells teachers to take account of pupils' race and culture when telling them off, suggesting that they go easy on those insubordinate youngsters for whom being "loud" or "overfamiliar" may be a cultural norm or "social style". Teachers should understand the importance of showing respect to children from racial or religious backgrounds for whom public humiliation is seen as particularly shameful. In these cases, staff should not use language that might humiliate youngsters in front of their friends.

In other words, the government is now instructing teachers to be racists, to discriminate between children of different races when teaching them and disciplining them. I think we all knew this was the way it would go, but now we have it in black and white. Ha! Black and white, get it? Oh, never mind.

-4

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DSG - 11-Jan-11 16:20

Biscuitbum, I bet you never did those things again, right?

-3

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iPost - 6-Jan-11 20:56

I am currently in year 10 and I think that corporal punishment should be brought back in my school as when students are being naughty and are stopping the rest of us from learning the teachers cant do anything because they are not allowed to. Which is really bad because then the rest of us arent learning something that could be on our GCSE's

+10

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Yazzz - 6-Jan-11 20:29

When I was seven, I got three strokes of the cane for being ten minutes late one morning. Six years later I got the cane for having a dirty english book. Both punishments hardly fitted the crime, and today such punishment would doubtless be called sadistic. I was not, however, mentally scarred by these two incidents.

-3

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Biscuitbum - 5-Jan-11 00:42

Corporal punishment should be brought back into schools,but in controlled substances,of course.We wouldn't want any teachers over-adminestering punishment,now would we?

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DSG - 10-Dec-10 19:10

and don't forget those kinky leather slaps and pinches and stuff...those is the best...I mean the worst...innit?

-4

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madame slinky - 17-Nov-10 16:12

Afraid I can't vote on this one as "corporal punishment" seems to being used to cover everything from public birching through kids being beaten-up in their own homes to the gentlest of "smacks" or "tap on the hand" that might be needed to help a child to empathise with what it feels like to be "on the receiving end" if they are hitting another child.

-14

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Grumpy Old Bat - 17-Nov-10 15:05

Corporal punishment is the worst type of punishment, short of all the others. A ban on corporal punishment is a great idea when a clear and viable replacement method is made available to all the people who find themselves in a situation where a memorable punishment is required.

Take away disciplinary punishment and people become undisciplined. Anyone noticed anyone undisciplined in society today?

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Lumpy codpiece. - 11-Nov-10 11:18

If you brought it back to schools then I reckon the students would thump the teachers back followed by their chav parents. It would be a disaster, however, I think people need to leave parents alone when it comes to this. As long they aren't beating their children up then a short, sharp smack on the legs is acceptable. It did me or my sisters no harm. I was 14 and stayed out late past my curfew, I came home and told my dad a lie as to way I was late and he didn't hesitate to give me a short slap across the head. Yes I was shocked he did it but I never stepped out of line again and I was never punished like that again. Maybe not take it back to schools but leave parents alone when we discipline our own children.

-13

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Chillax - 11-Nov-10 09:41

Although never paddled, I remember when padding was "legal" in school. Spanking was also widely practiced in homes. The difference between then and now is that parents and teachers knew each other. These days, things are different. Children from one neighborhood are often bussed to a different neighborhood to go to school. Parent often know more about the cashier at the grocery store than they do about their child's teacher!

Parents and educators also knew that once girls hit junior high (or, as they call it today, middle school), sometimes girls needed paddling as much as boys! In those days, no one thought very much about it. There was very little controversy when, after being some childish behavior, a girl was told to bend over the principal's desk and take her licks even if it made her cry and backside still looked like she'd been paddled when she got home. That was before the Sexual Revolution.

After the 1960s, there was not only a push for absolute equality between girls and boys, anything the even resembled a spanking acquired a sexual overtone. As the paddle began to disappear from the schoolhouse, discipline began to crumble. Police began arresting students for typical juvenile behaviors that, only a few years earlier, could be curbed with a paddling.

Meanwhile, before paddling becomes acceptable once again, several things will have to change. The hysteria over spanking/paddling is going to have to subside. Child protective services (by any name) are going to have to stop equating paddling with abuse. Then, parents and teachers are going to have to come to an agreement. Either parents are going to discipline their children at home or they are going to have to let teachers paddle children at school. Simply hauling children off in handcuffs and giving them an arrest record is not a solution to the problems ailing society.

-1

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A Voice from the Past - 11-Nov-10 04:02

The problem with bringing it back to schools is that there is a culture of bullying and self-absorption that reduces people to venting their pent up anger with impunity and self-righteousness. I've seen people I'd otherwise respect lose it on students who could probably have been served better by a good detention or school duty. I far prefer to see kids cleaning the schools, the grounds, picking the gum off the floors, and doing community service than getting popped. Some children are out of control because they are not only taught at home the needed skills and values to behave and function in society but they are often popped to the point of damage and they bring the damage out into the street with them.

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Jwoman - 27-Oct-10 00:59

I totally agree with bringing back corporal punishment in schools as it is true children today have no respect for anything I was out with my 9 year old son at the weekend and a kid about 8 ran past us with a knife chasing another boy I grabbed him and he said take your fing hands off me or I will get you done for child abuse it is totaly rediculus I even hear children telling there mums to fing shut up I would never have dreamed off that when I was a child for fear off getting my bottom smacked iam 42 and have been smacked a few times and I never have broken the law and give respect to my elders .

-5

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steven gourlay edinburgh - 3-Oct-10 22:29

My dad used to hit me when I did wrong. My mum, too. I don't hold this against them at all. In fact I wish they had been stricter in some respects. It's clear that discipline in schools is due a correction but and this age old pain deterrent method may be revisited. That's a pity for civilisation but anarchy is equally intolerable and potentially far more dangerous to all.

-4

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Citizen Caned - 16-Sep-10 08:48

I'm still in school and I think that getting rid of corporal punishment was the worst mistake ever made. There are some really horrible people at my school, some that really deserve a good smack. Now a days you can't even shout at a child! I'm not even kidding. My maths teacher was given a warning because he yelled at us about disrespect, apparently 'if we're given too many rules we're more likely to act out' Bull Sh*t! Some people need the fear of God put into them! I also think getting rid of conscription was bad. When all the troops are out of Afghanistan then they should have all the people who aren't going to sixth form go into the army for two years. Sort out the yob problem. If we had both! *Sighs dreamily* but that's hardly likely.

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Emma! XD - 18-Aug-10 23:38

They always say only do to your kids what you would like done to you. If you do use corporal punishment be aware that it can cause permanent harm to the child/parent relationship. Just look at the late Michael Jackson and his dad. Michael never really came to terms with what happened in his youth. The UN and Save The Children define any use of punishment with a cane etc as torture. There is ALWAYS another means of discipline. Parents just too lazy and want to be bullies/tyrants. What about the long term? Many children (understandably) would not mind giving their parents a good beating now and then. Always two sides you know. Again referring to Michael Jackson - when he saw his father cheating on his mother (and his other brothers saw father as well) they must have had times when they felt like giving HIM a beating!

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Annabel Pritchard - 14-Aug-10 00:45

Simple solution to the yob problem.Lets follow the Chinese example.Take them all out with a bullet in the back of the head.Problem solved instantly.

-6

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Jeanette - 14-Jul-10 16:50

if we do not love our children then we dont disapline them. it is not fair that we bring our children up properly then the school allows everything against what we have done eg swareing and bulling

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desperate - 13-Jul-10 17:21

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