Posted on 08/30/2009 7:04:42 PM PDT by naturalman1975
A big increase in the number of primary school children suspended for violent acts is being blamed on the removal of corporal punishment in schools.
Figures from the Ministry of Education show a 88 percent increase in suspensions of eight-year-olds from 2000 to 2008 for assaults on classmates, a 73 percent rise for seven-year-olds, a 70 percent increase for six--year-olds while the suspensions over the same period had increased by 33 percent for five-year-olds.
"It is significant that as schools have removed corporal punishment, schools have become more violent," Family First national director Bob McCoskrie said today. "School yard bullying by pupils on other pupils and staff is now the new form of `corporal punishment' in schools. We have a generation of children who have been victims of a social experiment of how best to raise our kids and the role of correction.And it continues with the smacking debate - another example of undermining parental authority and `state knows best how to raise your kids'."
Mr McCroskie said student behaviour would continue to deteriorate "for as long as we tell them that their rights are more important than their responsibilities".
Auckland Primary Principals Association president Marilyn Gwilliam said schools were struggling to handle the children because by law, they were not allowed to touch children to calm them down, even when they "kick and they bite and they hit."
In many cases, schools had no choice but to stand children down, she told The Weekend Herald.
The Post Primary Teachers Association is set to discuss solutions to combating the schoolyard violence at its annual meeting next month.
Because of schools limited number of in-school counsellors and teacher aides, the association's advisory group on conduct problems will suggest that schools need access to trained psychologists and social workers.
File this one under duh.
Junior high was brutal because many of the teachers were also coaches. I'm talking men who were 6’-5” and more.
I'm 50 now, and I think I've finally calmed down.
You mean those “peace studies” and drum circle classes were not working? Awwwwwwww....
It’s so easy even a caveman can do it. Spare the rod, spoil the child.
I don't understand why as a society, we are not allowed to physically punish bad children.
How about because it was removed from the home.
How about an entire culture of “no consequences”?
Parents can’t spank their kids.
Not only is there no corporal punishment in schools, the frickin school districts won’t allow suspension from class, BECAUSE THEY GET PAID BASED UPON STUDENT ATTENDENCE!!!!
The list is longer, but you get the point.
“I don’t understand why as a society, we are not allowed to physically punish bad children.”
While not knowing the laws in all 50, I believe in most states you can. Even in California, the teachers can mete out corporal punishment, but no one does it for fear of lawsuits.
As for parents, however, you can’t hit or slap them anywhere on the head, and you can’t leave a welt.
Of course, this was before 2001, so other laws may have passed since then?
Welcome to the party, NZ...
Colonel, USAFR
Mama Bear knows that when the cubs get unruly a good swat restores order and discipline.
Corporal punishment being removed from the home and the schools, and Capitol punishment being removed as the end all in many states.
What do the little perps have to fear?
Yup. Remove any ability for the teacher to actually control the children and they know that they can get away with anything.
I prefer to call it, Applying the board of education to their seat of knowledge.
I.e., school violence blamed on removal of (institutional) school violence. How violent do you have to be to kids to prevent them from being violent?
I’d rather my kids have a 1% chance of being hit by a teacher when they go to school everyday (and almost certainly only because they did something to deserve it) than even a 5% chance of being hit by other children (when they did nothing at all to deserve it).
If we can get schools where children aren’t at risk of being exposed to violence at the hands of other children, without any need to resort to corporal punishment, that’d be great. So far, I haven’t seen much evidence that that approach is working.
Corporal punishment might be an imperfect solution, but could still be better than no solution at all.
No stranger is going to hit any of my kids. I believe in spanking, but only by parents. The problem is government schools; that is what leads to a lack of effective discipline.
I am a high school teacher in NYC. Under the non-educator Mayor Bloombutt, we have another non-educator as Chancellor of Education, an attorney, running the schools. The very word “corporeal” is derived from the Latin “corporeus”, meaning BODY. Originally, “corporeal punishment” meant you whacked a kid a good one. The Chancellor has greatly expanded the definition of corporeal punishment here to include “making a student feel nervous or afraid”, “raising your voice”, “ridiculing a student”, etc. Consequently, the students can (and do and do and do) file completely fallacious corporeal punishment charges against teachers who didn’t cave into their demands, gave them a fair (i.e. failing) grade for the quality of their work, etc. And get a half dozen of their little friends to file affidavits supporting their lie. Teachers get called down to the principal’s office to face corporeal punishment charges (99.9% of which are proven totally false), which are VERY serious, and can get you put in the infamous “Rubber Room”, where you sit for 8 hours a day with other Rubber Room inhabitants (teachers whose cases are still under investigation) ad infinitum. Meanwhile, when the charges are found to be false, NOTHING WHATSOEVER happens to the accusing student and their little band of merry liar friends. Absolutely nothing. This might have something to do with why students feel perfectly fine with telling teachers to go F__ themselves, threatening teachers with bodily harm, ridiculing their appearance, etc. Yet if you try to enforce discipline in the classroom, you could get slapped with another corporeal punishment charge! Also, schools don’t want to act upon or report crimes because then they would lose in their ratings, so many crimes go unreported.
Parents (ha!), instead of disciplining their kid when they get poor grades or smart off to a teacher, come after the teacher! It’s THEIR fault! Their darling is incapable of any wrongdoing, you see.
And you wonder why discipline in schools has gone straight down the toilet?
Ah, yes. You are correct my FRiend. It is “corporeal.” My bad.
I can understand that position, but the problem with it is, that the vast majority of serious discipline problems in schools are being caused by children whose parents aren't parenting properly. If parents were universally disciplining their children, we'd have far fewer problems in school.
Those undisciplined children wreck the learning of other children. Schools need an effective way to deal with them that doesn't rely on their parents, because their parents are part of the problem.
I do believe that decent parents should be allowed to decide how their own children are disciplined, but those kids and those parents aren't the issue.
The problem is government schools; that is what leads to a lack of effective discipline.
Non-government schools still have discipline problems in the absence of corporal punishment - not as many as most government schools, but as somebody who teaches in one of my own countries most prestigious independent schools which does a really good job on discipline, there are still occasional cases where corporal punishment is a useful approach.
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