Bring back the paddle in schools?

[BLB_Oregon]

My spouse grew up in Catholic Schools (back in the day when there were nuns as teachers) and punishment was severe by todays standards.
Bottom line? Looking back, no ill effects came of it. In fact, a big thumbs up for it. I would not know. I was a heathen. Yet, my parents spanked me up to age 6 only in severe cases of misbehavior. And guess what? I think it helped me. I never felt abused, only loved. And I realized that I could have run the show if they did not stop me. Sometimes reason works, but before the age of reason kicks in, you need something else. Not abuse mind you, but sometimes for some kids, it takes a paddle on the butt.

Grade school children have all reached the age of reason.

 

[marci]

More discipline is needed, but parents need to establish respect through rationality, not fear. I respect my parents because most of the rules they make and views they hold make sense when they explain them to me, and they lead respectable lives in most areas

.

Have you ever tried to have a “rational” conversation with a two year old as to why he can’t shove beans up his baby sister’s nose? There is a time for talk and a time for action, sometimes physical punishment is warrented.

Hitting doesn’t fix the problem, it just makes kids afraid to act on it.

 

[siamesecat]

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[Damascus]

Grade school children have all reached the age of reason.

I know that. I was merely saying that in the home for me it was fine IMHO. For my spouse, it went on in school for a long time. And no ill effects were to be had from it. Of course, all cases are not the same, I am not implying they are. But, I am saying that its not always such a bad idea if done properly.

In fact the comment that was made when I asked my dearest would you have preferred they had not punished you with force, the answer was no.
“We always knew we could have taken the Nuns on if need be, yet we never felt the need to”

Different times I guess. Things change. But for the better? I think kids had more respect for authority than they do now.

Heck, I think adults pave the way. A good Catholic agrees with the rules and respects the authourity of the Mother Church even if its not convienient.

The Cafeteria Catholic gets away with whatever they can and throws respect for authority to the side.

Can you say “Reformation”? need I say more? When kids get lessons from parents who cant tow the line in their own lives and they are getting away with it, what in the world is an adolescent going to walk away thinking from that?

Respect is what its all about. Today we glorify self indulgence and revolt.

Lets get our own affairs in order parents! Then paddles wont be an issue anymore. Its not the Schools job to parent your children! If your children are interfering with the learning enviornment for others, they need to be punished and you should be with them by the same token.
In fact, I think any child who gets the paddle who is deserving ought to be getting it along with the parent.

 

[Rob_s_Wife]

I just wanted to restate that my problem isn’t with the paddle - it’s the who and the where of it’s use.

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IF a child needs a spanking, it should be determined by the parents and given by the parents - and no one else. No one else is going to have the same effect or result, imo.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

I just wanted to restate that my problem isn’t with the paddle - it’s the who and the where of it’s use.

IF a child needs a spanking, it should be determined by the parents and given by the parents - and no one else. No one else is going to have the same effect or result, imo.

Exactly. I don’t have any problem with parents determining their offspring needs a warmed rump. Would that more would, and when the child is young!

 

[Viki59]

I just wanted to restate that my problem isn’t with the paddle - it’s the who and the where of it’s use.

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IF a child needs a spanking, it should be determined by the parents and given by the parents - and no one else. No one else is going to have the same effect or result, imo.

Have to agree with this.
I was hit with a ruler for writing with my left hand in grade school (I’m left handed.). There are always a few teachers who are not safe to be allowed to punish children physically. Better that only parents do it.

 

[BLB_Oregon]

Have to agree with this.
I was hit with a ruler for writing with my left hand in grade school (I’m left handed.). There are always a few teachers who are not safe to be allowed to punish children physically. Better that only parents do it.

Yes…and those are the teachers that use corporal punishment routinely, too.

Abuse is far more likely from adults who are not related to a child. Parents should be the only ones allowed to administer corporal punishment and only they should be the ones to decide if their child is ever hit or not. (Even then, there obviously need to be legal boundaries in place. I wish it were not so, but it is.)

This is particularly true with regards to today’s schools, where crowding and poor parental discipline are often such problems. Allowing corporal punishment under such profoundly frustrating teaching conditions just invites abuse.

 

[JezuUfamTobie]

Abuse is far more likely from adults who are not related to a child.

I just have to contest that. I don’t have the sources on me right now but I distinctly remember from researching domestic violence that children are more likely to be abused by family members than by other people. I saw this printed in several books and articles. I completely agree that teachers should not paddle children, but I think it is a myth that non-relatives are more likely to get carried away with physical punishment than parents. The statistics I’ve seen state the opposite.

 

[Wammy101]

There is spanking, and then there is hitting.

Two quite different things.

I spanked my kids when they were younger. But God so help anyone else who would have DARED laid a finger of spanking on MY child. (school and teachers included). By the way, I AM a teacher. Anyone who dared physically touch my child would have been begging for their own lives at that point.

No, spanking does NOT belong in schools.

I stopped spanking once mine reached about 5 or 6 anyway.

Violence is from media, society, lack of fathers, and anger of being bullied.

I personally know several of my colleagues who I am SURE would abuse the “paddle” and would be quite guilty of abuse.

You sound EXACTLY like my mum, and I agree with you. If i had kids, smacks on the bottom, and on the wrists would be acceptble, up to a certain age, but if some-one so much as DARED to even threaten to hit my child, they would have much of a life to beg for when I was done with them. To the OP, as for the Namby Pamby social workers, My best friend is one in a high school, and she has succesfully resolved many situations, from physical abuse to issues of people not being able to go near eachother cos of a bad break up, and better than a paddle ever could, and when resolving situations by actually sorting them out, you sort them out. by hitting, you enrage some-one to do more harm, some-times even to themselves, furthermore, where would you stop? how many smacks would one get for talking in class, et c? Back in ye olde days, when wacking was allowed in school, women were still property, The black people were oppressed, and despite what you think, people still got shot.

 

[Wammy101]

Hmph?! I thought this still went on in most schools today, but from what I am reading here, it seems like NOT paddling is the norm.

Kids are paddled at the public school my daughter attends (she attends one of the best schools in our state). If a parent objects to their child getting paddled, they must submit a letter in writing to the school stating their wishes. Some parents don’t object to their child getting paddled - as long as they are present while it is done - I’m assuming it’s because they want to make sure the child gets paddled, not beaten.

A), If I were you, I would take my daughter out of the school and RUUUUUUUN!!!
B) With regards to keeping the childs parent present at paddling, wouldn’t it be more efficient, and less of a bother for the parent to disipline the child themselves?

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

Have to agree with this.
I was hit with a ruler for writing with my left hand in grade school (I’m left handed.). There are always a few teachers who are not safe to be allowed to punish children physically. Better that only parents do it.

Good gracious! As a fellow lefty, I can’t imagine this happening in the United States any time after 1940! Both my parents are lefties, but my father was raised in a small community in southern Illinois. Both went to elementary school in the late 30s, early 40s. He had his left hand tied behind his back to stop him from using his left. She was allowed to use her left hand, and even had a special tutor for penmanship. So did I.

Another good reason to allow parents to physically discipline their own.

 

[Missa_Solemnis]

I think things have gone downhill since they got rid of the paddle in schools. There’s more violence in society, kids are running amock. They didn’t have school shootings back when they had corporal punishment in the schools. They didn’t have a bunch of namby, pamby social workers catering to out of control kids.

People say that hitting kids causes violence, but I don’t think that’s true. Why is there more violence these days than back in the day when they sent kids to the pricipals and the kid got the paddle? Kids are pretty basic and they need to be taught to fear their elders. I don’t see anything wrong with it. The parents need to toughen up too and quit pampering their brats. Things have gone downhill since they got rid of the paddle.

Indeed.

I was disciplined by the belt as a kid…and now as a teenager I am NOT (thought most people like to think kids disciplined this way grow up to be)

A: depressed
B: a serial killer
C: violent
D: all of the above

I dont understand why people dont use coropral punishment anymore…whatever theyve dropped it in favor for…well its not working.

 

[BLB_Oregon]

Indeed.

I was disciplined by the belt as a kid…and now as a teenager I am NOT (thought most people like to think kids disciplined this way grow up to be)

A: depressed
B: a serial killer
C: violent
D: all of the above

I dont understand why people dont use coropral punishment anymore…whatever theyve dropped it in favor for…well its not working.

Since you’re a teenager, why are you so sure that what they used in the old days worked so well? You don’t believe those Bing Crosby movies and re-runs of “Leave it to Beaver”, do you?

I lived back when kids got paddled in school. Sorry, but the kids weren’t angels back then, particularly not the ones from broken homes or those who were raised in neighborhoods full of addicts and addiction-related crime. There are some things that a good beating just can’t cure. Blame it on the '60s? Sorry, but those hippy kids got their spankings, too.

You may as well say that the world would be a better place if the kids were forced to walk to school during blizzards, uphill in both directions.

There is a difference between choosing not to use corporal punishment and being afraid to use discipline. Before you become a parent, be sure that you learn the difference. There are parents who do, and some still choose to use corporal punishment. They don’t use it the same way as those who don’t know the difference.

 

[Missa_Solemnis]

Since you’re a teenager, why are you so sure that what they used in the old days worked so well? You don’t believe those Bing Crosby movies and re-runs of “Leave it to Beaver”, do you?

I lived back when kids got paddled in school. Sorry, but the kids weren’t angels back then, particularly not the ones from broken homes or those who were raised in neighborhoods full of addicts and addiction-related crime. There are some things that a good beating just can’t cure. Blame it on the '60s? Sorry, but those hippy kids got their spankings, too.

You may as well say that the world would be a better place if the kids were forced to walk to school during blizzards, uphill in both directions.

There is a difference between choosing not to use corporal punishment and being afraid to use discipline. Before you become a parent, be sure that you learn the difference. There are parents who do, and some still choose to use corporal punishment. They don’t use it the same way as those who don’t know the difference.

Of course its not appropriate in every situation. Its just that I think it worked better in my home situation and most of my friends went through the same thing. It was an opinion thats all…

 

[dkoinzan]

I am all for it if I can spank the principal with it!!!

With all forms of disapline, it can and will be abused.

Just make the punishment fit the crime and and then make it all consistant.

 

[Sandi]

I raised a son to maturity without ever having to hit him, and if anyone else – such as a teacher – ever laid a finger on my minor child without my permission, they’d have a riproaring tornado of a pair of parents – not to mention a lawsuit – on their hands.

 

[BLB_Oregon]

Of course its not appropriate in every situation. Its just that I think it worked better in my home situation and most of my friends went through the same thing. It was an opinion thats all…

As somebody who lived in the time when corporal punishment was handed out at school, I can say that getting it from Mom or Dad and getting it from Mrs. So-and-So are two entirely different things. As a parent who has used it, I’ll tell you that having consistent rules for yourself about when you’ll use it and when you won’t makes all the difference in the world.

At our house, I do better as a parent without it. I’m not ready to outlaw it generally…just at my house.

 

[brotherhrolf]

Good gracious! As a fellow lefty, I can’t imagine this happening in the United States any time after 1940! Both my parents are lefties, but my father was raised in a small community in southern Illinois. Both went to elementary school in the late 30s, early 40s. He had his left hand tied behind his back to stop him from using his left. She was allowed to use her left hand, and even had a special tutor for penmanship. So did I.

Another good reason to allow parents to physically discipline their own.

It was used routinely at my Catholic high school and I graduated in 1969. Would I use it? Absolutely not. I got the belt at home and the paddle at school and I made a solemn vow to myself that I would never do either to my children. I never did - both of my sons are adults.

But it wasn’t just paddling. In my sophomore year of high school one of the (really there is no other way to describe this) guys who looked and dressed like John Travolta in the movie “Grease” mouthed off to one of the Brothers. Said Brother took a yard stick, whacked him on the head, and broke an (artery/vein? - whichever one causes blood to spurt out in accordance with your heartbeat). Blood all over the place. Got him to first aid, sent for his father and said father beat the living daylights out of him in the school yard.

Football player mouthed off to a diminuative Brother (who was also an ex-Golden Gloves boxer). Said Brother beat the living daylights out of the jock down three flights of stairs and out into the school yard. Said father beat the living daylights out of said jock as well - all in full view of the class rooms.

This is not urban legend. I saw these things with my own two eyes in the mid to late 60s. My mother’s answer to everything (including C’s on tests) was the belt. It was a very common practice when I was a child. What would be considered abuse today was the norm then and I can’t help but think that it is the result of us boomers remembering what went on.

I am no liberal by any stretch of the immagination. But the belt or the paddle are NOT the answer to discipline problems.

 

[gmarie21]

It was used routinely at my Catholic high school and I graduated in 1969. Would I use it? Absolutely not. I got the belt at home and the paddle at school and I made a solemn vow to myself that I would never do either to my children. I never did - both of my sons are adults.

But it wasn’t just paddling. In my sophomore year of high school one of the (really there is no other way to describe this) guys who looked and dressed like John Travolta in the movie “Grease” mouthed off to one of the Brothers. Said Brother took a yard stick, whacked him on the head, and broke an (artery/vein? - whichever one causes blood to spurt out in accordance with your heartbeat). Blood all over the place. Got him to first aid, sent for his father and said father beat the living daylights out of him in the school yard.

Football player mouthed off to a diminuative Brother (who was also an ex-Golden Gloves boxer). Said Brother beat the living daylights out of the jock down three flights of stairs and out into the school yard. Said father beat the living daylights out of said jock as well - all in full view of the class rooms.

This is not urban legend. I saw these things with my own two eyes in the mid to late 60s. My mother’s answer to everything (including C’s on tests) was the belt. It was a very common practice when I was a child. What would be considered abuse today was the norm then and I can’t help but think that it is the result of us boomers remembering what went on.

I am no liberal by any stretch of the immagination. But the belt or the paddle are NOT the answer to discipline problems.

Can I take a guess, were they LaSallian Christian Brothers? I know of a few who would box or wrestle the trouble makers. After a few fights, those same Brothers were always treated with respect and no one acted up in front of them. Even when I was in high school, their history (which we all knew) was enough for us to not act up (since it was the 90’s and obviously no one touched a student, let alone wrestled or boxed with a student).