Should teachers be allowed to thrash kiddies and teenagers?

[Riesstiu IV]

I'm sorry, what led you to believe that conservatism = child abuse?

Your existence.

[Egbert]

I went to a Catholic school and everyone got punished twice. First by the nuns then from your parents when they found out the nuns had to punish you.

Umh. Same for me when I was at school. No need to tell the parents if one was punished at school, after once is enough.

I didn't go to a Catholic School. It's just how things were.

the good old days

[Jon Miller]

How common was bullying?

JM

[SpencerH]

I'm going out on a limb here to give the uninformed opinion that home schooling is in every state. With that acknowledgement, it has nothing to do with what you answered.
If a student is enrolled and doesn't attend, the parents can be jailed. I think it's ****ed up, but that's the fact.

If your state allows home schooling then they dont have to attend public school. It only stands to reason. The law is that they have to have to be in school (including home school) until a certain age not that they have to attend a particular school (place).

[rah]

How common was bullying?

JM

At our Catholic Grammar school, it was almost non existent. The priest and nuns took care of it.

[Tuberski]

If your state allows home schooling then they dont have to attend public school. It only stands to reason. The law is that they have to have to be in school (including home school) until a certain age not that they have to attend a particular school (place).

I never said they had to go to a particular school, I said simply "school". I didn't specify public, private, or home.

ACK!

[MikeH]

At our Catholic Grammar school, it was almost non existent. The priest and nuns took care of it.

That reads like they did the bullying.... oh, yeah.

[SpencerH]

I never said they had to go to a particular school, I said simply "school". I didn't specify public, private, or home.

ACK!

True, but when you wrote that you quoted my comment which clearly pertained to public school (else the corporal punishment question would be moot in most states) which implied that your comment was in turn also pertaining to public school.

[rah]

That reads like they did the bullying.... oh, yeah.

To those that refused to behave or were bullies. I think that's a big difference.
And it kept order in the classroom. So for all the negatives that people are throwing around here, it's still hard for me to overlook all the positives.
The Catholic kids were more prepared for High School then the Kids that came from the Public Grammar schools (based on freshmen grade point averages). And the Public schools had bigger budgets, better facilities, and lower class room sizes. The only other real difference were discipline, uniforms, and a religion class every day.

[Aeson]

Did the Nuns thrash you for Capitalizing Random words in Sentences?

[rah]

They rapped our knuckles with rulers. (at least until I started taking piano lessons from another nun. Then they weren't allowed to touch my hands)

Being a grammar Nazi in a public forum is really quite silly and pointless.

[MikeH]

I think a huge part of the difference is another thing you mentioned. You knew full well your parents would support the teacher, and you knew full well what the boundaries were, and what was expected of you. ie. Your school had discipline that worked because generally the parents had strong discipline. The corporal punishment aspect of that is minimal if any, I think you'd have been equally well behaved with other forms of punishment, if everything else was the same.

These days, in the UK, the parents will often support the kid no matter what they've done. (And there are plenty of schools here with excellent disciplinary records. They just tend to be in richer areas, with greater parental involvement)

I think parenting standards have massively dropped in some areas of the country and some sections of society. Plus there are way too many cases where the parent's attitude is "It's us against authority" which includes police, teachers, social workers. That is clearly reflected in the kids behaviour.

[rah]

Why I agree with most of what you say, the bullies parents didn't support the teachers usually, but the priests were still able to neutralize most of their bulling for the good of the whole. So I still see some benefit from the Priest knocking around a few punks, (or us if we got that out of line) I'm conflicted because I do give some credit to those that are punished learn to punish the same way but the bullies were already predisposed to using violence so I don't think it made it any worse. Once I was at the end of the priest's ire, and I don't think that made me more prone to using violence to resolve things. (like I said only once and I deserved it). But it did help me learn to recognize authority, which was an important aspect in having order in the class room.

But still a touch conflicted. I really don't want to praise corporal punishment, but have experienced situations where I though it was doing some good. I think if used in moderation and not used as an excuse to abuse and inflict real harm, there may be SOME benefits.


But I will agree that parental support is probably more important than anything else, but that's not always there.

[MikeH]

And it's a huge issue which is not easy to address.

[SpencerH]

What happens if a kid strikes back against those trying to administer corporal punishment? What happens if things escalate? From my perspective it's self-defense and just another reason why the school administration of corporal punishment is wrong.