Corporal Punishment story on NPR

I thought that this was on topic a bit:

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/04/12/521944429/where-corporal-punishment-is-stil l-used-its-roots-go-deep

Of note, they seemed to indicate that in most cases the students requested paddling in stead of in school suspension or other punishment. They still asked the parents permission, but in most cases the parents agreed with the student's decision.

That principal clearly enjoys it.

Let's see, you can:
1) get suspended for days, which means being banned from the property and not allowed to participate in sports and other after school activities, or
2) get it over with by taking a paddling.

Yes, I can see which one many would pick. That said, the punishment they don't pick is obviously the more effective deterrent.

Going by the sounds of the community in general if the kid chose the suspension they'd probably be paddled at home anyway, so it makes sense to get it over and done with at school.

I thought it was a bit over the top where the girl got paddled (or would have had to serve an in school suspension) because her phone rang in class and she had never been in trouble before. I thought that was an innocent mistake in forgetting to silence her phone and the punishment did not fit the "crime".

I could see that if she was a repeat offender then a good spanking might be in order but not as a first offense!

I don't know... Aren't you guys getting tired of being the only remaining developed country in the world that still allows corporal punishment in schools? (Except for a handful of private schools in Australia, yes I know...)

Alongside this anachronism, you also have the most skilled researchers in the world, who are the people producing a lot of the research that unanimously agrees it's a terrible thing. Why don't you want to listen to your own experts? Who everyone in the global research community knows are the best?

You're such a weird place. You have the highest ratio of geniuses in the world, but also the highest ratio of people killed by their own lawnmowers.

But I'm getting off track now. Stop giving school staff the power to hit your children. Do you really trust them that much?

They must have had the technology down there in the mountains for a while now, otherwise she would not have had a phone to go off in class. Yet they are not concerned about the sort of online interest that surrounds the subject of corporal punishment. Perhaps it is just that "to the pure, everything is pure".

yeah, I thought the whole bit with getting in school suspension for having the phone go off in class was a bit much, but it sounded like the choice of in school suspension meant they wouldn't get all of their normal class work. They really highlighted the fact that it was usually the student requesting corporal punishment, it didn't appear to be the default punishment at all.

As for the phone thing, it is probably a zero tolerance policy (which is rather common). I once had a cousin who went to high school in a southern state get a suspension due to taking motrin on her own without going to a school nurse. It was rather crazy, but it was a school policy that students couldn't medicate themselves (due to zero tolerance drug policies).

Zero Tolerance.

That sounds effective, but it is merely the imposition of arbitrary rules, rules that the staff can't alter in any way or they will be fired. There have been elementary school children suspended for "gun related violence" when they pretended a stick was a gun. And in some areas the police are called for every minor infraction.

No, I would be hard pressed to write a story with a more absurd setting than anything to do with "Zero Tolerance".

I'm torn on school corporal punishment. I grew up with it, felt it's effects on occasion, and did see it curb bad behavior back in the day. I also saw it misused and used far too often by some teachers. I can see it as tool in the arsenal, not the first option used, but, one that is available. In my district, back in the dark ages, ( I started 1st grade in 1965) It was understood by students and parents alike that a paddling was a possibility. So, unless you were a real problem and did something really serious, parents didn't get called. So, unless you did a complete turn around in the behavior department and went from being a well behaved kid to a little hellion, or you did something like steal, try to seriously hurt someone, or maybe damage school property, your parents most likely didn't get called. If offered the choice between an ISS or a paddling, I'd take the paddling every time, and I'd try to avoid the behavior that caused the choice to be made in the first place, because even thought we accepted it, a padding really was something to be avoided.