If you're an adult of a certain age, you probably have a memory or two of a teacher taking you or a classmate "out to the woodshed" for some classroom offense. For example, I remember a sixth grade classmate who wasn't particularly good at keeping his listening ears on. One day, this student's antics pushed our teacher so far over the edge that he threw the student against the blackboard. He tossed him so hard it left a dent in the metal chalk holder. Obviously, that's extreme, but I also remember children being spanked just for "carrying on" in class. I even have my own memory of being such a chatty first-grader that the teacher finally gave up and Scotch taped my mouth shut. Not as traumatic as a spanking, but I was pretty shocked that she was allowed to do that and I still have vivid memories of the incident.
Any disciplinary tactics like that today would get a teacher fired for child abuse and kicked out of the profession, right?
Apparently that possibility depends on which state you live in. While we're a society that shudders at the thought of animal abuse, and prisoners have protections against physical discipline, students in 20 states have no such safeguard. Pretty shocking in this age when Tiger Mother tactics at home cause a collective uproar.
Those students now have a surprisingly passionate ally in fashion designer Marc Ecko.
Earlier this month, Ecko announced the start of his Unlimited Justice lobbying effort to persuade lawmakers to outlaw "the paddle" and the use of corporal punishment against children in public schools. In those 20 states, teachers have the legal right to physically punish children for a variety of transgressions -- even getting a bad grade on a test -- and we're not just talking about a passing swat on the tushy. Thousands of children every year report injuries so severe they seek medical treatment.
So what got Ecko involved? He has three young kids of his own who attend public schools and he's been an educational advocate in the past. But what really pushed him forward was the realization that it almost didn't matter how much time we spent thinking about teachers or curricula or No Child Left Behind standards if children couldn't go to school every morning knowing that they're safe from harm.
Ecko told me by phone, as he was rushing down the streets of New York City, that as he learned more about the issues surrounding corporal punishment in schools -- that students who are "paddled" are more likely to drop out of school and that most people don't even know it's still happening -- he knew it was an issue that needed a "Buckle Up for Safety" moment. Few Americans paid attention to actually using the seat belts in their cars until that simple and direct safety campaign was launched. For Ecko, it's well past time to see that happen when it comes to the in-school safety of our schoolchildren and convince educators that those who use violence as a problem-solving technique are giving our kids the wrong message.
And he's come up with an uber-cool iPhone app to contact your lawmakers about this issue that's already been downloaded 100,000 times in just two days. Clearly, Ecko isn't the only parent concerned about this issue.
New Mexico legislators are voting on legislation this week that would outlaw the use of violence against students. And Texas is considering legislation that would ban the use of violence against students, as well -- a state where, according to one report, 49,000 children were subjected to corporal punishment in the 2006-2007 school year.
I have to admit -- I had no idea that in almost of half of our country, parents can send their kids off to school not knowing whether they'll come home bruised or welted, or worse, and have little legal recourse against the teachers who harmed their children or the schools where they work.
As parents in the 21st century, we spend a lot of time talking with our children about keeping their hands to themselves and doing what we can to keep childhood bullying and hurtfulness to a minimum. But if public school teachers in so many states are permitted to exist in a "do as I say, not as I do" world, what hope do we have of convincing our kids that violence or meanness won't be tolerated?
Ecko fairly pondered on one of the morning shows, "How do we live in a country where we can outlaw peanuts in almost every classroom, but paddles are still OK?"
I wish I had a good answer for that.
Follow Joanne Bamberger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PunditMom
Corporal Punishment in U.S. Schools - TIME
“Corporal Punishment in Schools and Its Effect on Academic Success ...
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS
Bill to Ban Corporal Punishment in Schools Hits Washington - ABC News
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The student kept talking and showed no respect to her fellow classmates while they were trying to learn "lessons" from the teacher. She kept talking knowing the worst that would happen to her was having her mouth taped shut and she could go home and complain about the incident to her mother, knowing her mother would raise cain. The mother wailing that such an atrocity (Taping of the mouth) was perpetrated by her daughters teacher while at school by someone other then her. The mother thinking that is was someone else's "job" to instill manners, respect and values for/to others while away from home. The student and mother blame someone else rather then taking personal responsibility for their own actions or lack thereof. The teacher loses.
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This was the teachers fault - No it was the students fault. It's always someone else's fault because it sure wasn't mine! Society loses.
We need to support parents and teachers by providing effective non-violent methods of encouraging socially beneficial behaviors and discouraging antisocial ones.
Similarly, instead of targeting gun ownership, we ought to provide training in conflict resolution and anger management.
How can people teach children not to hit others and then hit them and permit their teachers to do the same? Conservatives still seem to believe in the old adage " spare the rod and spoil the child " !
I'm reminded of the joke:
A teacher, a teabagger, and a CEO walk into a restaurant. The waiter brings over a plate with 12 cookies on it. The CEO grabs 11 cookies, then leans over and whispers into the teabagger's ear, "Hey, look out! That teacher wants part of your cookie."
Its a serious problem effecting students AND teachers. We need the publics support, Our union is not listening!
Let me guess.
These 20. Would they be mostly red states? Mostly in the mid and south?
Link please.
"There never was a time when a major social problem was solved by beating a child. And there never will be such a time... For centuries adults have injured children and have lied about it, and other adults have heard those lies and then merely turned away"
Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop
http://www.nospank.net/
If I'm teaching a two year old or three year old not to touch a hot stove, I'm going to swat their hand, not reason with them.
If I'm teaching a five or six year old the same thing, I'm going to explain that the stove is hot and they'll burn their hand. I'll also tell them that if they touch it they'll not only burn their hand, but they will not be allowed to watch television for a month. And they'll know I'll follow through because that is what discipline is.
Discipline is not allowing a child to do anything they want, including hurt themselves because you don't want to appear to be a child abuser to someone that is clueless about raising children and gets all their information from books and then interprets it wrong. I'll bet that is supported if that ENTIRE quote was posted and not just cherrypicking the parts you like.
Corporal punishment in school doesn't' work. They are too old and have already developed enough reasoning skills to understand consequences of actions. Timing out is more effective.
Corporal punishment is not beating a child. But it can be a swat on the bottom when a child that is too young to have developed reasoning skills is doing something they have been told not to do that will put them in danger of harm.
Grow up.
this may be true, but in my view it's still generally unnecessary and carries more potential for risk than benefit.
Could it be that students who misbehave in school are more likely to drop out, whether they're paddled for it or not?
“teachers and their unions are using the collective bargaining process in ways that help kids, boost the teaching profession and promote the public good.”
“Collective bargaining is a vehicle to improve services”
Randi Weingarten
I'm sure she commissioned a study on, “The Effects of Corporal Punishment and Bullying on a young and developing mind”.
I seriously doubt teachers and their unions would ask for an increase in “Wage and Benefits” without knowing the effects of beating a child or looking the other way when a child is bullied. Right?
Lets give her a call or write to her;
American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
555 New Jersey Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20001
Attention: Randi Weingarten, President
Via Phone
202/879-4400
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randi-weingarten
This is like blaming the weather on Weingarten. The union's got nothing to do with this issue. Save the nonsensical anti-union rants for when they're at least tangentially related.
http://www.temple.edu/temple_times/2-17-05/hyman.html
I like the following quotes;
“Violence comes from violence"
“When people are given the power to inflict pain on others, that power will inevitably be abused. Spanking is unnecessary. It doesn’t work. And it contributes to the violence in the lives of our children.”
Definitely purchasing his book. He dedicated The Case Against Spanking, his 1997 book, to his granddaughter with the inscription: “To Julia. I give you a mother who will never hit you.”
Thanks again