Posted by Benjamin on: 08.26.2008 /
Human Rights Watch and the ACLU issued a joint report last week looking into the use of corporal punishment in U.S. public schools.
African American girls were twice as likely as their white counterparts to be paddled. Students with physical and mental disabilities were also more likely to be punished.
Reading this made me profoundly sad. How am I so blessed while others suffer so much? My two beautiful daughters, aged 4 and 6, have, for the last 3 years, been involved in a profoundly brilliant school called the EEU. The student body is composed of about 50% “typical” students, like my two girls, and about 50% “atypical” students–children who are … challenged in various ways, whether they are on the autism/Asperger spectrum, or have some physical or mental developmental delay. The teacher to student ratio at EEU is around 1:3, and the teachers and teachers’ aides and just everyone down there are so amazingly dedicated, educated, and brilliant. It’s been one of the best experiences of my life, having our two girls in the school. I was raised in a sect that strongly insisted that parents beat their children with a paddle, and it never did *any* good for me. I have received the most amazing education from my daughters’ teachers. They have taken the time to answer Meg’s and my questions and help us figure out the whole discipline thing without having to use punishment as the main tool.
About a year ago I read Karen Pryor’s Don’t Shoot the Dog. Karen has been an animal trainer–including, of all things, dolphins and orca’s who participate in shows at places like sea world. She goes into some detail about why punishment is so … dangerous–sometimes it gets you what you want, but more often it just leaves you with a bigger mess, as is outlined in the report on beatings in U.S. schools. Reinforcement works *so* much more consistently.
There must be some way to change the system here in the U.S. so that parents, teachers, and students don’t have to suffer under the horror of corporal punishment in the schools, but rather can be beneficiaries of far more effective positive reinforcement based discipline methods.
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Comment by: Staci
1 08/26/08 2:21 PM | Comment Link |Wow. Being from the west coast, I’d sort of thought this was banned throughout the US as it is in our state. I found the best practices section especially informative.
It seems one of the major reasons for keeping corporal punishment is that it doesn’t take any extra money. (Lunch or after school detention would take extra employee and/or bus time, etc.) But - setting aside the many ways this could be causing harm - I wonder about the longer term financial cost that could be associated with saving a little budget dollars now. With just a quick look at the map it appears that the states with the highest use of corporal punishment also often have high incarceration rates. (Although there are some w/high rates that do not.) It would be interesting see if there is any connection.
Comment by: Sharon
2 08/27/08 4:09 AM | Comment Link |Wow, I can’t believe there are still states that allow corporal punishment in schools. Here in New Zealand it was made illegal long ago (around the time I was in high school I think, so about 15-20 years ago). The whole idea of letting someone else spank (paddle!) my child is strange.
However, although the school issue is well settled here, we are currently go through some pretty major debates about child discipline in the home. A recent law change to remove the defense of “reasonable force” in child abuse cases (i.e. caregivers could claim they were using reasonable force in disciplining a child as a defense against abuse and assault charges)has become a huge debate. The law change has been erroneously labeled the “anti-smacking law” by the media and certain sections of society, and taken to be an attack on parents “right” to discipline children properly. Lobby group “Family First” (I’m sure you can guess where their base support is from)have successfully petitioned from a referendum on the issue, with the tricky question- “‘Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offense in New Zealand?”. Just how do you answer that?
I was smacked as a child, both the the hand and with a “wooden spoon”, and until a few years ago assumed I would do the same because it didn’t seem to do me much harm (I wasn’t a particularly naughty child though!) and I was well indoctrinated with the reasons why. Now I’m a Mum I think very differently, and I just cannot see myself using smacking/paddling, it doesn’t seem to make any sense to me now- it just seems unnecessary and violent. There are plenty of more creative and positive ways of encouraging good behavior and discouraging the bad.
Comment by: Janice
3 08/28/08 10:59 AM | Comment Link |Sharon, I agree with you - there are more creative and positive ways of disciplining (training/teaching) and of relating to our children. If you care, pop in to this blog:
http://gracebased.blogspot.com/
where I aimed at one time to get some discussion going for parents. (all are invited - its been dead, but a revival might be fun!)
Comment by: Janice
4 08/28/08 11:14 AM | Comment Link |Sharon, I agree. There are more creative and positive ways to discipline/train a child. It takes more time most often, but its worth it. It changes the way we relate to our children.
If you are interested in it, stop by a group blog that I had started a while back for parents - it can be found here:
http://gracebased.blogspot.com/
Its been dead as I haven’t been giving it any attention - but all are invited. :)
Janice
Comment by: Benjamin
5 08/28/08 2:14 PM | Comment Link |Staci,
that *would* be an interesting correlation to investigate. I actually saw something similar–seems like the states where the corporal punishments are worst are also the states with the worst poverty.
Sharon–yeah I was kind of surprised too.
What *do* you say to the whole parental smacking question?
It seems to me that we shouldn’t be treating children in a way that we can’t treat adults.
I mean if, in our culture, it were more or less acceptable for an adult to “smack” another adult in response to certain unacceptable behavior, then it would make more sense to me for people to be able to do that to their children.
Of course we only “smack”, as it were, foreign prisoners of war, for the most part. Or I mean to say that we as a society tend to approve, to some degree, of the use of physical beating against “others”, but generally not against those we consider in our in group. Excepting, to some extent and in some parts of our culture, children.
Janice,
Wow you ask some intense and provocative questions. thank you!