It was the last resort when it came to punishment. You could hear a pin drop when somebody was sent to the principal's office for a strapping. Even worse, we all would flinch as we heard the strap being administered. Yes, the principal purposely left his office door open with great effect. Abuse damages fragile egos. It undermines confidence. It kills a child's spirit. This chat with an alumnus from Montreal's Lower Canada College sheds some light on how different things were back then.
I do understand that the disciplinary pendulum has swung rather dramatically the other way. In any case, most of us who are sending or have sent our children to private school understand that self-discipline is something which we adults need to teach our children ourselves. The school can certainly help, but in the end, we parents are responsible for making sure our children understand that there are real consequences for breaking the rules. Just as in adult life, there are no physical punishments.
But there are real consequences such as losing one's job, or being fined, or worse, facing jail time. Learning to abide by the school's Code of Discipline and Conduct is a valuable lesson for later life. What can you and I do to eliminate corporal punishment completely? Write to your state legislators and let them know your feelings. You pay local property taxes, therefore you also have a right to inform your local school board about how you feel.
Hopefully, your local board will have long since passed rules and regulations forbidding corporal punishment in their classrooms. In many cases, insurance carriers have demanded that the practice be forbidden because it exposes the board to lawsuits as well as bad publicity. Among them is Ted Roush, the superintendent of the Suwannee County school district in northern Florida.
Louisiana state Rep. Danny McCormick, a Republican, offered a similar perspective. While students of color and those with disabilities are disproporionately subjected to corporal punishment at school compared to their white and nondisabled classmates, one recent report suggests that the roots of corporal pushment in southern schools run deep — with ties to lynching.
The report , published this year in the journal Social Problems, found that in places where lynching was once routine, schools are more likely to rely on corporal punishment today — especially against Black students. Though previous federal efforts have failed to ban corporal punishment in schools and the U. In Louisiana, state Sen.
Franklin Foil, a Republican, recognizes that some in his state continue to support corporal punishment in classrooms. So when he proposed legislation to regulate its use in , he focused on children with disabilities after parents with negative experiences brought the issue to his attention.
It was a smart political strategy. While his bill passed, legislation to ban the practice outright failed, albeit by a much larger margin, 34 in favor to 61 against , than the same effort earlier this month.
Though he supports a complete ban, he acknowledges it faces steep obstacles, including from school administrators who believe that state lawmakers should stay out of their business.
As research on the deleterious effects of corporal punishment builds, Jackson believes that even more educators will turn away from the practice altogether. By Mark Keierleber May 19, Get essential education news and commentary delivered straight to your inbox.
Stay informed. Invest in independent journalism. And help The 74 make an impact. Donate now and help us reach our NewsMatch goal. Donate Now! Florida attorney Brent Probinsky. Tags Chicago Florida Louisiana. Sign-Up for T74 Newsletter Submit. Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news. A commonality among many of these states is that corporal punishment is persistent in the South where Black students face discrimination from white educators, the report noted.
The leading state is Mississippi, where teachers are known to implement corporal punishment nearly 28, times a year. So it needs to end. In Florida, where corporal punishment is OK, many counties have prohibited the practice.
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