Should We Bring Back the Strap in Schools?

October 1, 2008 4:57am CST
I have just quit being a high school teacher in England. Why, you may ask. Well, its quite simple really. A teacher in a high school has absolutely no power to achieve one of the most important aspects of teaching - that is teaching a child how to be a reponsible member of society. There is only one thing left is a school 'tool box' when it comes to disciplining students and that is exclusion. Now, imagine that you are a high school student who hates school, loves truanting and parties, and has a 'cool' image to uphold within the student community. You decide that you would like a couple of days of LEGITIMATELY. Well, the choice is so wide open. You can abuse a teacher, take some drugs to school, get in a fight, bully some little kid, bring out a knife or just take a couple of days of before. And what is the school's response going to be? Your teacher can do nothing because he has nothing left that he can do so he sends you to the head. The Head says "I understand you are having a hard time, little Johnny and I want you to know that we will spend all of our money, that we should be spending on trying to get the good students more resources, on giving you some counselling and one-on-one teaching. But in the mean time, I'm really sorry, but I'm going to have to exclude your for a couple of days." "Woohoo!", you think, "Another couple of days off; a rise in my status at school; and more time out of those stupid classrooms." Surely its time that our politically correct society realises that the reason students are at school is to learn about life - both the hard life and the easy. When they get out into the real world, employers are not going to let them get away with deliberate acts of aggression. Now, do we bring back the strap as an option or do we let respectable adults, who are trying their hardest to make a better life for these kids, fall powerlessly to the floor with no control, no power and no chance to teach the future generation? Please, give me your thoughts...
2 responses
ParaTed2k
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
1 Oct 08
I agree with you, schools have lost their ability to discipline students. The students who choose to be disruptions are given more power than the teachers. I was paddled a couple of times in Jr. High, it didn't do any good. What we need is more parents like mine. When I went home and told my parents that I got paddled, their reaction was... "Did you deserve it?" ;~D I know that if I had been punished unfairly, my folks would have backed me up 100%. But since I was punished fairly, they backed the teacher 100%. They were willing to back the one who was in the right. That was a better lesson for me than any paddling or suspension. btw, I think I got of easy with my first paddling. ;~D
Galena
@Galena (9110)
•
1 Oct 08
definitely not. it's not okay for parents to assault children, let alone a non family member. for a start, it's not the schools job to raise a child. it's the schools job to EDUCATE a child. bringing them up. teaching them how to behave in society is the PARENTS responsibility. sadly many of them don't bother, but that is the way it is. parents raise children. schools educate them. if you misbehave at work, should your boss be allowed to hit you? if not, then why should teachers be allowed to hit pupils. at what age does physical discipline be considered assault, and a criminal offence. physical assault is never the answer. it just teaches children that hitting someone is the way to get someone to behave how you want them to. and we don't want them taking that into adult life. I was never hit as a child, and never would hit a child. they aren't stupid. assualting them isn't the way to show them right from wrong. and older children, younger children. neither will RESPECT you if you hit them. it's hard to deal with older children whose parents haven't raised them right, but that doesn't make assaulting them right.