Corporal Punishment -Should Beating Be Banned?

Should beating be banned in our schools?

There are still twenty-two states which permit beating in their schools.

Advocates for the abolition of corporal punishment in our schools point to the lasting damage they feel such disciplinary behavior inflicts on impressionable young minds and bodies.

In their opinion

Any form of corporal punishment is violent, humiliating, degrading and uncivilized.
It creates sexual problems in adulthood.
Schools should replace corporal punishment with strictly enforced disciplinary codes.
Society must break the cycle of abuse by banning all forms of corporal punishment.

Advocates for the retention of corporal punishment claim it is an effective deterrent in the class room.

In their opinion

To spare the rod is to spoil the child.
Disciplinary codes are ineffective.
Children must learn to accept limits and authority.
Federal and state laws constitute an unnecessary interference in what they see as a local policy.
Religion teaches that corporal punishment is acceptable and necessary.

In July 2005 the National Organization of Women adopted a resolution opposing corporal punishment in U.S. schools.

In May 2004 the United Methodist Church rejected corporal punishment by parents and care-takers in lop-sided vote of 892 to 7.

In February 2004 Canada's Superior Court outlawed the use of the strap leaving the United States and Australia as the only countries in the industrialized world where beating school children is still legal.

The United Kingdom abolished caning in its state and public schools in the 1980's.

Blacks receive much more paddling than white students according to The Center for Effective Discipline.

Parents and Teachers Against Violence In Education lists incidents of violence against children going back to 1983 in the News Room section of its Web site.

A growing number of professional associations and grass roots organizations are actively campaigning at the local and state levels to make corporal punishment illegal.

Issues like gay marriages, the economy and the war on terrorism have caught the notoriously short attention span of the American public. Corporal punishment once again seems to have been pushed to the bottom of the list of concerns.

Corporal punishment is not just a school issue involving students, but is a societal issue involving families and cultures. Using physical abuse to socialize children is a practice which has been around for centuries. But the reality is that child abuse is a felony in most of the United States.

While civil rights and individual freedoms are the foundation of American society, the contrast between what we practise in our class rooms and what we preach to the world grows even starker.

Few scientific studies draw the conclusion that corporal punishment in and of itself is bad. It is the means of corporal punishment - caning, beating, slapping, strapping and so on - which seem to draw the most attention.

It is very hard to argue with some of the horrifying photographs of students who have been beaten. How can any civilized society allow such atrocities to occur?