No, it was stupid and used improperly. I was a straight A student except in one thing - handwriting. I got Ds in handwriting regularly. So I was supposed to take one of my D papers home for my mother to sign it, and forgot for three days running. I got paddled in front of the entire class for this oh so horrible infraction.
I still rankle at the unjustness of it. That didn’t teach me to respect the teacher or that I should listen. It just taught me that punishment is cruel and arbitrary and no matter how good you do you are still fucked if the teacher feels like it.
How anybody can think that beating a child is appropriate is unfathomable. There are ways to humiliate and punish without beating. And I am entirely of the opinion that we have gone too far the other way, that we are much too kind to our children now, but I would never advocate going back to beating them. Think about it. You are subject to the whims of your teacher. That’s great if it’s a great teacher. What happens when it’s a psycho bitch that should have retired years and years ago.
No. I’m just refusing to romanticize beating children, or the effects of doing so. Beating a gay guy for being sinful, beating your wife for not being submissive enough, torturing a prisoner because he won’t confess to what you think he did; that’s just the same principle as “corporal punishment” taken into adulthood.
If these parents are so set on corporal punishment for misbehavior, let them wait until the kid gets home and THEN use it. Don’t rely on the teachers to teachers to do it.
(BTW, I also went to Catholic school, and I think I got spanked ONCE. A quick smack on the butt in first grade when me and two of my friends got bored during lunch, so we went to the back of the cafeteria and started harassing the kids in band practice. Other than that, it was extra homework, missing recess, etc.)
Nobody does. A spanking is not a beating. I don’t know how you managed to “forget” to bring your paper home 3 times but you should have been doing lines on day 1.
You shot down your own argument with this. First you say the humiliation is worse than doing lines and then you go on to say there are other ways to humiliate and punish. I don’t know if you went to a Catholic School but they were pretty reserved about spanking when I went. The meanest bitchiest teacher in my school never spanked anybody. It was the last line of disciplinary defense to be used as such.
I got smacked by a nun when I was in the 5th grade. Right across the face. It was for insulting a kid for being effeminate. She literally slapped the stupid out of me while reading me the riot act in front of everybody. You are clueless about the Catholic Church. Clueless.
Also, I think comparing the regimented corporal punishment in my school to a “beating” is generally an unfair comparison.
In my private school growing up, corporal punishment was indeed used. It was mostly reserved for things like cheating on a test. It was always in the principal’s office, in private, administered by the principal and witnessed by another teacher. If a girl was ever administered CP, I was unaware, but in those instances two female teachers would have been involved – one to administer, the other to witness. It was not a lashing out in anger, was done quietly, and never more than two “licks” with the paddle. For the record, my folks administered CP at home in a similar fashion: calmly, with discussion before and after, and very clear rules as to when and why CP would be administered. Hardly a “beating.”
She was a bully who hit a child because she knew he wouldn’t hit back. That’s the real lesson she was teaching the children she struck. Brutalize those who can’t fight back.
My cluelessness or lack thereof is irrelevant, since Catholicism isn’t the point of the thread. Hitting children is.
It may be relevant if it’s an outreach program. Traditionally black communities are Protestant. If this parish has a high percentage of black children in the school they may not be Catholic but part of a program to improve the educational standards in the community. The parents want the discipline the school traditionally provided.
There is nothing stopping a child from striking a teacher. She was a little bitty thing and I could have flattened her easily. She did the right thing and to this day I’m thankful she did.
New Deal Democrat’s theory was that white people don’t have a clue and only black parents understand how to raise black children. I recognize there are cultural issues and things like that here, but let’s not give support to nonsense.
It’s looks like the OP has spiraled into a debate about the pro’s and con’s of corporal punishment. I’m kind of torn on the issue. OK, I’ll play with my experience in two scenarios.
Case 1: Corporal punishment was legal in my junior high in Oklahoma City, at least in the early '70’s, and was referred to as “getting licks” or “getting paddled.” It consisted of the paddlee bending over and placing his (almost always a male) hands on his knees, and the paddler striking the paddlee on the butt with a wooden paddle, usually one to three times. In my experience, the pain was sharp but didn’t last more than a minute or two. I’ve been the recipient of a beating, and this wasn’t a beating. Maybe it’s how we’re defining the word. To me, a beating implies an intent to injure. Somebody whaling on you in a parking lot while you’re trying to curl into a fetal position is a beating.
My Social Studies class consisted of the 7th grade football team. We were pretty rowdy, to say the least, and our coach was not someone to suffer foolishness. Paddling was administered frequently here, and was considered something of a right of passage. As far as I can tell, there was no physical or emotional harm, and, yes, I’d much prefer getting three licks to spending after school in detention for a day. My guess, this is something like Shagnasty was referring to.
Case 2: I was a mental health worker at a state home for psychologically disturbed children, the worst of the worst cases. Not only was striking a child not allowed, you would be arrested for doing so, and for good reason. Most of the children (4 - 18 in age) were here because of the traumatic effects of physical and/or sexual abuse. We’re talking real beatings here. What this taught me was that no matter the provocation, there was always another option besides corporal punishment. The result of time-outs or flat out ignoring, for instance, were not as dramatic as spanking a child, and it often tool a long time to see any effect, but the end result was usually the same that paddling advocates strive for: Reinforce positive behavior, don’t reinforce negative behavior.
Are you doubting me? Is that what you mean by your little scare quotes? Do tell me what I learned from being paddled. On second thought, don’t. Beat your own kids if you want, but the teachers should not be allowed to. Anyway I am done with this argument. Arguing on the Internet never accomplishes anything.