In Texas, Reviving the Paddle as Teaching Tool

[bonnie]

Texas has bucked a national trend toward eliminating corporal punishment in schools. (Tom Fox/Dallas Morning News)

TEMPLE, TEX. -- In an era when students talk back to teachers, skip class and wear ever-more-risque clothing to school, one central Texas city has hit upon a deceptively simple solution: Bring back the paddle.

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Most school districts across the country banned paddling of students long ago. Texas sat that trend out. Nearly a quarter of the estimated 225,000 students who received corporal punishment nationwide in 2006, the latest figures available, were from the Lone Star State.

But even by Texas standards, Temple is unusual. The city, a compact railroad hub of 60,000 people, banned the practice and then revived it at the demand of parents who longed for the orderly schools of yesteryear. Without paddling, "there were no consequences for kids," said Steve Wright, who runs a construction business and is Temple's school board president.

Since paddling was brought back to the city's 14 schools by a unanimous board vote in May, behavior at Temple's single high school has changed dramatically, Wright said, even though only one student in the school system has been paddled.

"The discipline problem is much better than it's been in years," Wright said, something he attributed to the new punishment and to other discipline programs schools are trying. Residents of the city's comfortable homes, most of which sport neighborly, worn chairs out front, praise the change.

"There are times when maybe a good crack might not be a bad idea," said Robert Pippin, a custom home builder who sports a goatee and cowboy boots. His son graduated from Temple schools several years ago.

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Corporal punishment remains legal in 20 states, mostly in the South, but its use is diminishing. Ohio ended it last year, and a movement for a federal ban is afoot. A House subcommittee held a hearing on the practice Thursday, and its chairman, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), is gearing up for a push to end the practice once and for all. She plans to introduce legislation within weeks.

"When you look that the federal government has outlawed physical punishment in prisons, I think the time has come that we should do it in schools," she said.

A joint American Civil Liberties Union-Human Rights Watch report last year found that students with disabilities were disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment, sometimes in direct response to behavioral problems that were a result of their disabilities. Many educators and psychologists say that positive tools, such as giving praise for good behavior and withholding it for bad, are far more effective for discouraging misbehavior.

Those techniques "encourage them to behave well in the future," said report author Alice Farmer. Paddling "makes students lose respect for their teachers."

Rules about paddling vary from district to district, but typically only administrators, not teachers, can mete out the punishment, which is done in private. Usually, a long, flat wooden paddle is used to give as many as three blows across the student's clothed rear end, although Farmer found students who had been hit many more times. Boys are overwhelmingly the target.

Not everybody in Texas is gung-ho about paddling. The practice has been banned in the state's big cities, and its use varies from campus to campus in districts that allow it.

[Tom Wetmore]

That is especially interesting in light of a very recent study that showed that the use of spanking results in a marked increase in aggressive behavior of children. While it achieves short-term results of gaining the attention of the child and getting short-term behavior change, the long-term effects were negative and counter-productive.

[bonnie]

That is especially interesting in light of a very recent study that showed that the use of spanking results in a marked increase in aggressive behavior of children. While it achieves short-term results of gaining the attention of the child and getting short-term behavior change, the long-term effects were negative and counter-productive.

The parents of today are far less likely to spank their children,buying the notion put forth in that study. Yet the children of today are far more aggressive and destructive in their behavior than that of my generation or that of my parents.

We never worried about a classmate coming to school with a gun determined to kill as many students as he could. While there was taunting and teasing it was never to the point of driving the one tormented to commit suicide as recently happened.

I find my sons now they are in their forties a lot more reliable barometer of their upbringing than a "study".

Spanking was never the first option but was used when we felt it called for. None of the four were aggressive towards other children. Nor are they aggressive as adults.

They did not bully or torment their peers. They did fight at times among themselves but never went looking for it.

Watching them now with their children,ranging from toddler to young adults is interesting.

During their teen years they knew beyond a doubt we were far to strict. Now in many ways they are far stricter with their children than we were.

[phkrause]

I heard that also. We are reading "Child Guidance" and so far it seems that they are agreeing with EGW for the most part. She does say to use it as a last resort, but she does say if needed than we should use spanking, she calls it whipping.

pk

[Gerr]

There are too many studies the results of which are accepted when in reality the study was not properly done. I'd like to see how the study was done showing increased aggression when corporal punishment is used. I believe there is some place for pain as a teaching/disciplinary tool. I doubt that a person who has accidentally burned a hand on a hot stove would ever knowingly stick their hand on it ever again. I don't believer, however, that it should ever be a first option, but to rule it out or outlaw it altogether, IMO, stinks.

[Dr. Shane]

The schools I am familiar with, here in Texas, that use corporal punishment only use it with students when the parents have consented. The parent is asked to sign a consent form at the beginning of the year. The parent is then notified any time that the punishment is used.

The odd thing is that Child Protective Services advises parents to spank their children with nothing more than the open hand on a clothed bottom. Yet school officials are using a flat board.

[karl]

Prov 13:24: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (diligently)."

Prov 19:18: "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying."

Prov 22:15: "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."

Prov 23:13,14: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell (Shoel)."

Prov 29:15: "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."

Hebrews 12:6-7: "...the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?"

[bonnie]

We had an interesting experience when our youngest was in third grade.

One of his classmates could best be described as a Charles Manson wannebe.

His mother did not believe in spanking so spanking is not what made this child so aggressive.

One of our sons baby sat for him in the previous summer months.

My son was reading while watching tv with him.He had his hand resting on the arm of the couch.This little sweetheart stabbed him in the hand with a butcher knife. Reason,just to see if he could make it go all the way thru.

He had been passed from one third grade classroom to another. He finally ended up in my sons room and with a teacher of 30 years experience and one that didn't take any nonsense.

The first week of school was totally disrupted by this child.

Annette warned him he was very close to getting a paddling. He laughed and said she wouldn't dare.

That was his last warning. Annette simply took him by the hand as he is laughing,sat in a chair in front of the class and paddled the daylights out of this kid.

How she escaped firing or a lawsuit I have no idea. The end result was a well behaved classroom,even the little monster.

He became very attached to Annette,she was not only tough she was fair and enjoyed the kids. He responded to that.

The following year he had to go to another classroom.Didn't take to many weeks and he was back at his old games.

The spanking by the teacher did not make this little boy aggressive.

[Dr. Shane]

My mother would spank my siblings and I. She burned our fingers with matches too. Getting locked in the closet was another favorite. My mom would chase my sister around the house with a butcher knife too. Once my brother got cut up real bad trying to get it away from her. Surprisingly, none of us kids became violent when we grew up. That is probably because our mother never watch any violence on TV.