by Adai Goldberg

Created on: January 18, 2011   Last Updated: January 19, 2011

Corporal punishment has no place in the public educational system. Not too long ago-in fact in the early 80s-children were indeed paddled, hit with a ruler or a yard stick by teachers or the principle, when they misbehaved. However, from a personal standpoint, I have witnessed the practice abused by those in authority.

One of my most vivid memories was of a rather disruptive child in my second grade class. My second grade teacher would lift her by one arm while hitting her with a ruler.  Mrs. H, was an avowed christian and pastor of a small church, on the weekends. Unfortunately, the most disturbing reality concerning this teacher was her classism and her dislike of extremely dark skinned people. If your parents weren't members of the better known churches in the community, or you had anything darker than dark tanned skin, you were pretty much destined to be hit.

Now, just imagine this day and age, where both the student body as well as the teaching community are more diverse than ever. There are people from all cultural backgrounds, races, religions, and social classes. There is also a lot of on the job stress involved in teaching. If teachers were allowed to hit children when they misbehaved, how can we be sure that they in fact misbehaved? What if the teacher was having a bad day? What if the only white student in a class was singled out and hit because of his race? What if the teacher didn't like dark skinned black girls? What if the principle didn't like children from the poor side of town? Could we really take the risk and trust teachers to be fair? The answer is no. We can barely trust many of them not to molest our children, much less dish out corporal punishment.

I think punishment should be left to the parents' discretion. Not every parent agrees with hitting and would rather use different systems of correction, such as time outs. deprivation of entertainment and games. Some parents choose to talk to their children. The only thing I feel teachers should be responsible for is ensuring that they reach every single mind within that classroom and not simply ignore disruptive behavior. However, teachers still have a long way to go as a community. Many have simply given up the art of teaching and sit when problems occur because they either don't care or are afraid of confrontation. Nonetheless, something must happen because children don't seem to have the same regard or respect for the teachers or the wishes of their parents in some cases.

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