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Corporal Punishment; To paddle or to not paddle?
Topic Started: May 4 2009, 12:06 AM (1,106 Views)
Mystical
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Thought this would be a good debate topic. I found this article and thought hmm people would probably have mixed opinions on it..so..the debate is : To paddle or not to paddle..


The Principal And The Paddle
One South Carolina educator used corporal punishment to turn around his struggling elementary school. Why he's so conflicted about it.

The wooden paddle on principal David Nixon's desk is two feet long, with a handle wrapped in duct tape that has been worn down by age and use. He found it in a dusty cabinet in his predecessor's office at John C. Calhoun Elementary in Calhoun Hills, S.C., where Nixon has been the principal since 2006. He has no idea if the old principal ever used it, but now it sits in plain view for all visitors to see, including children who have been dismissed to his office. As punishment for a "major offense," such as fighting or stealing, students are told to place both hands on the seat of a leather chair and brace for what Nixon calls "a whippin'." Before he begins, though, he sits the child down for a quiet talk about why he, or she, is in trouble. He tries to determine if a deeper issue, such as a problem at home, might warrant a meeting with a counselor. If the child shows remorse, Nixon will often send him or her back to class without a spanking. Otherwise, he makes sure he is calm, and he makes sure his elbow is still. Then he delivers "three licks" to the child's rear end. If the child is a girl, then a female administrator does it. Some of the kids cry. Some are silent. Some want a hug. And after the child is sent back to class, still stinging, Nixon sits alone in his office and thinks about what the child has done, and what he has done. "If I could burn that paddle in my stove," Nixon says, "I would. This is the worst part of my job."

Before Nixon took over "John C," student behavior had gotten so bad that one teacher described it as "chaos." She eventually quit in disgust, pulled her own child from the school, and moved to a different one 45 minutes away. John C is located in a rural stretch of South Carolina near the Georgia border where all but one of the major textile plants have closed, and where the leading local employer is the school system. Nearly 90 percent of the kids at John C live below the poverty line. When Nixon went to his first PTO meeting, only about a dozen parents showed up at a school with 226 students. He still has trouble reaching many families by phone because they can't afford to put down a deposit on a landline. And yet Nixon has managed to turn John C around. It recently earned three statewide Palmetto awards, one for academic performance and two for overall improvement—the school's first such honors in its 35-year history. Not everyone agrees with his methods, but most parents and teachers will tell you he couldn't have pulled off such a turnaround without his wooden paddle.

Still, the mere fact that it works hasn't made spanking kids any easier for Nixon, who's no fire-breathing traditionalist. He's 31, a brownish-haired beanpole with a soft-spoken but determined manner. Married, with an 8-month-old daughter, he taught agriculture to high-school students for six years but had no prior administrative experience. He studied animal science at Clemson, served as state president of the Future Farmers of America, and raised 50 head of beef cattle on his ranch. In 2006, a family friend called about an opening at John C. The school, he heard, was "kind of in bad shape," but he took the job anyway.

Thirty minutes into his first day of school at John C, a father walked into Nixon's office and said, "I want to give you the authority to whip my son's butt." Nixon was surprised, but after he thought it over, he decided to give every parent the same option. The year before he arrived, students made more than 250 visits to the principal's office; order had to be restored. While suspensions take kids out of the classroom for days, paddling could be done in 15 minutes. "What are we here to do? Educate," Nixon says. "This way there's an immediate response, and the child is right back in the room learning." According to school statistics, referrals to the principal's office have dropped 80 percent since 2006. So far this school year, there's been fewer than 50. "I've had parents say 'thank you for doing this'," says fifth-grade teacher Devada Kimsey. "And look at the behavior charts now—there's nothing on them."

Corporal punishment is still legal in portions of 21 states, including South Carolina, but it is rarely practiced anymore. Most education scholars consider it abusive, helpful only in the short term and even predictive of future violence. "This is not a practice for the 21st century," says Nadine Block, executive director of the Center for Effective Discipline in Ohio. "Maybe for the 18th century. An atmosphere of fear is not going to increase learning. Maybe temporarily. But over time, it does not work."

Nixon's policy does not have universal support at John C. On the permission form he sends to parents about paddling, a few have checked "no." "I was spanked as a child," says Deniece Williams, 36, who has a son at John C. "I want to go a different route." The school's mental-health counselor, Heather Hatchett, is equally concerned. "I'm not crazy about it," she says. "A lot of these kids come from violent homes, and kids see this as another violent act." (Nixon winces when Hatchett's words are repeated to him.) Even Nixon's boss, Abbeville County superintendent Ivan Randolph, is unsettled by the practice. "One has to be extremely careful with this," he says. "If it's not administered properly, it could be abusive."

Article continues:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/195119?Gt1=43002
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XNavyGunner
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Gunner

All I know is the paddle kept us in line. And there was no trouble in school like today.
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Max
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Pickle barrel, pickle barrel, Kumquat!
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I never got paddled in school-yes,the Principal kept one in his office-but I had been swatted on the butt a few times at home. It teaches quickly about consequences. The problem with kids today is too many parents want to be "buddies",or the "good guy",and far too many kids never hear the word "no". While I would never advocate BEATING a child,a few swats on the butt seem to focus the mind quite effectively.
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Mystical
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I was paddled at home...never in school.."Which is amazing...seeing as I was a bit of a rebel student" :lmao:

What bothers me is they still have the corporal punishment law in most schools..while they teach the children that anything their parents do to discipline in that way is "Child abuse". Now they are even going as far as saying...."Don't hurt their self esteem by disciplining them".. :bat: OK!!! I'll just lay down and let them trample me and then they will grow up with no values...no responsibility and no respect!..Hmpf!
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newbloodmoon
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Mr. Sardonticus
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I would get switched from time to time. The worst part of it was having to go and cut your own whipping stick off the Filbert tree out back. Never got paddled at school either, maybe cause I was too zippy.
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire

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XNavyGunner
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Gunner

You had to cut your own too? :lmao:
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WReck
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I think accountability is the key people must be held accountable there are a number of ways this can be done. go with what works this school seems to be thriving on this method and that's great.
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newbloodmoon
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Mr. Sardonticus
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XNavyGunner
Jun 3 2009, 03:06 AM
You had to cut your own too? :lmao:
yep, go to small get bloody welts go to big get damn big bruises
Edited by newbloodmoon, Jun 3 2009, 05:32 AM.
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire

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StrmySummer
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Storm Goddess

i agree with paddling in school cause most teachers since they did away with it in schools just get walked all over cause they know the only thing that's gonna happen is they'll get in-school suspension or get suspended out of school....which does nothing. i only got paddled once in school and that was cause the teacher said that me and two boys were givin each other indian sunburns and she said we were fighting.....i wouldn't have gotten the paddlin if i'd done what my dad told me to do and have em call him if they were gonna give me one and if he agreed with it, they'd give me one and then he'd give me one when i got home. which i agree with that's how it should be done.
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"Beginning now, let's play more, kiss more, love more, let's be so close that when one of us cries, the other tastes salt."
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GRAVEYARD HOUND
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World Weary
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Without doubt, hesitation, or delay as long as the person getting punished know what they did wrong and why they are being punished.
"While hiding out in Cairo,... I'm a desperate man...Send lawyers, guns, and money,... the shit has hit the fan".(Paraphrase from "LAWYERS, GUNS AND MONEY")

"...We die at such a place;
some swearing; some dying, some crying for a surgeon;
....some upon their wives left poor behind them;
...some upon the debts they owed;
some upon their children rawly left.

I am afeared there are few die well that die in battle..."
KING HENRY V. ActIV.Scene i
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