Corporal Punishment in Schools

I received a note from a blog follower who read my recent post on exerting parental authority. She asked my views on the matter of corporal punishment in schools. This issue gained national attention this summer when congressional representative Carolyn McCarthy introduced in Congress the “Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act.” It seeks to ban corporal punishment in public and private schools that receive federal funding or services. 

My view is that corporal punishment in all schools should be banned. The role of schools is to educate children and to reinforce the good social behavior that children should be learning at home. Students unacceptable behavior in school, verbal or physical, should first, of course, be dealt with by counseling and other measures. All such actions should involve the parents. If this fails to bring about the necessary changes in behavior, schools should exert their authority with steps that escalate, including suspension and finally expulsion. 

It is the duty and responsibility of parents to control their children’s egregious behavior, not an organization acting in their stead. As I noted in my previous blog, Reich tells us that neurotic behavior forces authoritarian measures. When parents fail to exert such control, the burden shifts to school personnel putting them in the role of disciplinarian.  

If a minor has committed a criminal act, it should be addressed through the juvenile justice system. Terroristic threats, just as assaults, whether they are made by children or adults, in or out of school, are crimes and should be dealt with as such. 

Children in school who conduct themselves appropriately, as well their teachers, have the right to live without fear and be protected from verbal or physical assault. For this reason, educators should have recourse to send children to special schools if they will not, or cannot, control their behavior. 

As for the parents of a child who refuses all efforts at control, they must look to themselves to see what they did or did not do that has brought the situation to such a sorry state. Unfortunately, many children in the school system do not have parents who are capable of such insight. Children are not born a “bad seed.” They become disobedient because their upbringing was not what it should have been.  

Reich states in Children of the Future that “all disciplinary measures are due to helplessness and ignorance of how to proceed rationally.” (Emphasis in original.) Corporal punishment in schools, as well as at home, is yet another example of the consequences of armoring, which affects the individual, the family, and all institutions of society. So long as the focus remains on what to do as a result of improper parenting, we will forever be hacking at the branches rather than going to the root of the problem--man’s armored state.