What If Corporal Punishment Returned To CNY Schools?

In a move straight out of the past, one school in Georgia has asked parents to allow chastising of children with paddles and surprisingly over 30% of the parents have responded that they're cool with it. While corporal punishment is banned in over half the states in our nation, a surprising number (mostly in the south) still allow it. What would you do if it returned to New York?

The Georgia school superintendent says that this is mainly a scare tactic but they will use it for those students that have had three or more behavioral writeups. If a parent doesn't authorize the punishment, the student will face suspension instead (which is also scary to the typical 10 year old, I would think.)

"A student will be taken into an office behind closed doors. The student will place their hands on their knees or piece of furniture and will be struck on the buttocks with a paddle... no more than three licks should be given".

I grew up in Midwest in the 80's where this sort of thing was allowed, and I remember my principal Dr. Dorsch had a wooden paddle with holes in it displayed on his desk and we all feared that paddle although none of us never saw it used. However, at home corporal punishment was the norm and I'd have to say that personally the embarrassment of going through that kind of thing did more to heighten my rebellion than to stymie it. If someone is bad enough to warrant that kind of punishment, then the stage was likely set years in advance and it'll take much more than a beating to clear the mental and emotional issues feeding an out-of-hand attitude like that.

While I agree wholeheartedly that today's brand of parent is nowhere near harsh enough, I don't think that I'd like to see the return of corporal punishment anytime soon. Surely, we can be more creative and fitting when doling out consequences and still demand respect from those under our authority without having to physically extract it from them. Your thoughts?

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