I found out today that in North Carolina, it is legal to spank children in school. It is also legal in 19 other states. I found that to be rather appalling. In New York, a teacher would be hauled to court in handcuffs for daring to spank a child, and then summarily fired, if the offense were proven. I was raised and educated to believe that teachers do not lay a hand on a child. My parents never spanked us (at least, not that I remember, so it must not have been often if it did happen), and we turned out ok. None of us have ever been arrested, or suspended from school, and we all hold down jobs and are generally respectable (except when one of us wants to cook at 1am and goes to Wegman's in her pajamas). (I only did that once.) (Maybe twice.)
I am shocked. What is it about the South that they need to spank children in school to get them to behave? So teachers not learn basic classroom management? Is there no understanding of behavioral psychology? Do teachers in North Carolina not understand the saying, "You have to earn respect to get respect"? You can't smack around a student and make a truly lasting change in behavior. That's just not how it works. Read the journals. For goodness sake, just read any parenting magazine!
They don't want respect, though. I know this from visiting many classrooms. Teachers in the South want compliance: mindless drones to do what they are told. Apparently school isn't to educate children; it's to get them to comply. We're not raising thinking human beings; we're raising the Borg. Thank goodness schools in North Carolina, by federal law, can't mandate psychotropic drugs for students. There would be an entire generation of mindless North Carolinian drones.
The point being: North Carolina is currently considering outlawing spanking children with disabilities in school. DUH!!!!!! I'm pretty sure that spanking a child with an emotional disability is not going to get that child to stop swearing at the teacher. I'm 100% sure it won't get a child with autism to stop misbehaving. I'm also sure it won't get a child who can't read to do his homework, or a hyperactive child to sit still. I truly had no idea spanking in school was still a legal punishment anywhere in the civilized world. I am newly awakened to incomprehensible depths of stupidity.
2 comments:
You know there have been times when you wanted to smack a kid (or a parent, administrator, etc.). Better get it out of your system while you can. At least in NY, teachers can still carry crowbars in school.
Also, stock up on textbooks before Texas revises them...
Ummmmm, which leads to the question, why do you have a crowbar in school? For all those wooden crates in which our new textbooks arrive?
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