Corporal Punishment

When I began the year I knew nothing of corporal punishment except what I saw in old 60's and 70's movies in which the nun is paddling the student for saying the Lord's name in vain. As far as I knew, it was a punishment of the past, no longer used in today's schools. All of my "misconceptions" about corporal punishment seemed to be contradicted when it was mentioned in Ms. Monroe's class. In fact, I remember doing a double take when I heard that it was still used. Truly we had stepped into the past. Well, maybe the Delta was still hanging on to old times, but surely Southaven High school at the top of Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis wouldn't employ such barbaric tactics to curb misbehavior. Wrong again. Yes, even Southaven, not really a city you think about when the Delta comes to mind, employed corporal punishment. It was absolutely absurd.

Many of us non-Mississippians, especially us Yankees, have been drilled with literature that corporal punishment, really any form of physical beating if you will, even spanking, is detrimental to the psychological development of a child. What's more is this really what we want to teach our children; that hitting is ok? Geeze, these students will turn into child abusers or end up beating their spouses! Again, corporal punishment? Absurd! It cannot be healthy.

So I thought. I am proud to say that I have not implemented corporal punishment; it's definitely not one of my consequences. Personally, I don't agree with it for the above reasons but that really doesn't mean that I'm for its eradication. I've had to witness corporal punishment several times and I've come to the conclusion that it really depends on the student. Sometimes it seems warranted, other times it is not. Let me repeat myself, I would never employ it as a punishment because I don't believe it is helping the child; however, just because I don't believe it is helping the child doesn't mean that it is an ineffective way to curb misbehavior. In fact, in some cases, I've seen it completely alter a child's misbehavior patterns.

I guess you could say that my views have changed in that I accept it as a reality of the Delta and, as I’ve learned, many other parts of the country. I’m not really sure if it works or doesn’t because I haven’t been in the profession long enough to see significant changes in individuals who were exposed to it compared with those who weren’t. All I know is that I would never personally lay so much as a finger on a child in my classroom.