I do not believe corporal pusnishment is a bad thing as long as there are a set of boundaries clearly established and communicated to the parents and guardians. I was paddled once in school on my hand. I remember it was 3 licks. And I never interrupted my class again. The paddle was not the first warning, it was a result of continuous disruptive behavior. I respected the teacher and he had an orderly and productive classroom. Children today are different. Society is different and the family is different. Many people protest agains spankings in the home and children are left undisciplined. What ever the reason for not disciplining your child rather it is physically with spankings or by way of punishments it is not fair. Parents are responsible for teaching their children and guiding them through life. We have to help them adopt healthy moral and ethical dispositions. Many parents do not do that anymore. Children want boundaries. And they need someone who to enforce them. At school and at home.

I went on a middleschool field trip yesterday- I spent 11 hrs on a bus and total of 23 hrs with 140 middleschoolers- we attended a statewide choir, orchestra and band competition. You know with the "good kids" in the school- the so called "band and singing geeks" that the "cool kids" make fun of. Well if these are the "good kids" then we have more issues than I thought!
There were about 12 parent chaperones on this trip and 2 teachers. I have never seen such disrespect and general awfulness in my life. I was pushed, shoved told to move/get out of way, yelled at, CURSED at and given the "stare down". I had another parent say that the kids made her cry! Everytime she asked or told them to do something they mimicked her and laughed and kept doing what they wanted. The bus drivers were ticked because the kids trashed the bus- food and empty drink containers thrown everywhere.
I feel I can hold my own ground, they do not scare me or intimadate me at all. I know this age group feels the need to prove their maturity levels and independence- but this was neithr of those- this was the utmost disrespect. Not all kids acted this way, about 5% were behaved- and were made fun of by the other kids. They were told to quit acting like mothers and learn to have some fun! FUN!!!????
We went to a restuarant for dinner, and the waitress asked for them to please quiet down so she could explain some things and a child told her to "sit down and shut up"- disrespectful. The teachers would get us in groups and go over agenda, rules, etc and they would talk over top of them and just laugh when told to be quiet. I had a 13 yr old girl sitting behind me on the bus that had the most horrid mouth I have ever heard. Every other word out of her mouth was the F-bomb. I kinda laughed it off the first few times, saying to watch the language. By the 3rd time I said "I feel Im pretty laid back and can tolerate alot but the one thing I will not tolerate is cursing- please clean up your language", she just looked at me and went back to talking. I heard more curse words and again said- please watch the language. At that point she thought it was a game- she cursed more and louder; she informed me if her mother can use that word then she can also and there was nothing I could do about it. I choose to ignore her for awhile to see if she was just trying to get attention, look cool in front of her friends. It finally turned into her cursing and calling other kids on bus dirty names, and also a discussion on douching (that was disgusting); at this point I lost my cool and turned to her and said very loudly, calmly and clearly "if you can not say a sentence without using a curse word in it, please shut your mouth"; she didnt quite know what to say, but she tried to give me the evil eye stare down, which I just smiled and told her that I have one of her at home and her look didnt intimidate me and to get over herself. She then sat back there for the next 30 minutes and went on about what a b**** I am, and I think Im so much better than her and Im not her mother and cant tell her what to do and how my daughter will pay for my mistakes. I just let it go from there, decided this is now out of my hands and I will let a teacher deal with it. I had no back up from other chaperones on bus as I was in back, and 2 others were in middle/front of bus and could night hear her over the other kids. I was unable to talk with the teachers after the trip as they were unloading equipment and talking with hundreds of other parents,but I have drafted an email to him and hope to have him follow up. I feel if there was some sort of repercussions for their actions, or a thought of one (instead of detention or in school supension, which is a joke)that maybe they would be a little better. The whole no hitting because it is child abuse, is now a battle cry for them- they use it to their advantage in some cases, along with what are you gonna do, hit me?
I know I will never volunteer for a trip ever again- I may go along and support my child, but I will not torture myself with this sort of verbal abuse and disrespect from children again. If mine gets out of line, I can punish her, or if need to, smack or spank her. These other children I can not punish and they know that.
Again- these are the good kids in school, and I have seen their parents fawn over their "perfect little angels"- if the only knew!

When I was in the third grade, I was attending a grammar school in northwestern Indiana. I remember one day on the playground, when another boy brought a toy of some kind to school. I vaguely remember us fighting over it, and the next thing i knew the principal was there, and the next thing I remember is extremely vivid in my memory; the taste of blood in my mouth as it ran down my face. It happened so quickly all I can think is that he smacked me. I remember him dragging me to his office and shoving me into his private bathroom, his demand that I get cleaned up. I remember his phone call to my house trumping the story up and I remember the ride home from school and everything that followed. Folks, corporal punishment HAS a place in school. Physical abuse does NOT. Yes, the school can't take the place of the parents. But there isn't one of you out there that truthfully can say that society isn't crumbling, and unfortunately there's lots of reasons for it. The teachers are besides themselves just trying to keep order, and the schools in some areas resemble war zones. Uniformed police have to stand guard and patrol the hallways to ensure both the students and faculties safety. Bottom line: good solid discipline, given with LOVE, should be a staple in the home just as much as a pizza on game day. It doesn't stop there, though. The schools MUST be allowed to continue that practice, if necessary. It's called consistency. And although my run in with that overzealous principal went dreadfully wrong, I feel with proper oversight that limited corporal punishment in schools can at least somewhat stem the tide of disrespect and sometimes outright violence that has exploded in our classrooms. Of course, I know no one is going to take any action... God forbid we stand up to the kids. But I think we're doing them a grave disservice by not pointing them in the right direction, and if we think things are bad now, wait ten years.

This article would have been much more helpful if it was dated. States that forbid corporal punishment in schools is a moving target. Regards.
Bruce Robinson
ReligiousTolerance.org

29 state legislatures have abolished the unacceptable practice of Physical (Corporal) Punishment of Children in Public Schools. All children deserve to be treated with equal civil rights by educators in our public schools. When educators discipline our school children by hitting them with wooden paddles or other weapons, they are teaching the powerful lesson that physical violence is the way to solve problems. Human Rights Watch and ACLU issued a report on 8/20/08 titled "A Violent Education" to government officials with recommendations to Immediately Abolish Corporal Punishment in Public Schools, which cited U.S. Dept. of Education statistics for 2006 where public schools reported disciplining over 200,000 children by hitting, spanking or similar means for such minor violations as chewing gum or violating school dress codes. Parents/guardians are urged to express their wishes in writing to their child's school board and teachers if they do not want their child hit by educators at school.