FEATURED QUESTION: Education

From time to time, the issue of corporal punishment in schools, a disciplinary measure still legal in various school districts in twenty-one states, makes the news. This recent article in Newsweek relates the story of David Nixon, principal of John C. Calhoun Elementary School in South Carolina. Excerpt:

...Before Nixon took over "John C," student behavior had gotten so bad that one teacher described it as "chaos." She eventually quit in disgust, pulled her own child from the school, and moved to a different one 45 minutes away. ...When Nixon went to his first PTO meeting, only about a dozen parents showed up at a school with 226 students. He still has trouble reaching many families by phone because they can't afford to put down a deposit on a landline. And yet Nixon has managed to turn John C around. It recently earned three statewide Palmetto awards, one for academic performance and two for overall improvement—the school's first such honors in its 35-year history. Not everyone agrees with his methods, but most parents and teachers will tell you he couldn't have pulled off such a turnaround without his wooden paddle....

Please read the entire article, as well as the opposing view. The concluding portion from the latter:

...The use of physical violence against children in school may or may not create order and improve test scores, but it certainly teaches kids about humiliation and fear. And what fifth grader needs to learn about things like that?

Read the entire essay HERE.


What is your view on the use of corporal punishment in schools?