Corporal Punishment: The Only Language They Understand?
Duncan Barkes is horrified by calls for the return of corporal punishment.
19 Sep 2011, 22:51
Slap Happy?
Last week a survey revealed that almost half of parents support the return of the cane. Perhaps more interestingly, a fifth of children are also in favour of the return of corporal punishment for very bad behaviour.
These findings clearly highlight a frustration that unruly and disruptive pupils need a short, sharp shock, but I do not believe that beating them is the answer.
Many newspapers and radio programmes last week did not bother to focus on the other findings in the survey. By far and away the biggest interest arose from those simply wanting teachers to have more authority in the classroom. But there are other non-violent measures that could be implemented.
For many modern kids their mobile telephones are their lifelines. Permanently glued to their hands and/or ears, teachers should be given the power to confiscate mobiles. I suspect that at a stroke you would see an immediate positive effect on behaviour. You don’t have to be Super Nanny to work it out: the removal of privileges and treasured possessions is far more likely to have the desired result. The aim of getting back whatever has been denied them becomes the aspiration. Hit a child and getting you back is the more likely outcome.
I find the results of this survey depressing. The responses show that nearly half the parents questioned believe that the only way to restore discipline in the classroom is to use corporal punishment. It suggests that they feel there is no other way, but it would be a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. To be blunt, it is a pretty unsophisticated reaction from what is allegedly a civilised society.
There are many problems in today's society but they will not be solved by violence. There is a poem on our fridge at home. Two lines stick in my mind:
If children live with hostility they learn to fight.
If children live with fairness they learn justice.
Great Britain will cease to be a civilised society if corporal punishment is reinstated. There are enough sadists in the world. Let’s not create any more.
Comments (4)
Subscribe to this posts's comments feed
There was a time when I would have almost instinctively agreed with this sentiment. Unfortunately, that is all it is - sentiment. Mr Barkes reacts like a good liberal, but can only supply aphorisms in support of his case. Most moral positions are emotional and not rational, the "rational" is filled in afterwards, papering over many inconvenient cracks in reason.
When you look for hard evidence, there is little. There is, however, a comparison that can be made between a society that uses corporal punishment, but in other respects is quite like ours - Singapore. I wonder which society is more healthy - draconian but well mannered Singapore, or liberal but sentimental, indulgent, postmodern, rude and increasingly feral Britain.
Is it really more civilized to keep someone for months in the mental terror of an upcoming court case, than to deal summarily with a quick birching? Google "Singapore caning", put away your instinctive reaction to it as "Barbaric" and ask yourself which society is more healthy.
I have no particular position on this issue, even though I was caned at school, but this article is a good example of how unthinking sentiment is poisoning our critical faculties and our society.
20/09/2011 08:43http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7894907/Sentimentality-is-poisoning-our-society.html
How can you have "no particular position on this issue" yet cite Singapore as a healthy society because they cane people?
I have no wish to 'google' Singapore caning as I have witnessed first hand the mental damage thrashing a child can do. Treat someone savagely and they will become a savage.
There are far more effective methods of instilling discipline in a child or teenager. Advocating a "quick birching" surely shows society has lost the battle.
This has nothing to do with liberalism but everything to do compassion.
20/09/2011 14:41A few strawmen there, Mr Barkes - read what I said. I merely **asked** which society was more healthy. I was actually referring to their criminal justice system, rather than their schools, of which I have little knowledge.
I do not approve of "thrashing", or the use of emotive epithets in place of rational argument - the sort of tactic that says "corporal punishment is barbaric" or "fox hunting is cruel" without qualification, assuming that it is enough to close the matter. I think I may have smacked my children less times than I could count on the fingers of one hand, but on those times it was necessary. But all children are different, as Konrad Lorenz could tell you, some need none, some need a lot.
It should only rarely be needed, and exercised with extreme caution, but it should not be banned.
I also think you are confusing compassion with sentimentalism in exactly the way Dalrymple was describing.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/190464
Is it really compassionate to spoil a child? I think I'll give King Solomon the last word: "He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly." (Proverbs 13:24)
20/09/2011 17:11I think many will struggle to determine where you stand on this. You say your comments re Singapore are about their criminal justice system yet my post is clearly about caning/corporal punishment in schools so referring to Singapore is in many ways irrelevant to the conversation.
You also say you have no particular position on this issue, yet continue to debate. So why not nail your colours properly to a mast, tell us which side of the fence you are on and why? Or are you nervous of having a solid opinion?
23/09/2011 15:38