Corporal Punishment (whoops, I mean) Discipline in Schools

North Carolina is currently being investigated for its practice of paddling children in school.  Check this out.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704706304575107653593000486.html#printMode

It’s being described as a civil rights issue.  I think it’s barbaric.  I have a cousin who was left-handed, so was seated next to a radiator on her left.  The idea was she would burn her elbow every time she tried to write with her left hand.  We’ve moved way past hand dominance in our school systems, why can’t we get past hitting children?  Three counties in NC account for the majority of discipline.  Sad.

I understand that children must behave, but the days of “take them behind the woodshed” are far gone.  If hitting is the best way to discipline, why is it prohibited for foster parents to physically discipline even a two-year old running in the street?  Because we have learned that hitting teaches hitting behavior.  Don’t you just want to give a piece of your mind to a parent who slaps a child who just hit his brother, saying, “Don’t Hit!”.  Do we listen to ourselves?

I’ve raised seven great kids without hitting.  It can be done.  It’s harder.  It requires that you think about the child’s actions, motivations, and appropriate response.  Dont’ misunderstand.  I am NOT suggesting permissive parenting.  I AM suggesting that parents who hit wise up.  Two of my children have ADHD.  I will never forget walking into my oldest son’s room near bedtime and saying in a harsh voice, “Go downstairs and get a hot fudge sundae” (his favorite).  He immediately jumped up and started cleaning up his toys.  I stopped him and said, “What did I just tell you?”  He said, “You said I had to clean up and get ready for bed”.  I was horrified.  I had spent his first six years thinking that he was deliberately disobedient.  He wasn’t.  I felt about two inches tall.  Of course I hugged him, explained, and we had that ice cream sundae.  But when another child was diagnosed with ADHD, I knew better, and learned to always get my sons’ attention by calling their name, and having them look in my eyes.  What a difference.

I’ve heard the phrase, “It (Being whipped with a branch or yardstick or belt) was good enough for me, look how I turned out!”.  Well, look!  You haven’t learned that society can progress.  You haven’t learned to thirst for knowledge to give you the best and most promising practices in raising children who will be happy and healthy and contribute to society.  You haven’t learned to look beyond the past.  And most of all, you haven’t learned to view children as people with rights.  You view them as “lesser beings” that can have things “done to them”.  All I can say is “please, come into the promising future!”