Listeners of the Education Gadfly Show Podcast may recall my segment from February 24th highlighting the decision of Rockingham County, North Carolina to ban corporal punishment. Following some internal debate that took place afterward, I took it upon myself to do some more research on the matter.
Admittedly, some psychologists have found that the use of gentle physical punishment can help maintain discipline in schools. While this may be the case, allowing the variance in what individual teachers and school districts define as ?gentle? is simply too great a risk to our children. These beatings or ?paddlings? can occur for reasons well beyond correcting bad behavior. Examples of such include failing an exam, dress code violations, and forgetting a pencil, among others. School is a place for learning, exploration, and personal growth; it should never be a place where children fear being beaten.
In conducting this research, I was thrilled to discover the efforts of fashion designer Mark Ecko, who recently launched a campaign to end corporal punishment in the United States. My hat goes off to people such as Mark who are willing to use their influence achieved outside of the education community to help put an end to this archaic practice.
- Every 20 seconds of the school day, a child is beaten by an educator.
- Every 4 minutes of the school day, a child is beaten by an educator so severely that he or she seeks medical attention.
- The United States is the only nation in the developed world that allows corporal punishment; the practice has been banned in 106 other countries.
- In all 50 states, it is illegal to hit a prisoner or an animal. In only 30 states, though, is it illegal to hit a student.
- Those states that have yet to ban the practice outright include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.
- All US citizens have the right to due process prior to receiving a sentence or punishment. Yet, students in the 20 states where paddling is legal in schools are often denied this fundamental right.
Many thanks go out to Mark, as well as Anthony Adams, for assembling this compelling data on the subject. More statistics, along with suggestions for what you can do to take action against corporal punishment can be found on their websites.
The views expressed in this article do not represent those of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and any of its subsidiaries.
