This Week's "off Topic Topic"...(20/02/12)

[Ludwig Venter]

I grew up in an era where teachers still had the authority to apply corporal punishment as and when required (and I had my fair share of it)....

This was progressively removed from our schools to the extent that kids now challenge the teachers and threaten them with knives or other weapons when confronted..... Is this the reason why kids have no more respect for their elders??..... Even Parents are exposed to prosecution nowadays if you dare discipline your kids in the good old fashioned method...... Are we creating a new generation of little monsters?

I personally think corporal punishment should be brought back in schools (or is it too late to fall back)??? What is your opinion?...

 

[Fortitudo]

I grew up in the era of respect for teachers, no corporal punishment but my mother would let me know if I was bad!
Not done me any harm!
But I agree with the new era, we should teach kids that violence solves nothing!
If you do something wrong, you should be taught how to do it right and encouraged to do it right!
Same as on here, we don't scold those who don't know but arm them with information so they can do it right and enjoy fish keeping as a hobby.
If anything those who can't be helped should be made to serve 1 year in the Army after leaving school, show them how to control themselves, I guarantee that most if not all 'problem' kids who do national service will end up joining the Army and getting not only a good career, but qualifications and bettering themselves as people!
It's a win/win!
Anyway that's my 2pence worth done!

 

[moochy13]

my mate is in the RAF regiment, and said he would never ever want anybody on national service anywhere near him when the s**t hits the fan. who wants to do life threatening stuff with somebody who doesnt even want to be there ? 1 year in national service is barely long enough to achieve anything productive, other than make some people minds up its what they want to do. do we want a force filled of people thinking "there was nothing else to do so i joined the army" ?

as for corporal punishment, stuipid personal safety laws, the sueing culture and "human rights' mean it will never happen again. though there needs to be a line that if you cross, you have no more human rights. this line would be once you start breaking the law, whatever you're doing. particuarly where squatters and "the travelling community" are concerned. but thats for another thread.

fortitudo - you cant teach kids violence solves nothing with corporal punishment - slight conflict if interests there.

 

[the_lock_man]

We are not creating a generation of monster due to a lack of corporal punishment. It is a lack of parental skills that is causing such a lack of respect for others that kids think that they can do what they like and get away with it.

There certainly should be strong sanctions taken against children who transgress, but violence is not part of that. My children know that if they are naughty, then they will have sanctions applied - whether it be the bottom stair, or withdrawal of PC/Wii/DS/gaming priviledges, they know it will happen. They may still be PITAs at home, but in public, we have usually been proud of their behaviour. We have never ever smacked any of them. How can you say to a child "Don't hit your brother, as your punishment, I'm going to hit you"? How ridiculous is that?

What is lacking is the willpower of parents/teachers/role models to see through a harsh punishment in the face of continued transgression of the part of a child - it is easier to let them win, and it is this weakness that is allowing children to grow up with a sense of arrogance, and a lack of respect for others.

IMHO, of course.

 

[Rummynose]

Like TLM, we never hit our children either. They grew up learning about consequenzes. There are natural consequences: them hurting themselves doing what they were told not to do, good consequences: you study, you get good marks, you get a good report card you get to go to the movies (or any activity the kids got to choose), and bad consequences: being naughty gets you time-out, computer time restricted to school work only, not getting to see their TV show! Discipline with dignity!!!

Our kids are young adults now, going to University and College, but while they were taking part in after school activities like Swimming, Soccer, Cubs, Brownies, Cadets....we saw how most families spent their evenings when we took our children canvassing from door to door, fundraising for their clubs or for school. Everyone's TV was running. People came home and then the TV was turned on.

In our house we had game nights with our children, doing crafts with them on many weekends, I read with them every evening, took them to the library, swimming at the lake, sledding and skating in the winter. We sometimes took them out after supper, to go skating in the dark at the city's many skating rinks set up for the children at the playgrounds, and then we went home to get warmed up with a cup of hot chocolate. I baked with them, they learned to cook from an early age. They started doing their own laundry when they were young teenagers and I started going back to work. We prepared them for life!!!

We had only one income until I started working again, and money was often tight, but our kids grew up knowing that we loved them, that we loved spending time with them!!! I think that is where it went wrong/is going wrong for many families. They start having their children, have to have two incomes to make ends meet, parents are too tired, trying to catch up with chores at home, no energy left to spend time with their children. And the children grow up, they don't feel that they are truly loved, that they are lovable people, that they are important to their mom and dad, they grow up being yelled at, ignored, sometimes being beat on, they may see their parents doing drugs, alcohol, watch them yell at each other, start hating each other, watch their parents go through a divorce...

No, I don't think that bringing back corporal punishment is going to fix what's broken!!!

 

[ainsy]

This is a tricky one!

When I was at school I used to have a once a week, regular as clockwork, appointment with the headteacher for a regular dose of punishment. He was later prosecuted for abuse. At the time I just accepted that I had done the crime - so I deserved the time (the crime was usually not learning my latin homework!!!)

I spent nearly 20 years as a teacher, a job that I absolutely loved, and would never have considered corporal punishment even though I suffered things that you wouldn't believe.

TLM is correct in one respect - there is an ever growing slip is the standards that are acceptable in society and parents are failing their children constantly by not disciplining them properly. There has become a culture of adults wanting to be their children's 'Mates' instead of their parents.

What doesn't help is when a teacher tries to discipline an unruly pupil only to have the parent come in and start trouble (Yes I was even threatened with a baseball bat once!) In years gone by if a child came home saying they were in trouble in school they would have received a clip round the ear from their parents - now what happens is the parent says 'Right I'm going to that school to sort that teacher out!'

When I was a newly qualified teacher I was mentored by a highly an elderly colleague who was close to retirement. She had an outlook on corporal punishment that I have shared ever since working with her.

She used to say that she had been legally permitted to administer corporal punishment for the majority of her career - but had never had to because thethreatof being able to was enough.

Now children know that they can behave with impunity - A 7 year old who had just thrown half a brick at me then shouted 'and you can't do nuthin' about it cause my dad will call the police on yer'

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I think we are. THere are a lot of instances of kids going to juvenile hall due to lack of dicipline. I spank my kids, and I believe they will be better individuals because they were taught the difference beteen right and wrong and had it INTILLED in them with a firm hand.

 

[Fortitudo]

my mate is in the RAF regiment, and said he would never ever want anybody on national service anywhere near him when the s**t hits the fan. who wants to do life threatening stuff with somebody who doesnt even want to be there ? 1 year in national service is barely long enough to achieve anything productive, other than make some people minds up its what they want to do. do we want a force filled of people thinking "there was nothing else to do so i joined the army" ?

as for corporal punishment, stuipid personal safety laws, the sueing culture and "human rights' mean it will never happen again. though there needs to be a line that if you cross, you have no more human rights. this line would be once you start breaking the law, whatever you're doing. particuarly where squatters and "the travelling community" are concerned. but thats for another thread.

fortitudo - you cant teach kids violence solves nothing with corporal punishment - slight conflict if interests there.

I never said send them out to fight lol!
I know that would be stupid, but the Army are set up in a way to encourage growth of a person and teach them how to harness their potential!
Teaching them life skills and personal discipline is easy for the Army in 1 year.
Also I am against corporal punishment, I may have made a typo... oops!
I used to get into trouble a lot, get into a few fights and found that violence only begets violence, we have a big revenge culture and long memories nowadays!