The New York Times
The learning network | should schools be allowed to use corporal punishment.
Should Schools Be Allowed to Use Corporal Punishment?
Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.
- See all Student Opinion »
Corporal — physical — punishment of students has a long history, and 20 states still permit its use. What are the arguments for and against corporal punishment? Should administrators and teachers be allowed to discipline students physically? Why or why not?
In the article “Schools Under Pressure to Spare the Rod Forever,” Dan Frosch tells the story of one case, and then puts it into larger context:
When Tyler Anastopoulos got in trouble for skipping detention at his high school recently, he received the same punishment that students in parts of rural Texas have been getting for generations. Tyler, an 11th grader from Wichita Falls, was sent to the assistant principal and given three swift swats to the backside with a paddle, recalled Angie Herring, his mother. The blows were so severe that they caused deep bruises and the boy wound up in the hospital, Ms. Herring said. While the image of the high school principal patrolling the halls with paddle in hand is largely of the past, corporal punishment is still alive in 20 states, according to the Center for Effective Discipline, a group that tracks its use in schools around the country and advocates for its end. Most of those states are in the South, where paddling remains ingrained in the social and family fabric of some communities. Each year, prodded by child safety advocates, state legislatures debate whether corporal punishment amounts to an archaic form of child abuse or an effective means of discipline. This month, Tyler, who attends City View Junior/Senior High School, told his story to lawmakers in Texas, which is considering a ban on corporal punishment. The same week, legislators in New Mexico voted to end the practice there. Texas schools, Ms. Herring fumed, appear to have free rein in disciplining a student, “as long as you don’t kill him.” “If I did that to my son,” she said, “I’d go to jail.”
Students: Tell us what you think about corporal punishment in school. Is it permitted, and used, in your state and your school? Do you support or oppose it, and why? What do you think about the fact that some students and alumni — not just school officials — think corporal punishment should be used in school?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. Please use only your first name. For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that include a last name.
Comments are no longer being accepted.
I do not believe in corporal punishment meted out by anyone, even parents, after the age of 6/7 yrs. There is no need when a child is old enough to be reasoned with. You use the word “discipline” as a synonym for “punishment” which is NOT what it really means. It comes from the same root as “disciple” which means “a follower”. We discipline children to lead them into what we believe to be correct thinking and action, not to punish.
no I dont think schools should use corporal punishment, kids need discipline not punishiment and many faculty and staff members in schools get this term confused, yes there are kids that get iss or oss more often then others but they just need more discipline, thats all.
no i would not like to be a teacher because there are WAY to many kids,I mean i can handle kids but not that many i would have to be a sub teacher!
No because it would be wrong. Kids now days won’t take punishment. They would fight back and there would alot of fighting.
I personally believe that schools should not use corporal punishment, just as the mother in the article said, she would be sent to jail if she beat her son the way some southern schools still do. The teachers who act upon children in those ways would be locked up in an instant if any caring mother or father saw this happening. Its abuse.
i strongly disagree with corporal punishment. i think that if children are hit or “corporaly punished” then they will most definetly grow up thinking the only way to pursuad people to their way of thinking is to hit them.
Corporal punishment should be banned from any city sate. I believe this because when you hit kids they grow up two ways. One is that you can be crazy and hate your parents, another one is that you can grow trying to make mistake because of the fear of getting hit. I was never hit as a child and will not hit my child I think a time out or taking something away would work. Some parents just need to sit down with their kids.
I believe corporal punishment is wrong because if parents are not allowed to punish their own kids in that way then other people, specially people that are probably not related, shouldn’t be allowed to even touch the kids. Verbal Disciplines should be more than enough.
i think schools should be able to use corporal punishment. we would have less students suspended and RPCed. we would have have stronger students and less cry babies
Is this question really being asked? Should teachers be able to beat students? I personally think that all punishment consequences should be left to the parent, and the parent only .Verbal discipline should be all that teachers, principle, and pretty much anyone that is not that child’s parent be allowed to do to reprimand the child. if a child can call child abuse on their parents for hitting them and the parents go to jail, why should teachers be allowed to do it and not have consequences. Corporal punishment should not be allowed back in the hands of teachers and administration.
I think corporal punishment should be banned from every state. Students shouldn’t get hit at school when their parents don’t even hit them at home. I think teachers should just use verbal discipline on the students and just leave the rest to their parents.
I disagree with corporal punishment because kids now would want to fight the teachers. When kids get sent to the deans office they will argue for even the smallest things like dresscode.Teacher’s are already strict, so theres no purpose for corpral punishment.Kids that get beat will grow up and treat their kids and abuse them. To me corporal punishment is a bad method for school.
I don’t think school should allow corporal punishment students. In the state of Nevada corporal punishment is not allow in school or anywhere. I’m opposing it because students these days are very smart and understandable to orders when they now there is doing something wrong. Students don’t need corporal punishment to obey orders. I don’t other people should think that corporal punishment is right. By hurting humans they will never understand they correct way of taking orders.
Corporal punishment is just another way of having frightened students. Teacher shouldn’t set any punishment what’s so ever. Responsible Parent’s should already be taking care of that, not teachers. Teacher should only focus on their job, which is teaching
To this response I say it is a cruel and unusual punishment, to have someone whip another child in a school district. Therefore I have to oppose the beating that is supposedly a punishment in school. The question I have for you is how would you feel if you where spank in school then laughed at in your face by peers plus the teachers. That is all I have to say for this “should schools be allowed to use corporal punishment?”
No they shouldn’t be allowed to use corpral punishment! Because it’s not that serious for the students,some kids will talk back and not listen or even fight back. I think it’s not right you should leave it up to the parent for your child behavior.
Yes, schools should be allowed to use corporal punishment. It’s a good punishment to use with students who don’t obey the school rules. Some students are spoiled and snotty, and behave super badly but get away with everything. Some students don’t get punishment by their parents and so they do but bad things. I remember that I was in Mexico and teachers hit students with paddles. They actually behave and listen to the teacher when she is teaching the lesson. So I believe in this punishment, students will learn a lot better.
Yes, I think school should be allowed to use corporal punishment. By allowing teachers using the corporal punishment students are less likely to talk back. Students are going to start doing their work because they do not when to be hit by the teachers. My dad told me when he was in school at Mexico he gets hit if he did not do his work in school. My dad thinks I have a good life at school because I do not get hit at school. If I did get hit at school I get good grades and my dad be happy.
Students should be given a physical punishment. If the pain is hard enough, and they continue to misbehave, them it might help them learn to behave and it would help build character.
I do not think that would be fair at all. Because if a teacher doesn’t like a student just beause. they could punish them for no reason and make up something.My answer is no they should not be able to have corporal punishment.
I dont think that schools should be able to do that. There is a thing call Child Abusse, which makes it against the law to hit kids. Only your parents should do that because they made you. So if the school hits you that is against that law, and they can get punished in the court of law, and they wont teacher at that school any more. Thats what i think about that at schools.
No way! i think that is wrong and not fair.Okay i know we dont act are best in class but they should not put there hands on us, its not the old school we dont do that no more. I feel that most of the times my teachers get on my nerves and i snap so…basically that pushing me off the cliff.
I am a future educator studying for my Elementary and Special Ed degrees at the University of Southern Mississippi. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez must sign HB 172 to end corporal punishment in New Mexico schools because it is an archaic and unethical practice.
I believe that God did not make children’s bodies to be hit with a wooden board. Plain Talk About Spanking (read it at //nospank.net/pt2011.htm ) talks about the physical repercussions of hitting a child.
Parents would go to jail for the kind of bruises caused by educators but somehow the educators get away with it! It’s mind-boggling!
If Governor Martinez signs this bill, it would bring the number of states where it is legal down to 19 and it would send a resounding message to the lawmakers of other paddling states that they need to address this issue as well. If she does not sign it by April 8, it dies by pocket veto and it will encourage paddlers that they can continue to get away with their abuse.
Please call Gov. Martinez every day and get at least ten of your friends to do the same! Call 505-476-2200 and urge her to sign House Bill 172!
YES some kids need to be dicplaned but most kids don’t need this.kids dont want to listen so warn them into line.if a teacher hit me I would hit back.so would most kids .
Honestly i dont think it should be aloud because its not really teaching them a lesson it just builds a hostile situation between the teacher and the student. If a teacher were to hit me he would get hit back. So no i dont think that should be aloud.
What's Next
COMMENTS
Yes, schools should be allowed to use corporal punishment. It’s a good punishment to use with students who don’t obey the school rules. Some students are spoiled and snotty, and behave super badly but get away with everything. Some students don’t get punishment by their parents and so they do but bad things.