TEMPLE, TEX. -- In an era when students talk back to teachers, skip class and wear ever-more-risque clothing to school, one central Texas city has hit upon a deceptively simple solution: Bring back the paddle.

 

Those in support:

Without paddling, "there were no consequences for kids," said Steve Wright, who runs a construction business and is Temple's school board president.

 

Since paddling was brought back to the city's 14 schools by a unanimous board vote in May, behavior at Temple's single high school has changed dramatically, Wright said, even though only one student in the school system has been paddled.

 

"The discipline problem is much better than it's been in years," Wright said, something he attributed to the new punishment and to other discipline programs schools are trying.

 

"There are times when maybe a good crack might not be a bad idea," said Robert Pippin, a custom home builder who sports a goatee and cowboy boots. His son graduated from Temple schools several years ago.

 

They say their discipline problems aren't different from those in any other school system in the country: students showing up late for class, or violating the dress code, or talking during lessons. Those habits were unheard of in the days when schoolteachers routinely swung a paddle, they say.

 

"Back then, you wouldn't throw spitballs, because you were afraid of the consequences," said Darr Kuykendall, a worker for a plumbing supply company.

 

Residents said restoring paddling is less about the punishment and more about the threat.

 

"It's like speeding," said Bill Woodward, a graphic designer. "Are they going to give you a speeding ticket, or . . . a warning? I'd speed all day if I knew it was going to be a warning."

 

Those in opposition:

When you look that the federal government has outlawed physical punishment in prisons, I think the time has come that we should do it in schools," she said.

 

A joint American Civil Liberties Union-Human Rights Watch report last year found that students with disabilities were disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment, sometimes in direct response to behavioral problems that were a result of their disabilities. Many educators and psychologists say that positive tools, such as giving praise for good behavior and withholding it for bad, are far more effective for discouraging misbehavior.

 

Those techniques "encourage them to behave well in the future," said report author Alice Farmer. Paddling "makes students lose respect for their teachers."

 

Opinions?

 

Texas city revives paddling as it takes a swat at misbehavior

Pros and cons for the issue.

 

Overall, I'm against it only because I don't trust the average teacher to use it properly.

Pros and cons for the issue.

 

Overall, I'm against it only because I don't trust the average teacher to use it properly.

I can respect that view. As a former "paddled" student, I'd like to see it come back to every school.

Lose respect for the teacher? If that was the case,when I was in school,our entire faculty would have been made up of Rodney Dangerfields! In my case I knew that if I got paddled at school then there would be an encore perfomance at home. Respect was not an issue then. It was a given.

I like it. When I was growing up my mother had her paddle she used as a young teacher and I often received our last name imprinted in my rear, where it had been wood burned on to the paddle.

This reminds me of a time when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade I forget which. It was around the time where people had started complaining about their kids getting pattled and what not. Well I was a little hell raiser up through about 6th or 7th grade.

 

ANYWAYS, I had this teacher that was in her late 60's and looking back she was my favorite teacher ever, She yanked me out of class and marched me in the hall way and said if I talked back and didn't straighten up that she was going to smack the crud out of me, so I looked at her and said "No you will not, my dad will yell at you if you do!",

 

to which she quickly responded " believe me I smacked him before and I'll certainly will smack you too!"

 

So I fired back "You will,..... and before I could even get the words out of my mouth SMACK right across the face, and I could feel myself teering up"

 

Mrs K then told me not to bother complaining to my father as it was his idea for her to "smack the snot out of him if he acts up" and with that choice of words I knew she wasn't lying. Needless to say though, it worked.

 

I feel that if a parent still gives a teacher permission to punish a child with a smack or spanking then it should be allowed, no questions asked. Now if parents aren't comfortable with that or don't feel they know the teachers well enough, perhaps there is a seperate problem all of it's own right there.

I have no issue with paddling. I think a little fear goes along way.

1) Each school district can choose to have paddling or not. It is allowed in the state of KY and up to each district.

 

2) Bath County has paddling. In talking with students, they have no problem with it.

 

3) I was paddled several times as a youth. My self esteem has never suffered because of it. I did change some behaviors because of it.

I was paddled in the 6th grade. The teacher brought me and two others up in front of our classroom which consisted of the entire 6th grade. We had a large room that was divided into separate classes with accordion walls. When opened the entire class could see. And that day it was. Well, the teachers whole point was to embarrass us in front of everybody for not turning in homework. Well it worked. Told us to bend over and when he touch our rears, it was like sitting on a cushion. He barely touched us but point taken.

 

Oh, I graduated high school, college and married with 4 kids. College, private high school and grade school, and public high school and grade school are my current choices for my kids. I'm doing just fine and so are my kids.

 

I have no problem with paddling, but like others said, I might not trust the one doing the paddle. I guess that is the double edged sword.

Those in opposition:

 

A joint American Civil Liberties Union-Human Rights Watch report last year found that students with disabilities were disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment, sometimes in direct response to behavioral problems that were a result of their disabilities.

This is a bunch of huey! And believe me, I'd be the first in line to say so if I thought otherwise. Too many kids get away with calling themselves "disabled;" when, in reality, they are just little punks.

 

When I was in school, it was the principal or vice-principal who acted as "the enforcer." In that set-up, the teacher/student relationship doesn't have to enter into it.

Those in opposition:

 

This is a bunch of huey! And believe me, I'd be the first in line to say so if I thought otherwise. Too many kids get away with calling themselves "disabled;" when, in reality, they are just little punks.

 

In my day, it was the principal or vice-principal who acted as "the enforcer." In that set-up, the teacher/student relationship doesn't enter into it.

 

That is with a thought towards the BD students, the EBD students and other students who throw a book across the room and it is because of a mental behavioral problem that supposedly won't allow them to stop themselves and not throw the ball across the room.

That is with a thought towards the BD students, the EBD students and other students who throw a book across the room and it is because of a mental behavioral problem that supposedly won't allow them to stop themselves and not throw the ball across the room.

Students like that, who really do have a behavioral disability, need to be in a special program, or the staff needs to be trained in how to handle them. In no way, should they be allowed to put their classmates in danger, or seriously disrupt their classmates' education.

 

I do have a hard time believing that kids with real behavioral disabilities were punished for showing symptoms of their disorder.

Students like that, who really do have a behavioral disability, need to be in a special program, or the staff needs to be trained in how to handle them. In no way, should they be allowed to put their classmates in danger, or seriously disrupt their classmates' education.

 

I do have a hard time believing that kids with real behavioral disabilities were punished for showing symptoms of their disorder.

 

When those students are put into special classrooms/programs, you do realize that there are still other students (most likely have similar issues) that are going to be in the room, too, and have themselves put into danger.

 

Kids are real smart. Real smart. And once they know that their parents believe they have this, they see that as an opportunity to have no consequences for their actions and that they can do whatever they wish, whether it might be a cause of their disability or not.

Kids are real smart. Real smart. And once they know that their parents believe they have this, they see that as an opportunity to have no consequences for their actions and that they can do whatever they wish, whether it might be a cause of their disability or not.

Exactly. :thumb:

I feel like I have a pretty good view as a past teacher, a parent and a kid that got paddled twice. I think a lot went down hill when we stopped paddling. I got along GREAT with the kids I taught and I had some rough ones. Kids have not fear of teachers or what they can do. The mouths and threats coming from kids especially when I taught in Fayette Co was out of control. SO many kids that need worn out. Problem is they would try to fight you now or bring a lawsuit along with parents wanting to fight you. It's the world we live in now days.

As a parent I wouldn't want somebody paddling my kid but if they were wrong and I got a call on the front end then I could live with it. I do know that my parents struck the fear of God into me that if I got in trouble in school I was going to get it way worse when I got home. I couldn't ask for better parents either. I respected my teachers and my parents. While one of the 2 paddlings I got should have never happened I walked the line after it.