US Education and Corporal Punishment
I couldn't even think what to title this, my jaw is just still kind of on the floor! I know this nation is far from perfect, very far. I sometimes like to curl up in the soft comforting ignorant bliss and like to think ok yeah, somewhere there maybe corporal punishment going on here and there. More that 200,000 kids between 2006-2007 were punished in school by beating?! Minorities, children with mental and physical disabilities were of course more likely to be hit. African-American females more than twice as likely than white females. The children are punished in 13 states for anything from chewing gum in class to fighting. You can read the article and in depth report by Human Rights Watch here. The end of the article includes some of the witness statements these two really have the fury in me going:
“What made me so angry: he’s three years old, he was petrified. He
didn’t want to go back to school, and he didn’t want to start his new
school. I was so worried that this was going to constantly be with him,
equating going to school with being paddled.”
- Rose T., mother of a 3-year-old boy in Texas who was bruised
from physical punishment after he refused to stop playing with his
shoes in class.
“I went into the principal’s office. … He gave me a chair and said hold
onto the chair. The paddle had holes in it. Then he just did three
swats. … I was hit on my buttocks. … There were holes in the paddle to
make it go faster. … It hurt very much. There were definitely red marks
and then swelling… almost welt-like markings. It didn’t last for more
than a couple days. … It left me feeling very humiliated. I think there
were several levels of emotion. Physical pain, mental humiliation. …
And being a female at that age, it was like there was this older man
hitting me on the butt. That’s weird… even at that age I knew it was
inappropriate.”
- Allison G., a recent graduate punished as a teenager in Texas for being late to class multiple times.
I haven't yet read the full report but as soon as the temp drops a bit so I can stay on the computer a little longer, I will.
I really only hated my time in Thailand because corporal punishment was allowed there. We were warned that we may be witnesses to that. My host mother would often pinch her students and it was really hard for me not to want to just go off on her and beat the crap out of her. With the cultural barriers there though there wasn't really anything one could do, you can talk to your blue in the face. Of course some people are more understanding (of both the issue and Enlish ha!) and open to change than others so, it's good to have those people around when you're feeling a little insane about what your seeing. Anyway, so much for thinking this was another thing of the past and a thing that just happens in other places in the world huh?!
“What made me so angry: he’s three years old, he was petrified. He
didn’t want to go back to school, and he didn’t want to start his new
school. I was so worried that this was going to constantly be with him,
equating going to school with being paddled.”
- Rose T., mother of a 3-year-old boy in Texas who was bruised
from physical punishment after he refused to stop playing with his
shoes in class.
“I went into the principal’s office. … He gave me a chair and said hold
onto the chair. The paddle had holes in it. Then he just did three
swats. … I was hit on my buttocks. … There were holes in the paddle to
make it go faster. … It hurt very much. There were definitely red marks
and then swelling… almost welt-like markings. It didn’t last for more
than a couple days. … It left me feeling very humiliated. I think there
were several levels of emotion. Physical pain, mental humiliation. …
And being a female at that age, it was like there was this older man
hitting me on the butt. That’s weird… even at that age I knew it was
inappropriate.”
- Allison G., a recent graduate punished as a teenager in Texas for being late to class multiple times.
I haven't yet read the full report but as soon as the temp drops a bit so I can stay on the computer a little longer, I will.
I really only hated my time in Thailand because corporal punishment was allowed there. We were warned that we may be witnesses to that. My host mother would often pinch her students and it was really hard for me not to want to just go off on her and beat the crap out of her. With the cultural barriers there though there wasn't really anything one could do, you can talk to your blue in the face. Of course some people are more understanding (of both the issue and Enlish ha!) and open to change than others so, it's good to have those people around when you're feeling a little insane about what your seeing. Anyway, so much for thinking this was another thing of the past and a thing that just happens in other places in the world huh?!