Talk To The Hand

 

If you thought smacking students as a way to punish bad behavior in school had gone the way of the dunce cap, your progressive education philosophy is about to take a hit.

In Kentucky’s Lincoln County School District, kids who misbehave still get a paddling. Stanford Elementary School principal Dan Story recently told WHAS-TV in Louisville that teachers in his district think it’s “very effective when other areas, like taking away recess or putting them (students) in detention, may not work as a last resort.”

“Anytime we paddle a child,” he added, “we are treating them just like it’s our own child.” Before a principal in the district can hit a pupil, parents must give their permission and two witnesses must be present during the paddling.

Jon Akers, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Center for School Safety, told the television news outlet that “In some pockets of the U.S. we see corporal punishment increasing again because suspensions have not really been the effective tool that we thought it (sic) was because parents leave kids at home and they get a three-day holiday.”

Lincoln County school officials say they haven’t received any complaints about physical punishment, and until they do the policy stands.

The Center for Effective Discipline, a non-profit organization in Columbus, Ohio, that focuses on the effects of corporal punishment on children, says 22 states still use it to discipline schoolkids. A study by the center showed that more than 220,000 students across the country were physically punished during the 2006-2007 school year.