School corporal punishment: Difference between revisions
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It also (these supporters note) saves much staff time that would otherwise have to be devoted to supervising detention classes or in-school suspension, and managing the bureaucracy that goes with these punishments.<ref>"Sometimes we sent a student to the principal's office for a paddling, and I have seen a marvelous clearing of the air with a simple whack on the butt. The offending student realized without resorting to guilt or subterfuge, the seriousness of his transgression." Father Philip Berrigan, quoted in Allen Johnson Jr, [http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/PrintFriendly?oid=oid%3A29410 "The Aggressive Pacifist"], ''Gambit'', New Orleans, 31 December 2002.</ref> Parents, too, often complain about the inconvenience occasioned by penalties such as detention or Saturday school.<ref>[http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/studies-school-violence/closer-look.pdf "A Closer Look at Drug and Violence Prevention Efforts in American Schools: Report on the Study on School Violence and Prevention"], U.S. Department of Education, August 2002, p. 51.</ref> |
It also (these supporters note) saves much staff time that would otherwise have to be devoted to supervising detention classes or in-school suspension, and managing the bureaucracy that goes with these punishments.<ref>"Sometimes we sent a student to the principal's office for a paddling, and I have seen a marvelous clearing of the air with a simple whack on the butt. The offending student realized without resorting to guilt or subterfuge, the seriousness of his transgression." Father Philip Berrigan, quoted in Allen Johnson Jr, [http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/PrintFriendly?oid=oid%3A29410 "The Aggressive Pacifist"], ''Gambit'', New Orleans, 31 December 2002.</ref> Parents, too, often complain about the inconvenience occasioned by penalties such as detention or Saturday school.<ref>[http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/studies-school-violence/closer-look.pdf "A Closer Look at Drug and Violence Prevention Efforts in American Schools: Report on the Study on School Violence and Prevention"], U.S. Department of Education, August 2002, p. 51.</ref> |
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In the United States, a 2003 paper by the Society for Adolescent Medicine concluded that what it calls "corporal punishment" in schools "is an ineffective, dangerous, and unacceptable method of discipline", and recommends "that it be banned and urge that nonviolent methods of classroom control be utilized". However, the paper starts off by drawing a far wider definition for "corporal punishment" than is usually meant by the phrase in an educational context: "It includes a wide variety of methods such as hitting, slapping, spanking, punching, kicking, pinching, shaking, shoving, choking, use of various objects (wooden paddles, belts, sticks, pins or others), painful body postures (as placing in closed spaces), use of electric shock, use of excessive exercise drills, or prevention of urine or stool elimination". Nearly all of those things, other than moderate spanking and paddling, have nothing to do with what U.S. educators are talking about when they refer to corporal punishment in schools, and many of them would clearly constitute unlawful assault whether or not corporal punishment proper was permitted.<ref>[http://www.adolescenthealth.org/PositionPaper_Corporal_Punishment_in_Schools.pdf "Corporal punishment in schools"], position paper of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, ''Journal of Adolescesent Health'' vol.32 pp.385–93, May 2003. PMID 12729988. DOI 10.1016/S1054-139X(03)00042-9</ref> |
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==Country by country== |
==Country by country== |
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Revision as of 21:41, 20 July 2009
- This article covers official, formal, methodical corporal punishment in its traditional educational sense, i.e. as part of an understood system of school punishments, in the jurisdictions where it is permitted. It does not refer to mere random hitting, e.g. where an angry teacher lashes out at a student on the spur of the moment, of a kind which would constitute an illegal assault irrespective of whether corporal punishment is allowed.
School corporal punishment covers official punishments of school students for misbehaviour that involve striking the student in a formal, premeditated ceremony, usually either across the clothed buttocks[1] or on the hands,[2] with an implement specially kept for the purpose such as a rattan cane, wooden paddle, or leather strap. Less commonly, it could also include spanking or smacking the student in a deliberate manner on a specific part of the body with the open hand, especially at the elementary school level.
Advocates of school corporal punishment argue that it provides an immediate response to indiscipline and that the student is quickly back in the classroom learning, rather than being suspended from school. Opponents believe that other disciplinary methods are equally or more effective. Some even regard it as tantamount to violence or abuse.
In most places, corporal punishment in public schools is governed by official regulations laid down by governments or local education authorities,[3] defining such things as the implement to be used, the number of strokes that may be administered, which members of staff may carry it out, and whether parents must be informed or consulted.
Geographical scope
Corporal punishment used to be prevalent in schools in many parts of the world, but in recent decades it has been outlawed in most of Europe and in Canada, Japan, South Africa, New Zealand and several other countries (see list of countries, below). It remains commonplace in a number of countries in Africa, south-east Asia and the Middle East (see list of countries, below).
In the United States, the Supreme Court ruling in Ingraham v. Wright (1977) held that school corporal punishment does not violate the federal Constitution. Paddling continues to be used to a significant extent in a number of Southern states, though there has been a sharp decline in its incidence over the past 20 years.
In some Asian and African countries where it has been theoretically outlawed, it is still used in practice.
Much of the traditional culture that surrounds corporal punishment in school, at any rate in the English-speaking world, derives largely from British practice in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly as regards the caning of teenage boys.[4] There is a vast amount of literature on this, in both popular and serious culture.[5][6] Britain itself outlawed the practice in 1987 for state schools[7] and more recently for all schools.[8]
Many schools in Singapore and Malaysia use caning (for boys) as a routine official punishment for misconduct, as also some African countries. In some Middle Eastern countries whipping is used. In South Korea, male and female secondary students alike are commonly spanked in school. (See list of countries, below.)
In most of continental Europe, school corporal punishment has been banned for several decades, much longer in certain countries. As a formal deliberate ceremony, it seems to have been more common in northern/Protestant countries of Germanic culture than in southern/Catholic countries of Latin culture. Caning was not completely abolished until 1967 in Denmark and 1983 in Germany. (See list of countries, below.)
From the 1917 revolution onwards, corporal punishment was outlawed in the Soviet Union as contrary to communist ideology.[9] Soviet visitors to western schools would express shock at its use.[10] Other communist regimes followed suit: for instance, corporal punishment remains outlawed in present-day North Korea[11] and (in theory) in mainland China.[12] Meanwhile, communists in other countries such as Britain took the lead in campaigning against school corporal punishment, which they claimed was a symptom of the decadence of "capitalist" education systems.[13]
Pros and cons of school corporal punishment
Where school corporal punishment is concerned, those who support its use point to the fact that as soon as the student has been punished he can go back to his class and continue learning, in contrast to out-of-school suspension, which removes him from the educational process and gives him a free "holiday".[14]
It also (these supporters note) saves much staff time that would otherwise have to be devoted to supervising detention classes or in-school suspension, and managing the bureaucracy that goes with these punishments.[15] Parents, too, often complain about the inconvenience occasioned by penalties such as detention or Saturday school.[16]
In the United States, a 2003 paper by the Society for Adolescent Medicine concluded that what it calls "corporal punishment" in schools "is an ineffective, dangerous, and unacceptable method of discipline", and recommends "that it be banned and urge that nonviolent methods of classroom control be utilized". However, the paper starts off by drawing a far wider definition for "corporal punishment" than is usually meant by the phrase in an educational context: "It includes a wide variety of methods such as hitting, slapping, spanking, punching, kicking, pinching, shaking, shoving, choking, use of various objects (wooden paddles, belts, sticks, pins or others), painful body postures (as placing in closed spaces), use of electric shock, use of excessive exercise drills, or prevention of urine or stool elimination". Nearly all of those things, other than moderate spanking and paddling, have nothing to do with what U.S. educators are talking about when they refer to corporal punishment in schools, and many of them would clearly constitute unlawful assault whether or not corporal punishment proper was permitted.[17]
Country by country
Argentina
Banned in 1813, corporal punishment was re-legalised in 1817 and punishments by physical pain lasted until the 1980s. The instruments were rebenques, slappings in the face and others.[18][19]
Australia
In Australia, corporal punishment is banned by law in all schools in three States: Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, and Tasmania. In Victoria it is banned in government schools but not yet completely removed from private schools, a gradual process the state government currently has under way by means of making its removal a condition of registration. Corporal punishment is banned in government schools under ministerial guidelines or local educational policy, but remains lawful in private schools under the defence of 'reasonable chastisement', in three States: Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia. In Northern Territory there is currently no legal prohibition.[20]
Austria
School corporal punishment was banned in 1974.[21]
Canada
In Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Canada (2004) the Supreme Court outlawed school corporal punishment.[22] In public schools, the usual implement was a rubber/canvas strap applied to the hands,[23] while private schools often used a paddle or cane administered to the student's posterior.[24][25] In many parts of Canada, 'the strap' had not been used in public schools since the 1970s or even earlier: thus, it has been claimed that it had not been used in Quebec since the 1960s,[26] and in Toronto it was banned in 1971.[2] However, some schools in Alberta had been using the strap up until the ban in 2004.[27]
China
All corporal punishment has been theoretically banned since the communist revolution in 1949. In practice, students are caned or paddled in some schools.[28][29]
Czech Republic
There is a tradition of corporal punishment in schools, and it has not been explicitly prohibited by law.[30]
France
The systematic use of corporal punishment has been absent from French schools since the 19th century. There is no explicit legal ban on it,[31] but in 2008 a teacher was fined for slapping a student.[32]
Germany
School corporal punishment, historically widespread, was outlawed in different Länder (provinces) at different times. It was not completely abolished everywhere until 1983.[33]
Greece
Corporal punishment in Greek primary schools was banned in 1998, and in secondary schools in 2005.[34]
India
In India, there is no school corporal punishment in the western sense of the term. By definition, school corporal punishment "is not to be confused with mere hitting, where a teacher lashes out at a student on the spur of the moment, which is not corporal punishment but brutality". The Supreme Court of India banned brutality in schools in 2000, and 17 of 28 states claim to apply the ban, but enforcement is lax. In 2009 incidents of brutality still took place.[35]
Ireland
In schools in the Irish Republic, corporal punishment was banned by regulation in 1982, and its use became a criminal offence in 1996.[36]
Italy
Banned in 1928.[37]
Japan
Although legally banned in 1947, corporal punishment was still found in some schools in the 1980s. In late 1987, about 60% of junior high school teachers felt it was necessary, with 7% believing it was necessary in all conditions, 59% believing it should be applied sometimes and 32% disapproving of it in all circumstances; while at elementary (primary) schools, 2% supported it unconditionally, 47% felt it was necessary and 49% disapproved.[38]
Malaysia
Caning is a common form of discipline in some Malaysian schools. Legally it should be applied only to male students, but the idea of making the caning of girls lawful has recently been debated. This would be applied to the palm of the hand, whereas boys are typically caned across the seat of the trousers.[39]
Netherlands
It was banned in 1920.[40]
Philippines
Corporal punishment is prohibited in private and public schools.[41]
Singapore
Corporal punishment is legal in Singapore schools (for male students only), and fully encouraged by the government in order to maintain strict discipline.[42] Only a light rattan cane may be used.[43] This must be administered in a formal ceremony by the school management after due deliberation, not by classroom teachers. Most secondary schools (whether independent, autonomous or government-controlled), and also some primary schools and one or two post-secondary institutions, use caning to deal with misconduct by boys.[44] At secondary and post-secondary level, the rattan strokes are always delivered to the student's clothed posterior. The Ministry of Education has stipulated a maximum of six strokes per occasion. In some cases the ceremony is performed in front of the other students.
South Korea
Corporal punishment is lawful in South Korean schools. It usually takes the form of disciplining the student with a stick that is too rigid and thick to be called a cane in the traditional British sense. It is often applied to the student's clothed buttocks, but may also be given on the calves, the soles of the feet, or the back of the thighs. Boys and girls alike are frequently punished in this manner by teachers for any offence in school. Government recommendations are that the stick should not be thicker than 1.5 cm in diameter and that the number of strokes should not exceed 10.[45] These punishments are typically administered in a classroom or corridor with other students present, and the procedure is generally less formal and premeditated than in some other countries such as Singapore. It is common for several students to receive corporal punishment together.[46]
Spain
Banned in 1985.[47]
Taiwan
In 2006 Taiwan made corporal punishment in the school system illegal,[48] but it is still known to be practised (see Corporal punishment in Taiwan).
United Kingdom
In state-run schools, and also in private schools where at least part of the funding came from government, corporal punishment was outlawed by Parliament with effect from 1987. In other private schools it was banned in 1999 (England and Wales), 2000 (Scotland) and 2003 (Northern Ireland).[4]
The implement used in many state and private schools in England and Wales was a flexible rattan cane, applied either to the student's hands or (especially in the case of teenage boys) to the seat of the trousers. Slippering was widely used as a less formal alternative. In a few English cities, a strap was used instead of the cane.[49]
In Scotland a leather strap, the tawse, administered to the palms of the hands, was universal in state schools,[50] but some private schools used the cane.[51]
More than 20 years after abolition in state schools, there persists a marked lack of consensus on corporal punishment. A 2008 poll of 6,162 UK teachers by the Times Educational Supplement found that one in five teachers, and 22% of secondary teachers, would still back the use of caning in extreme cases.[52][53] Meanwhile government research suggests that many British citizens believe that the removal of corporal punishment in schools has been a contributory factor in what is perceived to be a general decline in student behaviour.[54]
United States
In 1867 New Jersey became the first U.S. state to abolish corporal punishment in schools. The second was Massachusetts 104 years later in 1971. Currently, corporal punishment is banned in public schools in 29 U.S. states.[55] In two of these states, New Jersey[56] and Iowa,[57] it is illegal in private schools as well.
Corporal punishment in American schools is administered to the seat of the student's trousers or skirt with a specially-made wooden paddle. This often used to take place in the classroom or hallway, but nowadays the punishment is usually given privately in the principal's office.
Most public school districts lay down detailed rules as to how the ceremony is to be carried out, and in many cases these are published in the school's student-parent handbook.[3]
Individual US states have the power to ban corporal punishment in their schools. The 21 states that have not banned it are mostly in the South. It is still used to a significant (though declining)[58] degree in some public schools in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.[55]
Of the 21 states where school paddling is permitted, Ohio is the only one that legally requires schools to honor parental requests not to use corporal punishment, although many schools in other states do so in practice.[3]
The most recent state to outlaw school CP was Pennsylvania, in 2005.[59]
Private schools in most states are exempt from state bans and may choose to use the paddle. Here too, most of those which actually do so are to be found in Southern states. These are largely, but by no means exclusively, Christian evangelical or fundamentalist schools.[3]
The anti-spanking campaign Center for Effective Discipline, extrapolating from sample statistics collected by federal authorities, estimates that the number of students spanked or paddled in 2006 in U.S. public schools was about 223,000.[58]
Statistics show that black students are more likely to be paddled than white students.[58] This might be because black Americans tend to be more in favour of spanking than white ones on average, so are more likely to give teachers permission to spank their children[60] -- although a study in Kentucky found that minority students were disproportionately targeted by discipline policies generally, not only corporal punishment.[61]
Federal statistics consistently show that around 80% of school paddlings in the U.S. are of boys, most likely because boys exhibit more often than girls the kinds of misbehaviour for which corporal punishment is thought appropriate.[62]
Uruguay
Outlawed with effect from 2008 under a law, "Prohibición del castigo físico", which applies both to parents/guardians and to schools.[63]
See also
References
- ^ See e.g. Student/Parent Information Guide and Code of Conduct 2008-2009, Alexander City Schools, Alabama, USA, p.44.
- ^ a b "Toronto abolishes the strap", Globe and Mail, Toronto, 23 July 1971.
- ^ a b c d "External links to present-day school handbooks", World Corporal Punishment Research.
- ^ a b United Kingdom: Corporal punishment in schools at World Corporal Punishment Research.
- ^ Isabel Quigly, The Heirs of Tom Brown: The English School Story, Oxford, 1984. ISBN 0192814044
- ^ John Chandos, Boys Together: English Public Schools 1800-1864, Hutchinson, London, 1984, esp. chapter 11. ISBN 0091392403
- ^ Mark Gould, "Sparing the rod", The Guardian, London, 9 January 2007.
- ^ Colin Brown, "Last vestiges of caning swept away", The Independent, London, 25 March 1998.
- ^ Salomon M. Teitelbaum, "Parental Authority in the Soviet Union", in American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 4, No. 3/4 (December 1945), pp. 54-69.
- ^ "Caning? It's not cricket, say the Russians at Rugby", Daily Mail, London, 22 November 1960.
- ^ "North Korean Defectors Face Huge Challenges", Radio Free Asia, 21 March 2007.
- ^ China State Report, GITEACPOC, February 2009.
- ^ Thomas P. Linehan, Communism in Britain, 1920-39: From the cradle to the grave, Manchester University Press, 2007, pp. 32 ff. ISBN 0719071402
- ^ One Kentucky study noted, "Out-of-school suspension and expulsion interrupt students' educational progress and remove students from school at a time when they may most need stability and guidance in their lives. Repeated out-of-school suspensions may make it impossible for students to keep up with the curriculum, complete class assignments, and advance from one grade to another." David Richart et al., "Unintended Consequences: The Impact of 'Zero Tolerance' and Other Exclusionary Policies on Kentucky Students", report prepared by the National Institute on Children, Youth & Families at Spalding University in Louisville, KY; the Children's Law Center in Covington, KY; and the Youth Law Center in Washington, D.C.
- ^ "Sometimes we sent a student to the principal's office for a paddling, and I have seen a marvelous clearing of the air with a simple whack on the butt. The offending student realized without resorting to guilt or subterfuge, the seriousness of his transgression." Father Philip Berrigan, quoted in Allen Johnson Jr, "The Aggressive Pacifist", Gambit, New Orleans, 31 December 2002.
- ^ "A Closer Look at Drug and Violence Prevention Efforts in American Schools: Report on the Study on School Violence and Prevention", U.S. Department of Education, August 2002, p. 51.
- ^ "Corporal punishment in schools", position paper of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, Journal of Adolescesent Health vol.32 pp.385–93, May 2003. PMID 12729988. DOI 10.1016/S1054-139X(03)00042-9
- ^ "Diálogo, premios y penitencias: cómo poner límites sin violencia", El Clarín, 17 December 2005.
- ^ "En Argentina, del golpe a la convivencia", El Clarín, 10 February 1999.
- ^ Australia State Report, GITEACPOC.
- ^ Austria State Report, GITEACPOC.
- ^ "Supreme Court takes strap out of teachers' hands", Edmonton Journal, Alberta, 1 February 2004.
- ^ Moyers school supplies catalogue, 1971.
- ^ James FitzGerald, Old Boys: The Powerful Legacy of Upper Canada College, Macfarlane Walter & Ross, Toronto, 1994. ISBN 0921912749
- ^ Ted Byfield, "Do our new-found ideas on children maybe explain the fact we can't control them?", Alberta Report, Edmonton, 21 October 1996.
- ^ "Spanking still legal in Canada", Montreal Gazette, Quebec, 23 February 2005.
- ^ "Peace Wapiti scraps strap", Daily Herald-Tribune, Grande Prairie, Alberta, 19 November 2004.
- ^ Paul Wiseman, "Chinese schools try to unlearn brutality", USA Today, Washington D.C., 9 May 2000.
- ^ "New measures taken in schools to improve teacher-student relations", People's Daily, Beijing, 31 July 2005.
- ^ Czech Republic State Report, GITEACPOC, February 2008.
- ^ France State Report, GITEACPOC.
- ^ "Teacher Fined, Praised for Slap", Time, New York, 14 August 2008.
- ^ "It's 40 years since corporal punishment got a general boot", translated from Saarbrücker Zeitung, 19 June 1987.
- ^ Greece State Report, GITEACPOC, November 2006.
- ^ Nilanjana Bhowmick, "Why India's Teachers Do Not Spare the Rod", Time, New York, 2 May 2009.
- ^ "Department code on discipline urged", Irish Times, Dublin, 9 April 1999.
- ^ Italy State Report, GITEACPOC.
- ^ "Many Japanese Teachers Favor Corporal Punishment", Nichi Bei Times, San Francisco, 21 November 1987.
- ^ School corporal punishment in Malaysia at World Corporal Punishment Research.
- ^ Netherlands State Report, GITEACPOC.
- ^ Philippines State Report, GITEACPOC.
- ^ Speech by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Acting Minister for Education.
- ^ Regulation No 88 under the Schools Regulation Act 1957.
- ^ Singapore school handbooks on line at World Corporal Punishment Research.
- ^ South Korea State Report, GITEACPOC.
- ^ Video clips of schoolboy discipline at World Corporal Punishment Research.
- ^ Spain State Report, GITEACPOC.
- ^ "Taiwan corporal punishment banned", BBC News On Line, London, 29 December 2006.
- ^ Guide to LEAs' Corporal Punishment Regulations in England and Wales, Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment, Croydon, 1979.
- ^ "Rise and fall of the belt", Sunday Standard, Glasgow, 28 February 1982.
- ^ Kamal Ahmed, "He could talk his way out of things", The Observer, London, 27 April 2003.
- ^ "A 'fifth of teachers back caning'", BBC News Online, 3 October 2008.
- ^ Adi Bloom, "Survey whips up debate on caning", Times Educational Supplement, London, 10 October 2008.
- ^ Graeme Paton, "Banning the cane started slide in pupil discipline, parents believe", The Daily Telegraph, London, 27 February 2009.
- ^ a b Rick Lyman, "In Many Public Schools, the Paddle Is No Relic", New York Times, 30 September 2006.
- ^ United States - Extracts from State legislation at World Corporal Punishment Research.
- ^ Iowa statutes, 280.21.
- ^ a b c "Corporal Punishment and Paddling Statistics by State and Race", Center for Effective Discipline.
- ^ "States Banning Corporal Punishment", Center for Effective Discipline.
- ^ Karen Grigsby Bates, "Spanking: A black mother's view", Salon.com, October 1998.
- ^ David Richart, Kim Brooks, Mark Soler, "Unintended Consequences: The Impact of 'Zero Tolerance' and Other Exclusionary Policies on Kentucky Students", report prepared by the National Institute on Children, Youth & Families at Spalding University in Louisville, KY; the Children's Law Center in Covington, KY; and the Youth Law Center in Washington, D.C.
- ^ Gregory, J.F. (1995). "Crime of punishment: Racial and gender disparities in the use of corporal punishment in U.S. public schools". Journal of Negro Education. 64 (4): 454–462. doi:10.2307/2967267. Retrieved 2008-10-30.
- ^ Uruguay State Report, GITEACPOC, February 2008.