Blog #13: May 5, 2009: Wooden Paddle = Order!

I never thought violence was the answer, but once I got a better view of the possible situations someone might be under or the circumstances, I became more understandable of violence being used under certain situations. In this article of Newsweek, "The Principle and the Paddle," violence was used and made a huge turnaround with the success of the school. The principle David Nixon uses corporal punishment in order to restore order to a struggling elementary school. As punishment for a major offense such as fighting, stealing, etc., students are first questioned about their offense, first trying to find a deeper issue or problem that is the cause of all of this. If the child is truly sorry, Nixon will send him or her back to class, but if he feels that the child has not learned his lesson, a slight but stinging whipping is initiated. Even though Nixon dislikes doing this, a lot of the parents approve of this, which shocks me!

The reasons for doing these "whippings" also shocked me, but also made me somewhat understand. One reason was that the school was there for educational means, so a "whipping" would only take a good 10 minutes to knock some sense into the student and continue your day instead of the many days of expulsion. I thought this was pretty clever, and a lot of schools would want to do this, but would never resort to violence to do so. But they have to consider that a lot of the kids come from difficult homes and backgrounds, and are just raised the way they are. But the parents DO have the option to paddle the child themselves or actually refuse the "whipping" of their child. This makes me a little bit more comfortable about Nixon's system. And ever since those "whippings" have occured, I would think that the amount of whippings would decrease as years go by from the constant rumors of THE PADDLE.

Those who disagree with corporal violence, I agree with.

"An atmosphere of fear is not going to increase learning. Maybe temporarily. But
over time, it does not work." -Nadine Block.

I just hope that Nixon and other schools that use corporal punishment realize that children these days do unpredictable stuff, not to be mean or on purpose, but rather just because they are youthful, excited, or don't know any better. Many times in my elementary school I made bad mistakes and did bad things, and I was called to the principle's office sometimes. Just a good talk and discussion would make me learn my lesson. Im sure that if my principle used violence as a means of helping me learn my lessons, I wouldn't have gone there as much, but at the same time, in my opinion, I wouldnt be as calm or against corporal punishment as I am today. I just believe that violence is not what is always needed to teach a child a lesson or make them recieve better studying habits.