Legislation that Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law this month bans physical punishment in private schools while reiterating a prohibition on the practice in public schools implemented 30 years ago.
Wait, it was allowed up until now?
Laws for physically harming children are super messed up. Children are legally nearly a slave class in this country. Their parents can 100% hit them (“within reason”) and it’s not child abuse. If a child retaliates at all, the child can actually have charges pressed against them by the parent.
I have heard numerous numerous stories of this exact situation: parent starts beating kid to discipline. it gets out of hand/kid won’t tolerate any more, so they call 911. Police show up, tell kid not only are they not arresting parent, but it is parent’s right to hit kid and discipline as they see fit (within the law). But if parent wants they can see about charges to kid if kid hit them or destroyed property.
This is also very similar as to what happens when women call for domestic violence - the police threaten to arrest the victim. Really really often. It’s almost like police are domestic abusers themselves.
Fucking hell, how is this still legal in 45 other states???
We have a long way to go
Like everything else in this country.
The Cruelty is the Point
We had “optional” corporal punishment.
You could choose swats with a paddle, or writing sentences over and over.
Most people took swats, but I just picked sentences and never did them. They’d double the amount a couple times and eventually stop asking for them.
But absolutely zero boys gave a shit about taking swats, it was no deterrent what so ever. Even knowing that there was an easy way out of the alternative, they’d just take swats and immediately forget it happened.
If anything it made behavior worse, because they could do whatever and then have a few seconds of discomfort later if and only if they were caught doing the bad thing.
But absolutely zero boys gave a shit about taking swats
Great time to remind everyone that the adult men who administer corporal punishment in schools do in fact take great pleasure in spanking teenage girls, and that girls opt-out of it more than boys because they know it will border on sexual assault.
Girls have a higher pain tolerance than boys. They just know the horrific implications of being alone in a room with an older man who has authority and permission to use violence.
Girls have a higher pain tolerance than boys.
Sounds like the sort of thing a doctor says while explaining himself at an inquisition.
I’m seeing conflicting research on a cursory look.
In school and 99% of scenarios, physicality doesn’t do any good. But if you have a really young child, like 3-5, and they hurt another child or an animal and show no remorse, I think spanking is acceptable as a punishment immediately after the incident. They might have trouble with developing empathy and need to understand they hurt another being.
The answer to a child showing such violent tendencies is therapy, not causing them pain.
How does their adult role model hitting them not just teach them that hitting is socially acceptable?
Teaching this to a kid without empathy seems like the worst imaginable circumstance lol.
And I sure as hell don’t want someone other than the parents ever making that decision.
This is the same logic given for school aged children to not fight back against bullies for decades, and bullying is now a huge problem.
I’m talking about a situation where your own child is exhibiting bullying characteristics at a very young age. You can’t sit them down and explain why pulling their sibling’s hair shouldn’t give them gratification…they still want to do it. Just when you’re not around. The consequences have to be emotionally driven, and something they can understand and feel even when an adult is not present. What’s your alternative? Timeout? Take a toy away?
I had a brother who tormented me for many years. My parents tried various things, and nothing worked. The thing that did work was me hitting him in the face with a metal belt when I was like ten when he physically attacked me for the millionth time. He just name-called after that, never touched me.
Obviously an adult is not going to do something like that. But how do you correct a very young child who is exhibiting signs that they are growing into a bully?
No it’s not the same logic. Someone in power hitting someone teaches kids that it is acceptable to use physical violence to get your way, this encourages the child to do even more violence. A victim fighting back against their bully is self defence, it is a different situation completely. I support training victimized kids to fight and stand up for themselves, I don’t support allowing adults to hit kids as punitive measures.
There’s no easy answer to the situation you describe, but the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that corporal punishment makes things worse, not better. Self defence against a bully is a completely different situation.
This is the same logic given for school aged children to not fight back against bullies for decades, and bullying is now a huge problem.
So you literally want to teach your kid to be violent? You’re staying very far from “teaching empathy” with this one…
I’m talking about a situation where your own child is exhibiting bullying characteristics at a very young age.
Yeah, those kids usually have violent parents. Of course you think this is a problem to be solved with violence. Too bad you haven’t figured out yet that you’re the reason your kid is violent.
You can’t sit them down and explain why pulling their sibling’s hair shouldn’t give them gratification…
You literally can. You just have no patience to talk to your kids, and use violence instead.
But how do you correct a very young child who is exhibiting signs that they are growing into a bully?
By not being the parent that normalizes violence as a solution to problems.
Earlier that day, the child allegedly spit at a teacher. Now, he was in handcuffs and a police officer was saying he could end up in jail.
Well…that’s assault…what would you like the teacher to do in that situation?
Once upon a time, back in the dark ages when I was in school, kids like that were sent to the principal’s office, at which point they might be given detention, suspension, or even expulsion.
We can’t expel children any more. And I’m betting this was the last straw after several detentions.
What would you like the teacher to do then?
Why can’t “we” expel children anymore? You can here in Indiana.
I guess you can expell children in my state, but the paperwork and procedure makes it almost impossible. The teacher would have to go through the equivalent of a small trial…and that’s only if it’s a normal kid. If a parent says ADHD the kid can’t be expelled.
It’s fucking weird to arrest kids, I get that. But as someone with a kid in school, I’ve seen how batshit crazy school has gotten.
If I had spit on a teacher growing up, I’d immediately have been expelled and thrown in juvie. Welcome to alternative education.
I believe the teachers. They’re under paid and dealing with the craziest fucked up post COVID generation in history.
If I had spit on a teacher growing up, I’d immediately have been expelled and thrown in juvie.
Where on Earth did you grow up that spitting on a teacher would have ended with you being thrown in juvenile detention? Can you provide any evidence of this?
Rural America.
Wipe it off, tell the child in no uncertain terms that this is never acceptable, and if it continues being confrontational to that degree, send it to the principal’s office to get detention.
And after that doesn’t work several times?
You’re talking as if there weren’t pedagogic professionals who have solved this problem. If a child is that unwilling to conform even slightly, the child either has special needs and doesn’t belong there, or, more likely, there’s shit going down at the child’s home and CPS need to get involved.
I’m thoroughly baffled that you think there’s any kind of argument to be made for corporeal punishment. The scientific world has solved and moved on a century ago. The backwater sticklers who still don’t get it are harmful Luddites, not people with opinions to take seriously.
I’m absolutely not for corporeal punishment. I am ok with a kid being arrested.for assault.
Take it or leave it, but there are some children that just shouldn’t be in the public school system for whatever reason.
I absolutely am for better mental health resources and special needs programs. Being tolerant of neurodivergent children is great, I’m all for it, until they are violent or make teaching the other kids impossible.
Then…I don’t know…arresting the kid seems reasonable if they been repeatedly violent and disruptive.
Teachers have their hands tied when dealing with violent children. I don’t know what the answer is.
I was threatened with spanking once in the 9th grade.
I told the principal that it would take more than him to do it. He called my dad. Dad laughed in his face and told him to try me on. Then hung up.
I ended up with a week of ISS.
INB4: I know this sounds like a greentext. I’ve been telling this story for 20 fkin years.