EDITORIAL: Corporal punishment causes more harm than good
Let’s say you own or manage a business and there’s an employee who just annoys the heck out of you.
They show up late. They make fun of and belittle other employees and frequently defy you. The quality of their work is shoddy.
One day you call them into your office. You get out a wooden paddle and smack them several times on the bottom.
Hey, wait a minute.
The whole idea of that scenario being enacted is, of course, absurd. Taking such action against an employee – or any other adult – would constitute assault and earn the perpetrator a mug shot and a court date. Corporal punishment is also not allowed in military training or in prisons. And yet in 19 states, Pennsylvania thankfully not among them, corporal punishment is still allowed in public schools. It’s a practice that should be done away with in all 50 states.
This summer, corporal punishment in the United States came back into the headlines after a school district in southwestern Missouri announced it was dusting off the paddles and would be using them on obstreperous students if their parents agreed to it. There were undoubtedly many adults who applauded the decision, contending that they were hit and they turned out OK, or corporal punishment would bring discipline back into schools.
But corporal punishment has been fading away, both in the United States and elsewhere in the developed world, for a good reason – experts on children, education and families all agree that corporal punishment doesn’t bring order to classrooms or teach unruly children any kind of lesson. Instead, it’s widely agreed that corporal punishment reduces self-esteem, increases aggression, hinders cognitive development and can lay the groundwork for those children who are hit by teachers or school administrators to become violent adults. Corporal punishment might be a satisfying way for an exasperated adult to get out their frustrations, but it creates more problems than it solves.
Joel Warsh, a Los Angeles pediatrician, pointed out last month in The Washington Post, “Discipline should teach, not punish – and its goal should be to build children’s self-discipline, which comes from within, so they are better able to regulate their behavior and become resilient, responsible, respectful adults.”
Warsh also pointed out, “Many other forms of discipline – such as enforcing clear, consistent boundaries, using positive reinforcement and modeling desired behavior – do not involve physical harm and have been thoroughly studied as better alternatives.”
Also worth noting are the studies that have shown that corporal punishment is used disproportionately on Black and Hispanic students. It also is used more frequently on children with disabilities.
Some of the other countries that stand alongside the United States in allowing corporal punishment include oppressors and international pariahs like Somalia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. This really isn’t the kind of company we should be keeping.