Blog Entry 4          Paddling as Punishment

     I came across an article that was written alongside a radio broadcast that discussed how in some rural areas of Florida, spanking or ‘paddling’ a student on the rear end with a wooden or fiber glass board,  is still used as a disciplinary method for when students misbehave. This begins in pre-school and continues all the way into high school. Needless to say, I was shocked when I saw that this still occurs in schools in the United States. I thought that paddling was a way of the past and no longer occurred. I was wrong; it turns out paddling students as a form of punishment is legal in 19 states in the U.S.A.The Center for Effective Discipline lists the top 10 worst states for paddling children, by percentage of children paddled, and Florida is number 10. The other nine states are all states in the deep south, which is what you would expect because of the stereotype most people have that southern people are ignorant folks who would use corporal punishment as a way of disciplining their children. The website also says that black students are paddled twice as often as white students, which also reinforced the stereotype the southern people can be racist.

Corporal punishment, which is exactly what this is, is not legal in prisons, hospitals, mental institutions or the military; schools are the only public institution where hitting is allowed and most likely encouraged for these schools. How can it be that the place that should be a safe community for children can allow the abuse of these children? In a sick twist of events, the children are forced to make their own torture devices. Because no place will sell paddles, the students must make their own in wood shop class.

     I did some research to see what the laws are in Canada regarding corporal punishment and I was relieved to find out that it is illegal in all of Canada to paddle students who misbehave. What I found a little saddening though was that made illegal until 2004, a mere 8 years ago. Although many people, including parents, government officials and religious leaders, may see spanking as a good way to punish children, I think it reinforces the acceptance of abuse and that it is OK to hit someone because they are doing something wrong. These children that are being spanked are going to grow up, get married and have children. What if they get into a fight with their spouse? Or their child disobeys them? Through the use of corporal punishment on them while growing up, they will think it is socially acceptable to abuse their spouse or child if they do something they don’t want them to do. Thus, keeping the cycle of abuse alive.

      Researching into corporal punishment made me think of the article we read for class called ‘Michel Foucault on education: a preliminarytheoretical overview’ by Roger Deacon. Deacon writes about the modern history of discipline as having five distinct trends, beginning with the Great Confinement and ending with a more recent approach that tries to take discipline from being a negative to a positive conception so that it can be viewed as something with a positive outcome. Positive discipline would allow students to become more responsible for themselves and also other people and to see that people are taken care of. Negative discipline however is more seen as punishment that does not seek to change the ways of someone, just simply punish them for what they did. Deacon also writes about how punishment has taken a turn from the spectacular and physically violent to more personal and psychologically compelling, which one could argue has not actual'y happened fully since paddling is still legal.

I agree that positive punishment is best for seeking change in a student’s behaviour, but I don’t think that paddling is going to bring about that change. Paddling, in my opinion, is more of a negative punishment and is just a temporary fix that does not actually change the attitude and actions of the student permanently. 

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