Study makes a case against paddling, finds link between corporal punishment, failure to graduat

[JDPriestly]

13. The question is causation. Does the corporal punishment CAUSE the failure of the child in school.

Or is the corporal punishment a RESPONSE to the failure of the child in school.

Every child, regardless of race or economic background needs three years of pre-school to prepare it for the rigors of classroom life.

That's what children get in Germany and Austria and a lot of other countries in which gradeschool classrooms are calmer and more orderly than in urban America.

It isn't the school that is unsafe, it is the children (not necessarily of any particular race) who are unprepared for the sitting, the need to pay attention, the distractions of the other children, the order that is necessary in the classroom and, in some cases, the listening and learning and participation skills children need in school.

All it takes is one child who is unable to cope with the stress of sitting still for a lesson and you have a class that is impossible to manage. Then, some child, not necessarily the immature one, gets blamed. Teacher is frustrated and angry. And someone gets punished.

But it isn't in my view the act of punishment, it is the situation that led to the punishment that is the problem.

Obama has a plan for preschool education for all children. Let's adopt it.

These kinds of studies can show a correlation, but they cannot exclude other potential causes and therefore do not definitively show causation.

Beyond that, I generally oppose corporal punishment.