As the crime rate in our country grows, teaching our children right from wrong is one of the most important tasks facing educators. At some point or another, this task will require some sort of disciplinary action. In years past, schools used corporal punishment to discipline children. Connie Paige reports that, "According to U.S. Department of Education statistics, more than 600,000students were struck by teachers in public schools in 1990." Studies show that in today's society, corporal punishment does more harm than good here in the United States.

Many states have recognized the problems associated with corporal punishment and have begun to phase it out of their system. Still, many states especially those in the South, hold on to this outdated form of discipline. Research, coupled with the opinions of most health care professionals, indicate that there is a problem. Corporal punishment is not an effective form of discipline in schools.

One of the major complaints against corporal punishment is that many educators misuse it. Discrimination is a key problem in the use of corporal punishment. According to Kreck, "Research has shown that boys are hit more often than girls; disabled students

are hit more often than students who aren't handicapped. Minority kids are hit more often than Anglo students." In fact, black children are three times likely to be paddled than white children (Paige, 26). Corporal punishment can also be implemented to an abusive level. There is a fine line between corporal punishment and abuse. No one can agree on when corporal punishment begins to become abuse (Pride, 8). All states have rules that are supposed to regulate corporal punishment but in many cases these rules are easy to get around. For example, most laws require that a witness oversee the spanking. The witness is usually another teacher or faculty member, often with the same viewpoint as the disciplining teacher (Hagen). Obvio!

usly this "taking sides" can lead to an unfair situation for the child. Another factor in the misuse of corporal punishment is that it is, or shall we say should be, a violation of the child's rights. According to Carol Kreck, most states have laws forbidding the hitting of animas, prisoners, soldiers, and mental patients. It is astonishing that our children don't share these same rights.

Regulating corporate punishment is impossible. Kreck points out that there is no way to tell someone how hard to spank a child. The idea of corporal punishment is to cause pain, but pain is caused by damaging bodily tissue. There is no way for an educator to know when that pain is going to start to break blood vessels. B

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Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)