Will paddling in Texas solve behavior problems?

An article in the Washington Post covers the school district of Temple, TX decision to allow the arcane practice of paddling their students. The people of that city seem to think that the threat of paddling will go a long way in changing their misbehaved students to obedient, malleable citizens. Clicking in to the 'User Poll' button on the article (I'll let you guess what I voted for) I was shocked to see the results. 72 % of 690 users (by the time I clicked on it at 2:42 PM CMT) voted YES! Yegaaads! The overwhelming amount of readers actually think that paddling is an effective incentive to coax students into good behavior.


There have been many studies done that clearly show that physical violence towards our children will not result in better human beings. I trust that if you read this post and article that you are indeed quite capable of doing the research yourself.

My post here isn't to reiterate the negative results of spanking but rather my thoughts on the holes in the thought processes of Temple, TX's residents. They mistakenly think that it is the schools responsibility to teach these young students a lesson via threatened and actual violence. They actually believe that these young people need to get their lessons in good behavior and citizenship from the schools. Yes, children spend an average 7-8 hours of their day at school but by the time schools get the kids along with their bad behavior (endorsed by their parents and caregivers) its already too late!!!. Good behavior and moral code are supposed to be imparted by the parents or caregivers. Parents are too busy to really interact with their kids, they don't even teach them basic manners. I get absolutely irritated when my kids' friends call me by my first name. I gently reinforce - 'that would be Mrs. B' dearie. My kids would never dream of calling an adult anything other than Mr & Mrs or Ms. Why? Because I felt that they should learn formal manners towards adults. They can call their peers by their given names. There is a reason why my kids are welcome everywhere and people can't stop praising them. And I didn't expect their schools to teach them those manners. It was and is my job. My kids wouldn't dream of wearing inappropriate clothes.... because I WON'T BUY THEM. Missy and BearBear behave well not out of fear but because they can't imagine behaving any other way. Now, if there were any people reading this post some would likely have this comment 'I won't raise my kids to be automatons'. And you are right. You shouldn't! How about raising well behaved, thoughtful, kind, and polite people with a mind of their own and the intelligence to bring it to life in a productive and constructive way. It irks me (to put it mildly) that this generation of parents feels that it is the teachers and schools who should bear the burden of what is really our own responsibility.. the raising of our children. Put the paddle away and work with the parents. You can beat the crud out of the kids but if they never had the initial guidance from their parents you are wasting wood. That's where raising young people should start with the parents. And there is no reason at all why it shouldn't start from day one... at home.