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  • Bring back the cane?

    Tuesday 4 October 2011

    Categories: Education, Media Influence

    A recent YouGov poll commissioned by the Times Educational Supplement suggests that almost half of parents would welcome the return of corporal punishment for ‘very bad behaviour’. Across the representative sample of over 2000 parents, 49% agreed, and a quarter strongly agreed, with the reintroduction of ‘the cane or slipper’. Fathers were particularly keen, with 58% of men, as against 40% of women, in favour of this disciplinary measure.

    I have always believed it important to listen to what parents say and to take this into account in general school policy where it is possible. But I find it very difficult to understand these statistics. I can only assume that when parents vote for the cane for ‘very bad behaviour’ they are assuming that children other than their own will be responsible for such behaviour and therefore subject to the punishment. How many parents would have said yes to the question if it had been phrased: ‘Are you in favour of the cane or slipper being used on your child, should he/she be guilty of very bad behaviour?’

    When I started teaching in the early 1980s corporal punishment was still in use, and I can remember children being sent to be caned. I also remember a conversation with someone I knew who had a pastoral role in another school who had been ‘trained’ in how to administer it. I also remember being shocked on the occasions when I witnessed male teachers slapping children in the corridor. I have never been able to see the sense in using physical pain as a deterrent; in fact, the pupils I knew who were caned in my first school seemed angry and resentful rather than contrite or deterred from reoffending. I was relieved when corporal punishment was outlawed in state schools.

    I cannot agree with the 49% of sampled parents who now wish us to take a step backward. What do others think?

    Posted by Jill Berry

Your comments

I think that if we are teaching our children that the use of physical force or agression is unacceptable (it is common assault to hit someone in the street, for example) then it would be hypocrictical in the extreme to hit a child purposefully at school, or in the home or anywhere else. Children need our protection; they do not need to be physically hurt by adults.

By Grendel's brother on Thursday 5 January 2012

A step backwards? Please spare us from do-gooders such as Jill Berry. How about a step towards better discipline, higher standards, better education and less disruption in the schools. Better discipline in schools is what parents and society are crying out for. At present teachers are failing to provide it.

Failure to understand the views of the parents expressed in this survey is part of the problem. “It is difficult to understand these statistics” – no, it is not – they are quite clear to me. They just conflict with the trendy teaching methods that have done so much harm to our children’s education over a generation; so you dismiss them with making ‘assumptions’ about what other people think – how arrogant.

By Angry Dad on Thursday 13 October 2011

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