Dear Editor,
Following the United States Supreme Court’s 1977 ruling in Ingraham v Wright, corporal punishment is still allowed in schools, and is still legal in 19 states in America.
Since I had the opportunity to attend school in Guyana and America, I’m very strongly opposed to banning corporal punishment in schools in Guyana.
When some states in America banned corporal punishment in schools, it led to an increase in violence in schools. Corporal punishment was replaced with metal detectors, police officers and CCTV. Some public schools have become so violent and unsafe that some parents are taking their children out and putting them in private schools.
But it is not only in America that school violence increased when corporal punishment was removed. According to the Otago Daily Times Online News, “A big increase in the number of primary school children suspended for violent acts is being blamed on the removal of corporal punishment in schools. Figures from the New Zealand Ministry of Education show an 88 per cent increase in suspensions of eight-year-olds from 2000 to 2008 for assaults on classmates.”
Not only did banning corporal punishment in schools in America not work, it led to children running the schools. I know this for a fact because I witnessed it.
And yet, some people argued for an alternative to corporal punishment. One writer suggested that we provide direct instruction to students in social skills, and reinforce this with teacher feedback and other self-esteem enhancing activities.
Editor, this all sounds so good. But, unfortunately, these alternatives were tried and tested in America for many, many years but failed. And, now the writer is recommending that we try it. I hate to say it but if it didn’t work in America and New Zealand, it will not work in Guyana.
Editor, what many advocates for banning corporal punishment in schools like to argue is that corporal punishment is inhumane. Many of them don’t understand the difference between discipline and physical abuse. They see all discipline as physical abuse, but not all corporal punishment is physical abuse. Physical abuse and corporal punishment are two different things. Abuse is the maltreatment of a child, whereas discipline is the training of the mind and character the child.
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Pantlitz