It is the wrong way, in my opinion, to enforce order. I think that the consent, and the respect that pupils have for teachers should enforce order. The teacher out of good teaching should earn this respect, not because the pupil is scared of him or her. Order should be enforced by a person’s free will to want to do something, not out of the fear of being hit. The best, and I think the only way to enforce order properly is through a person’s want to do the correct thing. People will do things for people who they admire, it is human nature to wan to please people who we like and admire. If pupils admire and respect teachers they will do work for them. Corporal punishment would undermine this greatly.
If you forget your schoolbook do you not think that it is a little unfair to be hit for it? By doing this you are blowing the wrongdoing out of proportion. Detention is a much better idea, as the child is paying for what they have done, and they are learning something at the same time.
If corporal punishment is administrated to a child, it will affect the schoolwork produced by that child and those around him or her. They will all be afraid of when they will receive their next beating and therefore they will never be concentrating on the lesson properly. They will be in constant fear all the time; this is not the correct way to bring up a chid. Following on from this point, a child who goes to school expecting to be beaten, will very soon decide it may be in their best interests not to go to school. This means truancy, and others will copy it. Therefore the child will not be properly educated and it will affect his or her job prospects in the future. If this happens to many children it will affect the whole of modern day society, causing a collapse in the economy and an increase in the level of crime.
People may see corporal punishment as a good deterrent, but in some cases it can do quite the opposite. In fact one theory holds that ‘severe corporal punishment can lead to an increase in the likelihood of further crime and acts of violence. Also if the child is beaten by their teacher, who should behave as a role model, the child will think this behaviour is ok and will then do the same to others. This means there could be more scenes of violence inside and outside of school.
It has been proven that if corporal punishment is inflicted harshly on a child that it can lead to severe mental and physical damage. This is not what a child goes to school for. A child goes to school to be educated both in intellectual subjects and moral issues. It should not be the school’s job to discipline the child, this should be done at home in a method decided by the parents.
Some people also argue that corporal punishment should be brought back to some inner city schools where the children have no respect for authority. However this would be discrimination and would only help fuel the hatred that some pupils may have towards their teachers. They would only think then that if it is all right for the teacher to hit them then why isn’t it all right for them to hit the teacher? Instead the school should follow its policies and if the pupil continues to break the rules they should suspend or expel the child from school.
Detention and other ways of punishment such as essays may not always work but corporal punishment will not always work either. It really all depends on the individual. Some individuals will end up leading a life of crime no matter what influences they may or may not have had whilst growing up.
