The Hickory Stick
Tries
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Classroom misbehavior wastes much of the teacher's and pupils' limited time. Is spanking a solution?
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Wm S-Yv , t i
Disrespect and physical defiance led New Jersey law- Under spanking laws, teachers would be prohibited from
yers to suggest a law giving teachers right to spank. using books and rulers or striking pupils viciously.
Reversing a trend
of 35 years, many
'parents and educators
think a good spanking may get to
the bottom of Johnny's
school problems.
Photos by Bill Miller
I he teacher was obviously nervous as
she stood before a county court
judge in Kentucky recently. She
had paddled a 13-year-old pupil after he
threatened to hit her, and the boy's mother
had brought charges of assault and battery.
The judge, after hearing evidence, could
have sentenced the teacher to jail; that
also would have meant loss of her job.
Instead, he said:
"I'm proud of you. I admire the gump
tion of a teacher who will enforce her
orders. Students these days are too often
pampered. They are given too much lee
way. You did your job well. The charges
are dismissed."
The judge was expressing the sentiment
of an increasing number of experts and
laymen who believe the hickory stick
should be returned to active school duty
and applied where it did Grandpa the most
good or as the St. Louis regulations put
it, "upon the fleshy part of the back."
Corporal punishment was all but buried
in the "sweetness and light" period of
American elementary education beginning
around 1920. But a new attitude has de
veloped with the increasing concern over
rowdy classroom behavior.
In recent polls, corporal punishment
was favored by 55 percent of American
parents, 76 percent of public-school super
intendents, and 77 percent of teachers.
Courts have upheld the teacher's right,
under certain circumstances, to administer
corporal punishment, and in New Jersey,
one of three states banning such discipline,
the legislature has been asked by the state
bar association to restore the rod to teach
ers so they can "guard their rights to
receive the respect due their profession."
If spanking does stage a comeback, how
ever, it will be against heated opposition.
Detroit, for example, recently approved
corporal punishment but only after parents
attending a debate on the subject threat
ened to settle their difference with fists.
Opponents argue that corporal punkh-
t6 Family Weekly, OcUrr 13, J957