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Original poster

Would you let a teacher smack your child?

96 replies

lyrasdaemon · 03/10/2008 11:54

According to a survey in today's Times Educational Supplement, 20 per cent of teachers favour a return to corporal punishment. The story can be found here.

Are there any circumstances in which you would let a teacher inflict corporal punishment on your child, or are you opposed to it full stop?

OP posts:
pointydog · 03/10/2008 22:45

yes

edam · 03/10/2008 22:47

There's a bias in the way the question was asked. People are more likely to agree with a statement than disagree. So if you ask 'should x be banned' you will a majority in favour, but if you ask 'should x be permitted' you will also get a majority in favour. Even though x is the same thing.

And then you get into sampling - the TES website is not necessarily terribly representative of teachers as a whole.

Am sure there are many other things people who know more about research than me could pick out of this.

FWIW, no, I wouldn't want ds to be hit at school by anyone, no matter how old they were.

Janni · 03/10/2008 23:12

At age 43 I am still angry about being slapped, very hard, across the back of the legs and in front of the class, for the heinous crime of going back into the classroom at lunchtime to show someone a picture on the classroom wall.

There are lots of reasons why many children's behaviour in school is intolerable, but smacking them is not the solution.

Janni · 03/10/2008 23:13

Whoops - I was 7, not 43 when it happened [shame]

AbbeyA · 04/10/2008 09:13

I had this vision of you being slapped at 43, Janni! It all goes to show why it is wrong-you couldn't slap a 43yr old so it can't be right to slap a 7 yr old, merely because they are smaller than you!

Reallytired · 04/10/2008 12:21

AbbeyA, I think that good behaviour at school is often influenced by the parents. Especially with young children.

Prehaps we should smack the parents...

Blandmum · 04/10/2008 12:23

We should do something to the parent, some of whom are clearly mildly deranged when it comes to their children.

Like the mother who complained when her 'd's was excluded for a month because he brought a knife into school (teenager btw)

She told us we had 'over reacted' because 'he wouldn't have used it on someone'

I think that she needed something doing to her , for sure

NotCod · 04/10/2008 12:25

i couldnt hit a child. particualry not when part of a procudre.
i often wante dto hurt them in a comdey stype of way
i often planned to twril Craig Mckeever aroudnby his ears and then lasso him out of the window, where he woudl twang off the opposite walls

but i managed not to.
oh and peter panayiotou

ImnotMamaGbutsheLovesMe · 04/10/2008 13:25

No.
Never.
And I would be bloody furious if they did.
If they won't cuddle them when said they shouldn't be able to touch them to smack.

Lauriefairycake · 04/10/2008 13:35

No, it's very lazy, unprofessional and totally wrong (dh is a teacher in inner city school)

Overmydeadbody · 04/10/2008 13:41

No way, over my dead body...

You can't hit an adult so you shouldn't be able to hit a child. End of.

mytetherisending · 04/10/2008 13:44

Depends on what they did. If my child hit/swore at their teacher it would be me they needed to worry about, not the teacher iyswim. Likewise truanting/bullying another pupil.
General high jinks/forgetting homework/ laughing in class etc- No I don't agree with it. However, I think the teacher being able to use it if required would serve as a fairly good deterrant.

smartiejake · 04/10/2008 13:46

I would never agree to a teacher smacking or hitting my child but would like to know what people think is the answer to improved discipline at school?

Because when I was at school the discipline was much better than it is now.

Is the reason for poorer disclipline in schools due to lack of corporal punishemant or something else?

Yes behaviour in places like Sweden is much better than here without the cane but why?

KerryMum · 04/10/2008 13:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

smartiejake · 04/10/2008 13:47

sorry I can spell really "punishment"

mytetherisending · 04/10/2008 13:58

kerrymum why do you have to join threads with an insult?
FWIW its a very valid question!

AbbeyA · 04/10/2008 14:14

The answer to improved discipline in schools, smartiejake, lies with the parents. The first thing they need to realise is that they are the parent and not the best friend and that it perfectly all right to do the unpopular thing and say 'no'.
They should realise that they are in partnership with the school and work together to resolve problems. It is very common either to not be able to do anything with the DC at home but expect the school to manage, or to deny that their DC could possibly be in the wrong.

onager · 04/10/2008 14:20

If there is anyone who wants to smack children then I want them locked up right now. But is there anyone who likes how things have gone since we stopped?

If there is a better way to get schools back under control I'd prefer it. Maybe we should sack all our education experts/officials and just pay the swedish authorities to run the schools for us.

I don't know what else they did differently in the old days, but there were no knife attacks at any of the schools I attended in all the time I was there. There were no attacks on teachers either. There were playground fights, but they amounted to pushing and shoving and calling names.

If there was any class disruption I never witnessed it. Not settling down in silence at the start of class was probably the worst crime that ever happened and normally earned you detention. Corporeal punishment was extremely rare, but the threat of it was present.

KerryMum · 04/10/2008 14:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

smartiejake · 04/10/2008 14:29

Thankyou for sticking up for me mythetherisending I thought it was a valid question too.

Abbey I know that the home and good parenting is the secret and that discipline at home usually means better behaved kids in school.

But what happens when that parental support is not forthcoming. A child is expelled for bringing a knife to school and the parent can't see what the fuss is about? FFS it's no wonder teachers have such a hard time controlling their classes with kids from families like that in their class.

Utmost repect for teachers in Sweden where they are considered to be pillars of the community by children and adults is obviously the key.

How can we get that here?

smartiejake · 04/10/2008 14:30

Or was Kerry mum talking about the op question without reading the whole thread?

Blandmum · 04/10/2008 14:47

That really happened SJ.

This mother would never, ever accept that her child had done wrong. So, not surprisingly, he was one of the naughtiest children in the school.

But as far as she was concerned it was never his fault.

The staff were always 'picking on him'

Yeh, right

Blackduck · 04/10/2008 14:52

Scary isn't it - I have a friend who teaches primary and has had parents say to us 'we can't do anything with him' well if YOU can't, what do you think a teacher can do??

But, hey, what do you expect when you see 4 year olds beating the cr*p out of each other and their parents just standing by and watching it...

Heated · 04/10/2008 14:53

There are students, particularly boys, who are being sent to Jamaica because of its strict discipline system, including use of the cane, so some parents are clearly in favour of it.

Using the cane now in the UK would be an anathema & the litigation would be horrendous.

onager · 04/10/2008 14:57

Kerrymum the OP is NOT a stupid question (if that's what you meant) given that parents DID let teachers smack/cane their children until not so long ago. There must be millions of people still alive who had children in school at that time.

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