Some seem to be all for it (wich suprises me)!
I’m not for it.
What do you guys think? I think it’s fucked. I’ll leave it at that. It just upsets me.
What does this have to with teaching English in Taiwan? Please add some relevance (especially since this topic has been discussed extensively in the past) or it might be sleeping wi’ da fishes. Capisce?
While you’re working out where to put this I’d just like to say that the teachers involved should be subjected to the same action as they dish out. If they can’t take it they shouldn’t give it.
I was deprived of retribution when I was a late teenager because the teacher died of leukemia. I know because I was tracking him down to see how he’d deal with an 18 year old compared to the bashings I received as a 12 year old. Got to love those Catholic schools.
Also, there is something disturbing about male teachers in Taiwan paddling teenage girls bottoms.
I don’t understand you and you’re obvious lashing out at me. I’m trying to get opinions of both for and against sides of corporal punishment in the classroom.
Does is anger you that someone is against it?
I don’t have to figure out where to put this topic. This is where the thread belongs. If you want to dump it then so be it. Use your magical moderator powers. “Sleepin wi’ da fishes. Capisce?” Do you think your some sort of mafia moderator? BFD.
It’s of interest to me because some people think it’s ok to tap kids on the hands and the like for classroom control. I don’t condone such practices.
I want to know how people control classes and whether they use corporal punishment or not. If they do, I would like to know what types of punishment they use.
I don’t have to do the search thing if I want to start a discussion. What would be the point?
[quote=“j99l88e77”] (title: Corporal punishment)
Some seem to be all for it (wich suprises me)!
I’m not for it.
What do you guys think? I think it’s fucked. I’ll leave it at that. It just upsets me.[/quote]
Leave it at that, you did. Next time, don’t. If you are trying to spark a conversation, say something more than just a few randomly strung together sentences and then duck out. If you’re talking about something in a classroom context, at least say the word “classroom” or something relevant to education.
As for the “mafia talk”, I’ll try to be a more bland, humorless moderator from now on if that pleases you. God forbid, I make a joke without adding a smilie. To ensure you understand the tone of this post, here’s one for you: 
Lecture over.
As for the topic…
[soapbox]
Corporal punishment has no place in a nurturing environment built on trust, respect, self-worth, and love. That goes for both schools and homes. And I’ll leave it at that.
ImaniOU
[/soapbox]
I have never in 6 years of teaching needed or wanted to use physical punishment to achieve control in a classroom, and find those who think of it as effective or necessary, to be weak-minded individuals who manipulate others through power struggles and humiliation because they do not respect their pupils.
Corporal punishment is not the only inappropriate, damaging means for discipline being used in classrooms, although it is probably one of the most inappropriate and damaging ways to do so.
There are plenty of threads on here that show ways of maintaining classroom management without using corporal punishment in addition to innumerable online and offline resources that give alternatives. As many different disciplinary situations require any different ways to deal with them, it is a lot to ask of others to put them here as a simple laundry list of “how-to”. Go find them yourself, j99… They’re out there.
[quote=“ImaniOU”]I have never in 6 years of teaching needed or wanted to use physical punishment to achieve control in a classroom, and find those who think of it as effective or necessary[color=blue], to be weak-minded individuals who manipulate others through power struggles and humiliation because they do not respect their pupils.
[/color]
Corporal punishment is not the only inappropriate, damaging means for discipline being used in classrooms, although it is probably one of the most inappropriate and damaging ways to do so.
[/quote]
Sounds good Imani.
I found this one from Bassman. It does seem that some of these weak minded individuals recieve retribution.
[quote]Sure.
Have you never heard of students saving up their pent up rage until graduation and then beating the sh#$ out of a teacher they don’t like on the last day of school. Believe it or not this happens frequently in Taiwan, that is why there is usually a strong police presence in the area of schools on graduation days.
If you want to be a beaten pulp then continue with this strange behaviour. Sure the school will support you, it’s not them that are going to get beaten. I keep this in the back of my head when I have to disipline students and Taiwanese teachers do too.[/quote]
Corporal punishment is meant to be humiliating. You bend over, lower your pants, reveal your underwear or bare behind for a stronger effect, or put out your hands (in a fashion not too dissimilar from begging), and get whacked by someone who has authority over you, often in front of your classmates. If you’re not strong and stubborn, you also wind up crying in front of them, further humiliating you.
And what does it teach you? That not doing your work means your hands will hurt too much to do it anyway? That not staying in your seat will make your ass hurt when you attempt to? That being rude to your teacher means she will do something to you to make you resent her even more? Does it teach you how to stay on task? No. Does it give you the discipline to manage your work so you can get it done in time? No. Does it teach you how to treat others with respect? Hell no.
All it does is give the teacher (or parent for that matter) retribution for making him or her feel like you are challenging their authority and making them look bad to others. And you a lot of pain. It teaches you that it’s okay to hit people when they do something you don’t like, especially if they are smaller, weaker, or less powerful than you.
And telling a child you’re doing it because you love them is absolute bullshit. You’re doing it because you’re angry with or frightened by what they did and don’t want them to do it again.
There is absolutely nothing positive about corporal punishment and no place for it in a good education or in good parenting.
Oh shit…I’m soapboxing again. I guess you’ll just have to forgive me this time for how strongly I feel about this issue.
I agree with ImaniOU. Corporal punishment has no place in education.
An interesting experience I had with my GEPT students. The book we were studying had a series of articles on corporal punishment/discipline. The articles on discipline mentioned punishments such as doing extra work, homework, etc. I asked my students to write a short essay about their thoughts on CP. All but one said that they preferred CP over discipline. There reasons were things like - “I’d rather my teacher hit my hands with a stick than give me extra homework because getting hit only hurts for 5 mins, whereas extra homework takes longer”. Etc.
I also teach grade 1/2 anchinban kids, without a CT. If they’ve completed their regular work, they get to come to my English class. And I give them a lot of leeway - they really have to do something bad to get punished by me. I try to make the 30 mins that each class lasts, as fun for them as possible, knowing how much pressure those kids are under. There’s no homework, no tests, it’s basically just English playtime. If they’re naughty, they get taken out of the game for 5 mins and made to stand at the side/back of the class. Facing away from the game, so that they can’t even watch. When I let them rejoin the game, it’s with the warning - “mess up again, and I’ll tell your anchinban teacher”. It only takes 1 or 2 kids to get reported to the anchinban teacher before the kids are generally well behaved. Well behaved by my standards that is, which comes with a lot of leeway. I’ve no idea whether CP goes on in my schools anchinban. I hope it doesn’t, but suspect it does.
I had a grade 2 student who, one day, kept saying “shit”. I told him not to say it and tried to explain why he shouldn’t. His English is OK, but he couldn’t really understand what I meant. So I talked to my boss and asked that this student have it explained to him why “shit” is not an appropriate word for a grade 2 student to use. Especially when he doesn’t really know what it means. Well, by the time it got filtered down to his CT, my wish for an explanation had been lost. He got yelled at by the CT, then sent to the office, where the laoban (my boss’s older sister) yelled some more. He finally ended up at my desk, tears running down his face, to say sorry. I didn’t want a sorry, saying shit doesn’t bother me. All I wanted was that it was explained to him, in Chinese, why it’s not an appropriate word for a 7yr old to be using. Fortunately, AFAIK, yelling at him was as bad as it got.
Oh, for crying out loud. I’m not looking for advice.
I’m going to go out on a limb here…
I believe there is a place for corporal punishment, but it is in the home and with extreme restraint. Physical pain is an effective tool for short-term behavior change.
Corporal punishment is never appropriate for the classroom.
I hit my students near daily. If they are too far away and I don’t feel like getting off my fat arse, I’ll have another student whack em for me.