school spankings?
[email protected]
WARNING:
The following post is deeply disturbing to non-violent, non-punishment
oriented parents. Unschoolers beware! Do not read if violence towards
children will ruin your day. Seriously. I can't even believe this stuff
still goes on in our schools. THIS will help some people understand why I
think things are different in the South. Ugh.
Fewer students feeling the sting
By Denise-Marie Balona | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted March 11, 2003
TALLAHASSEE -- Two-thirds of Florida school districts still spank students,
although the latest state numbers show that suspensions are increasingly the
preferred mode of discipline.
About 11,000 Florida students felt the paddle during the last school year,
according to the Florida Department of Education, most of them in small,
rural counties. Larger, urban counties are spanking fewer children, opting
instead to send them home or sentence them to programs that include
"in-school" suspension, where the students are segregated from their
classmates.
In Hendry County, a district that ranks second in the state for spankings,
veteran educator Rick Shearer said he might suspend more students if it
weren't for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. After a few swats,
children can return to class.
"We're under pressure for the kids to pass the FCAT and to do the best we can
with these kids," said Shearer, principal of Westside Elementary School in
Clewiston, south of Lake Okeechobee. "If they're not in school, it's hard."
Hendry County is one of 10 mostly tiny districts that in 2001-02 accounted
for the majority of school spankings, about 6,500. Parts of the Panhandle,
North Florida and Hendry saw a rise in corporal punishment, while much of the
rest of the state saw a drop.
Many Florida school administrators haven't lifted a paddle in years, part of
a national trend toward banning the controversial practice altogether.
Administrators at Narcoossee Community School in Osceola County don't spank,
even if parents request it.
"I've had a parent pleading if you'll just do it [spank], he'll straighten
up," said Principal Jim DiGiacomo, adding that in-school suspension works
well to curb discipline problems for his students because they hate the
isolation. "You can impose the consequences and you can control what's going
on because they are with you."
Schools turned to corporal punishment 10,685 times in the 2001-02 academic
year, state records show. That's a tremendous drop from the 124,295 paddlings
issued in 1985-86.
The small, rural districts issued the most spankings. Florida's 10 smallest
districts, with less than 1 percent of all students, accounted for 10 percent
of spankings. In contrast, the 10 largest districts, with 63 percent of the
state's total enrollment, accounted for 8 percent of spankings.
More than 240 spankings were reported in four Central Florida counties --
Orange, Osceola, Polk and Lake. However, Dianne Lovett, a district
administrator in Orange, said the five incidents reported there appear to be
clerical mistakes. Orange banned corporal punishment in 1993, Lovett said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Association of Elementary School
Principals and other child-advocacy groups oppose corporal punishment, citing
research through the years linking childhood paddlings to depression,
delinquency and lower rates of college graduation.
A new study by a longtime family violence researcher suggests that spanked
children don't read or do math as well as their peers.
'An extension of the parent'
Florida lawmakers let school districts decide what's best, however. About a
third of the 67 counties have stopped the practice under pressure from
parents and children's advocates, or because they feared lawsuits or
complaints to police.
Mike Elmer, whose son, Nick, is a second-grader in DeLand, is glad Volusia
County schools no longer paddle. Elmer doesn't spank his child.
"The way I look at it, the school is an extension of the parent and if the
parent doesn't do it, why should the school?" Elmer said.
Volusia parent Cheryl Fitzpatrick disagrees. She thinks parents should be
able to request spankings because the threat of being sent home may not carry
much weight.
"I think you telling them 'You're going to get suspended' probably just makes
them happy," she said.
In Polk County, where administrators paddle the most of any Central Florida
school system, only some elementary schools still do it. Now, schools mostly
suspend students, said Deputy Superintendent Rusty Payne.
"There's a lot of things we suspend for now that I probably would have given
kids three licks for," said Payne, a former high school principal of 16 years.
In this regard, Polk is much like the rest of Florida. Suspensions reported
statewide during the last school year totaled 480,655, more than double the
202,262 for 1985-86.
Changing behavior
Educators concede that spanking is not always effective, but the same goes
for suspensions. Instead of going home to study or contemplate poor behavior,
many children end up playing video games and watching television.
In-school suspensions don't provide the same opportunities for classroom
discussion and projects, which educators say are key to learning.
Citrus County officials, who rarely spanked children last year, sometimes
rely on an alternative center as a way to discipline. Children who repeatedly
misbehave or commit serious offenses are transferred to the Renaissance
Center, where they can get more academic attention and counseling.
"The purpose of a discipline system is to change behaviors so learning takes
place," said Renna Jablonskis, the Citrus schools' director of student
services. "Spanking is quick to take effect but it doesn't have a long-term
impact."
Small districts often don't have the cash to build and staff alternative
centers, though. Neither can they always afford after-school detention
programs and in-school suspension programs, administrators said.
Shearer's school in Hendry County was able to offer in-school suspension this
year because one employee is used for several tasks, including making copies
and monitoring students.
A new attitude
Florida is not the only state where paddling in school is out of favor. About
27 states have banned it outright, as have about 10 countries, including
Germany, Sweden and Denmark.
Much of the change in attitude stems from research suggesting that paddling
is particularly harmful to elementary-school children, who also are the most
likely to be spanked. A new study contends that such punishment may be
counterproductive for school officials trying to focus children on their
studies.
Murray A. Straus, who co-directs the Family Research Laboratory at the
University of New Hampshire, tested 622 children ages 5 and 6 across the
country. Those who were spanked by parents scored lower on a standardized
exam when tested again two years later, he said.
Straus speculates that learning slows because spankings can cause stress on
children's developing brains. He hopes the American public, now obsessed with
standardized test scores, takes his study seriously.
"People do say, 'I was spanked and I'm OK' and they're not lying," Straus
said. "But it's like smokers saying, 'I smoked all my life and I don't have
lung cancer.' It ignores the fact there are lots of people who do."
State Rep. Frank Attkisson, R-Kissimmee, argues that school boards should be
able to choose for themselves how to handle behavior problems. One disruptive
child, he said, can hinder an entire class's learning.
"We have to balance his [Straus'] concern with the overriding concern that
every child gets a year's worth of education with a year's worth of dollars
spent," said Attkisson, who said he was spanked at home and in junior high.
He also spanked his three kids.
"You have to give tools to school boards and let them be the deciders of
what's right for the students."
Prevention is key
Irwin Hyman, a child-discipline expert who heads the National Center for the
Study of Corporal Punishment and Alternatives in Philadelphia, said the
answer to handling behavior problems lies in prevention.
Schools can use praise and rewards to encourage students to concentrate on
assignments and behave well. They also can try to figure out why a child is
acting out -- and help alleviate the problem.
"When you go to the doctor, they want to diagnose before they prescribe you
anything," Hyman said. School districts that spank "are giving the medicine
before diagnosing what the problem is."
Hendry County principal Shearer said some answers to school discipline
problems may lie within families.
"The kids behave at school pretty much the way they've been allowed to behave
at home," he said. "The bottom line is we have to have law and order in the
school so teachers can teach and students can learn."
Denise-Marie Balona can be reached at dbalona@... or
386-851-7923.
Ren
"The sun is shining--the sun is shining. That is the magic. The flowers are
growing--the roots are stirring. That is the magic. Being alive is the
magic--being strong is the magic The magic is in me--the magic is in
me....It's in every one of us."
----Frances Hodgson Burnett
The following post is deeply disturbing to non-violent, non-punishment
oriented parents. Unschoolers beware! Do not read if violence towards
children will ruin your day. Seriously. I can't even believe this stuff
still goes on in our schools. THIS will help some people understand why I
think things are different in the South. Ugh.
Fewer students feeling the sting
By Denise-Marie Balona | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted March 11, 2003
TALLAHASSEE -- Two-thirds of Florida school districts still spank students,
although the latest state numbers show that suspensions are increasingly the
preferred mode of discipline.
About 11,000 Florida students felt the paddle during the last school year,
according to the Florida Department of Education, most of them in small,
rural counties. Larger, urban counties are spanking fewer children, opting
instead to send them home or sentence them to programs that include
"in-school" suspension, where the students are segregated from their
classmates.
In Hendry County, a district that ranks second in the state for spankings,
veteran educator Rick Shearer said he might suspend more students if it
weren't for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. After a few swats,
children can return to class.
"We're under pressure for the kids to pass the FCAT and to do the best we can
with these kids," said Shearer, principal of Westside Elementary School in
Clewiston, south of Lake Okeechobee. "If they're not in school, it's hard."
Hendry County is one of 10 mostly tiny districts that in 2001-02 accounted
for the majority of school spankings, about 6,500. Parts of the Panhandle,
North Florida and Hendry saw a rise in corporal punishment, while much of the
rest of the state saw a drop.
Many Florida school administrators haven't lifted a paddle in years, part of
a national trend toward banning the controversial practice altogether.
Administrators at Narcoossee Community School in Osceola County don't spank,
even if parents request it.
"I've had a parent pleading if you'll just do it [spank], he'll straighten
up," said Principal Jim DiGiacomo, adding that in-school suspension works
well to curb discipline problems for his students because they hate the
isolation. "You can impose the consequences and you can control what's going
on because they are with you."
Schools turned to corporal punishment 10,685 times in the 2001-02 academic
year, state records show. That's a tremendous drop from the 124,295 paddlings
issued in 1985-86.
The small, rural districts issued the most spankings. Florida's 10 smallest
districts, with less than 1 percent of all students, accounted for 10 percent
of spankings. In contrast, the 10 largest districts, with 63 percent of the
state's total enrollment, accounted for 8 percent of spankings.
More than 240 spankings were reported in four Central Florida counties --
Orange, Osceola, Polk and Lake. However, Dianne Lovett, a district
administrator in Orange, said the five incidents reported there appear to be
clerical mistakes. Orange banned corporal punishment in 1993, Lovett said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Association of Elementary School
Principals and other child-advocacy groups oppose corporal punishment, citing
research through the years linking childhood paddlings to depression,
delinquency and lower rates of college graduation.
A new study by a longtime family violence researcher suggests that spanked
children don't read or do math as well as their peers.
'An extension of the parent'
Florida lawmakers let school districts decide what's best, however. About a
third of the 67 counties have stopped the practice under pressure from
parents and children's advocates, or because they feared lawsuits or
complaints to police.
Mike Elmer, whose son, Nick, is a second-grader in DeLand, is glad Volusia
County schools no longer paddle. Elmer doesn't spank his child.
"The way I look at it, the school is an extension of the parent and if the
parent doesn't do it, why should the school?" Elmer said.
Volusia parent Cheryl Fitzpatrick disagrees. She thinks parents should be
able to request spankings because the threat of being sent home may not carry
much weight.
"I think you telling them 'You're going to get suspended' probably just makes
them happy," she said.
In Polk County, where administrators paddle the most of any Central Florida
school system, only some elementary schools still do it. Now, schools mostly
suspend students, said Deputy Superintendent Rusty Payne.
"There's a lot of things we suspend for now that I probably would have given
kids three licks for," said Payne, a former high school principal of 16 years.
In this regard, Polk is much like the rest of Florida. Suspensions reported
statewide during the last school year totaled 480,655, more than double the
202,262 for 1985-86.
Changing behavior
Educators concede that spanking is not always effective, but the same goes
for suspensions. Instead of going home to study or contemplate poor behavior,
many children end up playing video games and watching television.
In-school suspensions don't provide the same opportunities for classroom
discussion and projects, which educators say are key to learning.
Citrus County officials, who rarely spanked children last year, sometimes
rely on an alternative center as a way to discipline. Children who repeatedly
misbehave or commit serious offenses are transferred to the Renaissance
Center, where they can get more academic attention and counseling.
"The purpose of a discipline system is to change behaviors so learning takes
place," said Renna Jablonskis, the Citrus schools' director of student
services. "Spanking is quick to take effect but it doesn't have a long-term
impact."
Small districts often don't have the cash to build and staff alternative
centers, though. Neither can they always afford after-school detention
programs and in-school suspension programs, administrators said.
Shearer's school in Hendry County was able to offer in-school suspension this
year because one employee is used for several tasks, including making copies
and monitoring students.
A new attitude
Florida is not the only state where paddling in school is out of favor. About
27 states have banned it outright, as have about 10 countries, including
Germany, Sweden and Denmark.
Much of the change in attitude stems from research suggesting that paddling
is particularly harmful to elementary-school children, who also are the most
likely to be spanked. A new study contends that such punishment may be
counterproductive for school officials trying to focus children on their
studies.
Murray A. Straus, who co-directs the Family Research Laboratory at the
University of New Hampshire, tested 622 children ages 5 and 6 across the
country. Those who were spanked by parents scored lower on a standardized
exam when tested again two years later, he said.
Straus speculates that learning slows because spankings can cause stress on
children's developing brains. He hopes the American public, now obsessed with
standardized test scores, takes his study seriously.
"People do say, 'I was spanked and I'm OK' and they're not lying," Straus
said. "But it's like smokers saying, 'I smoked all my life and I don't have
lung cancer.' It ignores the fact there are lots of people who do."
State Rep. Frank Attkisson, R-Kissimmee, argues that school boards should be
able to choose for themselves how to handle behavior problems. One disruptive
child, he said, can hinder an entire class's learning.
"We have to balance his [Straus'] concern with the overriding concern that
every child gets a year's worth of education with a year's worth of dollars
spent," said Attkisson, who said he was spanked at home and in junior high.
He also spanked his three kids.
"You have to give tools to school boards and let them be the deciders of
what's right for the students."
Prevention is key
Irwin Hyman, a child-discipline expert who heads the National Center for the
Study of Corporal Punishment and Alternatives in Philadelphia, said the
answer to handling behavior problems lies in prevention.
Schools can use praise and rewards to encourage students to concentrate on
assignments and behave well. They also can try to figure out why a child is
acting out -- and help alleviate the problem.
"When you go to the doctor, they want to diagnose before they prescribe you
anything," Hyman said. School districts that spank "are giving the medicine
before diagnosing what the problem is."
Hendry County principal Shearer said some answers to school discipline
problems may lie within families.
"The kids behave at school pretty much the way they've been allowed to behave
at home," he said. "The bottom line is we have to have law and order in the
school so teachers can teach and students can learn."
Denise-Marie Balona can be reached at dbalona@... or
386-851-7923.
Ren
"The sun is shining--the sun is shining. That is the magic. The flowers are
growing--the roots are stirring. That is the magic. Being alive is the
magic--being strong is the magic The magic is in me--the magic is in
me....It's in every one of us."
----Frances Hodgson Burnett
athom
--- In [email protected], starsuncloud@c... wrote:
<>WARNING: The following post is deeply disturbing to non-violent,
non-punishment oriented parents. Unschoolers beware! Do not read if
violence towards children will ruin your day. Seriously. I can't
even believe this stuff still goes on in our schools. THIS will help
some people understand why I think things are different in the
South. Ugh.<>
If you really want to put yourself into total shock about what is
actually going on in the schools go get a job as a substitute
teacher, especially in an urban school system. I have written
volumes from my "in the trenches" experience as a sub. It is so much
worse than most can imagine. So if you live in an urban area and can
qualify for a sub license or certificate then try it, just for a
little while, and you will quickly know why we homeschool and why we
unschool. So much psychological brutality out there that it amazes
me. And the folks doing it really believe they are helping the
children. I even run into parents who still say to me that if the
schools would just reinstate the paddle that things would be much
better! I take the time to talk to them, to try to get them to
understand a different point of view. Sometimes I think a little bit
gets through. Most of the time, not.
And I don't live in Florida, or the south, but in the heart of the
midwest, in Ohio. Some days it is just too much and I can't sub
again for a long time. Right now I am about to do some other
contract work, which will give me another bit to write about,
correcting state proficiency exams from different states. That will
keep me out of the schools for the rest of this school year, but I am
sure I will have an even more interesting subject to report after six
months of learning all about these tests and how they are graded.
If you're not up to subjecting yourself to being in the schools just
rest assured that paddling is not the worst of what is going on in
many of them.
Norma
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SosinkyHS
Pamela Sorooshian
Oh my goodness. Blaming hitting kids instead of suspending them - on
standardized testing. Yet another lovely side-effect of standardized
testing!
-pam
standardized testing. Yet another lovely side-effect of standardized
testing!
-pam
On Wednesday, March 12, 2003, at 05:29 AM, starsuncloud@... wrote:
> In Hendry County, a district that ranks second in the state for
> spankings,
> veteran educator Rick Shearer said he might suspend more students if it
> weren't for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. After a few
> swats,
> children can return to class.
>
> "We're under pressure for the kids to pass the FCAT and to do the best
> we can
> with these kids," said Shearer, principal of Westside Elementary
> School in
> Clewiston, south of Lake Okeechobee. "If they're not in school, it's
> hard."