Paddling ain't just for rivers

Finally, the world has set itself right in a strange way. In an era when students talk back to teachers, skip class and wear ever-more-risque clothing to school, one central Texas city has hit upon a deceptively simple solution: Bring back the paddle. I admit, having grown up during the anti-corporal punishment age was rather nice, but I didn’t have any instance where the threat or such adjustment exercises would apply. I did however know several people whose lives may have been improved by a few quick smacks on the ass with a paddle. I mean, seriously, my parents used corporal punishment and the threat of such action to keep me and my brother in check a number of times. I feel like we grew up better because of it. Those of you out there with hippie parents who coddled you through your youth will not know what I mean, but if you had parents who believed in spanking then you may understand. Something about facing an actual, physical reprimand seems to work more often than not in preventing ridiculous behavior. But, as a more litigious society came about due to the go-go eighties and high-life nineties, corporal punishment, especially in public schools, was pushed aside.

Most school districts across the country banned paddling of students long ago. Texas sat that trend out. Nearly a quarter of the estimated 225,000 students who received corporal punishment nationwide in 2006, the latest figures available, were from the Lone Star State. But even by Texas standards, Temple is unusual. If you’ve ever made the long drive up or down Interstate 35 to get to the places you would actually want to be, Dallas or Austin, you’ve passed Temple. Most notable from the highway is the football stadium which stands prominently above the other modest buildings in town. The city, a compact railroad hub of 60,000 people, banned the practice and then revived it at the demand of parents who longed for the orderly schools of yesteryear. Without paddling, "there were no consequences for kids," said Steve Wright, who runs a construction business and is Temple's school board president. Consequences for your actions, what a novel idea!? Who would have thought?

Since paddling was brought back to the city's 14 schools by a unanimous board vote in May, behavior at Temple's single high school has changed dramatically, Wright said, even though only one student in the school system has been paddled. "The discipline problem is much better than it's been in years," Wright said, something he attributed to the new punishment and to other discipline programs schools are trying. Residents of the city's comfortable homes, most of which sport neighborly, worn chairs out front, praise the change. "There are times when maybe a good crack might not be a bad idea," said Robert Pippin, a custom home builder who sports a goatee and cowboy boots. I don’t want to be cliché, but only in Texas would you find a seemingly professional man with a goatee and boots suggesting we give the kids a “crack” to keep them in check. That’s why I live here.

Corporal punishment remains legal in 20 states, mostly in the South, but its use is diminishing. Ohio ended it last year, and a movement for a federal ban is afoot. A House subcommittee held a hearing on the practice Thursday, and its chairman, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), is gearing up for a push to end the practice once and for all. She plans to introduce legislation within weeks. "When you look that the federal government has outlawed physical punishment in prisons, I think the time has come that we should do it in schools," she said. Only a Democrat from the North would use such logic. Honestly, since I don’t see myself ending up in prison any time soon, we should probably bring corporal punishment back there as well, not take it out of the schools. Backward thinking liberal. And I don’t think that the decision to use or not use physical punishment in schools should be up to the United States government to decide. It should be a local matter handled by local school boards and local legislation. This goes back to the State’s Rights argument that I have had with Democrats for several years. Some things just shouldn’t be a federal government matter (like health care). Rules about paddling vary from district to district, but typically only administrators, not teachers, can mete out the punishment, which is done in private. Usually, a long, flat wooden paddle is used to give as many as three blows across the student's clothed rear end, although it was found that some students had been hit many more times. Boys are overwhelmingly the target, which makes sense because we are usually overwhelmingly worse in our behavior.

Having studied psychology I do understand that corporal punishment is not the best answer all the time. A joint American Civil Liberties Union-Human Rights Watch report last year found that students with disabilities were disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment, sometimes in direct response to behavioral problems that were a result of their disabilities. Many educators and psychologists say that positive tools, such as giving praise for good behavior and withholding it for bad, are far more effective for discouraging misbehavior. Those techniques "encourage them to behave well in the future," said report author Alice Farmer. But, honestly, the findings can be turned either way depending on the side you want to stand on. Sure, positive reinforcement does work for some, but not for all. And with particularly ill behaved students wouldn’t you want good behavior now through physical punishment, rather than “in the future” with positive reinforcement.

But in Temple, a city just outside Fort Hood that shakes with the air horns of the trains that pass through its rail yards, many residents say they hope that the old-fashioned solution can address what they see as rising disrespect among youth. They say their discipline problems aren't different from those in any other school system in the country: students showing up late for class, or violating the dress code, or talking during lessons. Those habits were unheard of in the days when schoolteachers routinely swung a paddle, they say. "Back then, you wouldn't throw spitballs, because you were afraid of the consequences," said Darr Kuykendall, a worker for a plumbing supply company. "A lot of kids have tempers," said Abby Jones, a junior at Temple High School. "Those kids that would be paddled would think of it as a threat . . . and maybe would be better."

Parents also pushed for the change because many paddle their children at home and wanted consistent discipline in the classroom, said John Hancock, assistant superintendent of administration for the Temple schools, who has been an educator for more than 40 years. "We're rural central Texas. We're very well educated, but still there are those core values. Churches are full on Sundays," Hancock said. "This is a tool we'd like in the toolbox for responding to discipline issues." Hancock, an urbane, sturdily built Colorado native who wears horn-rimmed glasses, said the school system had banned corporal punishment about six years ago because a state law change made what was permissible uncertain. Follow-up made clear that schools could paddle, he said. Since the policy was changed in May, the school system has paddled only one student, and that was at the request of his parent, Hancock said.

Many districts, including Temple, which is nearly evenly divided among white, black and Hispanic students, require parental consent before the punishment is given. Temple also requires the student's consent, Hancock said, and the punishment is considered equivalent to an out-of-school suspension. Residents said restoring paddling is less about the punishment and more about the threat. "It's like speeding," said Bill Woodward, a graphic designer. "Are they going to give you a speeding ticket, or . . . a warning? I'd speed all day if I knew it was going to be a warning." I have to agree.