Joanne Bamberger: Corporal Punishment In Public Schools -- There's An App For That

Joanne Bamberger: Corporal Punishment In Public Schools -- There's An App For That

Joanne Bamberger: Corporal Punishment In Public Schools -- There's An App For That

by Joanne Bamberger

If you're an adult of a certain age, you probably have a memory or two of a teacher taking you or a classmate "out to the woodshed" for some classroom offense. For example, I remember a sixth grade classmate who wasn't particularly good at keeping his listening ears on. One day, this student's antics pushed our teacher so far over the edge that he threw the student against the blackboard. He tossed him so hard it left a dent in the metal chalk holder. Obviously, that's extreme, but I also remember children being spanked just for "carrying on" in class. I even have my own memory of being such a chatty first-grader that the teacher finally gave up and Scotch taped my mouth shut. Not as traumatic as a spanking, but I was pretty shocked that she was allowed to do that and I still have vivid memories of the incident.

Any disciplinary tactics like that today would get a teacher fired for child abuse and kicked out of the profession, right?

Apparently that possibility depends on which state you live in. While we're a society that shudders at the thought