Wow, this news shocked me when I read it:
Texas City Revives Paddling As It Takes a Swat at Misbehavior
TEMPLE, TEX. — 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.
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. 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.
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.
I’m surprised that schools would even consider this tactic, considering the threat of lawsuits and such. But then again, I’m not surprised that school would consider this tactic, since schools have essentially replaced parenting. Schools feed, educate, and indoctrinate teach values to the children, from age 4 to age 18. It goes without saying that since schools play such a large part in the lives of children, schools would dole out the discipline, too.
In the olden days, not knowing a lesson meant a paddling. Today, it's merely for "misbehaving." This implies that socially-engineered behavior is more imortant than getting an education.
The rest of the news story is almost comical, I think. Spanking is LEGAL in 20 states (mostly Southern states). Leave it to a New York busybody to to want to federally impose her values on others:
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.
:blink: Ms. McCarthy, that’s a REALLY bad analogy there. LOL, but perhaps more appropriate than any of you realize….
This other news story surprised me, and didn’t surprise me. A school in Pennsylvania issued expensive MacBook laptops to students. The laptops have webcams. The school claims they would use the webcam only when the laptop was stolen, to catch the robber. Uh HUH. Well, they weren’t. The kids were spied on, says a family, and the school is being sued. Apparently, the webcams are set to be activated every 15 minutes- to snap a photo of the user, a screenshot of the Internet activity, and emit a signal to determine the geographic location of the laptop.
School-Issued Laptops Took Photos of Students at Home
The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district.
More than once, the motion asserts, the camera on Robbins’ school-issued laptop took photos of Robbins as he slept in his bed. Each time, it fired the images off to network servers at the school district.
Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into “a little LMSD soap opera,” a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.
“I know, I love it,” she is quoted as having replied.
So…. while this kind of overbearing behavior by schools is reprehensible, it’s not terribly unexpected. Schools are the institutions raising our children today. Studies have shown that, for decades, schools and media are the two major influences on children’s values, not parents. 
Schools feed the kids, schools babysit the kids, and I remember my schools giving out clothing, health care, and dental care as a kid.
What, exactly, are most parents doing?!
Well, footing the bill, I guess.
OK, now comes the disclaimer. 
I’m not saying that every single child is a victim or a beast, or that every single parent is a lazy degenerate who doesn’t care for their children… so cool your jets before you leave a comment, k? I’m saying that IT’S TRUE that most schools are taking on more responsibility for raising American children than the parents. So it’s not surprising to see that schools would want to dole out disciplinary methods, as well. Hey, if parents are cool with that, whatever. If parents are not cool with that, well, what are they going to do, if anything?
Do you agree that schools should paddle undisciplined students, or monitor their activities at home? Or that schools should even feed, clothe, medicate, and indoctrinate teach moral values to students? I’d love to know what you think! I know I have a lot of Texas readers here, and I admire that state for being more independent than, say, New York State, which is run by bureaucrats. I’d love to know your thoughts.
Here is where I express my zany, creative, motherly side. Read more 
April 18, 2010 at 10:10 am
I graduated from high school long years ago - in the south when it was legal to spank. Most of that time was spent in a small rural school. I don’t remember anyone actually getting spanked. My husband grew up in a larger city school, and he remembers it occasionally happening - by the shop teacher, primarily, so it must have been the boys that received the punishment.
I occasionally spanked my children when they were small - a couple of smacks on a clothed bottom. I remember receiving a couple of spankings as a child. (Actually what I remember is having to go out in the yard to break off a switch for my mother to use) No one thought anything about it. The belief then was spare the rod and spoil the child.
Having said that, I would not want schools to physically punish my grandchildren. I would be afraid that someone in the school might abuse that right. Of course, if the school called and said there was a problem with their behavior, I think my adult children would take care of trying to curb the behavior.
On the other hand, there are so many home situations in today’s world where that doesn’t happen. I think it is habitual abuse that would mar a child’s personality - not an occasional paddling. So I do feel a little ambivalent about it……..but…….if I were asked to vote, I think I would vote “nay”. I think the government is overstepping its bounds.
Forgive the long comment.
April 18, 2010 at 6:54 pm
When I was a kid, paddling was allowed. I’m not sure they ever really used it, but just the thought kept us horrified. Would that work on kids who are a problem these days?? I doubt it and their mommas would be there suing left and right. I don’t think that is a good idea. Nor is the camera thing. That is downright scary and way too Big Brother for me.
Nope on both.