As if Kids today we'rent already weak and stupid enough

[petrefax]

if you think about it though, one factor that could be partially responsible for the rise in yobbish behaviour in children is likely the abolishment of physical punishment in schools.

i happened to be "lucky" enough to be at school during the halcyon days when physical punishment was still allowed. it was, iirc, stopped when i was in my 4th year (15 years old). there is another side to this particular coin in that during this time the worst bullies imaginable were teachers

some teachers would, given the slightest provocation, lash out violently at children indiscriminately, so if a class was behaving in an unruly manner the nearest kid, or the teachers least favoured pupil would get hit

some teachers were more insidious & would keep the child back in class to physically abuse them in private, but what it basically boiled down to was some adults took pleasure in behaving violently towards children, and this was never more so when a teacher took a dislike to a particular child - any excure was used to physically abuse that child.....i know, i got into this with our games teacher (a giant of a man who used to play rugby for Cardiff) who aside from verbally abusing me whenever possible (not what you want when your 14 / 15 going thru puberty & feeling self conscious anyway) he also took every opportunity possible to hit me...hard! so just saying "let the teachers batter them" is not really a viable answer to my mind

in addition to regular slaps, thumps & kicks from our games teacher i can also recall being slapped in the face by a nun for turning up to a lesson 5 minutes late, and being punched in the face by a priest. this was for the heinous crime of offering someone a polo during a maths lesson

i've seen teachers punch, slap, kick (even kicking a kid who was lying on the floor having been punched there by the teacher) i've seen kids hit with shoes, sticks, had board rubbers thrown at them...what it boils down to is physical abuse - if my boss walked up to me at work & slapped me cos i wasn't performing as well as i should in my job i would quite rightly sue the living daylights out of them - why should our children put up with this?

since i have a number of friends who teach (i'm actually qualified to teach too so myself, but got a better job instead ) i fully agree that the balance of power between teachers & children has currently swung the other way...but allowing teachers carte blanche to physically abuse children is not the answer

a good teacher should be able to control a classful of children without the need for violence, a bad teacher just lashes out as often as possible until the kids get to know his / her reputation as a "hard" teacher - discipline through violence isn't discipline, its fear, and these sort of teachers have no place in our schools & if the banning of corporal puniushment weeds them out then i'm in favour of it since i certainly wouldn't like this calibre of teacher to teach my kids