I'd like to paint a picture - a domineering principal with a paddle in his hands, standing over a crying child. He has already hit the child four times and repeats, "I bet this will teach you not to talk back" as he winds up for a fifth blow. It sounds like something my grandmother would tell me about her school in the 1930s, along with walking seven miles to school in the snow. Many of us may think: "Hey, that was a long time ago. This could never happen to me É There are laws to protect me against stuff like that."
For now, at least. Currently, there are laws keeping teachers from striking their students, but a bill in the Montana Legislature proposes to change that. Senate Bill 4, sponsored by Sen. Casey Emerson of Bozeman, would reinstate corporal punishment in schools, a return to the "good old days" when teachers would jar their students' bones because they hit them so hard, or rapped their knuckles with rulers at the sign of the slightest amount of independent thinking. Now this is progress! Supporters of SB 4 would claim that the above examples are extreme and never happen - but they do.
There was a teacher in Great Falls a few years back who was a good example of why this bill should never be passed. He can no longer teach, because he took a student out into the hall one day after the student had been disrespectful and beat that student badly enough to break his bones.
Today, this teacher would not be given the chance to hit another student. He'd be fired, disgraced and would have a hard time finding another teaching job anywhere. This teacher would not have the chance to strike a student, let alone break anyone's bones. Under SB 4, I can envision a tomorrow with increased violence in public schools. In an already violent world, where teachers already complain that their students are too wild, SB 4 would do nothing to help. Teachers would be in fear of their lives from parents on a rampage É or violent students. The punishment would become something that the teachers, as well as the students would never forget. It's called fear.
I'm sure paddling children is one way of making them remember what they have done wrong, but it's not a good way. When a child is hurt and humiliated, he or she is being taught to hurt and humiliate. Teachers should be teaching children without resorting to beating them.
If SB 4 passes, every student in the state of Montana better watch themselves. Don't disagree with certain teachers, or you may be accused of insubordination. Then, it's only a matter of time until an archaic picture of abuse and humiliation suddenly becomes a harsh reality. Progress É isn't it beautiful?