Dear Editor,

I must admit that I have never met anyone who has complained about being abused as a result of being the recipient of corporal punishment in the classroom.

I am somewhat of a gregarious person and have spoken to many people on the subject. But I cannot recall anyone I have spoken to using the word “abuse” in association with corporal punishment. Rather, I have met numerous people who have been on the receiving end of corporal punishment who have nothing but praise for the discipline it fostered in their lives. This is what I believe is happening in our country.

The system is completely changing something that works for the purpose of addressing the needs of only a handful of students. Yes, there are a few cases in which teachers have gone overboard

The system is completely changing something that works for the purpose of addressing the needs of only a handful of students. Yes, there are a few cases in which teachers have gone overboard

and have abused their powers, but should we dismantle an entire system that has been proved effective because of a few mishaps? Wouldn’t it be wise to remove the abusive teachers from the classroom rather than putting an end to a system that works?

Let’s take a step back and look at what we are actually doing. We are suggesting to bad students that they could go to school and misbehave and the only consequence will be suspension, that will give them the opportunity to do what they really wanted to do in the first place – which is not to attend school. We are suggesting that they could actually tell a teacher to go @#$% , and the most he will be able to do is to write them up and there will be a long paper trail on them, but that would be the extent of it.

Naturally, they would be inadvertently empowered to join a gang or engage in other forms of criminal activity because they were never sufficiently disciplined. Then with a twist of irony, the first restraint they would have received would be from a police baton, or even worse, a bullet to the head from either a police shootout or from a criminal such as themselves.

This scenario does not seem far-fetched but seems to represent what is really happening. So my question is, have we gone insane? Do we really not know that the removal of corporal punishment is a significant contributor to the increase in criminal activity across the country? This is a no-brainer, and I am flabbergasted that the ministry of education would even have considered ending corporal punishment, especially in a nation that has a crime epidemic.

Norman Edmonson

Bigupja2@hotmail.com