Opinion-Parents spoil chair to spare rod

edcartoonMisbehaving at school used to earn students a good paddling. With the onset of political correctness and lawsuits, children are not receiving the discipline they need.

Instead, corporal punishment is taboo in many school systems. And we are seeing parents paying for their children’s misbehavior.

In the Parker County town of Springtown, the debate over corporal punishment resurfaced recently when Austin Carpenter was paddled by his coach for wearing the wrong shorts to practice. The 12-year-old was hit hard enough to leave a large bruise on the back of his leg.

The Springtown incident crosses the line and makes legitimate spankings more difficult to defend. But when used appropriately as punishment for serious misbehaviors, spanking is sometimes the best form of discipline.

People argue that the lack of respect and discipline apparent in the younger generations is due to a complete lapse by parents and schools to utilize punishments that are adequate deterrents.

Lunch detention is not fun, but it usually is not enough to make a kid say, “I’ll never do that again.”

Some school districts have taken the issue even further. Instead of punishing the students for their negative behavior, they hit the parents where it hurts—in the wallet.

In Aledo, a small suburban city west of Fort Worth, students are routinely written citations by in-house police officers for everything from disrupting the class to possessing tobacco to fighting, result in hundreds of dollars in fines.

A school official said some of the proceeds from those fines are supposed to be funneled into the school for drug awareness and other programs, but so far, the city is pocketing it all.

Some parents have had to pay exorbitant fines for seemingly minor infractions and believe this form of punishment takes the responsibility away from the child and places it on the parent.

Others feel the city is more concerned with generating additional revenue than teaching responsibility and accountability to the youth.

On the bright side, students might actually get that whipping they needed after their parents have to fork over half a week’s paycheck in fines.

If the children are our future, we do not want to teach them that they can break the rules and have someone else pay the consequence.

We are not doing a child any favors by allowing him to get away with ignoring the rules.

In generations past, students would be whipped at school if they misbehaved and then sent home with a note that would probably get them whipped again. Many would likely tell you that it kept them straight and ingrained a strong sense of right and wrong that they carried on to adulthood.

Spankings should never be applied out of anger, or imposed for something the child did by accident or wasn’t old enough to understand.

Appropriate spankings are a consequence for seriously unacceptable behaviors the child knew were against the rules.

That is the kind of tough-love discipline that money cannot buy.