Should Corporal Punishment Be Brought Back In Schools?

A recent news story by ABC7 about Pampa ISD and corporal punishment had me thinking, should we bring it back? Should swats at school still be a thing?

I never understood why the term "corporal punishment" was used. Technically, it's spanking but that sounds a little too kinky. We always just called it swats. My teachers called it swats. The bald headed monster of a man that was my high school principal called them swats.

Never understood the term "corporal punishment." A spanking is a spanking no matter where you do it.

There has been a lot of back and forth over the years over the use of corporal punishment in school, and at home. Some contend that it is the best deterrent to bad behavior ever invented. I can say that personally, getting swatted with a paddle sure made me want to never speak up or act out again. So I guess it worked.

Some say it's just child abuse disguised as discipline. I can see that point in some cases. Some authoritarian doesn't know when to draw the line and it's no longer "disciplining a child" and instead it's something that happens in P.O.W. camps.

I got a lot of spankings, swats, corporal punishments, whatever you want to call them when I was a kid. Do I think it made me a better person? I don't know, but I do know that I didn't raise hell during church anymore afterwards. That was the last time I decided to goosestep on top of a church pew shoving Cheerios into my fat mouth.

I've even had to pick my own switch to get swatted with on occasion. After thinking I would pick the weakest switch God had placed on Earth to do the job, I got it twice as bad. Don't act up, speak out, or engage in any creative problem solving. I got that message loud and clear.

In high school, my Geometry class was across the hall from the principal's office. Every time a kid was met at the door by the Lumber Hammer, we waited to hear the fallout. I've seen some of the biggest linemen a football team could ever hope to have walk out of that office with a tear in their eye.

I don't know that it taught me any respect, but I sure did fear the hell out of the lumber yard. In fact, it made me fear pretty much anyone in a tie for the longest time.

And belts. I didn't really care much for belts.

What are your thoughts?