Child Indiscipline and Corporal Punishment
"If you give young people a virtual licence to take the proverbial, some undoubtedly will."
Exclusions Up: Many people believe that the absence of physical discipline is not only a bad thing because there is no recourse to deal with such unruly elements, but the absence of such actually encourages unruly children to follow a road of disrespect, indiscipline and insubordination. The associated problems have also led to frustration from teachers, many of whom have decided they cannot continue in the profession because the situation is out of control. Not only that, but, the number of exclusions from schools has risen significantly over the last few years because excluding a child is now the only course of action left. In the UK an average of ninety children a day are excluded from primary schools alone.
Short Sharp Shock: Excluding children from school is in itself a problem and does nothing to help the child. If anything, it probably makes matters worse, and can send a child off the rails completely. There is a lot to be said for enduring a short sharp shock if it can prevent long term damage, which is probably why nature decrees that it hurts when you touch something hot, signalling, in no uncertain terms, that it is not a good thing to do. The alternative, would be significant damage to your body. Perhaps, when it comes to conditioning and preventing such problems, nature knows best. I think most people would agree that it is better to undergo a few short sharp shocks than lose out on something that can adversely affect the rest of your life.
Extract from Crosstalk by Taz, Our Criminal Justice System - It's Criminal Part 2 (Apr 2016).
Two Ways / Two Fingers: Because of what many see as the seriously questionable abolishment of hands-on and corporal punishment, many kids of today actually think they’re untouchable, which of course they virtually are. Most young children now know that they can stick their fingers up to their teachers and the police alike and, if they are so inclined, this will inevitably encourage the worst to come out in them with no real redress available to the adults that have to deal with them. Some children end up going seriously off the rails and where a smack or the stick may have instilled some respect and brought them back in line, as it did with us, instead they come off the track completely, get expelled from school and end up out on the street and up to no good! Not very helpful! There are only two ways that a human being can know to do the right thing apart from being told and doing as they’re told. They can know from being thoughtful, having developed and a moral understanding and the ability to act on it - something that takes time and education, as well as a will to cooperate and do the decent thing, or they can know from instinct, being taught by punishment and reward. Fear and fun!
Nature Knows Best! Taking a lesson from nature, and I think we can assume nature has a fair bit of savvy, we are taught not to touch hot things which cause us damage because it hurts. Consequently we don't deliberately do it. Pain teaches us respect and teaches us to avoid things we need to avoid. Pain is a preventative mechanism that works subconsciously to help protect us and keep us on our toes. When we commit criminal activity, we cause pain to others, therefore it must be discouraged. Being too soft is not a solution and with the soft in the head parade bleating on about human-rights for those that don't actually give a toss about anyone’s human-rights, we seem to have lost the knack of doing what we should be doing to get the message across and causing ourselves more problems in the process. We are failing and we are also letting down those that end up off the track, whose lives are now less than they could have been. Nature knows that sometimes a short sharp shock or smack at the right time can save us from serious long term damage and that memory is sometimes the best protection and preventative medicine - all we need to avert disaster and a wasted life!