Discipline is one of the most difficult to teach in the school setting. Teachers are finding more clever ways to teach this to their students. They know that spanking is not acceptable, especially for parents. But isn’t discipline should start at home? This is one of the main concerns of many educators because parents should take the lead in this area. But for a school in Texas, they believe that they need to do something to teach misbehaving kids a lesson that they will not forget.

This Texas School has been having a lot of problems with misbehaving children. They believe that it is time to adapt an old-fashioned approach. That is why the school decided to use corporal punishment on children who cannot be disciplined.

The school decided to start paddling as a form of corporal punishment!

Texas Classroom Teacher Association defines corporal punishment as the “deliberate infliction of pain” as a way to discipline misbehaving children. Paddling is when a teacher uses a wooden paddle to hit a disobedient child. This practice was very common back in the olden days. And it was only reserved for students who cannot be disciplined easily. Behaviors like bullying or creating chaos inside the classroom can be difficult to contain. So paddling will be the final warning for students who do not easily respond to detention or suspension from school.

Paddling may seem like a drastic measure. But you will be surprised to learn that many parents wholeheartedly support this decision. As expected, there are parents who do not agree with paddling, but many parents consider this as the last option for misbehaving students.

Some schools were horrified by the idea of teachers hitting their students. They believe that this can create fear with students that can result in absenteeism. Some fear that paddling can turn into a form of abuse.

The Three Rivers Independent School District in Texas accepted that not all parents would want their children to be paddled. Because of this, the school district is giving parents a chance to opt-in with the practice. The parents need to provide written and verbal consent that they agree for their child to be paddled when needed. And if the parent becomes uncomfortable with the practice but already opted-in, they can still remove their child from the list.

It cannot be denied that some parents use paddling as a form of discipline at home. They are the ones who usually agree to the same practice at school. They believe that consistency is key to help encourage children to behave and show respect to their teachers.

The Texas school district is not the only one that is using paddling as a means of discipline. In fact, this is becoming a trend since 27 school districts also adopted the practice.

John B. King Jr., the Secretary of Education is at the forefront of the resistance movement against paddling. He sent a letter explaining why paddling should be banned. According to him, 40,000 students or more than ⅓ of the students who are receiving corporal punishment are black. He said that 1.8 times of black boys will receive this compared to white boys. And 2.9 times more for black girls to be punished in this manner than white girls.