Mad Rant: Corporal Punishment

Readers from the United States will likely have heard by now about the case of the woman in New York, working as a school bus monitor, who was verbally abused and threatened to the point of tears by a bunch of middle school delinquents. It seems odd to me that in this day and age when fewer people are having children and of those an ever smaller number of children that children are often so over-romanticized. Make no mistake about it, children can be positively heartless, cruel, vindictive and totally lacking in any empathy at all. This is likely worse today when, in our society, we have deluded the young with false self-esteem, pampered them, spoiled them and bred a gross mentality of entitlement out of all proportion to what is actually achievable. I will even risk greater condemnation and say that girls are worse than boys. Boys might punch each other in the eye but girls emotionally destroy each other, which seems far more cruel and insidious to me. In any event, this latest episode is just one more, albeit extremely ugly, example of the lack of discipline in school, the lack of proper behavior among children and a total absence on their part of any respect for their elders.

Aside from the children themselves, it is the parents of these vicious little spawn that are ultimately to blame for raising no better than to think that such behavior is acceptable. Even in my teenage years when I was at my most insolent and rebellious I would have never, ever even thought for instant of speaking to a 60+ year old woman in such a way. That’s entirely to the credit of my parents and not to myself. The parents of every one of those little demon-seed should be held accountable for the behavior of their children. However, the school itself is also to blame. The children behave in such a manner because they know they can, they know they can get away with it and that there will be no consequences. However, again, schools answer to school boards who must answer to the parents on election day so we are back to them again. I was not always the best student but one thing I was consistently cited for was being well behaved. When I was in kindergarten, for the only time in my student years, I was sent to the principal for writing on my desk. The principal took his blue wooden paddle to my backside and I never got sent to the principal’s office ever again. Once was enough.

That was at a private school but, even at public school where corporal punishment was not allowed, I never gave any problems because I knew that whatever they could do to me would pale in comparison to what my dear old papa would do to me when I got home. Because if I did anything wrong or even if I was present when others did something wrong and did not stop them, if pop found out I would get a good dusting by a big leather strap of some variety. I’d come out of it feeling very low, with a collection of red welts across my backside and be sore for a while afterward but, of course, no real damage was ever done. A good thrashing is by no means the same as child abuse. My skin was never broken, I was never left covered in bruises and I never had any bones broken or anything like that but my old man did a good enough job that whatever I had done wrong, I sure as the world would never, ever do it again. Now, I know there are those who say that they happen to have some special kind of youngster that a whipping or a spanking just has no effect on them. I’ve never believed it. Anyone who says that is simply not applying sufficient force. I don’t care what kind of a child you have, if you smack them hard enough you WILL change their behavior. I guarantee it. Of course, as with any kind of punishment, it must always be fairly and consistently applied.

I don’t have children and don’t plan to ever have children but I have long said I could solve all the disciplinary problems in any school in two days with only a rule book, a leather strap and a free hand. Here is how it works: you make sure every student is well aware of the rules and that no infraction will be tolerated. When someone breaks the rules (and here is the important part), you don’t send them to the office. You wait until recess or lunch break and you assemble the whole student body on the playground. You take the guilty party into the middle of the playground where everyone can see and there you announce what they did wrong, how they will be punished and then start bringing the tears to their eyes. I know, I know, that sounds horribly cruel to the modern mind but, I assure you, once that is done and everyone sees it being done, it will very, very rarely (if ever) have to be done again. Once they know it can happen and will happen they will not risk the pain and, more so, the humiliation that comes from breaking the rules. I welcome anyone who would wish to test this theory -I guarantee immediate results. You do not cause any damage to the body, you leave no scars or anything but simply apply sufficient force to make it really, really hurt and let these bullies be seen crying like a baby and no one will risk breaking the rules again.

I am dead serious about this and just to show that I do not commit age discrimination allow me to say that I think corporal punishment should be revived for adults as well. Some people think only slaves used to be beaten but, on the contrary, in those days corporal punishment was common for free men as well and no city, town or village was complete without a whipping post. Personally, I have most wished for this option when dealing with grown-up bullies and by that I mean men who beat their wives or beat up any woman or who abuse their children. It would give me great satisfaction to see some of these creeps who get drunk and end up putting their wife or child in the hospital, stripped to the waist, tied to a post and have a big, brawny fellow come with a big whip and flog them to the bone. Give them a taste of their own poison and see how eager they are to inflict such pain on those weaker than them in the future. I think it would do a world of good, both for the offender and for all those who witness such punishment.

Will this ever happen? No, surely not, we’ve gone far too soft for anything like that anymore. But this sort of stuff did NOT happen in the old days and, again, I guarantee you it would work. I won’t quote what was said to the poor woman in question, I assume most know or can easily find out but if it were in my power every one of those little punks would take a thrashing for that and then I’d have their folks whipped too for raising such a heartless little pack of barbarians. This is yet further proof to me that the Whig version of history is totally wrong. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Whatever the opposite of evolution is, we are going through it. Any halfway decent child would have been raised better than to talk to even their schoolmates that way to say nothing of a little, old lady. It makes me positively disgusted with our modern society and a very … Mad Monarchist.