July 16, 2003

Teachers Need to be Permitted to Discipline their Students

I have several friends who teach high school in and around L.A., and they have stated to me that in many schools things are totally out of control:

• students bring boom-boxes into the classroom and play them
• students use drugs on school property
• students yell at the teachers
• teaching in such classrooms is almost impossible

etc. etc. Yet oddly enough, there is no form of discipline that is permitted. Teachers are not permitted to discipline the kids in any way.

This of course is due to various Liberal views that such discipline is bad for kids. Such arguments, while surely well-intentioned, appear to be ineffective in practice.

It’s gotten to the point that arguments are now being made that teachers should be permitted to bring guns to school to defend themselves from armed students:

Letting Teachers Pack Guns Will Make America’s Schools Safer

Banning guns from schools seems the obvious way to keep children safe. Utah, though, is doing the opposite, and is stirring up debate across the nation.

Acting under a new state law, school districts across Utah have started drawing up regulations allowing teachers and other public employees to carry concealed guns on school property. Opponents are still trying to fight the law, and at first glance their concern about firearms in schools is understandable. Last Sunday in New Jersey, an attack by armed teenagers against three fellow students and randomly chosen townspeople was narrowly averted.

I’m sorry, but that’s pretty stark. Is it better to forget about discipline and just try to shoot the kids when the bullets are flying? Forget about it. This is way out of control.

Sure, if you let teachers slap kids’ hands with rulers there are going to be cases where some teachers abuse the authority. But the worst that happens is, kids’ hands get slapped with rulers. The current status is far worse.

“He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” So says the Bible, and the Bible knows a lot about human nature.

Surely we can’t start rapping the knuckles of kids who are packing guns. But we can phase in disciplinary measures starting in the earliest appropriate grade of school, and then each year extend them to the next grade up. We have to support our teachers by providing them with the tools to have an environment in which they can do their jobs.

02:59 PM • Blogroll The Big Picture! • Email This to a Friend

Categories: Politics & Government

Enter Your Comments Here: