Twiggs County Schools, a small system in Middle Georgia, is reinstating corporal punishment. As a first year teacher, I taught English at Twiggs County High School. They definitely had a major problem with discipline at that time. In fact, I’ve never seen anything more insane in my life. However, violence in the form of gang activity was already a huge part of the students’ lives. I’m not sure what Twiggs needs to do to fix their discipline problem, but I’m not sure hitting kids is going to have the effect they’re after.
2 thoughts on “Twiggs County Schools Reinstating Corporal Punishment”
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Hi Dana! It's been a while! I can't believe this is going to fly! Sometimes I think students have more rights that the teacher does. I don't know if hitting kids is the answer but that has to be a happy medium?
Hi Dana-
I'm a grad student at University of Michigan, and I just noticed your blog. I'm working on my masters in secondary English education, and interestingly enough we just discussed the idea of corporal punishment in schools yesterday in one of our courses. I agree with you that adding violent acts to school discipline certainly will perpetuate the problem of violence. Why would we as educators punish our students, when they are receiving punishment enough through simply living their lives? It seems that we have only become part of the problem here. It is unfortunate that people who are expected to create a safe environment for teens are now enforcing physical punishment. What will happen to the motivation to go to school? Will it still be seen as an escape from the harsh realities of home or the neighborhood?