Peer-Tutoring Independant Study
Throughout the history of classroom education, many different
types of disciplinary systems have been applied by teachers and other
authority figures in schools for the sole purpose of controlling student
behaviour. These systems include corporal punishment, psychological
abuse or neglect, and assertive discipline. Although two of these three
topics are illegal at this time, they were all widely used in schools across
the country a short time ago.
Corporal punishment in general can be defined as the infliction of
pain or confinement as a penalty for an offense committed by a student.
During the time that corporal punishment was used by schools all over
the United States and Canada, parents did not have any say in school
discipline. It was completely up to the school authority figures on the
type of punishment and the severity of the punishment given to the
student. The classroom teacher had the most say in the matter since it
was the teacher who usually administered the punishment to the
students. Because of this, some teachers (who especially liked the idea
of physical punishment) took advantage of the minor guidelines set by
the principal to protect students from excessive physical beatings. These
guidelines varied from school to school, but often included length, width
and thickness of the paddle or any other weapon used, the amount of
times the student may be struck by the weapon, and other minor details
about other types of physical punishment. The list of weapons that were
acceptable for teachers to use include long: rubber hoses, leather straps
and belts, sticks, rods, straight pins, hard plastic baseball bats, and
arrows. If at the time a teacher did not have his/her weapon, they would
often resort to punching, kicking, slapping and shaking as ways to 'get
children's attention'. Besides...