A lesson they are likely to apply to their smaller, weaker classmates. This comment by The New York Times on a judgement by the Supreme Court that teachers may resort to corporal punishment in discipling students under state law neatly sums up a powerful argument against corporal punishment. For corporal punishment teachers that justice is determined by who is bigger and stronger and that primitive ways are best for dealing with problems.
Corporal punishment can and does expose children to excessive physical force.
Other major findings of the study which was conducted jointly by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women, are that corporal punishment is being used for a wide variety of forms, often in anger and often without adult witnesses. The research found that many teachers do not know any other means of solving classroom problems. The majority of the teachers and principals involved in this study agreed that they needed training in alternatives to corporal punishment. It has long been recognized that children have some rights of their own, at least the right to be treated with loving care and decency. Some of the children in our classrooms have been brutalized elsewhere and there is nothing to be gained in continuing this pattern.