Bring back the cane...?

[Unabashed]

I would like know what anyone else's view is on the lack of dicipline in schools nowadays? I think it has gone to far the other way and now the teachers hands are tied and they have now power over children and certainly no respect from children....??

[M.T.Vessel]

I agree I think there is no dicipline in schools these days, if a teacher says anything a child does not like the child will go straight home and tell the perant ant the parent will go into the school and argue and even threaten the teacher because of what the child has said I think it is disgusting. I think the only way to bring back the dicipplin in schools now is to bring back the cane!!

[andy hughes]

The lack of respect for teachers, and society in general, is the result of lack of parental control. By the time a child arrives in a school, his concept of social boundaries, and lack of them, has already been put in place, or not, by his parents. It is the nature of children to constantly test the boundaries placed on them, in this way they learn the restraints that allow them to live in a society along side others. Increasingly, such boundaries, and the reasons for them, are not put in place, leaving children feeling insecure, and unable to except any behavioural constraints which are necessary to run a successful classroom. If proper emphasis on rights, together with appropriate responsibilities was taught within the home, society as a whole would benefit. Because the Tory government spent eighteen years telling the nation that teachers were rubish, it's hardly surprising if parents, children, and in fact teachers themselves, began to believe it! Freedom comes with a price - when society learns to pay for its freedoms in advance, we may return to the days when respect was earned and returned, not demanded and refused.

[Unabashed]

andy hughes you could'nt be more right, but has it gone so far now,that days of respecting elders let alone teachers are long gone. It will take somesthing drastic to change the attitude of the past generation now parents and the next generation soon to be adults...I dread to think what will be going on in classrooms in the next 10 years....

[WaldoMcFroog]

I'll tell you another thing which I think kicks into the whole debate, which is actually my brother's theory. He's been teaching for three years now. Because the pay in teaching is abysmal, teachers don't get any respect. Kids think 'Why should I listen to what you say about things which will affect my whole life..? If you knew anything, you wouldn't be a teacher on teacher's money!' Now, I don't believe that money is everything, but I do think there's a fundamental problem when teachers do not have the same social and financial standing as, say a doctor or a lawyer. In Canada they do, and rightly so. The future of our kids is in their hands for 7 hours a day! Teachers should be revered and admired, especially given the hours they do!

[olliez]

simple and to the point :- The cane stopped me from being more boisterious and willing to breaking the rules of the school. So therefore better taught. IT SHOULD BE BROUGHT BACK. If only for the discipline that it might bring back, that the kids of today seem to have lost or just don't care about because they know that there is nothing that can be done to punish them.

[TheHitMaker]

Yup, you're all right. As soon as teachers were told they could not assault children, the children realised that they could get away with anything. Difficult one this!

[snotmonkey]

at what age can do you suggest we start to cane children? should it start at primary school to make sure the message is driven home or wait until their atleast 8 years old. what should the cane be used as punishment for? not giving respect to an elder, chewing in class, not doing homework or my favourite hitting another child. hitting children is not the answer better parenting and teaching is. for too long shouting and smacking has been seen as the way to make children conform.

[Unabashed]

It's gone too far the other way know where Teachers are scared to even shout at a child or speak to them authoritivly. Nowadays children know their rights and they know they can get away with absolute murder with the complete backing of their Parents, maybe we should look back towhen the cane or other forms of punishment where used, it worked and not many people who did get the cane then did whatever they did again. It's not a matter of battering a child to a pulp and feeling guilty, thats the attitude that has got society into this position. How can better teaching even be an issue when a teacer is'nt give the chance to do his or her job when they have no authority over the children.

[Eddiecurrent]

Cane both the child and the Parents or even better use nasty forms of torture. Lovely. Until the parents are sorted out then the Kids have no chance, my brother's a teacher and he has had numerous problems with kids and their parents. Childrens rights have now overtaken society's rights to a peaceful life and the law-abiding citizen is given little or no help to sort it out, then again I believe that as soon as anybody child or otherwise breaks the rules of a decent society they should automatically loose their rights, and I don't want to hear from all the do gooders out there because they are the ones who have helped forge the vastly un-equal world we live in today I just hope more do gooders get mugged, burgled etc, they might just have their rose tinted specs nicked!! Mcfroog where on earth in private industry could you get a pay rise year on year (not including cost of living) with absolutely no reference to your performance plus lots of holidays to boot. NQT's start on a good wage and it will increase for a good many years before hitting a ceiling of about �28000, I've been a graduate of engineering for 6 years and am no where near that amount. Teachers are paid good wages which is why five of my colleagues left engineering to join them. As my brother says: a good teacher has all his work finished at 3:30 the bad teacher just complains.