Stickers Are Better Than Sticks

I have recently returned from teaching English in South Korea. I worked for one year at a hagwon where Korean teachers used sticks on the hands of students, and two and a half years where no corporal punishment was used at all. The standard of behaviour in my classes at the second school was way above that in the first school. I was able to maintain perfect discipline in my classes, by giving stickers on name cards for good work, and removing stickers for bad.

Seen that in Korean and was shocked..

I spent 5 years in Korea teaching and I have seen students hit up to 10 times with something that looked like a hockey stick. And while I was shocked and think punching or hitting a student with a stick is 100% wrong, I sometimes feel teachers here (in Australia) can't look at a student without getting into trouble. And I ask, is there anything wrong with a clip around the ear? How many of us have wanted to do it to teenagers nowadays???

Painful lessons

I have worked in Korea and while I don't agree with corporal punishment such as the extreme examples shown, it seems to work ok in Korea. My school had a system where the teacher who was "wronged" would refer the student to another teacher for corporal punishment so that the teacher wouldn't "get out of control with the emotion" of the situation. I now work at an out of control high school that has had many problems and feel that if the same system was used here we could solve some problems.

19th century school system for 21st century kids.

The real problem is that we group kids together on the basis that they are all born within a year of each other, and then expect then to all compete with one another in a variety of different disciplines. It's artificial and nonsensical conformism - we don't do that with adults, so why should children be any different? The fact is that different kids have different strengths and different tendencies, and we should teach them accordingly. No need for violence (or 'medication' for that matter).

Is the alternative better?

It appears many did not notice the alternative presented in this report! Kids sleeping, others reading comic books in class and fearlessly smoking in the toilets (and just shrugging as the pricpipal catches them). If I had kids, that would scare me far more than my kids coming home with a saw bum. If my child *refuses* to learn in school, dicipine him/her. If *reasonable* corporate punishement is required for this, so be it. Otherwise they'll be jobless or in jail when they leave school.

Workplace Corporal Punishment — Condones poor communication, impatience and violence.

Introduce corporal punishment to the workplace and consider the environment. Would you have respect for your employer after they beat your backside for not meeting their expectations? Consider being hit by your employer; assault or discipline? I think most adults would condemn receiving corporal punishment from their employers. So why condone corporal punishment for our children? As adults we respect communication, patience and condemn violence but corporal punishment contradicts these traits.

Where is the discipline???

I born in S. Korea and went to school up to year 6 before immigrating to Australia. 99.9% of corporal punishment was either raising hand for 30 minutes or some caning on the leg or slap on the hand. The ones seen last night is extremely rare. Plus you have to take into consideration that teachers in Korea take responsibility for the students' test results to their behaviors, as they are seen as vital tools to molding them into citizens who benefits the society. In hindsight, I am thankful I had some corporal punishment then, as I would have gone off the rails with ill discipline. I am not all that surprised that Australian teenagers generally behaves like a brat compared to Asian students, because we are taught to behave so as to benefit the society rather then think about your self interest only.

Parents are responsible

So you people that agree with corporal brutality would accept the kind of behavior displayed by these thugs...sorry educators would be quite happy to see this behavior inflicted on their own children... i think not. Perhaps student behavior is a reflection of the modern society they are brought up in... this is more a reflection of the " i give up" attitude to discipline of many parents. Hence teachers vent their frustration out on their misbehaving students. Discipline starts very early with c