Corporal punishment a ‘snake oil remedy’
My initial response to (Springfield school board member Steve) Makowski’s request for a “dialogue” over corporal punishment in schools would be rated R for language.
Mr. Makowski is correct that action must be taken to address discipline within our schools. But, he is wrong in the remedy he is seeking. Corporal punishment has been linked to mental health problems (Gershoff, 2010; Ng, 2016), cognitive decline (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2018), and decreased college attendance (Berger, 2014).
It’s true that states like Missouri allow corporal punishment. To put that in perspective, corporal punishment through our judicial system has been outlawed since 1972. That doesn’t mean that prisoners and students alike ought to be paddled because we strive to be a society of laws and mutual respect, not a society of mob violence.
Most of the “benefit” of corporal punishment is that it immediately modifies behavior.
However, as noted in a National Association of School Psychologists resource, methods “effective in establishing and maintaining order and safety are not necessarily effective in preventing future behavior problems or creating self-discipline” (Bear, 2008). In short, it’s a Band-Aid over a bullet hole, if the Band-Aid was also made of salt.
If the goal is to implement a disciplinary policy that creates a culture of respect and learning within SPS, there are research backed ways to do so. Are they simple? No. Is any solution perfect? No. But, are some solutions infinitely better than others? Absolutely.
One of these is social-emotional learning (SEL). Two different metaanalyses of this method found that it improved attitude, behavior, and an 11 percentile-point increase in academic achievement across racial and socioeconomic groups (Durlak et al, 2011; Taylor et al, 2017). Compare that to the cognitive harm associated with corporal punishment. However, such a consistent application of SEL would be difficult. It would require a culture of respect between students, teachers, and administration that my anecdotal experience as a student does not support existing in the status quo.
A particular difficulty here, again in my experience, is a lack of respect by administrators towards faculty and students. SEL is not the most popular phrase in an educational system increasingly polarized by culture war issues. This approach would likely need increased expense to create an adequate culture of respect for SEL to flourish. In short, SPS can either implement a snake oil remedy for a serious problem that will inevitably lead to lasting harm to our children, or the school board can crack open a book, do some research and then rise to the difficult task of actually addressing discipline and respect in our schools.
Sophia Leonard is a 2023 graduate of Central High School.