Letter to editor published today should shock local educators!!!

[stopschoolpaddling]

To the Editor,
After reading the comments posted online at TodaysTHV.com this
week regarding the incident of assault at Mountain View School by a
volunteer music instructor, I was utterly appalled. That there are so
many people in this community who supported the comments and I quote,
“feel sorry for the instructor” “he did a good job” “some of the kids
I’ve seen at schools need to be smacked”, “ashamed that their kids are
so unworthy” is nothing short of despicable.
To even suggest that a child should be held responsible for an
adult’s violent behavior toward them is positively obscene and yet it
is this mentality the school district undeniably supports and endorses
every time it allows their principals to carry out an act of violence
in the disguised form of disciplinary corporal punishment.
As a mother of 3 elementary students, I have no respect for
anyone who would beat a child - period, much less with an archaic
barbaric wooden instrument of torture called a ‘paddle’. That this is
still happening anywhere in any school defies all decency and those
that support its use are blatantly supporting child abuse. Just the
fact alone that in 29 states and 21 countries this type of behavior
will land you in jail speaks for itself. If anyone else is
responsible for what happened last week it is this school system’s
imbecilic support of violence against children and not the children’s
supposedly unruly behavior.
For those of you who will comment back to me quoting the
proverbial “spare the rod” verse out of the Bible, don’t bother; it
wouldn’t take me five minutes to find a religious text to justify
anything - including murder.
Facts stand that corporal punishment is damaging to children and
anyone who uses it is committing an act of savage premeditated
violence. If you must comment, please show me the documented evidence
that corporal punishment in schools is beneficial to children. Go
ahead and try to find some because there isn’t enough room in this
entire newspaper to quote the number of legitimate studies that
evidence the numerous negative and debilitating lifelong effects the
children who endure such humiliation may suffer.
xxxx xxxxxxx
To join the growing number of enlightened people against corporal
punishment in schools please email [e-mail].

[d_r]

1. I agree with you 100%

thank you for saying it

[pscot]

2. Your sig graphic

iluminates something I've been thinking about a lot lately: fifty million Americans with IQs below 85; another hundred million below the mean. They are likely the most vulnerable economically, the most easily propagandized, the least able to understand complex issues like HCR, climate change, constitutional issues and matters of war and peace. The mind bogles.

[Hannah Bell]

4. it does? it bogles?

Definitions of bogle on the Web:

•bogles - Nasty hobgoblins
www.electricscotland.com/kids/rolfins_orb/book11_glossary.htm



maybe you should spellcheck before you bemoan the low IQ of the populace.


"Everyone's stupider than I am!! Oh, the humanity!!"

[pscot]

5. Hoist by my own petard

I know that post sounded arrogant, but I really do tend to accept people as they are. What concerns me is what seems like a trend toward mob rule. The media and politicans of a certain stripe are reaching toward the lowest common denominator, and that is avery low place indeed. Science is being devalued, religious and patriotic myth is displacing history, our courts dole out revenge rather than justice and killing a car prowler makes one an instant hero. The country is being run on the basis of fear and greed, not really the models for a civil society. I understand that the teabaggers are upset, but I don't think they really understand what's being done to them or by whom. They are stupid and proud of it and they're being encouraged in their folly by people who patently do not have their best interests, or those of the country, at heart. If you want to defend the right to willful ignorance, go for it. I'll be happy to hold your coat.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. But 100% of our kids are supposed to be at grade level in 4 years!!!

Hide that bell curve, silly.