OF Corporal Punishment In Tennessee's Public Schools

Paula Flowe, Founder and Director of The Hitting Stops Here! ( A campaign for teaching kindness and respect in schools everywhere) has been involved in a battle with Memphis Academy of Health and Sciences and the Pulaski School District of Tennesse for the past few Months.

Last Saturday and Sunday, April 11 and 12, I read a few of the emails Paula Flowe Sent out to keep interested parties informed and felt compelled to write the following letter to everyone on her list of Tennessee officials who are collectively responsible by either action or omission for the perpetuation of the primitive and barbaric tradition of corporal punishment in public schools. So far I have received no responses:

To Whom it may Concern,

The Evolution of humankind is at hand. We are living in times that are pivotal to our future as a race and as a society. Our Technology and Greed have, for a long time, outweighed our spirituality and this has led many of us, as authority figures and administrators, (whether we are authority figures and administrators to institutions or only in our own homes) to value our own reputation and the prestige of our institutions more than we have valued any single unit OF those institutions.

Each Child IS a unit of those institutions. Each Child IS more important than the reputation of the school he or she attends. Each Child IS Humankind. And Each Time we allow a Child to slip through the cracks and consider that child to be spillage, we also spill part of our souls, part of our prestige, part of our reputation. We may sometimes think we've SAVED our reputation at the expense of the spillage because on the surface the spillage has gone unnoticed by others. But the reality is that we can't Lie To Ourselves. We can Attempt to Lie To Ourselves and even reach some level of success in this endeavor, but THIS is where our Supreme Failure actually lies.When we begin to believe our lies we are close to the Point Of No Return.

When children are beaten, when their bodies are subjected to Physical and Emotional Pain to affect change in their Mental processes and behavior, it is NOT respect that is being instilled in the children but fear and confusion. The compliance gained by the person who beats a child is gained through the child's fear that more beatings will ensue, NOT through a new Understanding of the rules or a newfound Respect for the authority figure. Respect is gained by DISPLAYING respect, NOT by coercion.

Some people feel that a child must Earn respect. But the truth is that a child has a clean slate, The Child hasn't been here long enough to show him or herself to be UN-respectable. The ADULT carries that distinction. The ADULT is the one who is interfering with the CHILD's ability and RIGHT to grow up UN-confused by the Hypocritical actions of a Childish and ILL-Equipped representative of a broken power structure like confusing and confused parenthood.

The Heart of Humanity is trying to evolve, at all times How Can ANY Child learn the principles and standards that (Supposedly) make our Country and Institutions Great, Prestigious, Respectable when the representatives OF our Country and Institutions set an example that goes completely contrary to the Ideals to which the CHILDREN are expected to aspire???

A Child who is beaten into compliance either learns to beat OTHERS into compliance 'Aggression' (leading to behavioral problems, violence, frustration, rage, prison etc.) learns to be timid and stay in the SAFE ZONE of non-assertiveness 'Submissiveness' (not knowing how to speak up for him or herself, leading to low self esteem, fear of following one's heart, depression, victim mentality etc.)
learns that his or her body is not his or her own property and who knows how many other effects corporal punishment has? It even has an effect on the mentality of the children who ARE NOT beaten but see it happening or have Knowledge of its occurence.

They Learn " This is the way adults handle their problems."

They Learn " A child is LESS than a whole human Being. For If an ADULT Beats another ADULT, the offender goes to jail. If an ADULT Beats a CHILD, IT IS JUST!"

This Is Confusing to ANYone, not only CHLIDREN, because aside from it's Hypocrisy, It's Illogical. The Child is still developing. These are formative years. Our Justice system say it's wrong to give up and physically abuse criminals, but it's ok to hit children? So close to the source of life? So impressionable? So full of LOVE, ENTHUSIASM and CURIOSITY? Is the disruption of a classroom serious enough to hurt someone? Or can a teacher learn to improvise and get to know the students well enough that they develop MUTUAL respect? Or Is CONTROL the REAL issue? Corporal Punishment is Not Only ILLOGICAL It's DISRESPECTFUL!!!
THOSE WHO BEHAVE DISRESPECTFULLY BECOME UNRESPECTABLE!!!!!!
This is ELEMENTARY!!! Then Again, Perhaps the contradiction, confusion and fear created in our children by this system of "Education" is by DESIGN, orchestrated by someone who benefits down the line, and the ones who carry it out are just Willing Pawns who believe that THEIR way was Actually chosen by THEMSELVES...Perhaps they are now willing to fight tooth and nail to defend this primitive form of MANAGEMENT.

Basically I'm Saying 'If You're Not Part Of The Solution You're Part Of The Problem.' Especially if You Happen to BE an Authority Figure or administrator to something more than YOUR OWN HOME. We're trying to E-Volve Not DE-Volve and De- Evolve.

If Youve made it to the close of this letter THANK YOU For reading this Message. I hope It Means Something to you.
If Not, I PITY YOU.

--O.F.

Hopefully this will stir something in the soul of at least 1 of the 11 recipients .

Recently "Commercial Appeal", A Memphis online newspaper published this story pertaining to the struggle against the attack on the children of Tennessee:

Poor practice persists
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
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The breakdown of discipline was under way in Memphis City Schools in 2005 when the Board of Education's corporal punishment ban went into effect.

Spanking wasn't working, and studies showed why: It stops bad behavior momentarily, but in the long run it does nothing to curtail the problem.
Anti-spanking activist Paula Flowe has been picketing Memphis Academy of Health Sciences to call for an extension of that policy to the charter school, where spankings are conducted and students' hands are struck with leather straps in assemblies reminiscent of public floggings.
Her arguments are strong. Charter schools are supposed to be innovative and experimental. They're supposed to develop new methods that will improve academic performance. There is nothing innovative about corporal punishment, a practice with roots in Colonial America that became ingrained in Southern culture during the antebellum era.
Many successful business leaders have testified that they were subjected to corporal punishment as children. So have violent inmates at San Quentin. It has been an easy way to avoid addressing the underlying reasons for bad behavior.
Physical punishment used to be an accepted way to discipline sailors, military trainees, prison inmates and spouses, too. Only in some public and private schools is it still accepted. Memphis charter schools should not be among them.
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COMMENTs left on Commercialappeal.com:
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THANK YOUi for recognizing that children in schools should not SUFFER PHYSICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL PAIN AND SUFFERING AT THE HANDS OF "EDUCATORS" ENTRUSTED WITH THEIR CARE AND EDUCATION! Discipline practices at MAHS are harmful to children, PADDLINGS/HAND STRAPPINGS OF BOYS AND GIRLS, DONE WEEKLY IN FRONT OF ALL OF THE MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS - NOT "BEST PRACTICES" FOR 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION! MAHS must cease and desist IMMEDIATELY with touching any child, IT IS NEVER JUSTIFIED! Our children are NOT receiving EQUAL CIVIL RIGHTS TREATMENT, when Corporal Punishment is ILLEGAL IN 29 STATES! ALL CHILDREN MUST HAVE ACCESS TO SAFE AND HEALTH SCHOOL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS! Please sign the online petition to Abolish Corporal Punishment in U.S. Schools.
Posted by rcox on April 14, 2009 at 8:02 a.m.
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Why are "Health" and "Sciences" part of the title of the charter school? What foundation of health supports the idea that a more painful and humiliating treatment should ever be advocated when other less miserable means of promoting health are available... means that, at the least, are as effective and often are more effective? No where in the health sciences has corporal punishmnet ever demonstrated any measurable, long-term, positive effect. The sponsors of the Memphis Academy of Health Sciences is selling something that it is not. I am amazed that so many of the primary caregivers of the school's students, their parents, are still willing to be taken in by this sham.
Posted by leftisright on April 14, 2009 at 8:03 a.m.
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AMEN!!!
Posted by desotoguy on April 14, 2009 at 8:22 a.m.
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Someone needs to spank Paula Flowe.
Posted by ChickPea on April 14, 2009 at 9:54 a.m.
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in response to rcox
A charter school that is supposed to focus on Health Sciences that uses corporal punishment???
Sounds totally perverse and twisted.
Is their curriculum is also from the middle ages, then?
Posted by todd on April 14, 2009 at 9:55 a.m.
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Fear of corporal punishment (at school and at home) made me behave. It didn't make some others behave. I expect there are more like me than not... What is the alternative? Time out doesn't seem to work for teenagers... I suggest work detail detention. Make them clean and fix up the school grounds.
Posted by desotoguy on April 14, 2009 at 10:09 a.m.
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If corporal punishment isn't working it's because you aren't hitting them hard enough.Good idea about the work detail, todd. If they aren't going to behave and get an education they better get used to doing real work.
Posted by Thereitis on April 14, 2009 at 7:38 p.m.
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Yawn. Next subject.
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Some of these Comments show concern for children, who could be the disturbed adults of tomorrow, some show the lack of information being absorbed by the average person forming opinions on these and other matters and some show the blatant ignorance in which many people are content to wallow.

Let's hope that ignorance is in the minority and the bleak look on the face of our world is only the facade erected by some (miserable and greedy) to block our view of the reality that human evolution truly IS coming to a Critical Mass.

--------OF