Spanking with a belt=felony

Shrinkrap
Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:40:57 +0000

“There are a few private schools in my area, mostly bible-based Christian, who use corporal punishment. This is clearly spelled out in their Parent Handbook. I can’t believe it is legal, but the parents know what they’re getting into when they sign the agreement.”

True at my kids school, and my kids are VERY different. My D was traumatized just knowing someone MIGHT get spanked. she would NEVER do anything that would elicit a spanking. By the time my son came along, we signed the paper and laughed. We were like “go for it!” We knew any reasonable spanking wouldn’t phase him. He’d probably think it was funny that be had provoked a dramatic response. They tried it once (one swat and a REALLY long prayer), then worked with us on behavioral interventions.

“Any punishment is meant to be avoided, the key is causing the child to avoid it by not committing the behavior in the first place. This is not specific to spanking.”

At the core of a behavioral intervention are incentives for increasing the desired behavior. Punishment is designed to be infrequent.

When I was a student, I was “whipped” by nuns, but not by my parents.