The United States, champion of modernity, education and entrepreneurship , for many, surprises us today with a news that instead of representing progress, seems to return us to dark times to which we should not return for anything in the world.
At least three schools in the state of Texas have asked the parents of their students for permission to apply physical punishment to those children who do not have a behavior considered appropriate. Specifically, these schools have implemented the use of wooden pallets with which to hit punished children on the buttocks. Yes, exactly as in centuries past, when children, instead of giving them joy to go, learn and spend time in school, they were afraid of the simple fact of seeing the teacher and teacher on duty.
The directors and teachers rely on the supposed prior consent that, when registering, they ask the parents in writing. That is to say, that under this premise, only those children who had received the consent of their parents would receive this physical punishment. But, and frankly doubting that this is true at the moment of truth, what is truly sad about the news is to see that in first world countries, and supposedly at the forefront of everything and everyone, values are hit so indiscriminately of education and the rights of all children with such impunity.
That the ideologue of this system is one of the coordinators of the school behavior of one of the centers, a certain Andrew Amaro, does not leave indifferent either. How can it be that people with positions inserted in the educational world, and in the XXI century, can resort to the supposed benefits and effectiveness of such a conservative and terrifying technique?
The mistake of educating with fear
No one doubts that with this type of punishment children change their attitude, but of course they will not do so because of how sorry they are for their actions or their rebellions, but because of their own fear of punishment and pain, as well as shame that can be in front of a community and in front of their peers.
Fear, threat and pain can never be the way to anything good and positive, and coercing people still growing with these types of techniques will certainly never lead us to a world that can be boasted or taken advantage of, nor to a future in which children can bring out the best in themselves.
Children have the right to a quality education , by right, and for this the entire society as a whole must contribute by doing its bit. In this way, granite by granite, we can ensure that children know and never doubt the importance of school and enjoy it, in and of it.
I hope this terrible news remains, given the repercussion it has had, in a simple anecdote and these archaic methods will soon be rectified by these schools, for the good of childhood and education.
