Corporal (bodily) punishment has a role

Wimpy Leftists call it "barbaric" but still have a kind word for the vast barbarity of Communism so their real motive is, as usual, not what they say. It is more like a wish to make real education as difficult as possible. In today's barely-educated society, I guess that a lot of readers wonder what corporal punishment has got to do with corporals. The answer: Nothing. The word is from the Latin "corpus", meaning "body". Article below by Julian Tomlinson -- from the magazine supplement to the "Gold Coast Weekend Bulletin" of Sept. 8, 2007.

There's always been talk of bringing corporal punishment back into schools and I'm all for it - the sooner, the better. In fact, most blokes who came through the corporal punishment system hardly have a bad word to say about it. They seem to talk about it more as a badge of honour than something which has scarred them for life.

Of course, you hear the horror stories from the old days of Christian Brothers maybe going a bit overboard with the cane or strap, but 99 per cent of people appear to have well and truly got over it. They're not sitting in the foetal position or suing their old headmaster. Hell, we knew we were being bad and we knew the consequences of our actions was getting flogged as hard as possible. Our only concern was hoping the strap or cane didn't nick the tips of our fingers because then it really, really, really hurt.

My old man tells this story: Attending a Melbourne school. he had forgotten his footy boots and was required to explain why. There was another bloke who'd forgotten his boots, too - they made a pretty miserable pair. Dad reckons, the old Brother stood about an inch from his face and said: "Tomlinson, why haven't you got your boots?"

"I forgot them and left them at home, sir," said Dad The old Brother walked to the next bloke and asked him the same thing. "Same reason, sir," said the other fella. Well, Dad reckons this old Brother's feet left the ground as he delivered a massive open-handed clip over the ear which knocked the kid over. "That's not a reason, now tell me why you haven't got your boots," he scowled.

Well that's what the old man reckons anyway. Most blokes who graduated from school, particularly, private school, in 1995 or before have probably had their hands stung by some implement of torture. Sometimes, the reasons for being strapped or caned border on the utterly ridiculous, others are just downright funny.

Once, when I was struggling to keep my eyes open in Year 12 modern history, the teacher turned off the fans because they kept blowing papers off his desk. It was a stinking hot day. One kid had already asked to go to the toilet and just never came back, another bloke had snuck under his desk at the back of the room and was having a sleep and the rest of us were frantically fanning ourselves with whatever we could find.

Finally, one lad, Gav `The Sav', put up his hand and asked Br Smith if he could turn the ceiling fans back on. "No, you can when I'm finished," said Br Smith. After another five minutes of sitting in a pool of sweat that had formed in his plastic chair, Gav just stood up on his desk and began spinning the fan by hand. We laughed,

Br Smith didn't and sent him away to be punished by `Killer' Couani, the hardest strap in the west. It was rumoured he kept his leather strap in an envlope in the freezer just to make it especially hard and painful.

Another Brother's jack was made of two pieces of vulcanised rubber with a hacksaw blade stuck between them to ensure maximum pain. But I don't care how many times Gav was strapped, we all still laugh about that day. By the time we were in Year 10, the strap or `jack'. as it was known, stopped being something to be feared. Blokes used to even have competitions to see if they could get the jack more times than their mate. One bloke even begged one of the Brothers to give him 'six of the best' for no reason just so he could claim the record for the most straps in a calendar year.

Is that a sign that corporal punishment permanently scars its recipients? I don't think so. When we hit our senior year the jack had been completely phased out and it just so happened to coincide with a marked increase in us noticing the younger kids being absolute mongrels. Those parents who began marching straight to the principal's office to demand an apology for hitting poor little Johnny `just because he called the teacher a d-head' have a lot of explaining to do.

We now have a generation of school leavers who got away with absolute murder at school and who now have no concept of discipline until they're lying in a gutter bleeding from a broken nose. Bring back the strap, bring back the cane and make men of these boys. If anything, it makes school life a hell of a lot more interesting.




French President Calls for Educational 'Renaissance': "Religion Should Not Be Left at the School Room Door."

Reminds teachers that they are responsible to form students intellectually, morally and physically

Newly elected French President Nicholas Sarkozy did not shy away from tackling controversial issues in his campaign and he has, once again, engaged a politically hot topic in a nation previously renowned for its secularism. In a letter written by Sarkozy and publicized yesterday, he addressed the teachers of France, calling on them to take part in a "renaissance" and to reflect on the huge responsibility placed in their hands - the responsibility to "guide and to protect the spirit and the sensibilities that are not yet completely formed, that have not yet attained maturity, which are searching, which are still fragile and vulnerable."

Sarkozy explained that such a national rebirth would only be possible through a reform of the French education system. Sarkozy clarified that such a reform must include "rewarding the good, punishing the faults, cultivating an admiration of that which is good, just, beautiful, great, true and profound and [cultivating] a detestation of that which is bad, unjust, ugly, insignificant, untrue, superficial and mediocre. That is how a teacher renders his service to a child in his care."

In his letter, Sarkozy bucked the secularist establishment that has long mandated a total rejection of religion presence in any French schools or curricula. "I am convinced that we should not leave the issue of religion at the school door." He cautioned that he was not advocating for proselytizing in schools or teaching solely "within the framework of a theological approach." Rather, Sarkozy explained, "The spiritual and the sacred always accompany human experiences. They are the source of all civilization. One can open up [more] easily to others and one can dialogue more easily with people of other religions when one understands their religion."

French secularist forces argue that teaching religion or allowing the presence of religion in any form in educational facilities only serves to foster confrontation and animosity.

Sarkozy continued in his letter to remind educators that they must instill the virtue of patriotism in their young charges so that they will grow to be responsible citizens of France, of Europe and of the world. He also called on educators to work to inspire an appreciation for culture in France's young people.

Sarkozy drew his letter to a conclusion, echoing a teaching of the Catholic Church in this regard. He said, "Parents, vous ˆtes les premiers des ‚ducateurs." Translated, it means "Parents, you are the primary educators." Sarkozy encouraged parents to be intimately involved in the education of their children. Alluding to the many difficulties that parents of today face in an age of broken homes, expensive education and high unemployment rates. Sarkozy promised governmental effort to make education possible for all young French citizens. Sarkozy concluded his letter, "The time for a new beginning has come. It is to this new beginning that I invite you. We will navigate it together. We are already slow [in beginning]."

As previously reported by LifeSiteNews.com, this is not the first time that the present president has called for a more public acceptance of religion in France. In 2006, Sarkozy, then acting as the French interior minister, called for France to repudiate its anti-religious prejudice and look again at a positive relationship between Church and state.

In a book-length interview entitled La Republique, les religions, l'esperance [The Republic, the Religions, and Hope], Sarkozy recalls critically "the preceding generations" that "scorned, despised, and ridiculed priests and friars."

Sarkozy also previously called for permission for religious organizations to take advantage of state funding for charitable work. He criticizes those who "think it is natural for the state to finance a soccer field, a library, a theatre, a childcare center; but whenever it is a matter of the needs of a place of worship, the state should not spend so much as a penny."

All too often, election candidates employ strong political platforms during campaigns that then discreetly morph into watered down versions of a previous promise to constituents. So far, newly elected French President Nicholas Sarkozy is staying true to his campaign promises to "give the place of honor back to the nation and national identity [of France]."

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Thousands of Spanish Families Boycott Homosexual Indoctrination Program

Whole Provinces and Schools Declare their Unwillingness to Teach the Material

Spain's socialist government is facing a bitter back-to-school fight this September as thousands of families boycott the pro-homosexual course "Education for Citizenship and Human Rights". The Spanish Family Forum reports that at least 15,000 "conscientious objections" out of 200,000 students have been officially registered with school authorities. However, the number is understated because whole provinces have not yet reported figures from their areas.

Esperanza Aguirre, the president of the Community of Madrid (Spain's largest province), blasted the program, calling it "indoctrination" and said that her government would only teach those portions that were not objectionable to anyone. "The Catholic Church, the churches in general, the doctrines are doctrines, and therefore, because the parents so choose, in the religious schools religion is taught," said Aguirre. "But Alfonso Guerra [a prominent socialist and former vice-president of Spain] has admitted to us that what the government wants to do is to indoctrinate, it wants to create a lay religion for which compliance is obligatory in the schools."

According to the National Catholic Confederation of Heads of Families and Parents of Students (Concapa), one school in the province of Andalucia has decided to list the course, but has privately told them that it will not actually teach it. Concapa says that five parents are suing the government in the Supreme Court of Andalucia to prevent the program's implementation, and that there are 200 more families who wish to join them. Many Catholic schools are implementing the program in name, but are simply ignoring the elements that promote homosexual behavior. Some are using textbooks that positively denounce it.

The program's guidelines state that children are to be taught to reject "existing discrimination for reason of sex, origin, social differences, affective-sexual, or whatever other type" and to exercise a "critical evaluation of the social and sexual division of labor and racist, xenophobic, sexist, and homophobic social prejudices." It also instructs teachers to "revisit the students' attitude to homosexuality" and suggests that a good exercise is to make a list of every type of disrespectful expression referring to foreigners, people of other races, homosexuals, etc., and open a dialog over how they are used in daily life and if they are or are not disrespectful."

The Catholic archbishop of Toledo, Antonio Ca¤izares, denounced the program as students returned to school, stating that "the government is acting in an unconstitutional manner because it is imposing morals." He encouraged Spaniards to resist the program with the means available to them.

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Australia: Amazing defence of false allegations

With constant false allegations against teachers by vindictive girls, it is minimal justice for all allegations to be shielded from publicity unless and until a guilty verdict is reached

A PARENTS' group has attacked union calls for teachers accused of misconduct to be spared being named and shamed.

The Australian Education Union said teachers who were hauled before disciplinary hearings, including those being investigated for sexual misconduct with minors, should remain anonymous unless found guilty. The union suggested the ban in its submission to a government review of the Victorian Institute of Teaching. AEU state president Mary Bluett said the VIT's practice of naming accused teachers who were found not guilty was ruining careers. "Anyone can make an accusation to the VIT and the VIT must investigate it," Ms Bluett said. "For a teacher who is not guilty, simply being named can be enough for some schools to avoid employing that teacher."

Gail McHardy from Parents Victoria said the ban could make a teacher think twice about the consequences of making a wrong choice. "Why should teachers be treated any differently than any other professional or member of the public?" she said.

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