September 26, 2012
I listen to the news on NPR most mornings as I drive to school. Once in a while there's a story that's a doozy. This morning I heard about a Texas school district where two parents had complained after a male staffer administered paddlings to female students. My immediate thought – they still allow paddlings in 2012? I figured the news item would end up decrying the practice as positively medieval in this day and age, the relic of an approach to raising and educating children that is long past. Not so fast. To my surprise, I learned that Texas has plenty of company; it is one of 19 states that still allow for corporal punishment in schools.
Surely, then, the story would highlight how the staffer was severely reprimanded for bruising the girls. Or, better yet, the news would be of the elimination of the practice of paddling altogether. Well, no. In fact, the district has expanded the existing corporal punishment policy to allow paddlings by opposite-sex administrators.
I know it's easy to be on my high horse with an issue like this and forget there was a time when Catholic school cultures supported some rough justice. I recall the serious corporal punishment meted out back when I was in high school in the early 1970s. And in talking with some of our seasoned veterans here at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School it's clear that we have changed for the better.
Still, the news out of Texas did prompt some reflection on the way we hold students accountable and the methods we use to correct undesirable student behaviors. Our formal disciplinary structure is administered by our wise, experienced, compassionate yet direct deans, Mr. Tom Arnold and Ms. Ana Lopez. They are supported by an attentive faculty and administration. There's no doubt we have students who could follow the dress code more closely and who could do better at getting where they need to be on time. But, all things considered, we have a pretty tranquil school.
I think we have relatively few disciplinary issues here because our approach to the students is always about more than the simple desire to maintain order. The way students experience the consequences of their actions (and they do) says a lot about our beliefs about them. Our faculty and staff walk the talk of our Catholic mission in the tradition of the Xaverian Brothers. Sound discipline conveys the sense that we believe in the student's capacity to learn and improve. It is built on the foundational value of treating others with dignity and respect. And perhaps most fundamentally, a healthy approach to discipline is a reflection of the school's overall health.
I give thanks for the students, faculty and staff of Good Counsel every day. Our school is a good place to be.