Good Example Of Controversy In Education Essay

One of the most controversial issues rocking the United States of America education sector is the continued use of corporal punishment in schools. In spite of other countries and national groups calling for corporal punishment in schools to be banned, the United States has remained one of the few civilized and industrialized nations that still allow corporal punishment (Stephey, 2009).
In the year 2014, the number of students who requested for medical treatment across the 30 states was approximately 20,000.In the same year, disciplinary cases in school rose by 8% according to the released Ministry of Education report. This report prompted the controversial topic in the education sector as to whether schools should continue to incorporate corporal punishment as a disciplinary action or consider other options. The advocates of corporal punishment in schools insist and argue that it is the most effective method of correcting the misbehavior of a child. In addition, they argue that the level of a child understanding in curriculum activities is highly motivated as a result of fear of corporal punishment (Straus, 2010).
For the critiques, their argument has been majorly based on review studies that show that corporal punishment is an ineffective form of disciplinary action and has no correlation with child performance in schools (Dupper, 2011). According to these studies, corporal punishment only produces anxiety, fear and emotionality in the child being punished none of which is appropriate for good learning. To the critiques, children who are subjected to corporal punishment in schools are physically and mentally abused. Furthermore, there are no data or statistic indicating that students who undergo corporal punishment develop enhanced self-control or social skills.
The controversy has caused corporal punishment to lose favor among parents and educators’ alike. The momentum to do away with corporal punishment has been boosted by the fact that almost 26 states and major schools across USA have chosen to abolish the practice in favor of other disciplinary measures (Straus, 2009). For the moment, though the issues are still under debate in other states as the education sector contemplates on the major steps to address the issue.

References

Dupper, D. R., & Dingus, A. E. M. (2011). Corporal punishment in US public schools: A continuing challenge for school social workers. Children & Schools, 30(4).
Stephey, M. J. (2009). Corporal punishment in US schools. TIME Magazine.
Straus, M. A. (2010). Corporal punishment and primary prevention of physical abuse. Child Abuse & Neglect, 24(9).
Straus, M. A., & Stewart, J. H. (2009). Corporal punishment by American parents: National data on prevalence, chronicity, severity, and duration, in relation to child and family characteristics. Clinical child and family psychology review.