A strapping idea with good support – legislate to restore the cane and bring discipline back into our schools

Welcome back, Wackford Squeers.

Alf takes heart today that we New Zealanders aren’t quite as daft as he feared in tolerating the sparing of rods and the spoiling of sprogs.

At least, not all of us are daft.

We learn today that – according to a national survey of 1000 people – half of New Zealanders support the reintroduction of corporal punishment in schools.

The poll, by Curia Market Research, asked: “Do you think a school should be able to choose to use corporal punishment, if the board, parents and principal wish to have this as an option for school discipline?”

Fifty per cent agreed, 44 per cent disagreed and 6 per cent were undecided.

The survey findings are timely. This was a week in which violent incidents in secondary schools and publicity about brats brandishing knives demonstrated the folly of banning the strap, the cane and the birch.

Alf actually fancies bringing back the stocks and the ducking stool for good measure.

The Herald reminds us that –

This week, maths teacher Steve Hose, of Te Puke High School, was stabbed four times in the neck and shoulder by a 13-year-old boy in Year 9.

Mr Hose was rushed to Tauranga Hospital and the boy was put in the care of Child, Youth and Family.

On Thursday, Hamilton Girls’ High School was locked down for about half an hour after a 15-year-old student walked into a classroom hunting for another pupil.

Police said the incident seemed to be in response to bullying.

The caning survey was conducted in March.

Alf reckons we who favour a good flogging for schoolchild miscreants would get even more support if it was conducted now.

Family First wants the results considered by the authorities and a review of silly anti-smacking laws that forbid corporal punishment.

Bob McCoskrie, the spokesman for lobby group Family First, claimed violent incidents in secondary schools this week were proof of a need for stricter punishments.

He claimed that the removal of corporal punishment had resulted in “more dangerous” schools that were tolerating an unacceptable level of violence and offensive behaviour.He claimed that the removal of corporal punishment had resulted in “more dangerous” schools that were tolerating an unacceptable level of violence and offensive behaviour.

Alas, the teaching profession is dominated by mamby-pamby do-gooders nowadays. Hence even if we parliamentarians did pass laws to permit corporal punishment, the buggers would decline to use the restoration of the cane to bring good old-fashioned discipline back into our schools.

The cane mutiny – bring back corporal punishment to our classrooms (and let’s not forget about tasers)

Dunno when we were gulled into abandoning corporal punishment in schools but we are now reaping the whirlwind.

The perverse but predictable consequence of sparing the rod is much worse than simply spoiling the brats. It’s that the little buggers are expressing their delight at being mollycoddled by bashing their teachers.

The Dom-Post gives us an idea of the mayhem in our schools in a grim report today.

Hundreds of teachers have received ACC-funded treatment after being assaulted at school.

Principals are shocked by the figure and are demanding immediate action to make schools safer.

Some school staff now fear breaking up fights in case pupils have weapons, and others refuse to do lunchtime duty alone.

A teacher injured during a school attack says that staff will always be at risk from “nutters”.

How to fry a kid’s brains around the campfire

Wanna know what happened to the lunatics when we closed the asylums?

Alf has long harboured the suspicion that many of them infiltrated the country’s education system and became teachers.

His suspicion has been strongly fortified by news that staff at Remarkables Primary School are set to adopt some remarkable job titles when it opens next year.

Teachers will be known as “expedition leaders”, while the school receptionist will become the “director of first impressions”.

Alf wonders if the school has tumbled to the dangers of creating a bad first impression by hiring an ugly receptionist.