We all know that spanking as a form of discipline can be a very controversial topic. I am a therapeutic foster parent, and as a foster parent we are not allowed to spank a foster child, which makes no sense because a foster child who is enrolled to a school district where corporal punishment is allowed, they are allowed to be spanked.
I have a 12-year-old-son who attends Sallisaw school, and Sallisaw does not spank. When he is in trouble I get called to the "principal's office" to discipline him.
My son is adopted; he was one of my foster kids. Now that I have the right to spank him, it's amazing how much he has changed. His grades are good, his attitude has done a complete turn around, his behavior at school is better and he has some self-respect. My son knows the difference between a spanking and a beating. We all know, those of us who have gotten spanked as children, our parents left a bruise or two on us, and if you were lucky like me, my mom 's favorite discipline device was a good ol' maple switch.
She sure knew how to leave our legs with a few stripes. Now I am older, I respect my parents for disciplining me. As a psychology major, we are taught the two biggest things a child needs are love and discipline!
My parents never beat us kids, but we sure knew if we got out of line what would happen. In the article it talked about a bruise or marks on a child's thigh or leg, tell me editor, how many kids stand still when they are getting swats? Not my son! And if he moves around, yep, I have swatted his leg or just below his bottom, but the aim was for his bottom.
I agree with Dr. Gaylon Miller who commented in his letter to the editor, if DHS is going to be called out to the homes of parents who spank their kids, and sometimes leave a mark, give parents some guidelines on how to paddle. Back when I was in school there were no "guidelines." I am sure of it, cause I remember getting my bottom busted a couple of times, and it sure made me wanna be good at school. The rule growing up was "if you got swats at school, you got swats at home." We live in the middle of the Bible belt, we tend to still believe what the Bible says, so maybe the people up at state office for DHS, need to wipe the dust off their Bibles and read Proverbs 13:24, Proverbs 23:13 and Proverbs 29:15-17.
I believe if a few more parents would break out a belt or paddle once in a while and discipline their kids out of love and talked with their kids about their behavior and why they are getting spanked, we would have a lot less problems with kids being disrespectful, and juvenile delinquency. Time out doesn't always work!
DARYL JONES
SALLISAW
