Persuasive speech
Topic: should Australian schools use corporal punishment to discipline students?
Since the illegalisation of corporal punishment in schools, educators have struggled to control classes of undisciplined, problematic students. Disciplinary action is meant to change children’s/teenagers compliance and attitude towards adult directives, and current methods are completely ineffective. These ineffective procedures with no outcome such as “time-outs,” are never adequate and teach students nothing else other than they can sit out of work if they act like a nuisance in class. Evidence from the department of education shows that schools are struggling to regulate the behaviour of their pupils with a massive rise in suspensions and expulsions occurring. Correspondingly parents and teachers are greatly supportive of the form of punishment being legalised. Without proper changes to the laws preventing teachers from inflicting mild short-term pain, difficult students will continue to prevent learning in classrooms for others and themselves.
Disciplinary procedures such as suspensions are futile and are “punishing” students by giving them a holiday with the improbable intention of them reflecting on what they have done wrong. The typical offender that needs to be disciplined couldn’t care less about being sent home, for if they are disrupting the learning of other students they most likely don’t care about their own. Educational theorist, Megan Pilkington, has stated that, 'students who are frequently sent to 'time-out', suspended or expelled do not necessarily change their behaviour as a result of the implementation of the discipline policy as is evidenced by the repeated appearance of particular students in this process.” Through saying this it means that students who were removed from school temporarily did not change their attitude even after this repeated hopeless “punishing”. Through more seriously punishing students, schools will have less annoyances to deal with and more productive classrooms. In addition to ineffective punishments, Australian laws also cause difficulty for schools to regulate their student’s behaviour.
There are serious discipline problems in majority of Australian schools. All educators at some point in their career have had minor to major difficulty in regulating the behaviour of their students. Even though this is the case, corporal punishment would only be used in serious situations were a suspension or expulsion would have been previously deemed suitable. Results from a study conducted in NSW have revealed that over the past 5 years, the frequency of suspensions and expulsions has risen by an enormous 35%. The data recorded shows there were 18,186 long suspensions in 2012, which is 1300 more than in 2011 and 4780 more than in 2007. The data shows that each year more and more students are receiving the sentence at an ever increasing rate. Without the means to properly manage disruptive individuals, classrooms will continue to remain full of interruptions and without productive learning. Furthermore the support for corporal punishment is extensive with plentiful of parents