Discipline At School-Would You Be Angry If A Teacher Hit Your Child?

Our 8:10am Debate topic this morning was all about which gender were better teachers--Men or Women? And little did I expect that after Gwen and I each answered that question--the subject of discipline in the classroom would surface. In picking apart why she chose to answer the way she did on the main topic-it came out that she had been hit, or "swatted", in class by her teacher when she was a child. A fact that was shocking to me, because where I come from-teachers don't physically discipline students. Now that we're getting back to classrooms for the start of the new year--let's do a little unpacking on the topic!

It did get mentioned that parents, at the beginning of each school year, had to sign a form stating teachers could use that form of discipline on their child if they acted out in class. My response was "Well then did teachers keep a list on their desks of who could get smacked, and who couldn't?". I was told NO. Seems like a tricky situation to me-you're in class and a particular student isn't behaving; do you have to check somewhere on a list that isn't readily available first before you can take any action with said student in the realm of discipline? Is there really time for that? And what are the repercussions of taking the step of actually hitting a student, only to discover after the fact their parent hadn't signed the "permission slip" at the start of the school year?

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There are many questions and a ton of possible different scenarios on any given day in any classroom across the state of Texas to consider. But tomorrow on the show--that will be the debate discussion at 8:10.... Discipline In The Classroom--should teachers be allowed to hit? Or not? I know there are parents out there who are very passionate about this subject--so we wanna hear from you on the Friday morning edition of Gwen and Gunner in the Morning!