THE American educational system was a pioneer in abandoning corporal punishment in schools, preferring to trust children would be influenced to do the right thing by pure reason and such minor penalties as detention. But things have changed. When some high schools open in Texas for the next school year, some teachers will be carrying guns to defend themselves from their pupils who often themselves bring guns and knives to class.
That a society which forbids the cane for serious cases of indiscipline is nonetheless prepared to let teachers fire guns at students in self-defense is mind-boggling. It does not matter that this astonishing development is currently taking place in a handful of schools in only one state. It is a further searing indictment of the continuing right to bear arms enshrined in the second amendment to the US Constitution. It also points to a deeper malaise which is by no means confined to America but which clearly affects Europe as well.
Western societies have lost control of their children. Since the 1960s, youth culture has been progressively commercialized. From the minute they are able to watch TV, billions of advertising dollars target children. Vulnerable young minds are being pressed to grow up too fast and encouraged to believe that they have a useful contribution to make to society — at the very time when society should, in fact, be educating them, both in academics and character-building.
Throughout history, as a natural way of asserting independence and finding themselves, the young have always kicked against their predecessors. But this natural course has, in the last half century, been exploited by the media and marketeers to give the young a largely false opinion of themselves and the often-dubious values enshrined in the music, films and games of youth culture.
Education ought to be something which gives children the knowledge, manners and self-discipline needed for them to make something of their lives. There are plenty of Third World children who would love to learn in those Texas classrooms where teachers are arming themselves against ignorant, undisciplined brutes who might attack them.
In France, a teacher is now in trouble for slapping an offensive student. The EU wants to punish parents who smack their children when they misbehave. In England a spate of fatal shootings and knifings among young blacks is now gripping London and Manchester. As in America, police and security guards patrol the roughest schools.
All the evidence suggests that not only have Western societies surrendered proper supervision of youngsters but that they are more and more afraid of them — and with good reason. The breakdown of moral values and personal discipline has coincided with a thoughtless consumer society and falling educational attainment among the young poor. When it was still in use, corporal punishment did not drive out crime or bad behavior but it did represent a painful sanction that could be used as a last resort. Now there are no lines drawn, no limits set and society is paying an increasingly disturbing price.
