NCJ Number
101391
Date Published
Unknown
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ingraham v. Wright (1977) that corporal punishment is desirable in the education of youth, this study shows a negative correlation of r=-0.54 between corporal punishment in the American public schools and the proportion of youths graduating from high school.
Abstract
The study tables show the school-age population (5-19) of the 50 States as reported in the 1980 census, the number of incidents of corporal punishment in each State based on reports to the Office of Civil Rights, and the number of high school graduates per 1,000 school-age youths for each State. The States higher in corporal punishment were also higher in the number of school dropouts and lower in the proportion of high school graduates. Although there are many reasons why students abandon their high school studies, poor teaching generally accompanies corporal punishment, so it is difficult to determine which is the cause and which the effect. Learning requires a positive relationship between pupil and teacher, and this is undermined by corporal punishment. Tabular data and 21 references.