Spare Not the Rod

In its way, it was quite wonderful that such a relatively minor problem as children being spanked in public school should come before the U.S. Supreme Court (after all, in many schools today, the problem is not one of teachers assaulting children, but vice versa). The venerable practice, whose beneficial effect hardly anyone ever doubted until a couple of generations ago, was solemnly examined by the Justices. They permitted it to live on--with a few softening touches. The Justices upheld a three-man federal court in the case of Russell Baker of Gibsonville, N.C. Two years ago, as a sixth-grader, he was paddled with a wooden drawer divider for playing with a ball in a proscribed part of the schoolyard. His mother went to court to challenge the North Carolina law that permits teachers to inflict corporal punishment of a "reasonable" nature.

Mrs. Baker lost her case. The high court affirmed that states have a legitimate interest in orderly public school classrooms and may allow spanking to keep them that way. But the decision also ensures that spitball-flingers and bubble-blowers will receive the due process of law, just as somewhat more dangerous offenders do. Only in cases of extraordinarily disruptive behavior may a teacher smack a child on the spot. Normally teachers must give prior warning that a specific offense could be grounds for a paddling, a second school official must be called in to watch the whacking, and parents must get a written explanation of the incident if they want one.

The notion of a teacher curbing his or her anger long enough to go through this whole rigmarole before letting fly is both absurd and touching in its respect for due process. At any rate, the decision (to the extent that anyone will pay attention to it) may have healthy results.

In cities where corporal punishment is already outlawed, the rod will stay spared. But in places where it is allowed, inveterate misbehavers will still get theirs in the end--along with a fairer shake of the hickory stick.

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