That'll Learn Him!

From the BBC:

An Egyptian court has sentenced a schoolteacher to six years in jail for beating a pupil to death because he had not done his homework.

Maths teacher Haitham Nabeel Abdelhamid, 23, took Islam Amr Badr outside the classroom and hit him violently in the stomach.

The 11-year-old boy fainted and later died in hospital of heart failure in the city of Alexandria.

The court was told the boy had four broken ribs.

Abdelhamid was convicted of manslaughter.

He said he only meant to discipline the pupil and did not mean to hurt anyone.

The teacher's lawyer was quoted as saying in court: "Hitting [a child] is not banned in schools and my client did not break the law."

This man is a monster.

Read more here, if any.

If you can't beat 'em....

Bucking a national trend, a school district in Georgia is actually bringing corporal punishment back. From the Atlanta Journal Constitution via Joanne Jacobs:

Twiggs County principals will be pulling out their dusty paddles when school resumes and using them when students act up.

At least that's the school system's aim.

The Twiggs County school board reinstated its corporal punishment policy this summer to allow students to be spanked to curb misbehavior.

Some board members felt that in many cases, detention for students or a scolding wasn't working.

"We had a policy but we weren't using it," said Ethel Stanley, one of the board's five members. "Sometimes smaller kids will obey better if they have a paddling. The more you give them rope, the more they try.

"It's something to deter them," she said.

My personal belief is that spanking is best left as a fun hobby between consenting adults. I couldn't hit one of my kids, nor do I think I could send them to someone else for their hacks.

That said, if you look at corporal punishment as a tool, and if it's a tool that is effective with some kids, should it be in the tool box?

Read more here, if any.