Mississippi Madness?

Last night my daughter phoned on her way home from another stressful day teaching kindergarten in Morehead, MS. Her question to me was, "Mom, why should I have to defend myself for not hitting my kids?"

K is in the Teach for America Program, which places college graduates in teaching positions in "at risk" schools across the country. These are either inner-city schools (as found in Harlem and Detroit), or very rural schools (as found in South Dakota, North Carolina and the Mississippi Delta). Her first choice was the Delta, and was very pleased to be assigned to teach kindergarten in a school which was 99% African-American.

As she researched the public school policy for Sunflower County, Mississippi, she found that the favored form of discipline was spanking. Alarmed, she immediately contacted her TFA supervisor in the Delta to voice her concerns and advise TFA that under no circumstances would she spank any of her students, nor would she condone that action by anyone else. Her supervisor assured her that there was no cause for alarm, and that physical punishment was the exception rather than the rule. K's students would only be paddled if she herself administered that punishment.

Sadly, this has proven NOT to be the case in her school. Her teaching assistant, her principal, her reading coach, and all her fellow teachers believe her view of spanking as ALWAYS WRONG and NEVER AN APPROPRIATE WAY TO TEACH ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR, as ridiculous. They believe that belittling, berating, and beating are the only methods to correct behavior problems - yes, even for her four- and five-year-old students.

Yesterday her distress was made worse by the knowledge that one of the students had come to school with the marks from the prongs of an extension cord on his legs. The result of a whipping delivered by one of his parents. The student's teacher phoned Mississippi's DHHR to report the incident. Their response to her was that she was simply wasting their time with this sort of report.

K believes these children, under these circumstances, will have little hope of breaking out of the cycle of violence without immense changes in the policies of the public school system. Of course, when parents themselves believe the definition of discipline is "spanking" or "beating," and that such discipline is perfectly acceptable, there are great changes needed within the homes as well.

In the book God's Politics, Jim Wallis speaks of changing the wind. Sadly, I believe there can be no improvement without this change in the winds of Mississippi; however I am at a loss as to how or where to begin.

My request for any who read this post and share my concern is that you would please pray about this situation, and offer your comments.