A little beating never hurt anyone

I've been perplexed today by the behavior of a few of my students at school. One student in particular, we'll call him Benny, has me totally blown away. First, some background on Benny. Benny is in one of my Music Technology classes. There is no homework because the students obviously can't take the computers home and not all of the students have access to a computer outside of school. It's an easy class and as long as you show up, it's hard to get anything but an A. Benny says he can't serve detentions because of his house arrest. He wears the ankle monitor and sort of struts around as if it is a status symbol. He's a pretty smart kid, but he's obnoxious as hell and absolutely will not listen to any teachers. Take today for example, after asking Benny to stop bothering other students, stay seated, get to work, etc. a number of times I'd finally had it with him. I'd given him the obligatory "warnings" and was about to send him out into the hallway when I remembered that the last time I sent him to the hallway for a "timeout" he just caused more problems with students walking past my room. So I asked him to sit down and wait for the bell since there were only about 5 minutes left in the class. This is the part that totally gets me. He says no. What on earth gives him the idea that my request was an option. What sort of parenting, or lack there of, has taught this child of 13 years that he gets to choose what he will do. He's already been in some kind of trouble with the law as evidenced by his fashionable plastic anklet, so wouldn't you think he'd straighten up. Oh hell no! And how about the parent. I've only tried to call her 4 or 5 times and never been able to reach her. Half the time the parents give the school bogus phone numbers because they know the teachers will call when their kid screws up.

So, I say why not bring back corporal punishment. I don't want to be the one inflicting the punishment, but someone at the school needs to because they're obviously not getting it at home. Yet another reason that there should be a required IQ test before anyone is allowed to procreate.

End of rant. I feel better now.