Your Opinion: Bring back old-school discipline

Dear Editor:

The Aug. 16, 2017, article "Former JC Teacher loses License" was disheartening. The teacher lost his cool in one incident due to a disrespectful student and his whole career was destroyed. He resigned after 10 years teaching, but hoped he could keep his teacher's license as an option in the future. A fair request! The State Board of Education wrongly took away that option.

He explained how the hostile teaching environment caused him to doubt his teaching profession. He invested lots of time and money learning to be a teacher. Teachers should be in charge of the classroom, not the students. We all know that student misbehavior has been a major issue in the JC school system for several years at other campuses besides East School.

We have heard story after story from teachers and substitute teachers about many kids who are out of control. Where is the discipline? It should begin at home with the parents! If not there, it must be dealt with swiftly and harshly at school. In the '50s and '60s, unruly kids at school were paddled, locked up or suspended indefinitely depending on the bad behavior. Parents expected and demanded their kids behave at school and stood behind the school for discipline. It worked well then. Why not now?

The Bible states "Spare the Rod spoil the child." Who changed the culture? The do-gooder liberals did and the rest of us just sat on our hands and did nothing. We know of good teachers who quit or retired early because they had no authority to rule their classroom and got no backing from the administration. They were just educated babysitters. No wonder teachers burn out early in their career! Parents need to get tougher with discipline at home. Kids actually want and need discipline.

Let's demand the Bible be taught in public schools. This concept worked many years ago, so try it again. Present methods aren't working. The newly passed school building proposals will provide for new modern classrooms, but without God, law and order the students will not learn any more than they would have in the old buildings. We despise paying more property taxes that go to schools with poor student behavior problems. We would rather send our tax dollars to parochial schools where bad student behavior problems are dealt with swiftly and harshly. Teachers get respect from students and vice versa.