« Sometimes you must teach a lesson »

Not surprisingly there are some parents who are up-in-arms over a recent punishment handed out by, now former, Beaver Ridge Elementary principal, Esther Adames-Jimenez.  Adames-Jimenez "ordered a boy to shock himself with a toy pen he brought to school."  Look, I am in no way favor of harming a child.  However, this was apparently a harmless toy that merely adminstered an uncomfortable shock.  What more effective way to teach the child a lesson in "do unto others" than have him do unto himself?  Once the boy got a taste of what he was doing to others, I suspect he was far more likely to think twice about doing something similar than if he had been put in "time out" to think about what he had done.  I have had my issues with Beaver Ridge Elementary - I put the school on my English, please! list last year for its bilingual signs in front of the school - but Adames-Jimenez did the right thing in this situation.

As an aside, where was "time out" when I was a kid!  Of course, if my parents had disciplined me when I was younger (discipline which was almost always well earned on my part!) by asking me to think about what I had done, I doubt I would have turned out like I have.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!