Did you get corporal punishment at school?

@Chrisredfeild European countries, where school CP is banned, have far fewer problems than the US, where 19 states still allow it.

And...

I don't think you can have been in some of the schools in Britain recently. And what do you mean by European countries having 'fewer problems? @NortiusMaximus

@NortiusMaximus It wasn't banned in the UK until relatively recently - 1986 in state schools and around 2000 in private schools. It had been banned or fallen out of use far earlier in the rest of Europe. The UK has more problems with anti-social behaviour than anywhere else in Europe. That should tell us something.

@Chrisredfeild Simply that the evidence suggests CP could cause problems rather than prevent them.

Why? What evidence. The evidence suggests classroom behaviour has deteriorated. @NortiusMaximus

@jennypenny Most of the problems I'm aware of in British schools seem to be due to them imposing petty rules for no good reason. Does it really matter whether a student's shirt is bought from the supermarket or from the school approved suppliers? Yet students are being excluded because their parents can't afford the rip-off prices the school shop or approved supplier charges.

I've visited several European countries and seen virtually no anti-social behaviour in any of them. In the main, young people appear polite and well-educated - despite not having to wear a silly school uniform or be subjected to petty and often vindictive rules.

To be fair, most young people in the UK are polite too, especially if they're shown some respect, but there appears to be a significant amount of anti-social behaviour. My impression is that a lot of it is caused by the way young people are treated by teachers.

@jennypenny I accept that but why don't schools in other European countries suffer the same problems? I believe the answer is the way students are treated. In the rest of Europe they're treated with respect and, as a result, they're respectful back. In the UK, far too many teachers are authoritarian bullies. They could get away with that when they could back it up with force but that appraoch doesn't work now they've been disarmed.