Re: Children and the Net

[Graham Toal <gtoal@an-teallach.com>]

	From: Mike Duvos <mpd@netcom.com>

	A doctor at Baylor University Medical Center was asked later why 
	this didn't cause the removal of the children, and said that while
	such behavior would certainly be considered abuse in a medical
	sense, it did not meet the legal definition of abuse according
	to the laws of the State of Texas.

	Texas, of course, is the leader on the national corporal punishment
	bandwagon and dishes out over 250,000 state-sponsored beatings every
	year in its public school system.  So far all efforts to ban the 
	practice have been successfully opposed by the teachers union.

Come off it, the benefits of a teacher giving your kid the strap
at the time of an offence far outweigh the harm done.  I find it
really hard to believe there are places in the world where it's
criminally illegal for teachers - in some places, even parents - 
to apply corporal punishment when necessary.

Anyway, it's biggest benefit is that it teaches kids a healthy
disrespect of authority and shows them the pretence behind politics,
'voluntary' taxation etc etc.  The people with the physical force
are in charge.  I think that's a lesson all kids should be made
to learn the hard way.

G