Willie Herenton, the recently re-elected mayor of Memphis who suddenly decided he didn't want the job and would rather be school superintendent, then not so much and instead will remain as mayor, has decided he wants to run the schools from City Hall.
And he wants to bring back corporal punishment for grades K-8 -- a practice banned in 23 countries.
While corporal punishment seems to get results, the results aren't positive ones. Research into how corporal punishment related to 11 common child behaviors found "ten of the associations were negative such as with increased child aggression and antisocial behavior. The single desirable association was between corporal punishment and increased immediate compliance on the part of the child."
Apparently if torture and abuse is good enough for the federal government, it's good enough for Herenton.
The mayor's comments came as the school board continues its search for a new superintendent, a job formerly held by Herenton. The mayor also opposed cutting the school budget and said all district positions from assistant principal up should be considered vacant.
"With our demographic, Memphis should be the nation's premier laboratory for urban school innovation," he said. "From this day forward, we are dedicating our city to one overriding purpose: our children."
Clearly Herenton sees himself as the mad scientist in this laboratory.
If the mayor has no better ideas than to recommend brute physical force against children and destabilizing the system by shuffling its leaders, he should be kept as far away from the district's children as possible.
-- Jim Grinstead
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