IS THE TOUGH GHETTO SCHOOL A SPECIAL CASE FOR USING CORPORAL PUNISHMENT?
Even after teaching in the worst and toughest ghetto schools in New York City, Herbert L. Foster maintains that corporal punishment is not the answer.51 Streetwise youngsters, from both working-class and welfare-class families, use many teacher-testing devices which clearly interfere with the learning process. Foster points out that while the white, middle-class teacher may take on the job with idealism and warmhearted optimism, that person is ill- equipped to deal with the children, the tough streetcourner kid has experienced the home life typical of the very poor families, where discipline is harsh, ridicule is frequent, and punishment is based simply upon whether the behavior bothers the parents. As Foster puts it: He was controlled largely physically and there was a limited verbal communication within the family. There was little acceptance of him as an individual. He was most often reared through the authoritarian methods. His mother usually ran the house, and when the father was
