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Penfist's avatar

What the actual f$@k?

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Guerillasurgeon's avatar

I was once – for various reasons – attached to a unit that taught kids with disabilities. Mostly Downs syndrome, but some others, one of which was not only pretty much incapable of speech – maybe even thought – but was also blind pretty much. I asked the person in charge what we were doing for this guy, and they said giving him stimulus to help him achieve his potential. Which was fair enough except of course the potential was very, very limited. So we gave him different things to touch and to listen to – occasionally brought a smile to his face. But that's what we did along with giving the parents a bit of a rest.

And I never saw anyone hit one of the kids at all. Sometimes you had to restrain them when they lost their temper, and they were often really strong. But I was there for whole year and not one of them was ever hit. Some of them I would maintain would be incapable of connecting the hit to the behaviour. Not many but some. It's the crudest form of behaviour modification I can think of.

I was hit when I was a kid, (it was the 50s after all) although my dad was pretty much sparing of the rod. I was – two or three times a year perhaps – caned at school. And contrary to people who say "it never did me any harm", it never did me any damn good. Except to learn how to avoid it and that wasn't necessarily by being good.

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