Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school • Hacker News Board

Re: Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

#271

Post by akimbostrawman » Fri, May 08, 2026, 9:48 AM UTC

cpursley wrote: post #246

coldtea wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's based on millions of years of biological differences in their capacities and functions (starting from body strength and role in reproduction), plus differences in social roles, of which some of the latter might be arbitrary, but some are necessary adjustments every historical society understood.

I always find it really amusing that the most pro trust the science people who are in total agreement with all the evolution theories are often also the ones who are the first to be in complete denial that us humans might actually share some characteristics with our closest genetic relatives (chimpanzees).

>the most pro trust the science people who are in total agreement with all the evolution theories

Like with most religions which "the science" very much qualities for at this point, there believers will just pick and choose what to believe and use to get there way.

Re: Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

#272

Post by spankibalt » Fri, May 08, 2026, 9:49 AM UTC

tommit wrote: post #248

spankibalt wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The only effective punishment/threat that I saw work on my bullies at school was the threat to remove one of them from the football team and prevent him from playing for the school. He turned it around and was ok after that." Now you only have to deal with that group of bullies who slowly build up resentments, and might end up paying your school one last visit. > "The problem is that most schools don't do that, [.…

> Now you only have to deal with that group of bullies who slowly build up resentments, and might end up paying your school one last visit. Seems like a slippery slope fallacy? Who says the person who got bullied relentlessly doesn't show up to pay one last visit? What an odd argument. Seems like a decent approach to me tbh.

> "Who says the person who got bullied relentlessly doesn't show up to pay one last visit?"

Exactly! In both (the bully/the bully who once was bullied) cases, you'd still have to deal with these threats, as evidenced by relevant case histories. People are just a little too comfortable to jump to conclusions or create false dichotomies.

Re: Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

#273

Post by dotancohen » Fri, May 08, 2026, 9:59 AM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #267

armchairhacker wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put them in work programs. If they can’t be productive, put them in mental institutions. To be clear, abuse in these programs should be prevented as much as feasible, and there should be an opportunity for any kid who demonstrates redemption to get back in school. It’s a bad solution, but I don’t know any which is better. Keeping them in society is worse for innocent people (and doesn’t seem to usually benefit them e…

>>Put them in work programs. If they can’t be productive, put them in mental institution ....what kind of work programs can you put 12 year olds into? I'm really curious. And I'm sure it's clear that putting anyone into a mental institution costs the state far more than providing resources to a school to deal with this would cost? Psychologists, separate classes, teachers specialized in this. We struggle to put peopl…

12 year olds? My son was hammering nails into wood and drilling into masonry at 8. The Bedouin children are in the fields unsupervised with the goats at age 6. 12 year olds are not babies.

Both my daughters were skydiving at 9. Kids can do a lot.

Re: Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

#274

Post by spankibalt » Fri, May 08, 2026, 10:00 AM UTC

kakacik wrote: post #258

spankibalt wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The only effective punishment/threat that I saw work on my bullies at school was the threat to remove one of them from the football team and prevent him from playing for the school. He turned it around and was ok after that." Now you only have to deal with that group of bullies who slowly build up resentments, and might end up paying your school one last visit. > "The problem is that most schools don't do that, [.…

> Now you only have to deal with that group of bullies who slowly build up resentments, and might end up paying your school one last visit. Very american concern, albeit not completely unique to that place. With that kind of logic, nothing ever gets done because of endless stream of what-ifs.

> "[...] nothing ever gets done because of endless stream of what-ifs."

This "endless stream of what-ifs" often enough translates to systemic "peculiarities" (e. g. ineffective bureaucracy, accountability diffusion, symptom-focus, political gaming, etc.) that result in exactly that: "nothing", let alone positive, ever gets done.

Re: Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

#275

Post by nephihaha » Fri, May 08, 2026, 10:01 AM UTC

armchairhacker wrote: post #205

BrenBarn wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The generalized version of this is "take away something they care about". But it's not always easy to do. In many cases, schools have nothing the kids care about. If they do, rules often prohibit them from using it as leverage. And in many cases parents also are unwilling to apply any kind of consequence that would make their kid unhappy.

Expel the kid I want everyone to succeed as much as possible, I feel bad for such kids. But at that point, the kid won’t learn, won’t launch, there’s no benefit to keeping them in school and massive consequences for the good kids.

You expel them and they become another person's problem. I heard recently of a local problem child aged seven. He's already been expelled from a private school but has entered a state school where he seriously injured another pupil and attempted to strangle one of the teachers.

Expulsion isn't going to reform them, it will just move it on elsewhere.

Re: Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

#276

Post by dotancohen » Fri, May 08, 2026, 10:02 AM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #264

chr1 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keeping them in school like it is done now, does not help them in any way, it merely transforms school from a place to learn into a mini prison where dysfunctional kids do not allow other kids to learn too. 15 year old who decides that he doesn't want to learn would be much better off if he gets expelled, goes to work at macdonalds, and comes back later, than the current situation where he gets to go to school and do…

>>Keeping them in school like it is done now, does not help them in any way Well of course not, because schools don't have the support they need to help those students in turn. >>goes to work at macdonalds I don't know where you live where employing 15 year olds is legal, but even if we assume some kind of state where it's allowed, what mcdolands would employ a 15 year old that was expelled from school? >>and comes b…

  > So when you kicked them out of school at 15, what is the state supposed to do with them?

That becomes the parents' problem. Let them find a school willing to take their abusive kid - or have the state come after them for having children not in school.

The threat of such should help encourage parents to actually raise decent children.

Re: Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

#277

Post by nephihaha » Fri, May 08, 2026, 10:03 AM UTC

cherryteastain wrote: post #181

danpalmer wrote: post #129

The only effective punishment/threat that I saw work on my bullies at school was the threat to remove one of them from the football team and prevent him from playing for the school. He turned it around and was ok after that. It was highly effective because it was a bigger punishment than those used for not doing your homework, and because it was highly relevant to him specifically. It worked because we had 16 student…

Surely expelling more effective from the school's perspective.

I've mentioned this above, but I know of a new pupil in one of my local schools who has recently seriously injured another pupil and attempted to strangle one of the teachers (she had to take time off work due to stress).

He is only seven and has just been expelled from another school.

Re: Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

#278

Post by dotancohen » Fri, May 08, 2026, 10:04 AM UTC

iso1631 wrote: post #270

cherryteastain wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely expelling more effective from the school's perspective.

That moves the problem elsewhere, it doesn't solve it.

It returns the problem to the source: the child's parents or guardian.

Re: Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

#279

Post by nephihaha » Fri, May 08, 2026, 10:04 AM UTC

rusk wrote: post #184

cherryteastain wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely expelling more effective from the school's perspective.

Surprisingly hard to expel a child, particularly in the more privileged schools … far more satisfying from the perspective of an educator if they can address the issue.

If it's a private school, then they expel pupils pretty rapidly.

Of course, none of this addresses why there are behavioural problems in the first place. A shrink alone may not cut it, especially if there is a wider toxic culture in the school which helps create bullying.

Re: Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

#280

Post by dash2 » Fri, May 08, 2026, 10:06 AM UTC

rlonn wrote: post #182

InsideOutSanta wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting article, but I find the conclusion peculiar. So there's no good scientific evidence that corporal punishment helps children in the long run, and the best available evidence links it to worse outcomes rather than better ones, but because we can't do stuff like double-blinded studies with control groups, "bans on smacking have got far ahead of the evidence, and should be actively opposed until the…

Seems there actually is a fair amount of research pointing to prohibiting corporal punishment for kids leads to better mental health, lower suicide rate, etc. and it does seem like a no-brainer to me that less violence leads to more stable individuals, and a more stable and happy society in general. In medieval times there was a lot of physical punishment, and society was violent, dangerous and unhappy compared to no…

I've read a lot of this literature. I don't believe there is any research that shows this with a credible research design. But I'm happy to be challenged on this, so go ahead.