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Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

theguardian.com

571–580 of 713 posts

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

#571

I've never understood the illiberal desire to treat boys and girls so differently. I'm glad I live in a country where sexism is illegal at a fundamental level -- this kind of law would be quickly struck down.

one of the many reasons america is so screwed up right now is because of our insistence on ignoring the very obvious statistically significant dimorphism between genders. that doesn't' mean trans people and nonbinary dont' exist. We need to make accommodations for them where appropriate. However, it doesn't do any one any favors trying to homogenize how we teach kids. you inevitably help one at the expense of the oth…

> one of the many reasons America is so screwed up right now

Interesting, which metrics are a result of ignoring the very obvious statistically significant dimorphism between genders, and not say political corruption, or corporate consolidation? Which statistical significant dimorphism causes this “screw up”?

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

#572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so answer the question then - what work program would there be for those 12 year olds that cannot function in the company of polite society. Like what kind of work would you have them do and how would you ensure compliance.

I don't have to answer the question because my goal is more the welfare of the remaining children in the school and less whatever happens to the bully. I really don't care what happens to them. Let their parents care. Let their parents find some solution. The more difficult that is, the better.

But someone has to answer. Saying "I really don't care what happens to them" is just such a lazy way out of this conversation. The whole problem is that we have to decide as a society what to do with them. You suggested work programs - great! Now give some examples of work programs you would put 12 years old in. If you can't or won't, then you have no more solution to this than someone who thinks having an idea equals having a business - it's precisely the execution that matters.

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

#574

About three decades ago, a student attacked me by poking my face with a pencil very hard, close to my left eye. I could have become blind, but fortunately I did not. Yet the student was not even punished in the kindergarten run by PAP. Besides that, I was slapped hard across the face by my Primary 1 teacher (Miss Maisura, iirc... or might get zero marks for mispelled her name) at Queenstown Primary School because I u…

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

#575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the generic policies can be very strange, too. I once got detention for getting punched in the arm. I was much taller than any of the school bullies, so they mostly didn't start anything with me. But every now and then, they would try. The punch barely hurt and I didn't really care, but another student saw it and reported it. The staff knew what happened, understood that I was the only one that got hit, and t…

That’s “zero tolerance” hard at work. Wouldn't want a kid who is being bullied to think about retaliating. Also, because the bully can time the bullying, the initial event is often missed, but the victim is caught retaliating. It sounds fair on paper, but punishing everybody involved does not work.

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

#576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> huge democraphic crisis If the west would stop vilifying people of different skin color and continent of origin, we'd realize that humanity as a whole does not have that much of a demographic problem. "We are too many" as an argument to keep borders closed and "we are too few, get more kids" are incompatible arguments, unless people are honest about racism.

> we'd realize that humanity as a whole does not have that much of a demographic problem. Humanity as a whole has a demographic problem. A few countries are just outliers (being still quite above > 2.1), but nowhere enough to offset anything at a global scale, and besides, they're on the decline too, just earlier in the curve. Second, caring about your ethnic culture is not the same as "vilifying people of different…

Ethnicity and culture are not static concepts. They change over time. The culture in central Europe, North America, the Middle East etc. 500 years ago looked very different from today. The ethnicity too. People have always migrated and that's part of where ethnicity and culture are coming from in the first place. And that's a good thing.

Nobody talks about individuals or people as arbitrarily interchangeable units. That's a populist exaggeration.

The "natural state" of a culture and an ethnic group is the continuous exchange and intermingling with other cultures and ethnic groups. It's a success of the nationalist right to make people believe that it's the opposite.

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

#577
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure there are a few such comments, since you say so, but I read most of the thread and didn't see any.

lmao the person you’re responding to didn’t say that anybody was breaking the rules, they just pointed out that there’s a lot of people here pontificating on the side of the merits of violence against children You can post anything on hacker news if you phrase it right. Sometimes the mods will even pop in and interject unprompted that it’s all good so long as nobody is saying swears https://news.ycombinator.com/item?…

Since we've been through this before I think I'll just link to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47734762.

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

#578

I didn’t expect to open the comments and find people who were pro beating children on Hacker News. I find this abuse horrific and you should speak to a therapist if you think this is okay. Absolutely barbaric behavior.

Half-serious thought: Would giving them an appropriately sized dose LSD (with proper setting/supervision) or similar thing be a better alternative? If the issue is lack of empathy for others isn't this a much better solution that actually fixes the root cause instead of papering things over. Maybe caning might fix the superficial symptom, but those people may well end up as sociopath CEOs or something or find other w…

James "Whitey" Bulger was given LSD in exchange for a reduced prison sentence after some low level crime. He went on to work as a professional hitman, taking out politicians and trafficking drugs. LSD does work for things such as alcoholism, but MDMA is usually used in treatment programmes as it doesn't have such life changing mental effects.

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

#579
post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, I have girls and there's definitely a biological difference there even at a young age. They're much more sensitive to more subtle negative feedback in a way that boys just aren't.

You have some data point at home so you extrapolate on the entire population?

We just have millenia of history, experience in every country and culture, and countless scientific papers on the matter, but please go on with your question...

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

#580
post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lmao the person you’re responding to didn’t say that anybody was breaking the rules, they just pointed out that there’s a lot of people here pontificating on the side of the merits of violence against children You can post anything on hacker news if you phrase it right. Sometimes the mods will even pop in and interject unprompted that it’s all good so long as nobody is saying swears https://news.ycombinator.com/item?…

Since we've been through this before I think I'll just link to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47734762 .

Wait did you see the links in that post? It’s about all those people advocating beating children in this thread
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