Reply To: Physical Discipline in Yeshivos

To Bogen and Mayan Dvash:

Bogen: Unfortunately, I have to assume you’ve never actually met or worked with these teens at risk you speak of. If you had, you would know that many of them are currently at risk BECAUSE of the rebbeim that hit and abused them, physically or otherwise. These days, when yeshivos are for EVERYONE–not just the kids that have already proven that they’re good at learning–it is no longer effective or acceptable to threaten and hit the “hefkairus” out of your talmidim. It won’t make them better at learning–it will make them angry. If you are truly concerned about these teens, you should ask their rebbeim not to try to smack them into smart.

Mayan Dvash: Read my reply to Bogen. In addition, while it’s wonderful that the gemara suggests physical force for rebbeim, I have yet to find it in the Mishna Brurah. That’s where we draw our contemporary halacha from, you see. In addition, you might want to try looking up some of the Steipler’s teshuvos on chinuch.

It would appear that the “modern” ones are those who ignore the teachings of our contemporary gedolim and baalei chinuch because they enjoy hitting children to stroke their own egos.