We hear criticism about our public school system across America. It does have many problems that need to be corrected.

I feel it’s time to let the administrators and teachers run the schools. The parents should back them and see that discipline is carried out.

I still believe in “Spare the rod and spoil the child.”

Paddling administered properly, not in anger, in the elementary and junior high schools is of huge benefit. The teacher should have a witness and it should be done out in the hallway, where the class cannot see.

It is amazing to see the difference in the student and how the class learns from that.

These days, the average parent doesn’t want the school to discipline his or her child. The liberal philosophy has taken over and they want to call it abuse, which it is not.

Often when a parent is called about a child’s absence, the parent covers for him or her. This is done because the parent has lost control at home, or the parent does not want to be humiliated by the possibility that his or her child is skipping school.

When a parent is called concerning a student’s behavior, the parent rather would oppose the school, because it is easier than opposing the child over whom control has been lost.

We should return to the policy of the principal backing the teacher and the higher administrators backing the principal. The parent should back the teacher.

In previous days, parents would administer discipline at home if their child got in trouble at school. Today, schools have to worry about lawsuits and threatened lawsuits.

I speak from my experience of 30 years as a teacher and guidance counselor in the Ohio public schools.