PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia School District is encouraging its teachers to use repetitive writing - copying "I will not hit John" 100 times - as discipline even though many school districts nationwide prohibit the practice, citing research and experts who say the punishment is harmful.

Some Philadelphia parents protested at a school board meeting last month because disciplinarian Fred Creel was reassigned to a teaching position in part because he punished students with repetitive writing assignments.

Several district discipline officers had called repetitive writing an ineffective punishment after Creel was reassigned. But last week Philadelphia schools chief executive Paul Vallas waded into the fray, saying he approved of repetitive writing.

"We haven't got a formal edict or policy that has been implemented, but the word is out that this is something (Vallas) is in favor of," said district spokesman Cameron Kline.

No one can say how many districts or teachers nationwide use repetitive writing as punishment. One school discipline expert said that because so few schools use it, it would be like studying how many doctors use medieval medical techniques.

Used for decades and remembered fondly by some adults, repetitive writing is thought of as an "old school" punishment, said Irwin Hyman, a professor at Temple University and president of the National Center for the Study of Corporal Punishment.

But just because it's remembered fondly by some doesn't mean it should be used today, he said.

"Corporal punishment, dunce caps, all that was pretty much phased out in the '50s and '60s by most enlightened educators, people who looked at the research," Hyman said. "Those kind of punishments are only effective in the short run ... awards and encouragement are much more effective than punishment."

Richard Curwin, a former English teacher and the author of the book "Discipline with Dignity," said he "hates" repetitive writing.

"Any time you use something as a punishment that you want them to love, it has to be wrong," said Curwin.

Many school districts nationwide have specific policies against the practice. One such school is the Fairfield Area School District in south-central Pennsylvania. Superintendent Gary A. Miller said he would be "very upset" if he found repetitive writing in his classrooms.

"What does it gain? You teach kids not to like writing?" said Miller, who also teaches educational psychology for Penn State University. "You teach kids how to waste time? What's the educational meaning?"

The American Federation of Teachers says it has no official policy on repetitive writing, but union spokesman John See said that academic research shows it's not an effective discipline tool.

Miller said he hasn't heard the term repetitive writing for such a long time he "assumed most people weren't doing it these days."