Ask Wendy

Jewish World Review Feb. 27, 2003 / 25 Adar I, 5763


Collective punishment: The readers weigh in --- against me


By Wendy Belzberg



The last "Ask Wendy" column, on collective punishment, was ill received by many readers. When I discover that my opinion is in the minority -- a minority of one, it seems -- I am prepared to take my licks in public. The points made in the letters below are compelling and valid, and I would have been well served to qualify my original position. Still, I am not prepared to abandon my point about the importance of teaching children that they are members of a community. Below is the original column along with excerpts from the barrage of mail I received from disapproving readers.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Q: What is your opinion on collective punishment in schools? In my son's school, the entire 8th grade was punished when some notebooks were stolen and no one confessed. Isn't there a better way?

A: Punishing an entire class for the transgression of one child may seem harsh, but teaches a critical lesson in a world that places more value on the individual than on the group. It has become increasingly difficult- and vital- to demonstrate to our children that they are part of a community. How often does any of us feel responsible for his fellow man? Shouldn't we appreciate a little help with this lesson?

Your child may well be beyond reproach. However, by letting him know you object to this form of punishment you risk planting the notion in your son's head that he is an island. "…We don't want to live in a world where our neighbors look the other way when something untoward happens. All of our greatest heroes are the men and women who didn't, as any grade school student could remind us.

"... do you favor a corresponding collective reward for the entire grade (or school) when one of the students achieves excellence in some manner? Susie or Johnny get straight "A" s for their grades, so we treat the entire class to dinner, including the lazy students who refused to apply themselves and who may have mocked the two achievers for being "bookworms" or "nerds."…Collective punishment just teaches children that it is permissible to knowingly punish the innocent. Otherwise, why not shoot everybody in a particular neighborhood when the police cannot identify the individual who committed a murder there?

Frank Welsh
Fishkill, New York

I agree with your point that children should be taught that helping our fellow human beings is a good and moral thing to do. However, I disagree that collectively punishing the class is the right way to do it. Justice demands that the guilty are punished -- not the innocent. The idea of collective responsibility can be taught without the injustice of collective punishment.

Craig Anderson
Mountain View, California

In response to the woman who asked about collective punishment in the classroom you said, "it teaches a critical lesson in a world that places more value on the individual than on the group." By the same logic if there is a murder in a neighborhood and no one confesses, the entire neighborhood should swing. All this sort of behavior teaches is that justice has no meaning --only the convenience of the authorities matters.

Guy Davis
Pennsylvania

In both Jewish and Western jurisprudence, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty. In meting out punishment to the entire class in order to be sure of punishing the offender, the teacher also ensured that he punished a large number of innocent pupils. The teacher may have believed that he was showing the class that no crime goes unpunished, but instead - showed the (presumably innocent) majority of the class that innocence is no protection when authority is in a vengeful mood.

The school authorities should have the maturity to realize that not all crimes are solved and not all offenders are caught. Misdirected vengeance is a poor substitute for justice.

Daniel Pfeffer
Ra'anana, Israel

I do agree that we are part of a community, but that same community must respect and protect the rights of the individual. …It is unfair that the whole class was punished for one person's transgressions. Consider those children who had no idea who the culprit was. What does this teach them? Should they turn someone in, anyone in, just so the whole class can avoid punishment? If the fox steals the eggs from the henhouse, does the farmer punish all of the hens for not doing anything about it?

Bronson Beisel
Smyrna, Georgia


Ask Wendy a question -- almost any question --- by clicking here.


02/07/03: Collective punishments; too much for a mother-in-law?
01/23/03: Honor thy parents, buy them a fancy condo?; my kid caught me lying; kid's teacher gossips about him
12/26/02: The bride's Kosher crisis; in denial about daughter?
12/18/02: Am I a 'quitter'?; all-expenses-paid nightmare; alienating brainy son
12/12/02: Bread, milk and a rabbi?; 'special status child' cause of fraying friendship
11/21/02: Attire in the Divine's 'house'; marriage failed, who gets the gifts?; does the fruit fall far from the deformed tree?
11/14/02: Does father know best?; excuses, excuses
11/01/02: Should son be able to flee the nest to the college of choice?; elderly 'friend' is becoming different person
09/28/02: 'Good friends' who take but don't give; a wife's right to know; he wants to be rude about Jews
09/01/02: Family peace, but at what price?
08/28/02: Revealing sworn secret will impact many lives; misplaced friendship?
08/22/02: Seeking help for hubby's High Holy Days hi-jinks; perplexed by parents' request; take 'em or leave 'em?
08/16/02: Trial makes friendship trying; experiencing one loss, facing another; wives and brides
08/09/02: Wedding woes are a commercial for elopement; miss the bris (circumcision)?
07/25/02: A love for the ages?; learning the steps; off the wall
07/17/02: I don't mean to sound anti-Semitic but …; Doesn't etiquette dictate that a good host make his guests feel comfortable?
06/21/02: Doing business with an Arab; driving down the road of life with my mother-in-law tailgating me; sentimental gulf clubs
06/12/02: Anti-Semites everywhere!; no need for marriage
06/06/02: Sacrifice my happiness or my family's?; bad call on 'friend'
05/30/02: Attending my ex-mother-in-law's funeral; in search of forgiveness
05/21/02: Danger and duty; host of issues; desperately seeking surgery
03/20/02: Multiples for mom; partners and martyrs; I'm a gentile --- should I explore Judaism's spiritual side?
03/07/02: Disabled child taught family love, patience and compassion
02/15/02: Sisterhood on the line; Time to cross Ts on ex?
02/04/02: Clueless convert-in-training; loyal to a wife who walked out?
01/25/02: The new 'Jewish question'; unfaithful oldsters; gambling on our family's future
01/18/02: Should son invite mom to bar mitzvah - against dad's wishes?; pay-off time?; 'my son is blackmailing me'
01/10/02: Hard to move on; separation anxiety
01/04/02: Salvaging a sister; mother knows best?
12/27/01: Paying for somebody else's charity; Down(s) and out?
12/21/01: 'Brownie points' for the Creator; I love my husband, but not his family; open-door policy needs to be closed sometimes
12/05/01: 'I celebrate Chanukah you insensitive anti-Semite!'; idealism v. responsibility; stolen gifts
11/27/01: Doubts or reservations one may have about reaching out to friends and strangers alike who are in need: From the mail bag
11/16/01: Tripping out; tactics for tactlessness; Am I a hypocrite?
11/01/01: My co-religionists are proselytizing me; tragedy intruder?; meddling mama?
10/19/01: Outside world hits home; money and mommies
10/12/01: Vacation separation; Risk present for past?
09/20/01: Secular servants; Time to tie purse strings?; dog breath --- literally!
09/07/01: Too much Torah?; Name-dropping rabbi turns off worshippers
08/30/01: Jewish 'godparents'?; summer homework
08/02/01: Have wife, won't travel; 'dis' --- as in 'distant'
07/26/01: Grandparents not invited to bar mitzvah; what to do about older sister's foul mouth; nuptial narcissism
07/19/01: Bad mannered, uncouth ethnics; lookin' for love
07/05/01: Faithless Rabbi; my wife won't let me retire; I'm in relationship limbo
06/21/01: New customs for assimilated Jews?; the business of friendship; aunty is a bad role model
06/13/01: Our friends have become political traitors; Is it love?
06/06/01: Teaching kids about the Creator, when parents aren't observant; 'wonderful woman' 'fesses up about her broken engagement; How do I find a matchmaker for my 'beautiful daughter?'
05/31/01: Couple he fixed-up is in a nasty breakup; overwrought over ring
05/16/01: The gift was counterfeit; settling for the daughter; the lush and the ostrich
05/02/01: 'Jew questions' and falsifying faith; magic marker mayhem; I want kids
04/25/01: Anti-Semites everywhere?; shilling for gifts; my kid is the 'weakest link'
04/05/01: Celebrating when Passover is inconvenient; What's wrong with the name 'Melvyn,'?; Difference dilemma: Husbands and wives and Passover observance levels
03/19/01: 7-4=insensitivity?; baby showers and tempting fate; Splitsville before or after marriage?
03/12/01: Passover party-pooper; slapped by a moral dilemma
02/14/01: Human 'mutts,' getting over it, same-sex kesubas
02/08/01: Bar/bat mitzvah blues, homework he-l, from potty to potty-mouth
01/24/01: Naughty neighbor, unprofessional colleague is dead, I'm a Jew, now what?
01/15/01: Rabbis who won't; when the rules of the 'game' change; ungracious grannies
01/08/01: My kid hates Hebrew school; Stay single or abandon heritage?
01/02/01: A Jewish Grinch? Baby bigots and when grandparents call it quits
12/18/00: Babes in Chanukah Land; my husband the kvetch; bad hair marriage?
12/04/00: My niece is a no-goodnik, when lifecycle events become dangerous, Orthodox v. Reform education
11/28/00: My ex is ruining my kids' souls; the mouth that won't stop
11/21/00: Battling brothers; how to keep a nanny
11/08/00: OY VEY! my son wants to become Orthodox; kiddies should avoid family therapy
11/08/00: Rabbi v. therapist, grandparents bearing gifts, I want my son's teacher for a sister-in-law
10/24/00: Let him enlist?, 'My son the actor'? Eating with the 'help'
10/10/00:Tipsy teens, protective spouses, kosher common-sense
10/03/00: I'm not Jewish --- not that there's anything wrong with it; mezuza machlokes; when granddad has cancer
09/25/00: I can't take Rosh Hashanah! Something for nothing? My husband needs a dinner mate
09/18/00: 'My kids' Jewish education stinks', boyfriend bandit, and single mother not by choice
09/11/00: Bris brouhaha breaks my heart, LET ME SLEEP! --- and Why can't I hold a job?
09/05/00: Righteous anger, 'dissed' daughter --- and how not to make a match
08/21/00: When one spouse becomes more religious than the other; "But the cleaning lady is part of the family!"; Why He invented 9-month gestation periods
08/21/00: 'Fessing up to granny about abandoning one's people, non-kosher sis-in-law, and 'my niece is marrying a loser'
08/14/00: Marrying 'in' for questionable motivations; Should a do-gooder be reimbursed?
08/07/00: Communing with the clouds, betrothal, and banishing bosses
07/28/00: Small-city guys, self-centered siblings
07/21/00: When a child takes religion seriously, marriage obsession, and guests who just don't get it
07/14/00: Divorcing brother-in-law, uncampy kids, and a dot.comer who makes it big time
07/07/00: Hypocrites, reality checks, and the 'real estate challenged'

Up

© 2002, Wendy Belzberg