anonday,
I can't really say anything about the Catholic church, as I have had little exposure.
What I do know is that corporal punishment has been used in schools, in various periods, and that this has occurred in both religious and secular schools.
Corporal punishment has also been widely used by parents, and i always assumed that any such thing done in any school was with the consent of the parents, even if tacit.
I think that most parents, and by extension, the school staff, are genuinely trying to correct the behavior of the child to basic social norms. I may not agree with it, and there is definitely coercion involved, but I don't know that it is outside the realm of "normal" discipline, (unless overly severe).
The difference I see is that, in the case of parents and the schools to which they choose to send their kids, the authority is at least mostly legitimate. In the case of LGATS, it is not. You are a supposedly, more or less, self-governing adult, and have paid to take a seminar. And that's all. Or at least that's what it says in the language of the consent form. Nowhere on that form do I see anything about giving them authority to discipline me, or worse.
I can't really say anything about the Catholic church, as I have had little exposure.
What I do know is that corporal punishment has been used in schools, in various periods, and that this has occurred in both religious and secular schools.
Corporal punishment has also been widely used by parents, and i always assumed that any such thing done in any school was with the consent of the parents, even if tacit.
I think that most parents, and by extension, the school staff, are genuinely trying to correct the behavior of the child to basic social norms. I may not agree with it, and there is definitely coercion involved, but I don't know that it is outside the realm of "normal" discipline, (unless overly severe).
The difference I see is that, in the case of parents and the schools to which they choose to send their kids, the authority is at least mostly legitimate. In the case of LGATS, it is not. You are a supposedly, more or less, self-governing adult, and have paid to take a seminar. And that's all. Or at least that's what it says in the language of the consent form. Nowhere on that form do I see anything about giving them authority to discipline me, or worse.