212 pages
228 x 145mm
ISBN-10: 1 85856 159 0
ISBN-13: 978 185856 159 2
July 1999

How should we treat unruly children in schools? This is a question perennially raised by adults but rarely asked of children. Now that schools cannot resort to physical punishment, alternative sanctions are needed, which are effective but which do not contravene children's legal or moral rights.

Sparing the Rod explores issues of discipline in schools within the framework of children's rights. It is the first book to do so - also the first to trace the history of corporal punishment in schools and its abolition in terms of both law and practice.

Marie Parker-Jenkins is Professor of Research and Education, University of Derby

Legal history written in such a readable fashion is rare indeed. She succeeds in giving a real feel for the passions aroused without succumbing to them herself. She also manages to produce an account which grips the reader.
- British Educational Research Journal

It is, beyond doubt, that the book has the great strength of appealing to a wde readership. It will act as a sound introduction for general readers interests in society's attitude towards corporal punishment.
- Cambridge Journal of Education

...this absorbing and thoughtful study...
- Child Right

...essential reading for teachers ...
- Journal of Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties

...as an introduction to the issue of Children's Rights this book has much to commend it, not least the fluid prose that makes the content easily accessible.
- School Leadership and Management