You attribute too much coherence to the beliefs of the writers. I suspect that if you asked them directly, they’d have exactly your beliefs: school corporal punishment is illegal in MD, thus doesn’t work. Like you, they’re probably ignorant of its continuation in 22 American states. Education policy is fashion. Maybe it has “proved surprisingly useless”; but that has nothing to do with why it stopped being used.
You attribute too much coherence to the beliefs of the writers. I suspect that if you asked them directly, they’d have exactly your beliefs: school corporal punishment is illegal in MD, thus doesn’t work. Like you, they’re probably ignorant of its continuation in 22 American states. Education policy is fashion. Maybe it has “proved surprisingly useless”; but that has nothing to do with why it stopped being used.