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by briandear 5099 days ago
Spanking has decreased in schools. Violence has increased in schools. Just sayin'
1 comments

Whales have decreased in numbers, violence has increased in schools. Just sayin'
Right. And whales were once a significant part of school discipline.
Correlation is not causation, my stat is equally as valid as yours. They are both equally worthless for drawing conclusions.
Treatment of children could possibly connected to subsequent behavior of children? Sounds possible.
Which is why you need to be reminded that correlation isn't causation; just because something sounds good doesn't mean it is. You're just repeating a known fallacy.
It also doesn't preclude causation either. Lacking scientific data otherwise, it's a perfectly valid hypothesis that would certainly warrant investigation. All scientific theory starts with a hypothesis based on observation. Dismissing a hypothesis out of hand because you don't like the implication isn't valid science. We could say that correlation doesn't imply causation with CO2 and the climate change debate as well, even though I don't like the implications of CO2 regulation. However that approach is not consistent with the Scientific Method. Until Science disproves a lack of causation of spanking and discipline, then it's just as valid a hypothesis as any other untested hypothesis.