Sample: How to Write a Discussion Essay

“Physical punishment of children: Can we continue to accept the status quo?” by Kim Oates is a scholarly source found in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. The author of this journal argues that discipline with physical punishment is not only inefficient, but it also causes problems in the emotional and behavioral development of children. He follows by providing practical forms of disciplining such as: removing privileges, teaching by example, having constant supervision, setting appropriate rules, and being consistent. Kim Oates states that those parents who use physical punishment to discipline their children, likely experienced it during their childhood and are usually unaware of these other methods of discipline. Oates included

Well, many parents find that time-outs and physical punishments are becoming more and more ineffective when disciplining children; this leaves parents questioning their authoritative abilities. In a recent study conducted by Dr. Shari Barkins in the article, “Positive Reinforcement is More Effective than Punishment”, “1 in 3 [parents] said they could not effectively discipline their kids” (Pope). This shows that many parents are experiencing difficulties and challenges when using punishing methods when disciplining

For example, if a child has thrown an object at his parent or hits a parent out of anger, the child would receive a spanking without receiving an explainnation of what he did wrong. Then child would not learn that it is wrong to throw things or hit at people. This would lead to the child repeating the behavior again.

According to Dr. Laura Markham, no tool can serve better purpose for children than to have self discipline and to learn to love boundaries, but not by having laws forced upon them. (ahaparenting.com) Children do not understand rules and responsibility without being taught how to behave, but not by having rules heaped onto them.

Encourage children to think of consequences – When a child has shown any bias or decimation it is important to have consequences for the action to allow the child to learn that behaviour is not

Parents give consequences because they want their children to know that they should not be making the same mistake twice.

An adult who practices punishment, controls a child externally. This communicates to a child that they are not able to control themselves, thus have no responsibility for their actions. Also, it can create in the child’s mind, the idea that they can commit a behavior so long as they do not get caught or are willing to accept the consequences. Behavior that is modified with punishment does not evolve from the understanding of what is expected in a society, but rather from fear. Since no understanding was obtained this will not

Alternative ways of discipline on children include; directing a child with positive instructions and commands rather than negative ones. Every parent should learn to set rules for their children from a positive approach to the situation unless in cases where it is very necessary that they use the negative figures of speech. Parents and caregivers should also allow their children to express their negative feelings and emotions such as anger and disappointment. They should then empathize with them and ask to help them in any way but at the same time stand a firm ground if the child is in the wrong. It is also important that as a parent, they have to remain as specific as possible in telling their children what they want or don’t want them to

Children are going to continue to make mistakes, but they will learn from them just like adults do. So why would we punish them for it? When positive guiding children we can help them see and understand consequences from the choices they make. By using punishment instead of positive discipline can cause possible side effects, such as blocking open communications, punishment represses behaviour, but doesn’t deal with the behaviour, models a negative use of power, and to have continue effect it must escalate in order to remain it’s effectiveness. Using punishment as discipline will create a negative relationship between educator/parent and child. This could lead the child to have negative thoughts about themselves creating a low self-esteem.

Discipline also leads to more respect from the child. When children are disciplined at home, those children tend to be respectful towards others. Those children say respectful things like good morning, please, thank you, etc. Also, discipline instills appropriate behavior. When a parent disciplines their child for poor behavior, he or she learns about what behavior is acceptable. According to an article in the journal Pediatrics and Child Health, “Discipline can foster appropriate behavior in children, teaching them how to interact with others, when to postpone pleasure and how to tolerate discomfort” (Carpenter). With effective child discipline, that child will be respectful his or her whole life. For example, if a child borrows something from their parents, the parents car or jacket, and doesn’t return it either with a full tank or washed, than next time when they ask, the answer will be no. Next time around they are going to respect the parents and the parents’ things if that child wants access to the parents’ belongings, they are going to return it the way they found it (Radzka).

Parents and caretakers usually develop three stratergies for disclipning namely viz. power,withholding of affection,manangenent.Power discipling stratergy consist of physical punishment which could be used by their power to have control of things.Second stratergy is discipling through control of affection and the later deals with initial set of rules from appropriate age level.

Discipline is one of the basic things a child learns from his parents before he or she faces the outside world to learn more about life as a whole. Teaching this trait can depend on how the parent shows it to their child and how they explain the importance of having this trait both in and out of their homes. Misbehaving children cannot be avoided as they are curious little beings and they have a tendency to explore. But there are some parents, even teachers, who do not tolerate misbehaving and they resort to corporal punishments such as spanking to make sure the child never forgets how painful it is to misbehave as they will remember the punishment entailed to it and become more disciplined. However, not all children would understand the

As teachers, when we guide a child in the way they should act, it helps them improve life skills and motivates them to continue to behave positively.

Children are like flowers, if well taken care of they will bloom. If ignored or tortured, they will wither and die. Child discipline is one of the most important elements of successful parenting. Today, many people have this notion that physical abuse is in no way a solution to helping children discern between right and wrong. Since generations children have been taught the art of discipline through physical punishment. Often this approach to disciplining has resulted in two outcomes, one is where the child becomes more tolerant and is willing to adhere to what he/she has been told, or the other which more often results in children developing a sense of anguish and desire to revolt.

Parents should be learned about how their form of discipline affects their child because punishment does not have a sense of discipline as the only outcome. Sometimes children are less responsive to a certain form of discipline than others. It cannot be helped that a child is unique and different from others. The child is also a factor in terms of discipline and punishment it is not solely dependent on his/her parent and the way they discipline.