Seven countries-Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Italy and Cyprus- have laws making it illegal for parents to use physical punishment on their children. Corporal punishment in schools has been banned in all the countries in Europe, South and Central America, China and Japan. The United States has outlawed corporal punishment from our prisons as cruel and inhumane treatment, as well as wife-beating, once thought to be the right of a husband. Why don’t we afford the same protection to our children?
Our culture sanctions the use of corporal or physical punishment as a way for parents to discipline their children. Just a few weeks ago Marvin Munyon, president of the Family Resource Forum based in Madison, Wisconsin, was at the Eau Claire Gospel Center to talk about and demonstrate the proper way to spank children. Mr. Munyon would have us believe that discipline other than spanking is ineffective (Emerson 1B, 3B). From my experience as a child and a parent I have found the opposite to be true. If we take a look at what discipline is and the reasons parents use physical punishment, we can then start to understand that there are more effective ways to discipline children.
Webster’s New World Dictionary defines corporal punishment, as “bodily punishment.” The word punish is defined by the same source as “to cause to undergo pain, loss, etc., as for a crime.” There is no mention anywhere in this definition about teaching or training which is one of the definitions of
In modern society, physical discipline is still considered a somewhat suitable way of teaching children how to behave in life, though it is decreasing in popularity as time goes on. When using physical discipline, the parent should never have the intention of causing harm, they should always have the intention of being constructive. Whether or not physical discipline results in a beneficial outcome is dependent upon how it is used. If it is the only, or primary, source of discipline, the outcome is generally unfavorable. Also, as said in an article by Larzelere and Kuhn, if the discipline is too violent, and results in the child becoming injured, the child is not going to retain the intended lesson (1). An example of non-abusive physical discipline is conditional spanking. Conditional spanking "is defined as about two open-hand swats to the buttocks when a parent is not angrily out of control" (Larzelere, Kuhn 1). This type of punishment "teaches a child to cooperate with the milder disciplinary tactic, thereby making spanking less necessary in the future" (Larzelere, Kuhn 1) . When parents decide to use physical discipline, the primary intention of the parent should always be that the punishment is being "used in such a way that [it] reduces the need to use it in the future" (Larzelere, Kuhn 1). A parent should never hit a child
Corporal Punishment helps kids learn better because it is a quick punishment that you can get over fast so you can go back to class. It’s better than other punishments such as suspension, because if you get suspended you “miss school and you also miss instructions”(source B ) and you can not do your work.
Again,theses are only half of the reason why corporal punishment should not be allowed in any of the countries, and according to the latest reports nation's largest school districts among them Houston and Dallas,Texas; Memphis,Tennessee; Atlanta,Georgia; and Mobile County,Alabama have banned the practice of corporal punishment. Would you want your children to be an excuse for teachers to show their anger? Would you want them to be spending their childhood in fear? So stand with me to ban corporal punishment once and for all,for the sake of our growing generation. Abolishing corporal punishment in schools by Government is not
A recent study shows 70 percent of parents believe it is right to discipline a child through physical means. Most commonly, parents will spank their children but being hit with things like belts or other objects happens as well. Parenting methods haven’t changed much with time and discipline in similar no matter the country. With more studies out to find the most effective method of parenting and discipline it’s coming to attention whether or not physical harm is the best way to teach children. Parents want what is best for their children, so it is important to constantly bring up and question methods commonly accepted in the past. One method that is becoming more controversial is spanking children. Though it is still considered normal to do, it is gaining more traction and more studies are being done to find the problems it causes. Checking on parenting methods can be difficult as everyone is raised differently. It is also difficult to test which forms of punishment lead to certain outcomes. However, there is a trend of negative effects from hitting. Gershoff acknowledges, “several national professional organizations have called on parents to abandon spanking as a child rearing practice and for professionals to recommend disciplinary alternatives to spanking.” Spanking children is a terrible discipline method as it has negative effects.
Child discipline is an important part of parenthood. It is challenging for adults to manage children’s behaviors and find the correct lessons that will benefit their children. According to the research performed by Flynn (1998), most parents in the United States agree that "it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking" (p.26). Socolar et al. performed research which agreed that “corporal punishment of children persists—roughly fifty percent of the parents of toddlers in the United States use corporal punishment as a regular method of disciplining their children.” (as cited in Gershoff, 2010, p.32). That is not to say that physical punishment is the solution as it can stop a behavior immediately but the results
Her credentials are professional nanny with “twenty-five years experience of helping families." Her stake in this issue is to help “parents transform the troublesome behavior of children and bring more peace and harmony to families.” She aims this book at parents of toddlers and young children. Her purpose is to persuade readers that discipline is not a bad thing and inform readers the proper way of implementing effective discipline techniques. She writes in an effort to “change that perception here and now because… parents’ inner conflict over the idea of discipline has led to lax, inconsistent, and ineffective methods of disciplining children, resulting in their being raised without proper limits and boundaries, and ultimately without respect, empathy, and compassion for others.” She claims that by implementing her five toddler rules parents will head in the right direction to creating “well-behaved respectful individuals.” She argues as related to the topic, discipline absolutely must not be physical… I’m credited in Great Britain with being responsible for 67 percent of parents now choosing not to spank, by helping them learn effective nonphysical discipline techniques. She reports a statistical ratio of parents who were spanked as children and currently claim to spank their children (sharp decline). She reports her findings resulted because the adulds who recieved corporal punishment as
Living in the twenty-first century you rarely ever see someone spank their child or hear the word spank come out of a parent’s mouth. I see too many parents today that are too self-righteous to “spank” their children, because many people see spanking as form of abuse. Many parents in today’s world use more reasonable punishments for their misbehaving children. Some parents put their children in time-outs, deny them of their freedom, take toys away and ground them. I have seen parents use these methods because there are more reasonable ways of punishing their child for being disobedient. However, not everybody in today’s world uses these methods for punishing children; some parents use the act of spanking for punishment. Spanking was a popular punishment back in the 1900s, but is a very debatable topic in today’s society.
Corporal punishment is defined as the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offense, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behavior deemed unacceptable (Wikipedia 2014). The line between spanking and abuse is not always clear and is decided on a case by case basis by the state prosecutors and judges and whether the line has been crossed. If asked parents use the word spanking as not just a slap on the buttocks, but a form of corporal punishment that is not severe enough to be classified as abuse. Corporal punishment has been repeatedly associated with child abuse, moral internalization, aggression, delinquent and antisocial behavior, decreased quality of the parent-child relationship, increased behavioral symptoms, later criminal behavior, worse mental health, and perpetration of spouse and child abuse (Gershoff, 2002; Zolotor et al., 2008).
Many studies on cases of adults who have tendency to perpetuate abuses, either as a victim or as an abuser, are traced in the pattern of violence experienced at home, and many are reportedly experience being physically violated by spanking during their childhood. Despite the information and advocacy available in almost all media these days, there are still parents who thought that spanking their children to emphasize discipline is still beneficial. The benefits cited by those supporting spanking as acceptable method of discipline varied across culture and race. Generally, there are three views or positions about spanking as a form of discipline (Benject C. & Kazdin A, 2003) : Pro-corporal punishment, anti-corporal punishment, and conditional corporal punishment.
The term corporal punishment means the intentional infliction of pain on the body for purposes of punishment. "Spanking can be defined as the use of physical force aimed at causing children to experience pain but not injury, for the purposes of correction and control of youthful behavior"(http://www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=32539). Spanking is a controversial topic and should not be taken lightly.
Corporal punishment in these days has been becoming a topic in many old timers talks. Many believe that it helps and is definitely the way to go. The older generations still seem to believe that society would be better off if kids still got punished the way they did. They refuse to ignore data that has not supported the clams they bring up about making children better behaved or as they call it “Straightening them up”. Many believe that our liberal democracy population has views that are not valid and that the old ways need to come back to help us grow.
The world has changed in many different ways, but there are still things that need to be changed for the better. Corporal punishment is one of those things. All around the world, corporal punishment is affecting children in many ways. It is described as a form of discipline that hurts a child in a way and is used both in homes and schools. It has been going on for years upon years and very few people try to stop it. People believe corporal punishment is good for children, but there have been so many negative outcomes that other people argue against it. Although some people believe that corporal punishment helps improve a child’s behavior, corporal punishment should not be used because it could be used excessively and it is ineffective.
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
Punishment, the word has brought fear to men and children alike, leaning towards adult offenders it tends to take on deeper connotations. As a child you would be punished by your parents, school leaders and other parental figures, and mostly under not so serious circumstances, usually requiring very little corporal punishment and/or separation from entertainment devices. As we get older the offenses tend to be greater and therefore demand greater punishment, despite having histories involving death sentences and hard labor, some methods have done little to deter some offenders. The question this raises of course, should we focus more on punishment or on rehabilitation, concentrating on punishment some would say stricter… while many will
Corporal punishment is a form of punishment used on children to correct bad behavior. The definition of corporal punishment is, a physical punishment , as flogging, inflicted on the body of one convicted of a crime (Dictionary.com). While several states strictly prohibit corporal punishment in schools, 44% of states in the U.S. still allow it to occur. Corporal punishment is an inappropriate way to correct bad behavior. However, almost 50% of the states in the U.S. still allow it to occur. Corporal punishment is always wrong to use in schools because it causes long-term negative effects on students, negative opinions of school or teachers, and it can increase the rate of crime and violence from students.