Might is not right
By Jordan Roberts
What makes an adult strike another adult? Better yet, what makes an adult strike a child? Could you imagine your boss or professor physically reprimanding a colleague or student because they were being noncompliant? Yeah, me either; so why is it still considered normal to physically discipline children?
Children are vulnerable to their environment and sensitive to authority figures. They shouldn’t have to be afraid of physical contact to correct their behavior.
As adults, we are required to develop interpersonal communication, techniques with handling noncompliance issues and develop respect of personhood and boundaries when it comes to our colleagues.
So where does all that experience go when we attend to the inappropriate behavior of young children?
A problem that I have with corporal punishment is that it completely negates the boundaries of children and what it means to respect their personal space. I fear that when this space is breached, there could be two potential results.
The first is the child’s inability as an adult to respect their own personal space and compromise their right for boundaries with others, or that they will become overly obedient in events or circumstances that make them uncomfortable.
The second is the child developing the theory that “might is right” and using this toxic version of authority to either instill discipline or to teach obedience.
I still believe children should be disciplined at an early age and well into their adolescent years, but this can be done with alternative, respectful methods.
We know that communication is imperative in all facets of life, so it’s important to explain your methods of discipline calmly and clearly to your child. Children are receptive and will respond accordingly with behavior they think is appropriate, so if they observe their parent getting visibly angry or see their parent use shouting as a means of communication, then the child will learn to reciprocate this behavior.
However, if a child observes their parents practicing patience and positive assertion, they may begin to value their parents discipline and start to develop skills in self-reflection and respect, which is at the core of being a well-rounded person
It’s an effective method of discipline
By Gabrielle Martin
While I do not support allowing corporal punishment in schools, I do support a parent’s decision to spank their children. That being said, I think that many people incorrectly and unnecessarily spank their children. People often spank out of anger; they leave bruises on their children; they spank a child for spilling some milk.
First off, spanking should never be done when you’re angry. You are much stronger than you think – especially when angry – and you can cause serious injury to a child when acting out of anger. Secondly, spanking should NEVER leave a mark. Finally, many people use the embarrassment of the spanking as more of a punishment than the actual spanking. I’ve heard parents tell their child who is acting out in the grocery store, “If you don’t stop, I’m going to spank you right here in front of all of these people.”
Anytime a parent punishes a child, it should be a punishment made out of love – not anger. You give your child a timeout for screaming at you because you think he/she needs time to cool down and you want to teach him/her that screaming is not an acceptable form of communication (except at a football game).
Pain is a very effective reminder to either do or not do something. You only have to touch the hot stove once in order to learn not to do it again. Spanking is an effective means of teaching a child to do or not do something.
In my opinion, though, spanking should only be used as a form of punishment when a child is doing something that will significantly hurt either themselves or someone else.
Parents should not be spanking their children because he or she accidentally tripped a sibling; if a child purposely trips a sibling for the third time that week, then spanking can be a form of punishment (after you’ve tended to the injured sibling).
What I think is important in this discussion is that every parent disciplines differently because every child is different. Some children don’t respond to time-outs, grounding or taking away TV time but will respond to being spanked. If a parent feels that spanking is necessary to teach their child a lesson, then we should respect that.