Caning in Singapore Schools to Be Replaced by Non-Violent Disciplines
A recent article in The Asian Parent Magazine reports that a student was publicly caned in a Singapore secondary school for repeatedly being late, and several Singaporean parents criticized the school policy on this issue (Chin, 2012, p.1). Such reports have been raising controversies on whether the Singapore Ministry of Education should continue allowing schools to administer such disciplinary action, a traditional corporal punishment since 1957 under the Schools Regulation Act. Canees are punished for offences such as theft, bullying, and vandalism of school facilities. Senior administrative staff in school can carry out for up to three hard strokes on the palm or on the buttocks with a light cane private, in class, or publicly during a school assembly. Many Singaporean educators and parents believe this form of correction is an appropriate disciplinary action. Meanwhile critics believe that it is an inhumane and ineffective method to teach the students how to behave (Sudderuddin, 2009, p.3). The Singapore Ministry of Education should abolish caning in school, because the canees could experience long-term psychological fallout and delinquent behaviors, it is educationally unproductive, it infringes children’s human rights, and abolition could improve Singapore’s international reputation.
Caning in front of class or school can cause destructive consequences on the students’ psychological health and emotional development. Researchers have found that corporal punishment can provoke depressive symptoms on school-aged children. They have also suggested that corporal punishment can harm the proper development of the children’s self-concept, lower their confidence,...
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...probably be a good idea for Singapore to find non-violent disciplinary methods to substitute such physical punishment. It could be difficult at the beginning and it takes time and effort to install effective alternative systems. However, there are successful instances in many other regions of the world, such as Sweden and Taiwan, from which Singapore could learn the strategies. If the discipline system in Singapore schools has smoothly reformed and achieved noteworthy results, the students would be enormously benefited. Moreover, the educational system itself would be considerably rewarded by nurturing more responsible and self-disciplined future citizens for the nation and by a better international recognition as a reputable education hub. Therefore, the Minister of Education of Singapore should abolish its caning policy and replace it with non-violent alternatives.
Smith states in his introduction “many studies have shown physical punishment — including spanking, hitting and other means of causing pain — can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children.” Throughout the article, many studies show that children do become more aggressive however, there were also studies mentioned that support the use of physical punishment on children between the ages of two and six years old. This does show that his research is thorough however, it still leads to room for error in his broad statement of physical punishment causing harmful effects to
...e presence of corporal punishment in the school, without realizing that it breeds nothing but resentment and hatred, especially among the upperclassmen who can judge the long-term consequences of their actions without having their bottoms paddled.
Schools around the world have recently adopted revolutionary solution and prevention methods. The controversy over school violence prevention is not "yes we should or, "no we shouldn't", because you will probably be hard pressed to find someone who thinks we shouldn't get involved. The debate lies in the method we use to prevent and solve school violence. The zero tolerance policy is one suggestion to implement punishment in schools.
Contrary to popular belief, corporal punishment is still an accepted form of punishment in some countries. In these countries, many see this kind of punishment for children as normal, natural and harmless. Yet, human rights activists believe that it is damaging and must be stopped. For example, Gambian teachers are working to end corporal punishment. The Gambia Teachers' Union has been training teachers on alternative...
Reading, Richard. "Speak softly - and forget the stick: corporal punishment and physical abuse." Child: care, health and development (2009): 286-287. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 April 2011.
Corporal punishment is a traditional practice of imposing pain, which is commonly used by parents towards children to remove an unpleasant behavior. It is also a physical force towards a child for the purpose of control, and as a disciplinary penalty inflicted on the body. The parents play a pivotal role in honing and disciplining their child with regards to his/her actions. Hitting them with physical objects and forcing them to do cleaning works are some of the ways of discipline, which were done at home. In the year 2000, research, the convention, and law reform – modified the punishment towards children. According to research, 20,000 people in the U.S – particularly those who are 20 years old and above, 1,258 experienced punishment by pushing, grabbing, slapping and hitting. 19,349 people had been reported that they didn’t experience such kind of punishment. Moreover, it is also executed on the children, in order for them to act independently and to visualize the negativities of being careless and dependent to others. Punishment is also
Corporal punishment, also known as physical discipline, is the act of physical force towards a child for the sole purpose of disciplinary control and/or correction (Holzer & Lamont 2010). It is used with the intention to cause pain and discomfort to the body of a child, however mild (Holzer & Lamont 2010). The laws surrounding the rights of practicing corporal punishment ultimately breachs the child’s rights in regards to their personal physical and emotional wellbeing. Currently parents can raise the defence of reasonable chastisement. The defence of
In this essay, smacking is defined as spanking a child with the purpose to either discipline or punish. Professor Murray characterizes beating as the utilization of physical power with the expectation of making a child encounter torment yet not causing them to get injured, with the end goal of controlling their child’s attitude. The most frequent physical punishment which is categorized as sensible include the age of the child and the form of punishment. The negative impacts on smacking a child can be seen as research shows it reduces cognitive ability by lowering the IQ. However, there is an argument which states that there is a positive relationship between harsh discipline and how a child deals with problems in later life. This may be true in some cases but smacking may create kids to have bad mental health such as low self-esteem. Consequently, smacking children should be made illegal.
In the article, “Corporal Punishment”, it is written that, “Corporal punishment is defined by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) as ‘striking a child with an open hand on the buttocks or extremities with the intention of modifying behavior without causing physical injury’” (Corporal Punishment, paragraph 1). Also written in this article, roughly sixty-five to eighty-five percent of parents utilize spanking their children as an effective form of behavior modification (Corporal Punishment, paragraph 3). In today’s society, adults are beginning to argue the effects of disciplining children in this manner, yet there are more cases of violence that occur in the younger generations that aren’t being spanked and taught their lessons from a young
Turner, H and Muller, P (2004) ‘long term effects of child corporal punishment on depressive symptoms in young adults: potential moderators and mediators’, Journal of Family Issues, vol.25, no.6, p.761-782
“It hurts and it’s painful inside – it’s like breaking your bones; it’s loud and sore, and it stings; it feels like you’ve been adopted or something and you’re not part of their family; you feel like you don’t like your parents anymore; you feel upset because they are hurting you, and you love them so much, and then all of a sudden they hit you and you feel as though they don’t care about you” (Pritchard 9). These are the feelings of those juveniles who suffer from corporal punishment. Corporal punishment has been one of the main topics of research in Psychology in last few decades. Although people had believed, “Spare the rod and spoil the child” but in the present age of science, research has revealed that the corporal punishment causes more harm to the children instead of having a positive effect on them. According to UNICEF, “Corporal punishment is actually the use of physical measures that causes pain but no wounds, as a means of enforcing discipline” (1). It includes spanking, squeezing, slapping, pushing and hitting by hand or with some other instruments like belts etc. But it is different from physical abuse in which punishment result in wounds and the objective is different from teaching the discipline. Although Corporal punishment is considered to be a mode of teaching discipline and expeditious acquiescence, however, it leads to the disruption of parent-child relationship, poor mental health of juveniles, moral internalization along with their anti-social and aggressive behaviour and it is against the morality of humans.
Some people believe that teachers’ using physical punishment is the most effective way to educate students. It is largely because they believe it brings a very quick r...
Secondly, corporal punishment in schools should not be permitted is because it can lead to harmful effects in a student’s health. Because according to Science Daily “a child in a school that uses corporal punishment has performed worst in tasks involving executive functioning-- such as, for example: planning, abstract thinking, and delaying gratification.” In addition, according to Social Development, “harshly punitive environm...
Corporal punishment is the physical disciplinary method used by parents, teachers, and school administrators in an effort to correct a child’s undesirable behaviors. The use of physical force is one that is often times controversial and usually evokes very strong reactions. These feelings surface, and opposing views clash, when scandals surrounding corporal punishment hit the media and heated arguments in the comments section of articles emerge. While corporal punishment occasionally makes its way into the limelight, it is a decision all parents are faced with eventually and often times daily. For example, when a toddler is sprawled out on the grocery store floor kicking, hitting, and flinging
Allen: I do not think so. As I already mentioned, our teachers can use other methods to promote studies. Corporal punishment may hurt student’s dignity, which may cause lots of potential mental problems that will affect their future life.