Is Corporal Punishment Effective?

1663 Words4 Pages

Corporal Punishment

Introduction

On a student’s cell phone, a teacher is caught hitting students with a thick stick. He continually hits everywhere from the students’ hips to the head harshly without a hesitation. This video is opened to the public by a student in the class posting it on the Internet. According to the other students, they were punished because they skipped class when the school inspectors came. All the people who looked at it on the Internet were surprised to see this kind of behavior. Recently, we’ve heard a lot on the media about punishment by teachers in school. Some people agree with the teacher’s power to punish, claiming that it is a part of education. However, contrary to this opinion, I disagree with corporal punishment because physical punishment brings only temporary effects in correcting children’s behavior. Also, it can humiliate a child by insulting his or her personality and have a poor affect on their self esteem. Besides, physical punishment can be abused because there aren’t any concrete standards to regulate how much punishment is proper in disciplining.

Hyman (1989) says corporal punishment refers to intentional application of physical pain as a method of changing behavior. It includes a wide variety of methods such as hitting, slapping, punching, kicking, pinching, shaking, choking, use of various objects (wooden paddles, belts, sticks, pins, or others), painful body postures, use of electric shock, use of excessive exercise drills, or prevention of urine or stool limination (p.161).

The effect of the corporal punishment

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...

... middle of paper ...

...bad behavior. However, I cannot completely agree with physical punishment. It is largely because the effects of corporal punishment are just temporary. Also, according to studies, physical punishment has had a bad effect on students such as students imitating the corporally-punishing behavior of their parents or teachers and reducing self-esteem and the IQ of children. Corporal punishment can be abused as well. Most teachers are now using corporal punishment out of anger instead of using it to correctly change behavior of students. Spanking children is an action that goes against the times and it is time for a change in the world. Corporal punishment isn’t the best way to discipline children. There are other ways like encouragement and consultation. All in all, I can say without hesitation that we should find other means of discipline instead of corporal punishment.

Open Document