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Avoiding Physical Punishment In Child Rearing

opinion Essay
1310 words
1310 words
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Avoiding Physical Punishment In Child Rearing

Is "sparing the rod" spoiling or saving the child? Is violence, resentment, anger or fear worth the risk taken when striking him or her. Whether your for or against using physical punishment in child development, as a parent, you will someday have to face this issue. Many parents are taught this method in their childhood, and are not aware of any other way. Often originating from religion, physical or corporal punishment is seen as an important ingredient in child rearing. This tool is used to accomplish total authority by the parent and to receive total submission from the child. Physical punishment may be convenient and achieve temporary conformance, but produces negative results, and should be avoided.

HISTORICALLY

Punishment dates back to early human history. To maintain the laws that were created for social living, penalties were developed for the individuals who could not abide by them. Authoritarianism changed the reasons behind punishment; instead of protecting society from the criminal, it became a way for the "Chiefs to control the Indians." It placed the leaders above everyone else, preventing the people's opinions from counting; an antidemocratic society. As illustrated by Dreikurs and Grey, "Those in command were superior and therefore right; those whom they ruled were inferior and therefore wrong if they disagreed with the rulers" (66).

Physical punishment has been approved in history as "the role of authority," as a declaration of power. Penelope Leach states, "Physical punishment was once an accepted part of any relationship that gave one individual legitimate authority over others - master over slave, servant or wife; officer over lower ranks; law en...

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of Children: Clarifying the Issues". The Journal for the Scientific Study of

Religion v35, n1 (1996): 1-16.

Greven, Philip. Spare the Child. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.

Grey, Loren. Discipline Without Fear: Child Training During the Early School

Years. New York: Hawthorn Books Inc., 1974.

Leach, Penelope. Children First: What Society must do - and is not doing - for

Children Today. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

Reibstein, Larry. "The Debate over Discipline". Newsweek Spring-Summer

1997: 64.

"Sparing the Rod to Save the Child". Editorial. New Statesman and Society.

24 June 1994: 5.

Spock, Benjamin and Micheal B. Rothenberg. Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care.

New York: Dutton, 1992.

Straus, Murray. Beating the Devil Out of Them: Corporal Punishment in American

Families and Its Effects on Children. Boston: Lexington Books, 1994.

In this essay, the author

  • Opines that physical or corporal punishment is an important ingredient in child rearing. it is used to accomplish total authority by the parent and to receive total submission from the child.
  • Analyzes leach, penelope, children first: what society must do and is not doing for children.
  • Explains that punishment dates back to early human history. authoritarianism placed the leaders above everyone else, preventing the people's opinions from counting.
  • Opines that to be more effective in child rearing, we must first realize the undesired results that can come from using physical punishment.
  • Explains the "law of reinforcement," "time-out", "immobilization" and "logical or natural consequences."
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