Kamran's Full Essay

Physical Punishment:
Is it a good way to discipline children?

Physical punishment is an act of hitting, beating or using some other ways that cause someone to have physical pain. It is usually enforced to some one due to his/her wrong doings or unacceptable behaviour. Physical punishment exists in many forms in our society. Some times it is legal and at the other times it is illegal. For example law enforcement agency are legally allowed to give physical punishment to criminals at some extent, while punishing children in schools or at home without any strong and unavoidable reason is illegal. Parents usually give physical punishment to their children in order to discipline them. It could be in many forms, such as spanking, slapping, grabbing, and shoving a child roughly with intense force (Wauchope and Straus 1990).

In this essay, I am going to look at physical punishment used in schools by teachers and in homes by parents. I shall look into the effects of physical punishment on the lives of children. Finally, I shall conclude this essay to say whether it is a good way to discipline children through physical punishment or it is an old formula not working any more.

It is still unclear and very difficult to say that what is the origin of physical punishment? From where and who started it first? However, a wikipedia article on corporal punishment suggested that the activity of physical punishment was started in early tenth century BC. Initially, Rome, Greece, and Egypt started this practice for educational and judicial purposes. From then it had been spread all over the world for different purposes. For example, according to the article “Corporal Punishment” last modified 17 May 2010, “Corporal Punishment was encouraged by the attitudes of the medieval church towards the human body, flagellation being a common means of self-discipline. This had an influence on the use of corporal punishment in schools, as educational establishments were closely attached to the church during this period”. The students are given physical punishment due to misbehaving, not completing their homework or poor performance in school, bunking (i.e. getting out of home for school, but not attending classes), and for some other similar reasons by responsible school authorities/teachers. However, the teachers who adopt this method intend to discipline the students and not to destroy them. Therefore, physical punishment in schools and homes differ from judicial or some other physical punishments where the intension is to torture some one to achieve the desired goal.
When we look at the use of physical punishment in schools and homes, we find divided opinion; some people arguing in favor, while the others in against. For example Gershoff studied Bitensky’s work (Bitensky, S. H. 1998) and said in his article (Gershoff .E, 2002) that “Although a growing number of countries have adopted policies or laws that prohibit parents from using corporal punishment as a means of discipline (Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Norway, and Sweden; whereas, (Straus & Stewart) they Stated that, “both support for and use of corporal punishment remain strong in the United States, with 94% of American parents spanking their children by the time they are 3 or 4 years old.” Additionally, Straus and Gelles (Gershoff .E, 2002) observed that, “a majority of U.S. parents use physical punishment, and the percentages of parents who support and use corporal punishment declined only slightly during the 1970s and 1980s”. Moreover, there are number of research studies are carried out to see whether physical punishment is effective or harmful in the view of changing trends regarding behavior of children and parents these days. Some psychologist and other professionals concluded that “corporal punishment is both effective and desirable” (e.g., Baumrind, 1996a,1996b, 1997; Larzelere, 1996, 2000), whereas others have concluded that “corporal punishment is ineffective at best and harmfulat worst” (e.g., American Academy of Pediatrics, 1998; Lytton,1997; J. McCord, 1997; Straus, 1994a). “Psychological Bulletin”. People arguing in favor stated that it is a quicker implementation, cost nothing, and also remembered by the child for some time, because they have experienced the result of wrongdoing. Further, lazy children start learning due to fear of punishment and start behaving in well manner with teachers as well as with parents.
On the other hand, we find numerous negative effects of physical punishment on children, whether punished by parents or school authorities. It may cause suspension from school and lessons due to physical injury or pain and may lead to away from learning along with inconvenience to parents. Moreover, several research works/studies on physical effects of such activity suggested that it is a kind of physical violence training and it also increase aggressiveness in child behavior. According to some researcher, “Corporal punishment has been hypothesized to predict increases in children’s aggression because it models aggression” (e.g., Aronfreed, 1969; Bandura & Walters, 1959; Eron, Walder, & Lefkowitz, 1971; Walters & Grusec, 1977); “promotes hostile attributions, which predict violent behaviour” (Dodge, Pettit, McClaskey, & Brown, 1986); and “initiates coercive cycles of aversive behaviours between parent and child” (Dishion & Patterson, 1999; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992). There are psychological effects like destructive behaviour. If we look as an educational perspective some people argued that it can create disruptive behaviour of students and poor academic achievement due to lack of concentration in classroom. Additionally, another consequence of Physical punishment is related to mental health of children that included mental depression sometime it come up with feeling of vengeance against teacher and in worst case it end up with suicide attempts. As (Gershoff .E, 2002) studied Baumrind & Black, 1967; Lasky, 1993, they stated that “Coercive techniques have been associated with decreases in children’s feelings of confidence and assertiveness and with increases in feelings of humiliation and helplessness”.
To sum up, after looking at numerous arguments from different people and some researchers, it is obvious that there are more disadvantages of physical punishment on children as compared to advantages. It is also rejected by modern and civilized socities. For example, physical punishement have been prohibited in government schools of UK since 1987 and then same is adopted by all private schools since 2003. Further, an other strong argument against this punishment is that it is not an ultimate solution to discipline children. There exists some other methods, which can be applied and are currently used by modern schools such as, fines (paying certain amount of money as a punishment), sending children on holidays or temporary suspension, and suspension from one or two lessons.
Finally, as far as my opinion is concerned, I think beating, hitting, and causing physical pain to some one is an old formula of imposing and asking to do a job done. It is not going to work any more, because now a days the world, people and children are more independent than ever before. Therefore, teachers and parents should use several psycological methods to teach them how to be a self responsible being. This way, they could avoid physical punishment to disipline them.

References:

Murray A. Straus “Discipline and Deviance: Physical Punishment of Children and Violence and Other Crime in Adulthood” Social Problems, Vol. 38, No. 2 (May, 1991), pp. 133-154

Christopher G. Ellison and Darren E. Sherkat “Conservative Protestantism and Support for Corporal Punishment” American Sociological Review, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 131-144

Elizabeth T. Gershoff “Corporal Punishment by Parents and Associated Child Behaviors and Experiences: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review” Psychological Bulletin, 2002, Vol. 128, No. 4, 539–579.

Bitensky, S. H. (1998). “Spare the rod, embrace our humanity: Toward a new legal regime prohibiting corporal punishment of children”. University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, 31, 353–474.

Wikipedia.org, Corporal Punishment last accessed on 25-05-2010, url:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_punishment#History_of_corporal_punishment