The Effects Of Corporal Punishment On Student Development Beyond The Institution Of Education

When it comes to disciplining children there are many different schools of thought and beliefs of what is right and wrong. These different opinions have been reviewed, discussed and argued by many different adults including parents, teachers, psychologists, and lawmakers. Every day parents must make decisions on what they believe is ethically and morally right when they discipline their children. Corporal punishment is one such decision. By definition, corporal punishment is “the infliction of physical pain upon a person’s body as punishment for a crime or infraction” (Encyclopedia, 2015). In a more general sense of the term, it refers to the physical disciplining of children.

Corporal Punishment helps kids learn better because it is a quick punishment that you can get over fast so you can go back to class. It’s better than other punishments such as suspension, because if you get suspended you “miss school and you also miss instructions”(source B ) and you can not do your work.

During the 1900’s, corporal punishment was well known and often used to punish and teach children effectively. Philosophers like John Locke express insightful views about forcing a child to learn, rather than allowing the child to freely do so at his or her own pace. Imagine two children learning the same topic of mathematics. One child is introduced to mathematics through counting apples and pears and is allowed to eat the fruits afterwards, whereas the other child is forced to learn mathematics through textbooks with minimum visualization and finds no fun in doing so. The child who is counting through fruits is getting positive feedback because of his ability to quickly catch on and the child who is learning through a textbook is gaining negative feedback because of the complicated material that does not allow for him to grasp the concept or freely make mistakes. Forcing children to learn what they need to in order to keep up a standard level of education for each age group (like the textbook example) can negatively affect the child, their wellbeing, and their self-esteem. When a child is forced to learn unwillingly, he may grow resentful towards members of authority and fear failure, hindering his social skills. A balance between leading the child through encouragement towards the right direction and allowing him to explore his options will help the child to grow up happy and to create a positive impact on the current society.

Here it goes the same dispute. The same argument parents, psychologists and teachers have been having for years. Does physical punishment have a negative effect on children? Physical punishment does have long lasting effects. Corporal punishment introduces aggression to children and can lead to higher aggression for kids at school. Kids can not always distinguish between the physical aggression used as punishment and not acceptable physical violence like hitting and pushing. Children that are physically punished are a lot more likely to abuse their own kids. By informing parents, expecting parents, and just the public in general of the negative effects it has on the children outways the positives. Spreading the information there are better positive ways to get the end result of teaching kids right from wrong without all the negative effects.

There has been a significant amount of research on the impact of corporal punishment on children, and its effect on their behavior going into adolescence. Several studies have shown that experiencing physical discipline during childhood leads to higher acts of aggression towards others, that physical punishment leads to externalizing these aggressive behaviors (Lansford, Deater-Deckard, Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, 2004). By changing important variables for each study, several researchers have come to the conclusion that parent-child physical aggression has a more significant impact on externalizing behaviors if this aggression occurs during adolescence than at younger ages (Gunnoe & Mariner, 1997). Furthermore, past studies have demonstrated that the level of corporal punishment experienced as a child is directly related to the probability of using physical violence against intimate partners in the future, suggesting that this aggression could translate further than adolescence and into adulthood (Douglas & Straus, 2006; Swinford, DeMaris, Cernkovich, & Giordano, 2000).

The conditions to model this violent behavior includes “attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation” which can be interpreted as the attention to the fact that violence is an adult’s response causes a child to model the behavior of the adults around them resulting in more violence (Bandura).

Parents believe that some physical punishment is necessary and it will not cause adverse effect to children in the future, but that is not the case. In fact harsh discipline, specifically physical punishment, can lead to internalizing of problems and also a possibility of the physical abused children their anger on other younger children. (Zens et al. 190)

While reading Cleverley & Phillips ' Visions of Childhood I found that many views of the past relating to corporal punishment have changed significantly. During my readings I read things that instantly stood out to me. The first being how many issues and their solutions revolved around religion. John Wesley, was the founder of the Methodist Movement, and he believed that children were born with sin and that it was the parental duty to discipline the unruly child, starting at an early age. During this time period, corporal punishment was a common practice. Wesley used reference to the Bible verse in Proverbs to declare, “Spare the rod, spoil the child”, (Cleverly and Phillips, 1986) in turn parents believed they were doing God’s will with their harsh punishments.

Once considered an appropriate parenting strategy, corporal punishment is progressively being deemed as a risk factor to children’s development by health professionals (Durrant, 2008). Corporal punishment does have detrimental effects on a child’s development (Gershoff, 2012). It models aggression, impairs cognitive and emotional development, and establishes antisocial behavior in children (Straus, 1999; Gershoff, 2012).

We will find in the spanked kids a physical and verbal form of aggression against others: classmate, family members, friends etc… it is like an expression of all frustration accumulated by spanked and frustrated child. Another study published in the Akron Law Review examined criminal records and found that children raised where a legal ban on parental corporal punishment is in effect are much more likely to be involved in crime. When kids and spanked or abuse in their childhood are spanked, they develop a hatred. The immediate consequence in their adolescence is physical aggression. It is the most common in the adolescent behavior and are likely to result in physical injury. The most extreme form of violence is a homicide. Thus, fights involving weapons and fights by teenagers old enough to be able to inflict serious injuries are what see in the street every day. So finally spanked kids destroy them more than it help them to behave as parents would like to. It is why it is better to choose a different way to help kids to understand and to learn what is acceptable and what is not. In fact Dozens of countries have banned parental corporal punishment, such as Germany, Italy, and in 2007 New Zealand, which use force to correct children causes complete criminal penalties, and where the mother cannot even legally take the hand of her child to bring it where it refuses to go. And according to Krisha McCoy, discipline is a way of teaching children the restraint and values necessary to become competent and independent adults. When our child behaves negatively, the best way to teach him the positive behavior should be for example to explain what is wrong in his behavior, then explain or show with examples what is better to do. Also and the explanation of the reasons of positive behaviors regarding others, environments, society, laws, rules. And the consequences of “not doing this way” or of “doing

Child discipline has been a heated topic of debate in recent years. Many older people in past generations support more severe child discipline, citing that it teaches kids proper behavior better than more modern teaching styles. However, younger parents and experts are saying that severe child discipline can have long lasting negative effects. The issue of child abuse has been brought up many times in these arguments. There is a fine line between an acceptable spanking and child abuse. Corporal punishment may be thought of as, “the good old days,” by many adults, but kids today measure up, and might even surpass what kids used to be like.

Research over the past 40 years been remarkably consistent in showing that hitting children increases the chances of a child becoming physically aggressive, delinquent, or both. The research in this book leads me to conclude that corporal punishment leaves invisible scars that affect many other aspects of life.

Corporal punishment has been an integral part of how parents discipline their children throughout the history of the United States (Greven, 1991) and has been a focus of psychological research for decades (e.g., Caselles & Milner, 2000; Eron, Walder, Huesmann, & Lefkowitz, 1974; Glueck & Glueck, 1950; MacKinnon, 1938; J. McCord, 1988b; Sears, 1961; Straus, 1994a). With this study on children and corporal punishment from the parental figure, it is supposed to stop children from misbehaving immediately instead of constantly having to tell them and the child not learning. Although immediate response is the goal of this punishment, long- term moralizing behaviors is the main goal. With this punishment parents want the child to stop behaving immediately as well as remembering the punishment of what happens when they misbehave, then causing the child to keep the behavior away or controlled. The association between corporal punishment and children’s aggression is one of the most studied and debated findings in the child-rearing literature (Coie & Dodge, 1998; Steinmetz, 1979) Corporal punishment has been shown that it increases aggression in children and soon will cause criminal activity. When the child experiences the corporal punishment, in their future it may influence them to behave in the same manner as the parents did. This then can result in domestic violence situations in their

A child who receives physical punishment will believe that hitting is an effective form of problem-solving; in consequence, the child will learn to become violent.

The world has changed in many different ways, but there are still things that need to be changed for the better. Corporal punishment is one of those things. All around the world, corporal punishment is affecting children in many ways. It is described as a form of discipline that hurts a child in a way and is used both in homes and schools. It has been going on for years upon years and very few people try to stop it. People believe corporal punishment is good for children, but there have been so many negative outcomes that other people argue against it. Although some people believe that corporal punishment helps improve a child’s behavior, corporal punishment should not be used because it could be used excessively and it is ineffective.