Corporal punishment
What are the arguments for and against banning corporal punishment?
Corporal punishment involves extensive physical force intending to inflict pain on a person without intentionally hurting him. The punishment aims at correcting whoever is being subjected to it. This form of punishment is mostly administered to children. The society varied perception over this form of punishment. In the US, corporal punishment is allowed to be administered both by parents at home and teachers at school. Over 42 countries prohibit this form of punishment. Among these countries, most of them have a representative form of governance. The representatives enact legislative laws that ban corporal punishment o children. They see it not as disciplinary action but a form that entrenches on the Children’s Rights.
To some extent, corporal punishment has helped put corrective measures among children, especially those who are perceived to be extremely rude and arrogant. When a child is punished through the infliction of intensive, that child will most likely comply with immediate effect, unlike that one who is just verbally corrected. According to (Gershoff 2002), children who undergo corrective measures by being spanked hard will most likely respond and correct their mistakes with immediate, unlike those who are not subjected to the painful mode of correction. Hence allowing corporal punishment helps the children have instant correction of their behavior.
However, most available researches indicate that corporal punishment does really hit its aim of instilling discipline; rather, it causes more harm than the expected positive response. According to Nydia Y. Monagas, Psy.D., the often parents use corporal punishment to correct their children, the more likely those children develop more negative virtues such as high temperament, anger, and bitterness. Also, parents and teachers who constantly hit their children on the head greatly affect their mental health. Such children get their self-esteem lowered and later exhibit poor performances at school. The children subjected to this punishment later grow up into bullies and physically abusing them. The use of force violates human rights. Most civil societies see this act as illegal and vehemently oppose it; according to(Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2001, childhood should be conferred to the special human rights and not the abdication of the very rights. Therefore banning corporal punishment is a good move as is it protects children against violation.
How do you feel about the fact that corporal punishment is NOT banned in the United States?
In 1977 the supreme court of the United States ruled that corporal punishment in schools remains constitutional. Therefore states were allowed to make theirs on whether to allow it or not. Over 19 states allowed this form of punishment. The court made that decision with the argument the corporal punishment best instills discipline to children. However, it becomes shocking that such a country, which is perceived to be the frontest runner of human rights advocates, could make such a decision by allowing corporal punishment in schools. The children’s rights seem to be violated. The children remain under the mercy of their teachers. It has been observed that some teachers abuse this decision made by the court. Reports indicate that some small misbehaviors, such as being late in school, are also being subjected to corporal punishment. According to Shaw and Braden 1990, over 6,000 disciplinary files in central Florida school between 1987 to 1988school year indicated that corporal punishment applied to the children was not related to the intensity of the misbehaviors committed by those children. It was concluded that children’s rights were being violated.