CORPORAL+PUNISHMENT+VS+VERBAL+PUNISHMENT+FINAL+DRAFT+MARIANA+DELGADO

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ETHICS- CORPORAL PUNISHMENT VS VERBAL PUNISHMENT

Should Parents Use Corporal or Verbal Punishment? Mariana Delgado Vilches Escuela Internacional Sampedrana

Abstract Corporal punishment, also known as physical punishment is “the use of physical force intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort for discipline, correction, and control, changing behaviour or in the belief of educating or bringing up the child,” (Save the Children, 2003). Justifications about corporal punishment that parents have when enforcing their child’s behavior are found across the world and in different cultures, each having morals and values depending on both culture and the society they live in. Main arguments summoned when using corporal punishment to enforce behavior are that children need such discipline to learn right from wrong, to learn respect, and a lesson; how children are educated depends on morality and values in a society. “Corporal punishment has been passed over generations and nothing wrong has happened to those who received it,” (Save the Children, 2003). Verbal punishment refers to the action of scolding a child to eliminate the undesirable behavior of a child. This type of behavior enforcement does not affect a child’s emotions or feelings whereas a positive correlation between corporal punishment and psychological damage has been found.

Should Parents Use Corporal or Verbal Punishment? There has been much debate over how parents should educate their children, whether to educate them by physical means or verbal means. “Corporal punishment is the use of physical force intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort for discipline, correction, and control, changing behaviour or in the belief of educating or bringing up the child,” (Save the Children, 2003). Verbal punishment, on the other hand, refers to the action of scolding a child to eliminate the undesirable behavior of a child. Research conducted in different countries reveals the severity of harm that can be inflicted on children when adults try to manage their behavior by physical means. The use of corporal punishment increases the likelihood for a child to suffer injuries that may scar them for life. Despite the belief that corporal punishment better educates a child, it brings an inner fear inside a child that can become psychologically damaging, while verbal punishment opens an opportunity for a child to learn what the difference is between right and what is wrong. Verbal punishment is said to offer the child the ability to makes his or her own decision. Bringing this sort of freedom can, in the future, give them both responsibility and conscience to determine what is right and what is wrong. The child can also learn that there is a major difference between right and wrong proceedings but will learn that whatever he/she does, whether right or wrong according to society, he/she will be held accountable for the path taken. When we are born in democratic countries, we are said to possess this freedom every other inhabitant wishes to have**.** We should embrace this belief as much as we can, placing it into practice since our children are still young. “Save the Children’s work on corporal punishment aims at accountability for children’s right to freedom from all forms of violence, starting from where the majority of children experience violence: home,” (Save the Children, 2003). Organizations like this one try to work for the improvement of our children’s lives and attempt to give them their rights of freedom from a young age. Corporal punishment has been known to be the cause of so many child abuse cases. Corporal or physical punishment can be increasingly psychologically damaging by leading to low self-esteem, sadness, shame, depression, and more. “Psychological violence, including humiliating or degrading treatment and threats, can be equally or more harmful to the child,” (Save the Children, 2003). The strongest message sent by corporal punishment, and one that is often unintended, is that violence is an acceptable behavior, and that it is right for a stronger, older person to use force to coerce a weaker one. This enables a cycle of violence in the family and later on, in society. “Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves,” (Dimnet, 1928). Giving a child a reprimand instead of spanking, caning, or whipping, will give the child the opportunity to educate him or herself. Corporal punishment is useless in the fact that it only brings fear into a child, fear of facing the consequences, when in time one must not hide from their fears but must face them. “Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous,” (Confucius, n.d.). This quote from the well-known philosopher can be applied for corporal punishment; if a parent uses corporal punishment when his or her child behaves inappropriately, the child will not learn why he is being punished and will not learn the difference between right and wrong. “Patricia Chamberlain, PhD, of the Oregon Social Learning Center in Eugene, Oregon said that when parents are in an irrational state, they often hit children harder than necessary and fail to adequately explain why the child is being punished,” (Murray, 1996). “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives” (Bedford, C., n.d.). Learning increases the ability in children, not only for them to define and understand the difference between right and wrong, but will serve them in future obligations. Teaching a child or verbally punishing a child will become a lesson he or she will posses throughout his/her entire life. When using physical punishment a child will never know what is right and what is wrong, it will only awaken fear. “Fourteen percent of Nepalese children interviewed had dropped out of school because they were afraid of the teachers. Kenyan children have responded to injuries and severe punishment by transferring from abusive schools or by dropping out of school altogether,” (Save the Children, 2003). Children are not able to rationalize correctly because they are moral patients, making it difficult for them to understand the reasoning behind their inappropriate behavior. This is one of the reasons why parents decide to “educate” their child by using corporal punishment. This not only creates emotional distortions but it gravely affects a child’s mentality about violence. Many parents believe that children are only able to learn how to behave accordingly in society by punishing them, “If it hurts, then it is bad. Loud noises, that is to say yelling and scolding, can serve as a warning but are rarely as effective as associating bad choices and actions with pain. Pain is a universal language that even the youngsters are able to understand and remember. After all, even a two-year-old cries when they get a flu shot. No matter how mild the pain is, they remember it and wish to avoid it,” (McDaniel, n.d.). Physical punishment has boundaries, there are limits a parent must not overcome when disciplining his or her child; unfortunately this rarely happens. Parents are under the belief that physically disciplining their child will not cause any emotional or mental distortion; it is just a way to discipline a child, to teach them the difference between right and wrong. “A study done by Dr. Paul Frick of the University of New Orleans in Louisiana was published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology stated that corporal punishment ** can ** lead to emotional and behavioral problems down the road. In fact, this study suggests that children who are spanked even occasionally are more likely to experience depression or low self-esteem compared to children who are not spanked,” (Kim, B., 2008). Corporal punishment teaches a child to fear the consequences he or she might face, instead of learning and distinguishing what is right and wrong. Physical punishment reinforces violent behavior; when parents physically punish their child they tend to grow up with the belief that getting physical is the right way to teach, starting the slippery-sloe phenomenon. Most children who are physically punished later become victims of child abuse and can lead to emotional and behavioral problems. Verbal punishment gives the child the opportunity to learn that the actions he might take may be morally wrong according to his society. Verbal punishment is the best and safest way when disciplining children; it reduces the chance for child abuse to arise and for a child to become psychologically affected.

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Murray, B. (n.d.). Psychologists point out the futility and damage of corporal punishment. Retrieved March 19, 2010, from http://www.nospank.net/n-d66.htm

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Save The Children, 2003. International Save the Children Alliance Position on Corporal Punishment. Retrieved March 3rd, 2010, from www.savethechildren.net.nz/alliance/resources/corporal_punish.pdf

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