Essay on Corporal Punishment of Children

Punishing children using spanking, whipping and canning methods have recently become a matter of concern within the family and institutional environments. This type of punishment is attributed to the common times where masters could whip their slaves and servants to affirm their superiority to those who dared to go astray. The act was also present in homes where especially women were battered mercilessly by their husbands over more of the same reasons as the slave owners. Until laws were passed to abolish the flogging of students in state-running institutions (1986) and privately owned facilities (1998) in Britain, the system was the order of the day. Other countries like Canada passed the same laws. Could be and is true that this form of punishment is still used by most parents and guardians on their children in most of the Canadian and US states ("Corporal Punishment of Children -- Spanking"). The biblical understanding of this method as an assured way of correction makes its abolishment a nightmare. In this paper, the validity and effectiveness of corporal punishment for children are put to the test.

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Over the several recent years, the punishment of children by corporal means has been associated with major adulthood transition problem and challenges in sexual behavior, morality, and spirituality. A Reuters article directly associates the frequency of child slapping and spanking to a lifelong prevalence of disorders of anxiety, drug and alcohol dependence or abuse, and other forms of crimes. All the negativities of a lifestyle are associated with childhood spanking and canning; marital violence, teenage delinquency, murder and of all things low IQ ("Convention On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) - Global Initiative To End All Corporal Punishment Of Children"). However according to a biblical understanding children punishment is necessary by parents to avoid them getting spoilt. The Bible does not only denote punishment as a general action but specifically narrows down to mention the tool to be used in the discipline, a rod (Proverbs 22:15, 23:13 and 23:14). And of course this does not mean using the stick as reading or teaching aid; it is used to flog them. Ethical studies have made real attempts to argue out the exact meaning of the rod as stated in the bible. For a Christian, parenting in this century is such an act that requires much courage as they have to choose to either obey the legal rules of the land or the biblical law, Gods law. Many parents disapprove of the methods outlined in the Bible passages and consider the all-inclusive Golden Rule; do unto others as you would want to be done too. They argue that the parents should also not spank the child as they also not want to receive a similar ordeal.

Therefore most parents have resorted to adopting of alternative punishment methods that would implicate similar effects on the child and instill in them, sense of correctness. These methods include withdrawal of privileges, abandonment to natural and logical consequences and time-outs ("Corporal Punishment of Children -- Spanking"). Whereas the effects of such forms of punishment may not be realized immediately; they may have long-term effects both negatively and positively. In a similar fashion, the spanking and whipping methods may implicate acute and short-term effects on the child. Alternatively, flogging may be used as long as it is within the bounds of love and not revenge or anger; and also the right rod is utilized in the process.

The use of corporal means as a punishment method for children has far more negative implications that children custodians should moderately approach profitable ones and therefore. Better methods do exist, however, including privilege withdrawal and time-outs.

Works Cited

"Corporal Punishment of Children -- Spanking". Religioustolerance.Org, 2016, http://www.religioustolerance.org/spanking.htm.

"Convention on The Rights Of The Child (CRC) - Global Initiative To End All Corporal Punishment Of Children". Endcorporalpunishment.Org, 2015, http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/prohibiting-corporal-punishment/hrlaw/crc/.