Corporal Punishment

Corporal Punishment

Imagine, you are sitting in class, terrified, the teacher’s eyes on fire, while she asks you to go outside. You were only asking your friend for a pen; and now you are going to get the strap.

I believe that corporal punishment is horrible and should be banned in all countries. Corporal punishment, is when physical punishment is used to make children behave and learn from their mistakes. I believe that there are better ways to discipline children and that corporal punishment should no longer be used in any school.

When children know that they will get beaten; once they do ANYTHING wrong, they will soon be too scared to ask questions, and can therefore not learn as much as they should be able to. To learn, you need to ask questions, and then find the answer. However, if you are too scared to even ask questions, then how are you supposed to learn? It is proven that children that are brought up with corporal punishment have an increased risk of mental illnesses, such as depression; and decreased physical health.

Leading expert, Prof Ramon Lewis, said that corporal punishment does not work; and researchers agree as only very limited evidence shows that corporal punishment has ANY positive outcomes. As well as that, simply telling the children that they have no right to interfere with other peoples learning works better than the strap.

There are many alternative ways to discipline children, without using corporal punishment. For example, making children stay inside at morning tea or lunch to write an apology letter, not only annoys them because they can’t play outside, but it also makes them think about what they have done, allowing them to learn from their mistakes. Otherwise, you could make them write lines, do some chores or go to the principal. Those are only some of the ways that you can use to discipline children without using corporal punishment. As well as not having to hit the children, it works better as well.

Some people might say that corporal punishment should be used as the last option; in case nothing else works. Although it seems like a good idea at first, I believe that there will always be a better way to discipline children. Maybe we just need to be more creative, or maybe something else is going on in that child’s home. In that case it would be best if the teachers would just talk to him/her to find out what is really happening.

As you can see, corporal punishment is not the answer. There are many different ways to discipline children. As well as that, children are more likely to achieve their full potential when they don’t have to fear the strap. We want the future generation to be the best that they can be, don’t we? Well, in that case, the best thing we can do for our children is to abolish corporal punishment completely.

By Carlotta