Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Spanking Children
On Monday, we left off the conversation as to whether or not parents should spank their children. In my opinion, I feel that parents should not hit, pinch, shake, slap, or any other form of physical punishment on their kids. This does not show the kids that what they did is wrong, it is only physically hurting them. For instance, if a ten year old throws a rock and breaks a window, you should not hit him. I would make him save up his allowance to have to pay for fixing it. If the consequence does not directly relate to his actions, what does that teach the kid? And just as one of our fellow classmates pointed out--a child will become tolerant to different forms of physical punishment, and the abuse will just escalate into a very serious issue. I believe that hitting a child will not solve anything, and it just acts as a way for the parent that is overly stressed to vent their anger from the situation onto the child.
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I agree with you. From the neuro-developmental aspect, there are a few problems.
ReplyDeleteFirst, a child's brain is nowhere as developed as the adult brain. The frontal lobe and associated areas directing what behavior is reasonable and what is not is not yet fully developed until they mature. In that respect, the child is not fully capable of understanding what the consequences of certain behaviors are.
Second, although their brains are not fully developed, children are fast learners of basic life concepts and whatever they learn in early life may have permanent effects on their personality. Such as, they may become hateful or violent toward others, tolerant to abuse as Bonnie indicated above, or simply just insecure.
Let's say, a 3-year old child takes a permanent marker and paints random lines on the wall. First, the child probably did not think (and most likely doesn't have the capable hardware/software yet) that it is an unacceptable behavior. If you hit the child, you will teach him that 1) it is acceptable to hit people, 2) painting walls make people mad (without understanding why) and maybe 3) painting is a bad idea in general. Again, going back to square one, the child can't distinguish between 2 and 3 due to his underdeveloped brain, and maybe with that slap he will grow up never appreciating art.
Eser