Growing up I really believed corporal punishment was not bad for us.
Whether in the home or school.
We seemed to behave better knowing that we could get a hiding for doing the wrong things.
My Grade Four maths teacher used to slap us in the face.
She also threw our notebooks across the classroom when she wasn’t satisfied with the work we produced.
Needless to say, we were all terrified of her.
We did all her homework, all the time.
Her class was always dead silent.
But, also, no one wanted to be next to her.
When she was marking your notebook at her desk, you would stay at an angle, keeping your feet next to the desk but your face as far away as physically possible.
And no one wanted to ask questions, even when we didn’t understand the lesson.
When she walked in the rows while we did our classwork, you would cover your face, just in case she saw something in the book that she didn’t like.
We were not good learners, we were scared children!
I believe, that in an ideal world, parents and teachers are there to teach children life principles.
The aim is to help children understand why they should not do certain things, and what the consequences of those actions are in the real world.
The point is to equip children to make good decisions even when the teachers and parents are not around.
My objection to hitting children, especially when they understand reason, is founded on my own doubt of its effectiveness, in the disciplinary process.
Parents always claim that a hiding is for the child’s own good, but when should we ask the child if he/she learned anything from it?
How do we measure if it works?
I know a lot of people who say “my father will kill me if he finds out, so I just need to make sure that he doesn’t.”
And many times they succeed.
The fear of a beating can just make your child craftier, not less naughty.
And that is why they say ‘when the cat is away, the mice come out to play’.
Maybe corporal punishment does have its place, but I think we all need to decide what kind of parents and teachers we want to be.
I would rather struggle to teach my children principles that will get them through life.
I want to know that when they choose not to do something it is because they understand the moral repercussions.
And not because they are terrified of my hand.
I don’t think anyone has hit me well enough to teach me how to make good decisions.
I have personally seen no evidence that the people who grew up getting the most hidings are better citizens now.
The problem is the principle, they never get it.
And also, hitting your child is illegal …
