Dear Editor,THERE are many routes to Rome with some being safe and others dangerous. Naturally, the safer routes are most travelled. Likewise, there are many ways to modify a child’s behaviour and corporal punishment shouldn’t be one of them. Corporal punishment is draconian, heinous and calamitous. It is physically and emotionally painful. We must get rid of it. The human rights law defined corporal punishment as “Any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort.”
It is appalling that in this time of civilisation teachers and parents use it. As a culture, we believe that it is the instrument through which good behaviours are driven. This is dead wrong. Scientific evidence is screaming loud and clear that it is bad. Yet we put up a fight against banning it. Why? We are a culture that follows tradition. We believe in the philosophy of “spare the rod and spoil the child,” which is a myth and is erroneously used to defend its use.
Obviously, we rely on tradition to make decisions. This is not logical or rational. Traditions yield inconsistent results and foundations built on sand. Undoubtedly, our society rests on a foundation of sand because of our over- reliance on tradition. We need to immediately put the lights out on tradition and shine it on science. Science yields reliable results and builds solid foundations. Therefore, we must listen to science and swiftly move to ban corporal punishment.
Overwhelming scientific evidence has enlightened us that corporal punishment is inherently riddled with disturbing drawbacks – it lowers self-esteem, it instills violence, it causes long- term psychological distress, it induces inferiority complex, it arouses anger, it brings on shame, it increases school dropouts, it causes children to run away from homes, it lowers academic performance and degrades the teaching profession, among a string of problems. Editor, make no mistake, it can drive children into suicide. Additionally, in my view, corporal punishment influences violence in our society. Children imitate what they see. It sends the wrong message that hurting others is acceptable. Naturally, violence proliferates. It is responsible for the making of the immoral man, including domestic abusers. Surely, these lines of reasoning are reminiscent of the famous experimental findings on the Bobo doll. Psychologists have long shown that children imitate (model) aggressive behaviours. Surely, a ban is needed to curtail violence.
A worldwide push is in full swing to ban corporal punishment due to the gravity and enormity of problems associated with it. At least 42 countries, including all of Europe, have banned it. Also, at least 107 organisations are against its use, including the much respected American Psychology Association (APA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations (UN) among a throng of others.
So why are we still using it when there is no solid basis? It makes no sense whatsoever. It is causing lots of angst. Children deserve better. Discipline can be achieved using gentler alternatives. From an evolutionary point of view, children like adults are mentally wired for survival. So instinctively,to avoid pain, they will run away from homes or drop out from schools if they are flogged . These are naturally built-in mechanisms that enable survival. Corporal punishment undoubtedly plays with our emotions, leaving children with lifelong mental trauma that hampers “normal” adult life. Do we ever wonder why dysfunction perpetuates in our society? Corporal punishment may be one of the culprits driving it.
As we weigh in on whether to ban this form of discipline, at least two prominent figures will play significant roles deciding this issue – the Minister of Education and the President of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU). Unfortunately, these individuals are sitting on opposite sides of the fence. Our minister is calling for a ban, but the GTU President is contending the opposite. His belief is that corporal punishment is needed since there are no effective alternatives. Such disagreements are unsurprising, simply because we skirt around scientific thought. Fretting about this issue will not help. We need to take immediate action.
Today, effective alternatives to corporal punishment are used at least in countries that have banned it. They rely on dialogues to delve into underlying feelings causing undesired behaviours, so as to ameliorate them. Additionally, they rely on positive reinforcement (operant conditioning) strategies such as reward schemes to shape behaviours, instead of flogging. Operant conditioning is a proven method of discipline with wide appeal. It’s been rigorously studied, widely used and is highly effective. It is even famously used for the training of animals. Moreover, in places like Sweden, a generation of children hasn’t been flogged because approaches like these have successfully replaced corporal punishment. In spite of the fact that Sweden does not use corporal punishment, it does not have problems with unruly children as we do. Without a doubt, corporal punishment is of no benefit to us and it needs to go.
We can all agree that in spite of the fact that many teachers and parents are great people, there are bad eggs in the mix. I am sure we have all experienced parents and teachers who beat children unnecessarily. This is cruel. I have witnessed my own sibling flogged by his teacher because he had a chronic cough. Every time he coughed, the teacher reached over and wacked him with her wild cane. As we all know, coughing is a reflex and so the teacher was beating a defenceless child in an impossible situation. So teachers are not saints. There are cruel, abusive, biased, irrational, illogical and insane teachers which we must not discount. I have also witnessed children beaten by their parents to the extent that they pant for breath. It is our moral obligation to protect all children and if corporal punishment is around, then it is crystal clear that we are not doing our job. Corporal punishment must go.
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Cecil DilipKumar