To spank or not to spank..that is the question.

From what I gather, children from all over the world suffer from ill discipline. I know in South Africa it is becoming a growing problem. They have no respect for their parents , teachers or elders in general. As the rights of children grow, so does the protection afforded them and the more difficult it is becoming to reign in the ill discipline. I have spoken to teachers who cannot take it anymore. The children speak to the teachers with utter distaste, swear and insult then, assault them, do not even pretend to listen...and there are very little consequence to the children's action. There was even the case last years, where the pupil (learner in SA) attached a teacher and was expelled by the school but was allowed back by the Education Department.

Since the ANC government took over, corporal punishment at school has been made illegal. Now there is talk of banning parents from spanking their children and doing so, will see parents arrested for assault (to cause grievous bodily harm I guess). Corporal punishment at school has been ruled illegal in Canada, some American States, Kenya, New Zealand, Korea, most of Europe (not France though) and of course South Africa as mentioned earlier.
Parental or domestic corporal punishment is legal in most countries, often under restrictions though. 31 countries have banned it outright.

Psychologists and Philosophers seems to be anti this for a number of reasons. Some are, it is violent-it will encourage violence, it will lower self esteem, may instill anger and rage and will not reform the child, will train children to use physical violence and so on.  I am not going into great detail here as it is long and tedious.


Although many would try to convey corporal punishment as a brutal act, I for one am in favour of 'a good hiding' when a child misbehaves. For those who argue that this allows some parents to abuse their children, I contend that whether is is legal or not, abusers will abuse their children. Let's not be fooled laws will change this. Murder and rape is illegal, but people still break this law. So those who are abusers, will remain so, legislation or not.

Perhaps, as in some countries there should be legal guidelines- example no hitting a child on the head (seems obvious) or limiting the use of items used. Even limit the spanking area to the buttocks. Perhaps even state an age limit- say from 18 months or 2 years and up for example. There should be guidelines to separate discipline and abuse, and this will obviously be a very carefully drawn line.

My main argument against those who claim that children who are spanked for wrongdoing, grow up to be violent serial killers in training, I refer to many generations before this current over protected one. If they did wrong at school, they received a canning. It was limited to six strokes. And yes, it made children think twice before crossing the line as much as the scientists try to tell us it does not.
At home, when transgressing, spankings were handed out and surprisingly, it taught us discipline and respect of our parents. It did not make us hate our parents, again, as claimed by our scientists. Respect and discipline were not beaten into us, as is suggested, but we knew our place. Scientists will use specific examples to prove their point, yet ignore the majority who do not fall into their theory and have become normal adults.

The so called  experts are split on the topic to a degree. Studies have been done, and not surprisingly, many found corporal punishment to be negative upon a child. I do question this, as surely we can use the adult population in general, as case studies then. Most South Africans, who grew up prior to 2004,  were spanked at home and canned are school- yet amazingly they have risen against the odds and are normal functioning members of society. Granted there will be people with disorders- however, I am sure in 'non spanking countries' there are as well. They just have to find something else to blame there. For the majority though- we are surprisingly normal people, considering that we all should be insane or be riddled with disorders because of the merciless beatings we received.

I am not saying administer a hiding every day and for every transgression, but I do believe a child needs to know the limit and if he crosses it, there needs to be consequences. For me, one punishment is a spanking-even if it is the last resort. I know many will both agree and disagree. Strangely most people with children that I have spoken to, are pro spanking and those who opposed corporal punishment, had no children. Hardly a scientific study I do admit but parents need to be spoken to and their opinions heard.