Corporal Punishment

6 Pages 1623 Words

In 1978, Astrid Lindgren, author of Pippi Longstocking, was awarded the German Book Trade Peace Prize for her excellent contributions to children’s literature. In her acceptance speech, she told an interesting story about a child. This brief narrative began when she was about twenty. She had just met a pastor’s wife who told her that when she was young and had her first child, she was completely opposed to spanking children. However, the practice was widely accepted at the time. When her son had turned five, he had misbehaved and the woman decided to give the child its first spanking. She told him to leave the house to search for a switch. The child did not return for quite a while. When he finally returned, he said to his mother, “Mama, I couldn’t find a switch, but here’s a rock that you can throw at me.” (No Spanking Page) The Perception of a spanking visually and tactilely must be confusing and disturbing for children. They can never be sure what meaning their parents are expressing when this violent type of punishment takes place. Parents give children primary exposure to concepts of right and positive. In addition, Parents’ behavior influences children’s perceptions about what love looks and feels like. Spanking sends children a message that ethical and right equate with physical violence that it is all right to hit people... even those you love. Violence is okay when it is used to control someone else into submission. For example, a child has a temper tantrum in a department store, and his mother takes him home and spanks him forcing him into submission to her ideals of public behavior. Also, this practice can create a paradoxical logic system for a young child who is currently in the process of imperative cognitive and moral development. For children whose parents tell them that hitting is wrong, hitting might also convey the message that it is all right to do something that is wrong. It creates an overal...