Dear Editor,

Those parents and others who are seeking for corporal punishment to be abolished should first take a look within their homes and see whether or not they are contributing to the kind of behaviour that warrants corporal punishment, which means whipping, or other disciplinary measures that will help the child or children put away unacceptable behaviours.

What needs to be understood is that children take into their classrooms that which they would have been taught. Indeed, it is bad parenting that produces bad children, simply because parents can only give to their children that which they have. Rules and laws are given to be kept and that is for their own benefit. Children must be told what these are and be told what is expected, should they break them. Many children come from dysfunctional families and single parents; as such they have their story to tell. Let us hear the voices of the children.

I am recommending that committees be put in place where counsellors and social workers can be of great service to parents and their children; parents first.

To do otherwise will be to fight the case of the devil in hell.

I say yes to corporal punishment, but it must be the last resort and when administered must be for the benefit of the child. It might be interesting to know that it is easier to obtain obedience from a child who understands the rules that guide expected behaviour.

Yours faithfully,

Yvonne Walcott