Dear Editor,
It seems strange to me that persons who encourage and or promote corporal punishment come out strongly against physical abuse against women and men for that matter. It seems that it is alright to beat children for wrong doings but not adults. If it’s alright to beat for wrongdoings why shouldn’t a man beat his wife or vice versa when they do wrong? This is plainly tantamount to bullying children. The boss of a company or organization cannot or will not beat, spank or cane a defaulting worker even in a controlled manner and the reason for that is simple, he or they are afraid of retaliation, of being beaten back. If as they say children’s young minds must be bent in the right direction even by blows why shouldn’t adults, whose minds are more hardened, not be straightened by even harder blows. As they say ‘monkey know which limb to climb on’.
Some people say that long ago in Guyana, under the corporal punishment system, children were more respectful and better behaved. Children used to say ‘good morning’ to everyone and any adult could have reprimanded any child on the street without fear of being ‘cussed out’ .We have to accept the fact that conditions are different now, children are more independent and the whole world with different cultures is depicted on your laptop and television. Words such as self respect and self esteem are common phrases now. We are demanding greater respect and approval from others. Inflicting blows breeds resentment and the will to retaliate. Should we suffocate self esteem and self respect in our children by killing the will to fight against hurt? Who wants to be physically hurt anyway?
Discipline is essential for our mental and physical development. Even more so for those with the desire to inflict pain on others. Ways of discipline must coincide with self respect and self worth rather than working to manipulate our natural aversion to pain and hurt of any kind. For children. there can be ‘tough love‘ not being ‘beaten into submission’. I would want to believe that if children learn the benefits of tough love now they would not want to beat up on any wife, husband or children later on in life, but you can never be sure of the sadistic exception.
Recently I saw a programme on television where one headmistress declared that corporal punishment in a controlled manner is the way to go and she allows it in her school but hear this, she does she does not inflict the blows herself but designates the responsibility to some other unfortunate teacher. Is this some form of guilt or what?
Yours faithfully,
B. Shivdas
