Parents should not give strangers the authority to beat their children

Dear Editor,

Only in Guyana will anyone come across the kind of flawed and illogical reasoning that we see being put forth in support of corporal punishment in schools. I mean, the last two letters I read on this subject, were absolutely troubling in terms of the arrogance and hubris in the assumptions of the authors. One claimed that he found the President’s decision to end corporal punishment in schools as abhorrent, while the other asserted that he resented corporal punishment being defined as violence against children. Really? Are you kidding me? With all of the sickness and violence that we witness every day in Guyana, the writer is more repulsed by the President’s position that treating kids as we treat beasts of burden is wrong and should be discontinued? Does the author realize that in Guyana the only living creatures it is acceptable to whip in order to elicit compliance are kids, horses, and mules and donkeys used to pull carts?

The other man claimed that he resented corporal punishment being described as violence against children. Well, so what. There are people who resent a whole lot of things that are factual for some peculiar reason or the other. Any physical force applied to a human or animal where the intent is to hurt, qualifies as violence. If he does not like it, then he should write a new language where he can create his own definition for violence. The fact is, if one is normal, has no difficulties with one’s mental faculties, then one would understand that hitting anyone will hurt, will cause pain. And that facetious cliché, “It hurts me more than you”, might sound rational to uninitiated vacuous souls, but to those who are compos mentis it is absolutely ridiculous. I sincerely hope that we have not retrogressed in this argument where we come to believe that when we strike a child, unlike as occurs in every other instance when a living creature is struck, pain is not a consequence.

If the arguments of the pro-corporal punishment folks is that whipping kids, however gently, is an important, vital and instrumental methodology for bringing about positive behavioural change and attitudes in them when they are still in their formative years, and not yet developed to that abstract cognitive level where they can be presumed to be fully competent to understand right from wrong, why are we not using that form of behavioural adjustment on the age-group that has developed to the point where they ought to know better. If it is moral, ethical, principled, to beat kids for bad behaviour, why is it not ethical, moral, principled, to do the same with adults? You cannot have your cake and want to eat too.

I believe that there are people who are born in this world with character flaws that might require a degree of violence to straighten them out. This belief is fostered by the arguments I witness from people who claim that if they were not beaten when they were kids, they would have turned out horribly. So I am simply extrapolating from the testimonials of people that they would have been like raging wolves, but for the whip applied by a loving parent. That is their experience, and no one can or should argue the contrary with them. Where they cross the line is when they make assumptions that everyone is like them. That every child requires licks to learn, behave or change. That they know what is best for the kids of others.

They have no right to argue that parents should allow strangers the authority to beat their kids, whether they are teachers or not. About the worst nation in the world where that should be permitted is Guyana, where we witness some of the most skewed and bizarre arguments being made publicly. Beat your kids if you wish, that is fine. Let the teachers beat your kids if you wish, that is also fine. But please, I know of no clause in Adam’s will that bequeathed you the authority to beat my kids, or the kids of others if you are a teacher, or to argue that it is ok to beat them. The fact that some people become so obsessed and fanatical about having this kind of power is weird.

Yours faithfully,
Keith R Williams