It is a general belief that children are punished because adults want to teach them something. The whole purpose of punishment in the case of children, is intended to change their behaviour. Adults generally do whatever it takes to get children to behave in an acceptable way. For this reason, adults often punish them physically through causing pain.
I think, physical punishment of children is an over-reaction and can never be justified. First of all, it is a very thin line between punishment and abuse of children. In many cases adults claim that they intend to reform their children end up abusing them. Sometimes children are treated like enemies.
Emotional scars are left on children who are disciplined with pain. Many criminals have turned out to be those who had been abused as children. They become immune pain for others. So physical punishment actually helps one to be a criminal.
Since there is no way to control this we may follow other ways to punish the children. The caring parents can think of many ways of punishing a child without hurting their children. For example, children can be stopped from watching their favourite programmes on television or perhaps be grounded for fixed periods of time or stopped from playing etc.
Parents who really love their children will not want to cause them physical pain. School teachers have also become conscious of the adverse effect of physical punishment. They are using the techniques of motivation and encouragement. Parents have to change some of their beliefs and ideas about how children should be raised.
It is possible to avoid the use of physical force in the home. It will help to remove violence from our society. So, my opinion is that adults can think of other methods of punishment in lieu of physical punishment.
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