|
| |
From - Mon Apr 21 09:24:25 1997
Received: from mailhost.IntNet.net (mercury.IntNet.net [198.252.32.180])
by u3.farm.idt.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id LAA25520
for ; Sun, 20 Apr 1997 11:54:11 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from list.IntNet.net by mailhost.IntNet.net (8.8.5/INTNET/SMI-SVR4)
id LAA20493; Sun, 20 Apr 1997 11:55:52 -0400 (EDT)
X-Auth: localhost [127.0.0.1]
Received: from emout09.mail.aol.com by mailhost.IntNet.net (8.8.5/INTNET/SMI-SVR4)
id LAA20412; Sun, 20 Apr 1997 11:54:58 -0400 (EDT)
Received: (from root@localhost)
by emout09.mail.aol.com (8.7.6/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0)
id LAA19955 for falseacc@a-team.org;
Sun, 20 Apr 1997 11:52:01 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <970420115159_-334127835@emout09.mail.aol.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 1997 11:52:01 -0400 (EDT)
Reply-To: falseacc@a-team.org
Sender: owner-falseacc@a-team.org
From:
To: falseacc@a-team.org
Subject: Re: QUICK QUESTION
X-Listprocessor-Version: 7.2 -- ListProcessor by CREN
X-UIDL: fce16e5c1f8fdef2e8a9326f5e259915
X-Mozilla-Status: 0011
Content-Length: 3048
In a message dated 97-04-18 20:32:19 EDT, knechamk@escape.com (Kirk
Nechamkin) writes:
<< QUICK QUESTION:
<>
If your child was REALLY bad, would you resort to torturing
him, making him suffer intolerable pain, as you listen to him yelp
and hollar? >>
Dear Kirk,
I've been biting my lip over this subject, as it always enflamed writers who
disagree or agree with corporal punishment. Having worked with families and
social workers alike regarding this issue, here's my two cents:
A child should never be struck out of anger or rage. Corporal punishment is
not for every child, and the determination for such punishment is dependant
on the child, the situation, and the parent's ability to control anger. Most
children do not require spanking, but respond favorably to passive forms of
discipline. With a few children, however, at certain ages and stages of
development, and again due to circumstances, spanking may be a last resort.
Reasonable and age appropriate spanking on the buttocks should _not_
intentionally leave marks, bruises, or deep tissue injury. Such resultant
injury is abuse. There is a distinct line between corporal punishment and
abuse.
To direct all parents under threat of law as to the discipline of their
children (by forbidding spanking for instance), while being blind to
ethnicity, religion, culture, and individual circumstances, is a violation of
their constitutional rights to freedom of choice. It interferes with their
right as parents to bring up children within the guidelines of their
individual religions and culture, as productive, law-biding citizens.
<< What if I, as a parent, decide that my child should be spanked
with a belt full force for 15 minutes twice per week? Could you, as
a parent, say that my method of punishment is 'wrong' >>
Absolutely wrong. Such pre-planned, non-reasoned, deliberately timed,
lengthy "spanking" is not discipline, it is torturous beating and definitely
physical abuse. Physical abuse is, in some states, clearly defined, and what
you have described here is not corporal punishment, but goes beyond and is
physical abuse.
I understand you are a student. I hope that part of your studies encompass
the differing cultures and the standards they each hold in parent/child
relationships. If you are to be a social worker, be one that is
knowledgeable as to the vast differences in families of varying cultures, and
be sensitive to them rather than judgmental. Teach, rather than be punitive,
and teach with the light of reason, rather than in the angry blindness of
self-righteousness.
Lesley
| |
|
