Most of us here in the Philippines probably had experienced being spanked by
our parents. For some parents it’s one of the ways to discipline their child,
but they never thought of how it would affect the behavior of their child. I
have been a witness to this kind of scenario wherein a child gets spanked by
his father because of his bad behavior whether in class or at home. Based on my
observation, I highly object the manner of spanking a child to learn a lesson
or to be better at doing something because it decreases their interest to pursue
what you wanted them to pursue. One cannot simply motivate his/her child by
harming them in any way; it will only result in many cases like, the increase
of the child’s aggression towards the parents, morale insanity, lack of judgment,
physical injuries, and traumatic memories which all leads to unhealthy physical
and mental state of a person.
"Physical punishment doesn't work to get kids to comply, so
parents think they have to keep escalating it. That is why it is so
dangerous." said Elizabeth Gershoff,
PhD, a leading researcher on physical punishment at the University
of Texas at Austin. According to researchers, applying
physical punishment on children will only make them comply for a short period
of time due to fear or any other associated feeling of fear. While applying
physical punishment for a long period of time,will not only decrease the state
of fear of the child, but also increase the hate towards the one who hurts
them, therefore will not work. A study published last year in Child Abuse and Neglect reveals
how people think about spanking. Survey shows that people who get spanked by
their parents think that it is the way of how people should be treated in order
for them to be discipline, therefore its implied to do the same disciplinary
method on their children once they have their own. Survey also shows that most
of the reason why parents spank their child is because of stress removal.
Which is very wrong due to the effects on the child.
As I was searching for more facts about spanking, I came across a website and it states how spanking affects and decreases the mental state of a child. “Spanking may reduce the brain’s grey matter, the connective
tissue between brain cells. Grey matter is an integral part of the central
nervous system and influences intelligent testing and learning abilities. It
includes areas of the brain involved in sensory perception, speech, muscular
control, emotions and memory. Supports the hypothesis that children and
adolescents subjected to child abuse and neglect have less grey matter than
children who have not been ill-treated.” according to Joan Durant, a professor
at University of Manitoba. Furthermore, it’s been observed that families who
are less fortunate tends to span their child more often. Another studies shows
that boys gets spanked more than girls. In addition to my statement, spanking
may also inflict emotional damage that may cause problems in the learning
process of the child, therefore, instead of you trying to make your child better
at doing something, your actually making them worse than you already know.
Today, there are exactly 24 countries that have banned all violence against children, most specifically, spanking. 19 are in Europe, 3 are in central and south America. Reasons that I believe should be taken consideration of when it comes to applying laws against spanking are first, we can see an alternative ways of teaching youths on how to be more responsible rather than violently force them to be one. Second, parents of our generation should be a role-model when it comes to raising their own child because what children sees in them, is what they will do for themselves. Third, children of our generation will be less prone to violence and it'll be much easier for them to realize life in the simplest form as possible and if they clearly refuse to cooperate, then let them be. Let your child know the difficulties of life on their own and more importantly, never by in their parents hands. Fourth, the state of our country might possibly have a positive outcome because the more children are well-educated due to proper raising by their parents the more our country will grow into a peaceful place.
So knowing more about spanking made me realize to think before we act, because not everything we do is for the benefit of everyone we care, sometimes our emotions blinds us into realizing a common sense to a scenario. And I'm looking forward to the future where no child has to suffer at the hands of their most trusted person in the whole world, and that all of us should know how to limit our boundaries in respect of one another as humans.
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