Teach Children to Be Self-Disciplined Rather Than Cooperate

What response do you expect from a mother, who returns back home only to discover her 9-year old sitting and laughing, having torn off her dupatta and broken all her cosmetics in her absence? She would certainly slap him or thrash him with a stick. But has she ever tried to find out the reason for child's this kind of behaviour?

"Children accustomed to corporal punishment at home or schools are often expected to act out in these ways. Although it makes children afraid to disobey when parents are present, when the parents are not present to administer the punishment, those same children will misbehave", says a Clinical Psychologist.

Most of the people consider corporal punishment a necessary last resort, Sennheiser shotgun mic without realizing that it is more often than not the first resort for minor misbehaviours. This in turn perpetuates a cycle of child abuse. It teaches children to hit someone smaller and weaker when angry. So violence spills out of the classrooms into the playgrounds when again the child, who is merely repeating what he learnt in class or home, is hauled up for a fresh round of thrashing and the poor mite does not know what he did wrong.

This cycle repeated over years make for violent teenagers, who ultimately start experimenting with good feelings like drugs, alcohol, sex etc. Children interviewed recently affirmed that they think of corporal punishment as painful, frightening, humiliating and anger-inspiring.

But most of the teachers try and defend it. "In the past, stress levels were low and hence, school teachers could resort to occasional caning and get away minimal negative fallout. But today a teacher reaches school overloaded with stress and has to face a class of 50-60 students. Naturally as the day advances his/her self-control is giving away and hitting out at children is the only option left", says a teacher and a mother of 5-year old.

Amidst the defenders of corporal punishment, there also are some parents and teachers, who think differently. According to them, many alternatives to corporal punishment have proven their worth. Mr. S. K. Verma, father of 20-year old Anushka says, "Advise your children with the right option, but let them take their own course of action. If the consequences are wrong, they won't repeat it again. These way children learn to trust their parents".

After all, alternatives are meant to teach children to be self-disciplined rather than cooperate because of fear.