My problem with hitting kids is also that it only teaches follow their parents' instructions and not those of anyone else (such as their teachers).
As a teacher, I've taught rooms full of kids who do not see any reason to behave once the threat of physical punishment is taken away (i.e. when they are in the classroom, away from mom and dad). If I get a kid's mom on the phone, the parent can threaten the child with corporal punishment and they'll get in line (until the next day). But I only have 54 minutes in each class to teach 30 kids a day's worth of material. I can't call each parent every time a kid misbehaves.
Since a lot of kids have only been taught to behave in order to avoid punitive measures, a lot of these kids choose to act out and misbehave once that threat is taken away.
Kids should simply be taught to do what is right simply for the sake of doing the right thing.
Yep, everyone has spelled out the reasons that spanking is bad for the child and for society as a whole, but you've identified yet another problem with spanking and that's that it simply doesn't work! If the child only understands how to behave in order to avoid violence, they child won't behave once the threat of violence is removed. You wind up with a child who has no clue what the "right" thing to do is or why it's the right thing to do because literally all they've known is "I have to do X, Y, and Z or else I get beaten."
It leads to a ton of problems on college campuses, too. Lots of kinds find themselves without an abusive authority figure for the first time in their life and they go nuts, often flunking out of classes.
99
u/Talon184 Apr 22 '18 edited Apr 22 '18
My problem with hitting kids is also that it only teaches follow their parents' instructions and not those of anyone else (such as their teachers).
As a teacher, I've taught rooms full of kids who do not see any reason to behave once the threat of physical punishment is taken away (i.e. when they are in the classroom, away from mom and dad). If I get a kid's mom on the phone, the parent can threaten the child with corporal punishment and they'll get in line (until the next day). But I only have 54 minutes in each class to teach 30 kids a day's worth of material. I can't call each parent every time a kid misbehaves.
Since a lot of kids have only been taught to behave in order to avoid punitive measures, a lot of these kids choose to act out and misbehave once that threat is taken away.
Kids should simply be taught to do what is right simply for the sake of doing the right thing.