To Spank or Not to Spank | Teen Ink

To Spank or Not to Spank

January 26, 2009
By Anonymous

Spanking is a type of corporal punishment; spanking is often used on a child or a teenager.

Spanking is at home and at school. Some spanking includes props such as paddles, shoes, belts, and even canes. Could it harm a child’s health, mind, and future? So the question is to spank or not to spank?

In Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Croatia, Latvia, Italy, Germany, and Austria spanking is illegal. In the states it’s only illegal if it is severe. Some think that spanking is necessary discipline. Spanking is sometimes even encouraged
Teachers around the world discipline children; some discipline theories are very violent. In China recently a child had his cheek ripped off because he didn’t do his homework. These disciplinary acts are getting out of control.

Why do people use these disciplinary acts in their house? Is it because the child is top dog? Either way there has to be other ways to discipline your child.

You could use eye contact instead of yelling “Hey Kid get over here!” from another room. Don’t call out to them when you’re in a different room. One way that will sure get you spanked is talking back. But that’s because parents nag.
No Nagging. No Lecturing. No Preaching.

There are thousands of reasons why not to spank. Here are some reasons:
Hitting children teaches them to be hitters themselves. They show the child that violence is okay. When they are older they become criminals. It is shown that children learn or imitate everything their parents do or say.

When a kid acts out they do it for attention. They want a parent to pay attention to them. Few kids receive attention from their parents. It’s unfair to punish a child for responding to neglect. Something to pay attention to.

There are stories in the “Book of Proverbs” where a man named Solomon, a cruel man who had very harsh lessons that led to his son. His son became a tyrannical dictator. Showing that kids easily learn from their parents.

Some people say that a child will not love a parent that hits them. “It is not human nature to feel loving to someone who hurts us”. Hitting may work but it only works because it is based on fear.
Just because it is the only way you know how to discipline doesn’t mean it’s the only way. You can always learn different ways to discipline, because the punishment escalates to actually harming a child. When a parent was a child they may have never learned how to relate to a child.

As the child grows older into the teenager age they become angrier and their behavior gets worse. They become angry to the point where the parents can’t control them. They show good behavior in the early years because the relationship between the child and parent is based on fear.

Doctors say that spanking could be physically harmful to a child. Blows to the lower spinal column send shock waves along the length of the spine and injure the child. Some children become paralyzed from nerve damage from spanking, some have even died from undiagnosed complications from paddling.

Since children learn from their parents they learn that physical punishment is a way to show and express and solver problems. A child observes a parent if they don’t solve a problem in a normal humane way, it could be difficult for a child to learn themselves.



There are many reasons why not to harm a child. There are different discipline theories. The question was to spank or not to spank? The answer is simply not to spank.



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This article has 3 comments.


Onavae said...
on Sep. 29 2015 at 2:04 pm
Onavae, Okota, Other
0 articles 0 photos 20 comments
Here In Nigeria, you see teachers flogging students until they bleed, and it's normal. Parents justify brutalizing their children, and say they can do what they want to what they own. If you can't raise a child without abuse, you're not a decent human being. Spanking is okay, physical trauma is not.

Katie1234 GOLD said...
on Nov. 5 2011 at 3:07 pm
Katie1234 GOLD, Velva, North Dakota
10 articles 0 photos 77 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;When life becomes more than you can stand; fall to your knees&quot;<br /> &quot;To be normal is to be boring.&quot;<br /> &quot;You cannot make men good by law.&quot; <br /> &quot;Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God because He said so.&quot;<br /> &quot;To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.&quot;

Under this thinking, my parents could have killed me.... Spanking, done right, is a beautiful thing. The trouble comes when it isn't done out of love for the child, but anger at their actions. I thank my parents for taking a stand to discipline me. 

Amyyy said...
on Feb. 18 2009 at 11:10 pm
That is insane! There are plenty of really bratty kids out there that are brats because their parents don't spank them! My parents used to spank me all the time and now that i am older, i hardly ever get in trouble or back-talk because i know a spanking would come. Kids who get spankings do not turn into criminals and abusers.