Corporal Punishment: Right or Wrong?

Kellogg, Wes
January 2012
Psychology 202

Corporal Punishment: Effective When Used Accordingly

         The controversy of spanking children as a form of discipline in being right or wrong has been an ongoing debate among parents, schools, and psychologists for decades.  One side claims that the abolition of corporal punishment is the answer – that all forms of child disciplinary action can be met effectively without the use of physical harm.  The other insists that corporal punishment be implemented within all families and schools because it obtains immediate results and the penalty for rule-breaking is etched crystal clear.  Although I disagree with both sides I disagree more so with total abolishment of corporal punishment.  Nothing is black and white.  Every child is different and therefore requires his or her own unique disciplinary style.  Appropriate discipline comes hand in hand with knowing the child.  As a child I had a lot of first hand experience with corporal punishment and much of it, I admit, was more beneficial than not.
         I grew up with parents who frequently smacked, “clunked”, and spanked.  (Getting “clunked” means getting the knuckles of a clenched fist knocked on top of the head like one would knock on a door – it hurt.) The spanks were the worst – not because they were the most painful – but because of the dreadful anticipation I had to endure before I received one.  In my household getting spanked was a ritual.  I’d get it because of something I did a day before, but it was only that my father wasn’t around to give it to me when it happened.  I may have talked back to my mother, let a curse word slip in her presence, or got in trouble at school.  Whatever the case, my mother would tell me to go to my room and wait until my father got home.  Time would go the slowest.  I’d wonder and think about how much it was going to hurt.  When he’d finally get home it wouldn’t be until an hour later that he’d tell me to go to the kitchen and get the wooden spoon.  We had a few wooden spoons in the kitchen, but only one was used for the spankings – the long, smooth, and hard one.  I once made the mistake when he told me to get the wooden spoon of grabbing a different one, a smaller one, thinking it wouldn’t hurt as much.  That was a big mistake.  I got double the smacks, double as hard, and with ten times the pain.  From what I remember I never got the wooden spoon more than twice for the same mistake. 
      I also attended first grade at a private Montessori school where getting spanked was an expected punishment for any student who talked back or disobeyed the rules.  This did not seem very unnatural to me since this is how disciplinary action took place in my household.  I admit I sure did learn more in one year than I ever have in any other grammar school year.  The lessons never had distractions from class-clowns.  There were no class-clowns.  All students learned and obeyed through fear.  When we were spanked it was always on the bottom and although it never hurt nearly as much as my dad gave it to me the humiliation alone was enough to leave a scar that permanently and immediately corrected any disobedience in the classroom.  I remember being in math class and we were learning how to read clocks.  The teacher gave some direction that apparently was to be followed word for word pertaining to the work sheets she handed out.  I wasn’t paying attention.  In her class we’d usually complete the assignment she hands out and then form a line that starts at her desk where we’d watch her check our work.  I finished my assignment, surprised to be the first one done, or so I thought.  I remember everyone being oddly quiet and wide-eyed as I approached the teachers’ desk with a gut feeling of sudden second-thought.  As I put my paper in front of her face I instantly felt a harsh, loud smack on my bottom followed by a yelling scolding about how I didn’t pay attention to what she said.  I walked back to my desk trying to hold in the tears and hide my profuse embarrassment.  I made sure I paid attention in her class after that.  I did enough to not get smacked again.  Aside from the painful experiences at this school, in just a year, at age 6, I could name all of the states, their capitals, and spell them correctly.  I could read books on a 6th grade level.  I could write in cursive, and even multiply and divide fractions. 
      I agree that spanking in the classroom works, but only at grammar school level.  It forces the students to take learning seriously.  Distractions are minimized giving the students an ideal learning environment.  Students are taught to pay attention, and taught to think effectively without negative encouragement from slackers or students not engaged in learning.  The spankings are not physically painful.  The teachers are not taking out their anger on students.  The spankings straighten out disobedience immediately through mortification and certainly instill a penetrating warning to those in the classroom that witness such an unlucky victim.  As much as teachers want learning to be fun, it isn’t possible unless everyone is equally engaged with the lesson or aware of the clearly illustrated penalties for not doing so.  I believe at an elementary age this type of disciplinary action is the most effective in a classroom area.  If it wasn’t for those few spankings I received I would not have learned to pay attention, I would not have been disciplined enough to take school seriously, and I would not have excelled nearly as much later after I left the school.
      When it comes to domestic punishment it is important to know the child.  My younger brother was never smart-mouthed like I was.  Either it was his personality to keep his mouth shut, or he saw enough of the corporal punishment I went through to know what not to do.  He never got spanked nearly as much as I did.  In fact, if my father ever did catch him breaking a rule all he’d have to do was give him a look; my brother would stop and never do it again.  I needed it.  My brother didn’t.  Corporal punishment isn’t something that ultimately works for every child.  It’s the child’s ego and/or stubbornness that should be taken into account.  With some children, being spanked is what’s needed; for others, it may not be as effective and alternatives should be considered.