Is "sparing the rod" spoiling or saving the child? Is violence, resentment, anger or fear worth the risk taken when striking him or her. Whether your for or against using physical punishment in child development, as a parent, you will someday have to face this issue. Many parents are taught this method in their childhood, and are not aware of any other way. Often originating from religion, physical or corporal punishment is seen as an important ingredient in child rearing. This tool is used to accomplish total authority by the parent and to receive total submission from the child. Physical punishment may be convenient and achieve temporary conformance, but produces negative results, and should be avoided.HISTORICALLYPunishment dates back to early human history. To maintain the laws that were created for social living, penalties were developed for the individuals who could not abide by them. Authoritarianism changed the reasons behind punishment; instead of protecting society from the criminal, it became a way for the "Chiefs to control the Indians." It placed the leaders above everyone else, preventing the people's opinions from counting; an antidemocratic society. As illustrated by Dreikurs and Grey, "Those in command were superior and therefore right; those whom they ruled were inferior and therefore wrong if they disagreed with the rulers" (66). Physical punishment has been approved in history as "the role of authority," as a declaration of power. Penelope Leach states, "Physical punishment was once an accepted part of any relationship that gave one individual legitimate authority over others - master over slave, servant or wife; officer over lower ranks; law enforcer over law breaker; employer over apprentice - but that is history; we have universal human rights now - universal except for children, that is" (126). Teaching total authority by the parent, most Conservative Protestants use corporal punishment today as th...
