Corporal Punishment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Corporal Punishment - Essay Example The message that violence is a way to solve problems is surely not lost on children. Parents who were beaten as children end up beating their own children. Teachers who attended schools in which corporal punishment was an accepted practice may in a like manner find it natural to turn to it themselves, although other people, beaten as children, react adversely to the notion of using physical force themselves (Straus and Donnelley 2004). Critics (Straus and Donnelley 2004) explain that the parents of children who are victims of the "battered child syndrome" are mentally ill. While corporal punishment applied by teachers is usually not so extreme in intent or result as the abuse inflicted on children by their own parents, its use by teachers who experienced corporal punishment as children suggests a tendency to "identify with the aggressor" which characterizes the authoritarian personality The use of force on children stems from an inherent cultural belief that violence is an acceptable way to solve problems. Carried far enough, that position could suggest that the society itself is "mentally ill," judged by its approach to violence (Straus and Donnelley 2004). Corporal punishment is ineffective because it has extremely negative impact on learning and child development.