My Parents Spanked Me

We have a crisis in this country! Children are misbehaving everywhere, and getting away with it. In stores, in restaurants, everywhere that I look there are the parents of these children saying, “No No, use your inside voice” and the screaming and kicking continues until the children get what they want. I seem to remember a time when you would go to a store and it would be quiet. You could actually hear the music that the store was playing over the speakers in the ceiling while you shopped. People were polite to each other and if there was a child misbehaving, it quit almost instantly. What do you think could have caused this change in attitude? I believe that is caused by the lack of discipline parents are teaching their children, especially the consequences of misbehaving. Yes, I mean spanking.

Oh the horror! I actually believe in spanking. I was spanked as a child and as I stated in the title of this paper, I did not turn out to be an Axe Murderer. I do not resent my parents. I respect and love them very much. I have a 14 year old daughter that was spanked as a younger child and she is a very respectful, well behaved young woman.

In an news story published in Time South Pacific titled “There’s No Sure Hit Here,” California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber is offering a bill that would ban the spanking of children less than 4 years old, and make spanking a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 file and up to one year in jail. (Sayre, 2007). Are we going crazy? Should the government be allowed to step in and tell you the proper way to raise your children? I believe that Germany tried that in the 1930s and look what happened there.

The question is how can we stop this slow decline into anarchy? The first way is for children to learn that their misbehavior or actions have consequences. I read a response to an article called “Other techniques are better than spanking.” describing when the author was in seventh grade he was caught bouncing a basketball in the hall and was spanked along with three other boys. As a result of the spanking he said that “One thing’s for sure: I never bounced another basketball in that hallway.” (USA Today, 2002) Do I think that this was a bit extreme for the offense, yes I do. In this case it worked; his behavior was changed by punishment. If a child is shown that by acting up, they will get their way, how do you think they are going to act? What do you think will happen as they grow and are allowed to do anything they want in school because the teachers have no control due to corporal punishment being outlawed? Will they learn anything; well it doesn’t matter because teachers are not allowed to hold children back anymore. Then they drop out of school, get arrested for stealing because they wanted something but didn’t want to pay for it. This destructive behavior needs to stop. Spanking can help.

The second thing that we need to do is give teachers back their authority in the classrooms. Two years ago my wife and I went to a parent-teacher conference and during the discussion we learned that teachers are being taught in workshop not to give their students “the look” as this might cause emotional harm. He also told us how disciplining a student requires tedious amounts of paperwork and many parents refuse to let the teachers or school discipline their child. We were both flabbergasted when he told us that they are not even allowed to hold a child back for poor grades. They can only recommend to the parents that the child be held back.

According to an article called “Corporal punishment is legal in 22 states. Would you support its use in your school? YES”, Defiance, chaos, threats, cursing, assault. All these behaviors have risen from rare to frequent in many schools since the elimination of corporal