I can remember as a youngster attending David Crockett Elementary School of McAllen in the early 1960’s that once in a while the principal would come to the class to take with him some unfortunate wayward student who was scheduled for the “paddle”. The “condemned” would carry a defiant facial expression as he was escorted out of the room. Punishment itself was usually done in a private setting although occasionally there would be a public paddling for especially egregious offenses such as severely disruptive behavior on a repetitive basis. When the punished returned to the class almost predictably there would be a denial that there was pain and declaration that he could take it again without concern. Sometimes there appeared to be almost a contest to see who could be the “baddest” boy.
Now we are 50 years later and seeing that Cameron County Precinct 6 Judge, Gustavo Garza, has an injunction against him for giving parents the choice to give their children a spanking in the courtroom instead of fines or incarceration. It now appears further investigations and lawsuits will be forthcoming.
Is Judge Garza a hero or is he misguided? What are we to think about parents who were quick to spank their kids instead of paying a fine or allowing them a very short incarceration? Is corporal punishment appropriate or is it detrimental?
Although spanking has been a common practice in much of the world for thousands of years there have really only been scientific studies on its effectiveness in past 20 years. Repeated scientific studies have shown that spanking is not more effective than “time-out” restrictions for children with resistance to discipline. More importantly, once spanking is started, the effectiveness of lesser forms of discipline control such as ‘time-out” become very weak.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association both feel that spanking may lead to more violent behavior in adult life. Spanking children teaches them to solve problems later on in life with violence.
The real problem with spanking is that more often than not it represents frustration and anger on the part of the authoritative figure (be it parent or teacher) rather than being a well planned approach to a discipline problem. The truth is that promoting proper discipline in children requires a lot of patience, consistency, and level-headedness. Families now frequently have both parents working and so many pressures that they often ignore discipline problems until they become very prominent. Then at that point, the easiest thing to do is to spank.
As the parent of three children, I cannot say I have never spanked my children when they were very young. My wife’s sage advice educated my ignorance. To raise children without spanking them requires a saintly amount of patience and the dedication of a marathon runner. We need to be more involved with our children. They will not raise themselves. Parents and teachers need to communicate frequently and effectively about a consistent plan for behavior problems. There may be times when instead of spanking our children we need to let them suffer “natural consequences”. Most importantly we need to be involved in our children’s lives and giving them “positive reinforcement” when they do right not just “negative reinforcement” when they do wrong. Getting involved with your child’s life only when he or she has done something wrong and spanking them will only make that child worse. Your child will never “respect” you because you have spanked them.
Most of the modern countries of the world have eliminated corporal punishment and so should we. Whatever, Judge Garza’s intentions were we cannot know, but a judge should not encourage spanking.
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