Children's Welfare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Children's Welfare - Essay Example On my part, I strongly believe that corporal punishment should only be given as a last resort. As long as there are other ways to correct the behavioral problems of a child, parents and guardians should not implement corporal punishment. We must understand that corporal punishment can lead to abuse and abuses suffered by young children often leave lasting imprints in their personalities. Is corporal punishment a form of child abuse? Technically, child abuse is different from corporal punishment and we should be very careful about equating the two together. All I am saying here is that corporal punishment has the potential of escalating into abuse. Note the abuse is a blatant disregard of the rights and feelings of the child which often involves injuries on the part of the child. Example of abuses on children is kicking, punching, burning and the likes. On the other hand, corporal punishment is geared towards letting the child experience pain without sustaining injury for purposes of controlling or correcting the wrong behaviors of the child (Larzelere, R. E., Klein, M., Schumm, W. R., & Alibrando, S. A., Jr. (1989). A popular example of corporal punishment is the traditional spanking. One of the leading arguments against the implementation of corporal punishment at home is that the act embodies a kind of aggression. When a parent becomes so angry that he or she exhibits aggressive behavior such as spanking, the child may misconstrue the action of the parent or guardian as a kind of norm. Note that young children learn by imitating their parents so there is a big possibility that when the child is repeatedly exposed to aggressive behaviors, he or she will also adopt such attitude (Parke & Slaby, 1983). What is really scary here is that the child may see aggression as a way to subdue or control the behavior of another person. For instance, when a parent spanks a child for not following orders and then do not explain the child later on why he or she