Friday, August 05, 2005
Recently, my class was involved in a debate regarding a series of issues. Teams of 8 were formed to debate over a certain topic, and that team of 8 was split into two, the Government Team and the Opposition Team. I love debates, when channel i was still around, they had this show where JC (junior college) students would debate over issues big and small. I like debates because ir keeps you thinking in a logical fashion. It's always interesting to see what both sides have to offer. Anyway, my mini-team [of 4] was the Government team. Let me tell you, debating is truly a skill. A good one at that, until I debated recently, i thought debating was easy, boy was i wrong. ^^
So, what was the debate topic? "This house believes that parents should
never spank their children." I had difficulty partly because personally, I oppose the notion. Well, after the debate, we had write an essay on the notion, and we were allowed to take either side. Of course, I opposed. Here's what I think of spanking.
'Spanking is often used for children, aged 2-6 years, it is a form of punishment whereby the parents use their hands to smack the children either on the hand, or bottom. This is to teach children the boundaries given to them. When used for the right reasons, parents should spank their children. I am thus, opposing the notion.
Ever heard of the saying, 'spare the rod, spoil the child'? Children are young, they do not yet have the knowledge or the instinct of when to stop. If a child does not know when to stop or gets out of control, he or she might end up hurting his-self or herself and others around. How then can we protect these children from hurting themselves [and others]? The boundaries have always been there, since the dawn of time, but we have to teach them what they are. That's when the spanking comes in. When the young child have gone too far, spanking ought to be applied, the child can then realise that they ought to stop. After all, who likes to get punished? Definitely not I. They will most likely choose to obey then to face punishment.
Also, if a child is aged 2-3, to try and talk to him or her, when they do not have the vocabulary to understand what you are trying to say, is ludricuous. It is too much to expect a child to understand that they are in the wrong by words alone. Actions must be taken to show the child they are in the wrong, then only can the child figure out the situation at hand and react to it appropriately.
Spanking is not abuse, the degree of spanking used by the parents will differ according to the age of the child and how far the child has strayed. However, we are talking about parents who merely want to teach their child right from wrong, they would not be likely to hit so hard that they leave a bruise. The word abuse means: bad or cruel treatment. The group of parents we are talking about does no such thing. As such, they cannot be called child abusers.
Children will be children, they are not to be treated as adults. They should never be allowed to believe that they are on the same level of adults, because to begin with, they are not adults and do not have the maturity to deal with all issues. If children are allowed to think that they are adults, they would expect to be given more freedom of choice, and the amount of respect shown for a real adult will not be as much compared to when they know that they are children.
Parents want the best for their children, when parents discipline the children, it is for the children's sake [as mentioned earlier]. Although, these actions have to come with an explanation or reason. Otherwise a child might misunderstand and take it the wrong way. More often then not, the children do become better people because of this spanking. There are people out there who, in the end, appreciate their parents for the displine when they were younger, I know I do.
So spanking does work, and should be applied when necessary, with the child understanding why. So that he or she can become a better person.'
I decided to put this up because it
is a pretty interesting topic to debate about. Also, I wanted to share my opinions over issues. I usually have a
lot of thoeries and opinions, but never got to express them. It's sad really, so I hope this method of blogging works. It's late, I still have homework to do... Hey, somebody should debate on the topic, homework is redundent. That'll be interesting.=P
