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Issue 00472 |
June 9 - 15, 2007 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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Loving Hands |
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Physical Punishment:
By Sarah Clements-Boyer The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) says that states must take appropriate measures to protect children from “all forms of physical or mental violence injury or abuse”. In my home country of England corporal punishment in state schools has been illegal since 1987. Indeed it is banned in at least 70 countries. The Tanzanian Education Act In 1978 allows corporal punishment in schools, but only as a last resort and for grave offences. In these circumstances only the head teacher is allowed to administer such punishment. However, it would appear that these provisions are rarely adhered to. When I was here three years ago as a volunteer teacher at a primary school, I was aware that physical punishment was a common practice in many schools. It certainly wasn’t given only in response to ‘grave offences’ and not always by the head teacher. When I asked questions about this I was given answers such as “we have no choice, the children are naughty and they need to be punished”. This experience was one of the most disturbing during my time in this wonderful country, but I felt helpless to do anything about it as this was the prevailing attitude and I was aware that I was not here to impose my values onto another culture. On my return to Tanzania last October I was pleased to find a different situation at LOHADA. Our director has a firm conviction that physical punishment will not be a part of this organisation. As many of our children come from abusive families, the last thing we want to do is to give them that same experience in our care. Our aim is to provide a safe, secure environment that will allow them to grow and develop. With the opening of our new school last February, several new teachers were hired and we wanted to make sure that they understood and practiced our policy of no physical punishment. With my background in psychology and my previous experience in Tanzania I was very happy to put together a workshop for our new teachers on disciplining children effectively without resorting to physical punishment. One of the key questions addressed in the workshop was “what do we mean by discipline?”. Discipline is very different from punishment and certainly does not entail physically harming a child. It is a way of teaching a child how to behave appropriately. Of course, children are children and when they behave ‘badly’ we feel they should be told off or punished. If they repeatedly misbehave then we believe they need more punishment. This highlights a commonly held misconception that punishment has to be physical in order for it to work. In fact, the evidence shows that physical punishment is not effective in teaching the child anything nor changing their behaviour. Moreover, a study by Elizabeth Gershoff (2002), found that physical punishment led to several negative outcomes including increased rates of aggression and delinquency, and mental health problems amongst others. So what does physical punishment actually do? It mainly relieves frustration and anger of the punisher. While it may stop the undesirable behaviour of the child for a short while, it is the least effective way of disciplining children in the long-term. It is also harmful emotionally to a child because it causes pain and resentment which can interfere with their learning any alternative behaviour. Furthermore, it can undermine the child’s trust of the authority figure and therefore harm the relationship between the child and others. Far from teaching the child any alternative behaviour it is more likely to teach FEAR: fear of punishment, fear of the person giving the punishment, and fear of being caught. In the long term it can also teach the child that violence is an acceptable way of expressing anger – “I can do this to someone smaller than me if I don’t like what they are doing”. The American Academy of Paediatrics also point out that for punishment to maintain effectiveness, the force has to be increased over successive punishments. Surely this is not what our teachers are trying to achieve. In addition, physical punishment teaches children that ‘hitting is acceptable’. Because children learn primarily through observation and imitation, parents and teachers become their role models for how to behave. If they see these role models hit a child, they learn not only that it is OK, but also how to do it and when to do it. Being a good role model comes down to “practice what you preach”. If you want children to learn good behaviour then as a role model you have to practice good behaviour. In reality, changing people’s attitudes towards the use of physical punishment will take more than one workshop. Someone once said to me that “you have to beat respect into children”. Changing this fundamental belief is always going to be difficult but unless it does change, any consideration of the alternatives to beating a child will be an uphill struggle. The question is, can we truly justify inflicting physical pain on a child as a way of teaching them how to behave? LOHADA, Loving Hand for the Disadvantaged and Aged, is a Tanzanian non-governmental organisation serving children and aged persons in Arusha and Shinyanga regions. For more information please email: info@lohada.org or visit our website: www.lohada.org
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