Teaching and punishing children
Problem:
It is important for children to learn the difference between right and wrong at an early age. Punishment is necessary to help them learn this distinction.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
What sort of punishment should parents and teachers be allowed to use to teach good behaviour to children?
Answer:
It is clear that one of the important parts of education for children is teaching them how to tell what is right or wrong. Regarding to this, there are some experts that say that punishment is needed for children to learn the difference between right and wrong, while others say punishment has nothing to do with teaching children what is right or wrong. I believe each opinion has its own acceptable reasons.
On the one hand, with punishment, parents are able to teach their children detrimental circumstance of wrong behavior in the future. It is true that by punishing children, parents are able to teach their children the fact that people in society have to accept their penalties when they make detrimental behavior in society. For example, when a child steals his or her friend's toy, the parents should punish them explaining the circumstance of the behavior when they make the same mistake. By doing so, children can have a moral sense and learn how to tell the difference between right and bad. Therefore, punishment plays an important role in teaching children ethic and moralism.
On the other hand, punishment such as physical punishment can have a detrimental influence on children. The first thing people think of when they hear the word 'punishment' is physical punishment. The reason physical punishment should be forbidden is because children can learn the mindset that people tend to solve problems physically when they cannot deal with the problems with other ways. However, as violence cannot be justified with any other reasons, the punishment should be prohibited.
If parents need to punish their children, it is advisable to punish them without any physical pain to their children such as standing on the spot thinking their bad behavior for a few minutes.
To sum up, although punishment is such a helpful way to teaching children how to tell the difference between right and bad things, certain punishment such as corporal punishment can cause detrimental issue to children. For these reasons, parents should be very careful when it comes to punishment for their children.
