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In Reply to: Re: My 2 cents Re: Spanking little kids posted by Holon on November 16, 2008 at 07:03:21:
This weekend I was at a birthparty at my sisters place...at that occassion I met also a schoolmate, whom I hadn't seen for almost 40 years.She has herself 2 children, one she had at the young age of 18.....She has a Master degree in paedagogical studies & has a practice as a child & youth therapist....Bearing in mind our discussion here on the board, prior to your post (Welcome for being here!), I asked her opinion about spankings in general.Germany belongs to the countries where it is forbidden now since 8 or so years to use humiliation & corporal punishment on the child...one can notice the European countries, where corporal punishment of children in schools & in their family is forbidden by the green colour in the drawing/map in the first link, blue means just in schools forbidden, red no law...I don't know, whether it's up to date though...(Blair is supposed to have confessed, that he sometimes spanked his children?!)
Anyway, her answer is pretty much in line with CB's...on the other hand she said, that even if one "accidentally" spanks/hits his child...then one should explain to the child, why one lost the temper & make up for it...however, I am afraid, that that is not the jist of the law, because it wants to guarantee the child a total violencefree upbringing & if anyone gets wind of such offence, one could get reported, having a legal case instituted etc..... then I think quite a lot of people would/could be guilty & I am not sure about the punishments/verdicts for such offences.
The second article is about a German judge who got into trouble for daring to think along the line of corporal punishment
Apparently Canada has also a differentiated law concerning corporal punishment...Portugal may be too...
What I find difficult is,is this concept of trying to legislate righteousness by passing some law/ formulating a nice ideal...although I didn't spank my three kids, I don't think of myself better than those parents who did at occassions.My behaviour is a mixture of deep love for my children & fear to do the unlawful or being reported then to the mother, most of all the first reason & also them giving me no real reason, as much was just a blunder anyway, simple little mistakes.I would like to know, what study gave advisors the conviction, that it's wrong in any given situation to use corporal punishment on a child?Even if you'd miss one possibility/situation in a study, then it wouldn't be as sure as the law of gravity e.g.Mostly studies are done, giving a certain data base, by using so and so many tested people...surely not all the inhabitants of the earth you're observing, it's a drawn lot, leading to a possibilty...probability calculus & stats.However the law of gravitation doesn't "allow" any exception, or it wouldn't be any fundamental physical law anymore....any statical engineer ignoring though the implications of the law, could land pretty soon in jail...yet one never learns much about the failure of the law of gravity.
I am afraid, that I am not 100% sure, that there is this paedagogical law of non-corporal punishment for any given situation at any time.This I think
some tried to vindicate here & although it would be a dream come true, still I am against vilifying those parents, who "erred from the highest" in their attempt to prevent a child from harming itself or others or even heavily damaging property, cause for all those things/offences parents become also liabel for their children in front of state & law in most countries I suppose.
