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Exercise 15: Write one paragraph supporting the rights of parents to smack.
Typical paragraphs include:
Firstly, parents have legal authority and responsibility in raising their children, so they should be able to have the freedom to choose their disciplinary tools, without interference. As long as the form of disciplinary action is justified and does not leave any permanent harm both physically or emotionally then a light smack is acceptable. After all, most parents have their child’s best interests at heart. For example, David Kern noticed a welcome change in his daughter’s behaviour after smacking or the “threat of smacking”. In situations where it was difficult to reason with her, a smack made the difference. Obviously much depends upon the circumstance and factors such as their age, reasoning capacity and the nature of the offence itself.
Secondly, smacking is an effective form of discipline and helps parents set firm boundaries, without which which children are likely to become spoiled. Often, children lack the ability to reason at such an early age, especially in situations of danger. Dr Michael Carr Gregg, leading child psychologist agrees that “we should (not) be criminalising people, in situations where children run across the road they give them a tap on the backside’’. However, smacking should only remain as a last resort option. For example, it can be used to reinforce situations of danger or clearly unacceptable behaviour when other forms of discipline are not working.
Exercise 15: Write one paragraph opposing the rights of parents to smack.
Typical paragraphs include:
First and foremost, smacking children should definitely be a criminal offence because such violence can escalate. There are cases where parents have lost control when smacking children and in the worst cases, it has led to homicide. Smacking is often done in anger and frustration and it can get out of hand. People lose control and this can be very harmful for children. Sweden banned smacking 30 years ago and there is a marked difference between homicide rates in Sweden and in Australia. In Australia there are 437 cases of child homicide compared with 107 in Sweden, which has half our population. There is an argument that if you ban smacking you reduce the likelihood of discipline getting out of control and therefore of children being injured or killed.
Furthermore, smacking teaches children that violence is acceptable. I believe it is poor role modeling. If we don’t want our children to swear, we don’t swear in front of them. But for some reason we think that if we hit them, they won’t learn to hit. I don’t understand the logic there. Professor Joan Durrant from Canada’s University of Manitoba said “If you make it unacceptable for parents to hit children, as it is unacceptable for husbands to hit their wives, the rates of violence against children decline.” As Professor Durrant also noticed, there were many positive outcomes arising from the ban in Sweden. Children are less violent towards each other, there is less bullying and fewer fights in school. The children have lower levels of depression, less anxiety and better relationships with their parents. The level of drug and alcohol abuse has dropped.
Continue your Better Essays Learning Journey
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- See Sample Essay: don’t ban smacking!
- See Chapter 2: Reasoning Strategies
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