My husband has a friend who believes strongly in flogging or whipping his children and of course using the corporal punishment. He says they are turning out to be the best behaved students in their school. I read this and I think it is worth reading.
Think of being fed and clothed by children you had whipped -- whose flesh you had scarred! Think of feeling in the hour of death upon your withered lips, your withered cheeks, the kisses and the tears of one whom you had beaten -- upon whose flesh were still the marks of your lash! The whip degrades; a severe father teaches his children to dissemble; their love is pretence, and their obedience a species of self-defence. Fear is the father of lies.
We all know of many instances where the abused, the maligned, and the tortured have returned good for evil -- and many instances where the loved, the honored, and the trusted have turned against their benefactors, and yet we know that cruelty and torture are not superior to love and kindness.
When the children are young and weak, the parents and teachers who are strong beat the children in order that they may be affectionate/perform excellently. Now, when the children get strong and the parents and teachers are old and weak, should the children not beat them, so that they too may become kind and loving or deserving/exemplary?
Do tell! Do you not think that this picture will only do more harm than good? I am a teacher and I have indeed got the best out of my students without ever using this 'hideous' and 'soul-impoverishing' method! The 'post-stone' age period is long gone. Perhaps, we might be breeding unmindful citizens.
