Spanking kids is like a wheel
Call me old-fashioned but sometimes I just think that when something isn't broke you don't fix it. In this case I'm talking about spanking a child.
A recent article by Murray Straus, a professor of sociology and co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire claims to have found a correlation between spanking children and lowering IQ's. According to a study done, the IQ's of children that get spanked are lower than kids that don't get spanked.
The biggest point of the article, that is barely touched upon, is the fact that the drop in IQ is 2.8 points. So in other words, nothing.
But if you read the article you would think the drop was 20 points. Which in itself is stupid. In fact I find it to be ridiculous polispeak to advance a liberal lifestyle agenda.
I agree that no child should be abused. But there is a massive differnce among the majority of parents in the world in regard to a spanking versus abuse. Unless of course you agree with the philosophy that a child should never be touched. The article comes close to saying a parent doesn't even have the ability to discipline a child without subcombing to abuse. Again I disagree.
First off, let's think for a moment. For millenia upon millenia children in every part of the world have been spanked. And mankind was able to advance from cavemen to astronauts. Obviously the 2.8 point in IQ didn't hurt us as a species. And I don't think that Beethoven, Einstein, Mozart, Bill Gates, Da Vinci, Plato, Stephen Hawking, and billions of others over the history of man suffered from being spanked a couple of times in their lives.
But what if we look at it from a differnt point of view. The children in the study lost 2.8 points of IQ. What did they gain? How many points of real life "street smarts" or common sense did they get? There seems to be no study or gauge for that, but I know it's far more important. And kids today seem to be severely lacking that far more than a couple of points of book smarts.
In fact, the study admits briefly that they don't know if any other factor might have caused the loss in IQ. Things like poverty, inadequate schools, societal factors, bad diets and on and on. So stating that a spanking is the root of evil is dumb.
Is spanking a child bad? The only answer is that it depends on the parent. A bad parent doesn't need to touch a child to screw up their lives. And a good parent can spank a deserving child without destroying their life; in fact they may benefit the child. Any other observation is just an attempt to persuade people into acting in a manner that someone else thinks is a good idea - basically an experiment.
Personally I hate it when I hear of studies like this. Because the findings are useless, but the goal seems to be the reshaping of society. It's studies like this that suddenly have Seasame Street being labled as too adult and detrimental for children. It's studies like this that say that television can raise your kids. It's studies like this that help create, I believe, kids that are so screwed up and lack enough knowledge to survive in the world thus becoming Columbine wakos.
Abusing kids is bad. It should not be tolerated. But spanking a child is something no one enjoyed and billions have benefited from over tens of thousands of years. And just like the wheel it's not broken, so we shouldn't try to fix it.
A recent article by Murray Straus, a professor of sociology and co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire claims to have found a correlation between spanking children and lowering IQ's. According to a study done, the IQ's of children that get spanked are lower than kids that don't get spanked.
The biggest point of the article, that is barely touched upon, is the fact that the drop in IQ is 2.8 points. So in other words, nothing.
But if you read the article you would think the drop was 20 points. Which in itself is stupid. In fact I find it to be ridiculous polispeak to advance a liberal lifestyle agenda.
I agree that no child should be abused. But there is a massive differnce among the majority of parents in the world in regard to a spanking versus abuse. Unless of course you agree with the philosophy that a child should never be touched. The article comes close to saying a parent doesn't even have the ability to discipline a child without subcombing to abuse. Again I disagree.
First off, let's think for a moment. For millenia upon millenia children in every part of the world have been spanked. And mankind was able to advance from cavemen to astronauts. Obviously the 2.8 point in IQ didn't hurt us as a species. And I don't think that Beethoven, Einstein, Mozart, Bill Gates, Da Vinci, Plato, Stephen Hawking, and billions of others over the history of man suffered from being spanked a couple of times in their lives.
But what if we look at it from a differnt point of view. The children in the study lost 2.8 points of IQ. What did they gain? How many points of real life "street smarts" or common sense did they get? There seems to be no study or gauge for that, but I know it's far more important. And kids today seem to be severely lacking that far more than a couple of points of book smarts.
In fact, the study admits briefly that they don't know if any other factor might have caused the loss in IQ. Things like poverty, inadequate schools, societal factors, bad diets and on and on. So stating that a spanking is the root of evil is dumb.
Is spanking a child bad? The only answer is that it depends on the parent. A bad parent doesn't need to touch a child to screw up their lives. And a good parent can spank a deserving child without destroying their life; in fact they may benefit the child. Any other observation is just an attempt to persuade people into acting in a manner that someone else thinks is a good idea - basically an experiment.
Personally I hate it when I hear of studies like this. Because the findings are useless, but the goal seems to be the reshaping of society. It's studies like this that suddenly have Seasame Street being labled as too adult and detrimental for children. It's studies like this that say that television can raise your kids. It's studies like this that help create, I believe, kids that are so screwed up and lack enough knowledge to survive in the world thus becoming Columbine wakos.
Abusing kids is bad. It should not be tolerated. But spanking a child is something no one enjoyed and billions have benefited from over tens of thousands of years. And just like the wheel it's not broken, so we shouldn't try to fix it.
Labels: child raising, IQ, Murray Straus, University of New Hampshire
posted by M. Vass | 2:25 PM
2 Comments:
Child buttock-battering vs. DISCIPLINE:
Child buttock-battering for the purpose of gaining compliance is nothing more than an inherited bad habit.
Its a good idea for people to take a look at what they are doing, and learn how to DISCIPLINE instead of hit.
I think the reason why television shows like "Supernanny" and "Dr. Phil" are so popular is because that is precisely what many (not all) people are trying to do.
There are several reasons why child bottom-slapping isn't a good idea. Here are some good, quick reads recommended by professionals:
Plain Talk About Spanking
by Jordan Riak,
The Sexual Dangers of Spanking Children
by Tom Johnson,
NO VITAL ORGANS THERE, So They Say
by Lesli Taylor M.D. and Adah Maurer Ph.D.
Most compelling of all reasons to abandon this worst of all bad habits is the fact that buttock-battering can be unintentional sexual abuse for some children. There is an abundance of educational resources, testimony, documentation, etc available on the subject that can easily be found by doing a little research with the recommended reads-visit www.nospank.net.
Just a handful of those helping to raise awareness of why child bottom-slapping isn't a good idea:
American Academy of Pediatrics,
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
Center For Effective Discipline,
PsycHealth Ltd Behavioral Health Professionals,
Churches' Network For Non-Violence,
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
Parenting In Jesus' Footsteps,
Global Initiative To End All Corporal Punishment of Children,
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In 26 countries, child corporal punishment is prohibited by law (with more in process). In fact, the US was the only UN member that did not ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Anonymous,
Well you certainly have a lot of paperwork to justify your opinion.
I don't have any of that for my side of the debate. I'll simply give you the experts I have.
My Mother
The Mothers (and Fathers) of several billion people across the face of the planet over the past several millenia
Now my experts may not have fancy names or titles. Most are only known by a few people. But I would gladly stake my opinion on these women (and men as well) over every PHD.
The fact is that... no my opinion is that while there are a small percentage of people that do as you are fearful of, some 99% of the parents since before recorded history have not.
And have you noticed that as society has tried to reinvent the wheel in terms of child rearing, kids are more screwed up and less disciplined?
So the option to readers is simply this. Follow the PH D's with all their research and understanding from the last decade or 2 OR do what has been done since human beings formed families.
The choice to me is obvious.
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