Crystal Lee
October 9, 2017
Final Draft
Smacking v. Peaceful Parenting
As a child did you ever wonder why you were punished so much, or in other cases
not punished enough? Child punishment is a very sensitive issue in today’s society due to
the growing number of parents having different perspectives on reasonable disciplinary
tactics for teaching their children boundaries. When looking at the topic of disciplining
children, I believe that corporal punishment’s success rate is higher than peaceful
discipline. According to Merriam Webster, corporal punishment is a punishment that
involves hitting someone, or physical punishment. Corporal punishment’s primary
deterrent is the fear of the pain associated with it. When the goal of a disciplinary method
is pain, the line that separates punishment from abuse can get blurry. What helps solidify
that lines are consistent, age-appropriate disciplinary tactics that parents can use to
construct positive psychological results in their children. Therefore, this paper is going to
look into the difference between corporal and peaceful punishments and how those styles
of discipline impact a child’s outcome in life.
The controversial idea that needs to be addressed is how to find a happy medium
between these two styles of discipline. “Parents who keep discipline constructive know
styles of discipline have a psychological consequence and which have a more negative
result” (Brenda Scottsdale). Corporal Punishment is the style of discipline most
commonly seen in an authoritative parent: (define in your words what that is). These
