As I woke up this morning and read the gleaner I saw so many interesting articles I didn't even know which one to write about today. But then I saw one that to me is definitely worth a write up on and that is the issue of corporal punishment in schools. Now I'm not child that was born in the late 90's or early 2000's, I didnt go through this era of the "dont beat your child" thing when I was growing up. To me and to most people reading this article born before 1990 a beating is simply a way to say that you are doing something wrong... and its just a part of life. Simple straight forward and to the point.

However this is no longer the case, now we constantly hear the argument that "beating your child is wrong" and "there are other ways"  and "dont psychologically scar the children for life" etc. Now of course the first time I heard about these campaigns I instantly started to laugh to myself as I thought, are these people really serious? But then it started to become more and more popularized till nowadays beatings in school are remarkably rare. This is a shocking fact to me as to me beatings are just as much a part of school as is learning your A B C's and how to add and subtract. But as they say things and times change.

So I started wondering what are the suggestions to punish a child for wrongdoing if not beating them. A quick google search lead me to see that these suggestions include: Talking to the child, putting them into time out, ignoring them among other things. Personally next to talking to the child, I dont see where the child learns that what he/she has done is a bad thing and should never be repeated. But hey maybe just maybe these techniques really do work and... maybe this is the reason why I see such high levels of insolence from children towards adults... What am I the only person who sees this?

Personally I dont see anything wrong with beating a child. My father and mother beat me all the time when I did something wrong, but you know what after I got my punishment, I got an explanation as to why what I did was wrong and I learned never to do it again. But I wont deny that there are people who take this thing too far, the article that I read about in the gleaner this morning speaks to a 5 year old child who's arm was broken by a teacher for punishment.  This is clearly going too far, this is clearly something that needs to be punished (not the child the teacher) and this is not beating, this is child abuse, a COMPLETELY different activity and one which I personally think should be punishable by imprisonment for a term no less than 5 years.

However lemme calm down a bit and say this... I know people who grew up on both sides of the fence. I know people who have never understood that a belt can be used for more than just holding up your pants, and I know people who can spend hours telling you about the various battle stories they had with their parents. And to be honest on both sides of the fence, the people are pretty good. So maybe beatings isn't exactly the best way to go, however I say this to you. Over the past 10 or so years in Jamaica we have seen an exponential growth of violence and crime coming from young children IN SCHOOLS... Not to mention on the road. This clearly means that something has changed... If one was to do research one would also see that over the past 20 or so years people have campaigned for an end to beatings as a means of punishment. Maybe the two are co-related, maybe the aren't but to me this cannot be mere coincidence.

I know I'm not exactly the most religious person but I'll close with these quotes from the Bible: He who spareth the rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes (Proverbs 13:24).

Also

Withhold not correction from a child, for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and deliver his soul from hell. (Proverbs 23:13-14)