Prior to becoming the devout, busybody next-door neighbor on the animated hit “The Simpsons,” Ned Flanders was an out-of-control brat whose beatnik parents didn’t believe in discipline. To reform Ned, a child psychologist enrolled him in the University of Minnesota Spankalogical Protocol, which included eight months of continuous spanking. It cured his rambunctiousness and set him on the path to becoming the cartoon world’s most famously pious Christian.
Indeed, conservative Christian parenting is often unfairly presented as little more than “spare the rod, spoil the child,” advice distilled from the Bible’s book of Proverbs. Spanking””punishment delivered with an open hand, not a rod””used to be socially acceptable and frequently utilized by parents, even in public. But at some point in the past century, child-rearing books began discouraging spanking and encouraging such new proverbs as “let’s all take a ‘timeout’ so that our anger might melt away, leading to fruitful conversation, peace and harmony in the home.”
Some parents have taken the advice to such an extreme that they’re hesitant to impose any consequences at all on their children….
Great article, and as in all things, the sweet-spot is found somewhere between opposite ends of the spectrum. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of controlled physical correction to children, done for the right infractions.
It’s hard not to think back to when we were kids. If you subscribe at all to the notion of Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation” of American’s, and think of the time period during which that genration was raised, what must have been the typical practice for child discipline in the 1920’s and 30’s? If you didn’t live through it yourself, ask grandma and grandpa….they’ll tell you what it was like. (Hint: no “time outs”)And you know what? Overall…that was a generation that did pretty damn well when they matured. Full of respect for others and themsleves. Not emotionally “scarred” by spanking. The 20-somethings of today should be so scarred!
The human race does not always get smarter, about all things. Sometimes, our predecessors had a better idea. We CAN go back when we see one.
Just for clarity. The etymology of Discipline is Latin for teaching or learning. Here is a definition that has always stuck with me. “Discipline is the state of order derived from training that makes punishment unnecessary.” – The Citadel Guidon.
See 2: The purpose of spanking is ,first and last, to instill in the child the means for internalizing applied discipline so that the child will have self-discipline as a life-long strength and endowment. It is precisely the absence of self-discipline that has marked the generations since the sixties, and is at the core of a society distinguished by self indulgence and boundless egotism, epitomized by the expression, “I want what I want and I want it right now.” And behold: friends with benefits and the “old” FACEbook and all the rest, which you all know only too well.
I’m 75, (dammit) and I can remember having my fanny warmed by my mother’s hand many a time. Punishment was correction, very plain and simple. Self-restraint was and is very hard for me to learn, but here’s the rule: Learn self-discipline or perish. And make no mistake, if the US does not learn it, its fate is sealed. Larry
When the children rule the classroom, the teacher will be seen as the enemy. Already we see that teachers complain every year that they have NO authority to discipline unruly children under their care, that the administration is so afraid of possible lawsuits that they have forbidden teachers from taking any action, including ‘time out’ for fear of parents and unions bringing costly challenges to the school and district officials.
A second problem is that the parent ALWAYS seems to take the child’s side in any classroom problem. Now I know that sometimes the child is right (we homeschooled both of our children for a time because of problems with the teachers being authoritarian rather than authority figures), but when I was growing up, the teacher was usually (I had one or two that I would have loved to NOT have been in their classroom) in the right.