Topic: Some parents say physical punishment is sometimes necessary to discipline children.

To what
extent do you agree?

I.

Introduction (Paragraph 1)
A. Hook
The Bible says, He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to
discipline him. It shows that parents have been disciplining their children to train and correct for
a long time in the name of love, tradition and their duty.
B. Connecting information
According to Save the Children (2012), while the understanding of the weak has changed a lot,
the perception of children has barely changed. Children have been excluded from the protection
from violence because of their immaturity, dependence on their parents, and the basis of
discipline.
C. Thesis statement:
Physical punishment for children cannot be a way of discipline in that it is a potential abuse which
only lays restraints on children and hinders child development, and moreover, it causes both
parents and children other negative results.

II. Body
A. Paragraph 2 (first reason) topic sentence
Corporal punishment for children is a potential abuse.
1. There is no clear difference between physical punishment and abuse. Educational Research
Institute of Seoul National University (1995) said physical punishment is giving a person
physical pain to make him or her stop exact action as a way of discipline. Also, it said child
abuse is physical or mental deprivation of childrens right, including physical punishment.
2. Parents who give harsh corporal punishment to their children would keep excuse that it was
discipline. According to Kim (2014.10.03.), Seoul Administrative Court ruled that slapping
children in the face is not a child abuse if it was for discipline, aiming training them to correct
the bad behavior. Because there are not many laws prohibiting physical punishment to
children, parents and even society still accept it as a normal and traditional discipline
method.
3. Children are immature and need parents help and care since they are learning how to think

logically in various situations. According to Cook and Bowles (as cited in Ahn, 2001), when
parents use corporal punishment to control their childrens behavior, they occasionally
become too much emotional to treat their children rationally because it is difficult to maintain
the property of chastisement and their consistent sentiment. Therefore, parents cannot
manage their anger and give their children corporal punishment first, and later explain what
mistakes they have made. However, this process gradually restrains childrens behavior.
4. Children lack comprehension of cause-and-effect relationship because they are forming the
abilities of thinking and understanding. Accordingly, children would never know what they
should do if parents inflict corporal punishment on them not mentioning their fault but
expecting them to correct the action. Straus, Douglas and Medeiros (2014) claimed that
punished for several times, children would eliminate the action which arouses punishment,
but the tie between children and parents gets weaken, and they have shown slow cognitive
development.
B. Paragraph 3 (second reason) topic sentence
Parents corporal punishment for children causes negative effects for parents and children.
1. Children can be apathetic if corporal punishment is continued. Greven (1990) mentioned,
Apathy and passivity, which often persist throughout adulthood in many different forms and
degrees, are the counterparts, the mirror opposites, of the anger and aggression also caused
by painful punishments in childhood. Greven (1990) also said, children would learn not only
the right behavior but also hostility toward their parents, producing anger as their best
defense, when they are inflicted corporal punishment from their parents.
2. They have been hurt by parents in the name of discipline, but the experiences of punishment
often make hatred and powerful desire for revenge to the person who gave the pain.
According to Yang (2000.05.25.), a university student Lee murdered his parents, and he said
the motive of the crime was the continuous mental and physical punishment from them. The
abuse engendered anger and hatred toward his parents and finally he wrote the tragedy. In
addition, Jung (2010) claimed that children who suffered corporal punishment from their
parents display a high aggressive character without other variables such as gender, grade,
and parents socioeconomic status.
3. This feature influences on peer relationship experience that the aggressive children cannot
maintain a close relationship with their friends. Those children who could not have a sense of
intimacy with their parents and friends would become an antisocial. Straus and Mouradian
(1998) demonstrated the positive connection between parental punishment and their
childrens behavior; the more physical punishment used by mother, the greater antisocial
behavior by the child.

4. It also forms negative self-esteem. According to Ahn (2014), based on the unsatisfactory
experience from their lamming parents, children build negative model about themselves and
other people, and this leads to a low self-esteem.
C. Paragraph 4 (third reason) topic sentence
Children could grow up as attackers of school violence if they continuously experience bodily
punishment from their parents.
1. Vivona (2000) mentioned that physical punishment destroys a stable relationship between
parents and children, which influences to the increase in juvenile delinquency. What arouse
childrens aggressive actions are parents physical punishment and inconsistent attitude.
According to Carney and Merrell (2001), corporal punishment easily develops childrens
negative self-concept, which makes them to attack others in school. They also reported that
those assailants households have kept exercising a force as their child-rearing method.
2. Childrens perception of their parents physical discipline and strictness could be internalized
or externalized and shows an aggressive pattern. Macklem (2003) said that the aggressors
of school violence had not fully learned how to control their behavior and emotion because of
the unsteady upbringing system in their families. Based on this condition, children continue
the aggressive operations among their peer group.
3. Parents sometimes confuse physical punishment with smacking on the spur of the moment.
Kang (2002) stated this is why children often only remember the moment they got hit, and
are shattered by this experience of corporal punishment, even though parents inflict it on
them anticipating to be an upright person. This is a serious problem because those children
have a high possibility to become attackers bullying others at school.
D. Paragraph 5 (counterargument and refutation)
1. Counterargument: Some advocates of the parental corporal punishment, according to
Clarizio (1975), argue that it helps children to build up individual responsibilities, to learn selfdiscipline, and to develop their morality. Moreover, the supporters claim that corporal
discipline leads children to a better academic performance since it forms childrens good
moral and mental character.
2. Refutation:
1) They focus on the immediate behavior modification. According to Kang (2002), nurturing is
a long-term and continuative action, allowing children to think, create, and develop things
by themselves, and some mistakes would arise in this process because children are
immature.
2) Also, Hower and Edwards (1979) determined that parents strict regulation and

chastisement make childrens morality decreased because those attitudes causes

childrens misdeed, disobedience, anxiety, hostility, and so on.
3) Parental corporal punishment does not give an appropriate modeling to children. Only with
physical punishment without consideration, respect, and conversation, children cannot
have a positive modeling from their parents, which damages their moral characters.
III. Conclusion (Paragraph 6)
A. Restate thesis
Physical punishment for children cannot be a way of discipline in that it is a potential abuse which
only lays restraints on children and hinders child development, and moreover, it causes both
parents and children other negative results.
B. Suggestion, opinion, or prediction
There should be no more parental punishment.

References

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