Spare the rod, spoil the child

[Mystical]

Spanking erodes developmental growth in children and decreases a child's IQ, a recent Canadian study shows.

This analysis, conducted at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, offers new evidence that corporal punishment causes cognitive impairment and long-term developmental difficulties.

Debates around physical punishment typically revolve around the ethics of using violence to enforce discipline. This inquiry synthesized 20 years of published research on the topic and aims to "shift the ethical debate over corporal punishment into the medical sphere," says Joan
Durant, a professor at University of Manitoba and one of the authors of the study.

According to the report, spanking may reduce the brain's grey matter, the connective tissue between brain cells. Grey matter is an integral part of the central nervous system and influences intelligence testing and learning abilities. It includes areas of the brain involved in sensory perception, speech, muscular control, emotions and memory. Additional research supports the hypothesis that children and adolescents subjected to child abuse and neglect have less grey matter than children who have not been ill-treated.

Medical professionals investigating the long-term effects of spanking have consistently found a link between corporal punishment and increased aggression in children. Such "educational" discipline correlates to higher levels of acting out in school and trouble in academic performance. It predicts vulnerability to depression, typically in girls, and antisocial tendencies usually manifest in boys.

Boys are spanked more than girls . Physical punishment most frequently occurs at the toddler or preschooler age. Parents of lower income and with less formal education spank more often. Religious conservatives tend to favor corporeal punishment, though not always the case. The King James version of the bible, Proverbs: 13:24, expresses the sentiment "spare the rod and spoil the child" in antiquated language: He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him bedtimes.

Parents who administer corporal punishment were often on the receiving end of it themselves. In other words, the cause of this form of "educational" violence are often hidden in the repressed history of the parents. When adults do not understand the connections between their previous experiences of injury and those they actively repeat in the present, they perpetuate a destructive cycle and inflict their own suffering on their offspring. The next generation continues to carry the damage that has been stored up in the mind and body of their ancestor. Conversely, parents can also work to become consciously aware of their own childhood pain and recognize how they transmit historical violence to their children by hitting.

Spanking gets quick results, but it doesn't reduce the undesired behavior. In addition to detrimental physiological effects, it may also inflict lasting emotional damage that inhibits the learning process. Physical punishment undermines trust between parent and child and breeds hostility toward authority figures. Being hit may subsequently hinder social relations in the classroom where there is a power differential between teacher and child. It is any wonder when hitting sends the signal to a child that learning occurs through punishment? This form of discipline pretends to be educational, but is actually a way for parents to vent their own anger. Spanking involves the learned misrecognition of injury as education. Figures of cultural authority, such as parents and teachers, may be construed as purveyors of sadism rather than knowledge. Corporal punishment undermines compassion for others, for oneself, and limits the mutual capacity for gaining insight .

If the American association of Pediatrics says no, I think that's a no. Unless you want a timeout?

Unless you can come up with a way to differentiate between those who are doing it for the right mindset from those who are merely reliving what was done to them. I don't mind not spanking my kid per the law if it means those Facebook people can't, either.

Why are we discussing what you do in your home? Well, an ER doctor could tell you. A social worker or a school counselor could tell you. My sister could tell you. Helpless kids can tell you too, especially the ones who go to school in one of the 20 some odd states that still allow paddle spanking at school. In elementary school my principle had a not only a paddle on the wall--but she had the paddle with holes, on the wall. Unacceptable IMO.






http://m.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-me...-the-brain