It is believed that the rise now of a generation of naughty, unruly children and young people resulted from that law prohibiting corporal punishment in the guise of children’s protection. Teachers are the first complainants, claiming that children nowadays are boldly and openly exhibiting bad manners and undisciplined behavior in schools.
What’s disadvantageous about this law is that it’s not only the teachers and other grown-up people who are prohibited from inflicting physical pain on children as a punishment for the latter’s misdeeds—it also includes the parents. So, when the parents punish their children for disciplinary actions at home, they can be sued in court and go to prison. And children know all about this, hence their confidence to do all sorts of foolishness.
The implementation of laws protecting children from punishment is doubtless necessary especially if they are being subjected to physical abuse by other people. But if it’s the parents who are merely trying to correct their child’s misbehavior, then that prohibition should be reconsidered. The idea of using friendly approaches instead of punishment is good, but it has limitations and is prone to abuse on the part of naughty children. In the face of repeated warnings against wrongdoings that do not stop, physical punishment should be resorted to.
This way, if the parents are freely allowed to punish their unruly children, the latter would somehow straighten their behavior for fear of being punished. When they come to school, they would behave properly because of that fear and reverence for their parents’ punishment. Anyway, no parent would punish their children excessively to harm them with permanent disability. They punish responsibly with love, hence with limitations.
But because parents are included among those who are prohibited from inflicting physical pain on their children, the latter confidently do any foolish thing they have in mind, defying authorities at home, in school, and anywhere else. They know they are protected by the law, so they feel powerful enough and untouchable at that. Unknown to many of us, God in his Word allows the use of physical punishment to erring children as part of their training. We are following the law of the state, but we are disobeying the God of the universe.
