>
>PS. There is a difference between physical punishment and abuse. Abuse
>does not have to physical, emotional abuse is more common and often more
>damaging to a person's self-esteem than good old fashioned whacking.
>
>What is more, not every phsyical punishment is abuse. I was physically
>disciplined as a child and lived to tell about it. My sister was not and
>grew up to be socially challenged. I did not physically punsih my kid at
>all - but he was good kid anyway. That unscientific sample tells me that
>physical punishment alone does not mean a thing - it is the social context
>that matters.
>
>wojtek
I agree that some psychological punishment is as damaging or more damaging than physical punishment, and that any punishment can be abusive or non-abusive. Perhaps the abusive kind of punishment can be described as an attack -- whether on the physical person or the psyche; and especially unfair attacks, or attacks that are disproportionate to the misdeed.
The thing I don't like about any kind of attack is that it elicits fear. We animals seem to lose a good chunk of our mental capacity when we're scared. The fight/flight adrenalin rush seems to take over the brain, and all reason's lost. I'm fairly well persuaded that much of the reason we dislike being attacked by a superior is that we hate like the devil to be pressed into, as it were, losing our minds. Whereas in the context of the working world adults may be able to leave an abusive job situation, young children have no escape, i.e., they can only be scared.
FWIW, I just checked out some data for the US (see below). Turns out that the ten worst states, when it comes to corporal punishment of students, are all former slave states. There's a 100% overlap. Kinda gives ya pause, dunnit.
cheers Joanna
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http://www.stophitting.com/NCACPS/NCACPS_facts_about_corporal_punishment.htm# Information released July 2000 The 10 worst states, by percentage, of students struck by educators:
Rank State Percentage 1 Mississippi 10.1 2 Arkansas 9.2 3 Alabama 6.3 4 Tennessee 4.0 5 Oklahoma 3.0 6 Louisiana 2.7 7 Georgia 2.13 8 Texas 2.07 9 Missouri 1.1 10 New Mexico 0.9
========================================= http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/prog10/maps/
Slave states: Alabama Arkansas Delaware Florida Georgia Indian Territory (Oklahoma) Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Mississippi Missouri North Carolina, South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia
Territories open to slavery: Kansas Terr. Nebraska Terr. New Mexico Terr. Utah Terr.
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Free states and territories: California Connecticut Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Terr. Maine Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Nebraska Terr. New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Terr. New York Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island Utah Terr. Vermont Washington Terr. Wisconsin
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