How To Spank Argumentative Essay

Marisela Ledezma
English Comp I
11/25/2011

"For every action, there's a reaction", states Newton's law of motion. This obvious truth doesn't apply to just physics alone. It can also be applied to the human personality. When applying it to a child's behavior, especially from a very early age, children need to be taught that their actions will have consequences. Being the sponges that they are, sometimes they absorb bad behaviors. Since they are inexperienced and need guidance throughout their life, there are different methods of discipline that can help correct their bad behaviors and actions. One way that is often effective is by explaining to the child why certain behaviors are not acceptable. But when a simple explanation isn't enough,
(Gershoff). Dr. Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff, PhD, of the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University analyzed 62 years worth of data that looked into the "positive and negative behaviors in children that were associated with corporal punishment". She defined corporal punishment as 'physical force used with the intention to cause pain, but not injury, in order to correct or control a child's behavior', but this action turns into abuse when it is taken to the extent of "punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning, shaking, yanking hair, twisting ears, and making a child stand in the same place for a long time, even if no injury results" (The Spanking Debate). In her study she found that the use of corporal punishment "increased child aggression and antisocial behavior". But one main thing she pointed out about her findings is that the negative effects on the child were seen in association with the use of corporal punishment to the extent of physical abuse to the child (Gershoff). Dr. Gershoff herself admits that the results of her findings are not concrete evidence as to why corporal punishment should not be used because "they almost never record whether the punishment was deliberate or impulsive, or if it was a first resort or a last resort" (The Spanking Debate). This last
Gershoff's study, although said to support the argument of how corporal punishment should not be used, lacks to explain the different results obtained if corporal punishment where administered in a loving way with the intent to guide children in the right direction and to help them develop the correct principles in order to become good citizens in today's society. The fact that different parents administer corporal discipline at two completely different extremes is a major factor that needs to be more profoundly investigated. Although Dr. Gershoff's analysis did contain both of those extremes, the results from the type of discipline used also gave different results. With these two variables being a part of Dr. Gershoff's equation, it is argued that although severe forms of corporal punishment do exist, the positive effects of when it is correctly applied by means of a moderate and occasional spanking by parents who continuously convey their love for their child and explain the reasons for their actions, result in huge benefits for the child that overshadow the temporary pain that they may encounter because of the appropriately administered corporal punishment (The Spanking