N.Pillay, 212508202
October 14, 2013
1 Introduction
2 Discussion
3 Reasons for the use of corporal punishment
4 Responses from parents and teenagers on their views about the use of corporal punishment 4
5 Reasons why corporal punishment should not be used.
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6 Evidence from studies that show corporal punishment is not the answer 5
7 The use of corporal punishment could have detrimental consequences 6
7 8 Conclusion
Abstract
Corporal punishment is commonly defined as a form of punishment, which involves a child who does something wrong being physically punished by an adult ,with the intention of teaching them a lesson or discipling them. It was previously practised during the Apartheid era in South Africa and has been banned since 1996 as it goes against the South African Schools act which had been implemented making the practise of corporal punishment illegal. It is ,however, still implemented and used in schools today. This article explores the views of several individuals regarding the pros and cons of the use of corporal punishment as well as research conducted by people about the effects corporal punishment has on its victims. Many people share the view that no other disciplinary measure implemented is as effective as corporal punishment and that it is necessary for orderly education to
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take place, while others disagree and feel it is not at all effective in deterring children from repeating their mistakes, as it only makes them more stubborn and rebellious and impacts negatively on their academic achievement and attitude. While it can be argued that discipline in schools is deteriorating and educators view corporal punishment as their best means of maintaining order and discipline in the classroom, the long term effects on the individual and the fact that it violates their human rights needs to be taken into account.
“Last night eNews Channel Africa aired footage of a male teacher violently attacking a Grade 9 learner at Hoerskool Patriot in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga.
The video that was captured by another learner shows the teacher grabbing the learner by her hair and kicking and punching her before throwing her to the ground.” This excerpt, extracted from an article by Kate Omega of
Equalizer magazine, highlights a severe case of corporal punishment that took place on 23August 2010 at a South African school.
Corporal punishment is a form of punishment in which pain is deliberately inflicted upon a wrongdoer, in most cases children, by an authoritative figure with the intention of disciplining them. It is a practice that was a key component of the patriarchal and authoritarian apartheid system in South
Africa. It has been banned since 1996 and is governed by the South African schools act which states firstly, that no person may administer corporal punishment at school to a learner and secondly that any person who is guilty of an offence is liable on conviction to a sentence which could be imposed for assault. Corporal punishment, however, is still rife in the community and a huge cause for concern as it continues to persist in schools nationwide.
This article will explore the reasons for and against the practice of corporal punishment in society and the effects it has on its victims.
Disciplining a child involves teaching them to take responsibility for their actions and making amends by learning that behaving in a certain way is unacceptable and should not be repeated.Porteus, Valley and Ruth (2001)
,however, have come to understand the term ‘discipline’ more narrowly as
‘punishment’ in the context of South African schools.
Many people are known to equate the two, believing they mean the same thing. Discipline should not be confused with punishment as the word punishment according to Child-line is based on the belief that if children are made to suffer for doing something wrong, they will not do it again.
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Table 1: Results by Stats SA showing the percentage of corporal punishment incidents in the most common South African provinces for the year 2013
Province Percentage of pupils who are victims
Eastern Cape
Kwa-Zulu Natal
Free State
30.30%
21.40%
18.40%
Corporal punishment is still practised today because many teachers who used corporal punishment in the past find it very difficult to maintain order and discipline in school without it. Mtsweni (2008) who studied management of school discipline in the Nkangala region, Mpumalanga, observed that most of the educators said that they felt very helpless and incapacitated in handling learner discipline in school after corporal punishment was abolished.
In research conducted by Maphosa and Shumba (2010) in rural schools in the Eastern Cape, Mr Malata an educator at the school also expressed his views for the use of corporal punishment as he too felt that it was difficult to ensure discipline without it. He believed that corporal punishment was not used with the intention of hurting the learners but as a method to
‘correct’ their bad behaviour. He went on to explain “ I have read a lot of children’s rights and so called abuses through canning. The worst abuse of children is to produce lawless and undisciplined kids in the name of children’s rights. . . in the past it was unheard of that a learner would kill another learner on the school premises.”
The second educator that was interviewed also seemed to be in favour of corporal punishment. Ms Mangaliso believed that it was a lot easier to maintain discipline in the past as corporal punishment was used then. She explained that if an educator had to threaten to hit a learner for doing something wrong they would be taken seriously and obeyed as compared to the situation that prevails now where learners feel liberated because of their rights and know that they are not allowed to be hit. Learners are said to openly challenge a teacher’s authority because they know nothing can be done to them (Masitsa, 2008).
Many people believe that although there are other disciplinary measures that can be used, none are as effective as corporal punishment. The advantage of using corporal punishment as a deterrent as compared to other methods is the degree of unpleasantness. A child would be discouraged from repeating their mistakes just to avoid the punishment. Some people support the idea of using alternate forms of punishment that are somewhat ‘good deeds’ like picking up paper or extra work. These however have a major limitation as children will begin to associate these good tasks with punishment
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and would not want to carry them out [1].
At random, a group of adults who are parents, as well as a group of teenagers were casually asked to give their opinions on the use of corporal punishment.
The adults were all in favour of it as they argued that during their schooling career, corporal punishment was used and contributed largely to the fact that they had a level of discipline and respect for their teachers and school that no longer exists among the youth of today. They also expressed the need to sometimes use it to discipline their own children. Surprisingly even majority of the teenagers agreed that it should be implemented as they believed it would force learners not to repeat their mistake in order to avoid the punishment.
Figure 1: Image showing views of parents regarding corporal punishment
Corporal punishment may be effective in stopping the child from repeating their mistake but the long term effects on their mental health is something to be weary about, especially in severe cases. Just as harmful as the physical effects, the psychological effects are life long. There is a strong correlation between corporal punishment and an increase in aggression in children as well as delinquency and anti-social behaviour [2]. If a teacher administers
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corporal punishment to a learner in the presence of fellow classmates, the learner feels humiliated and instead of learning from their mistakes, becomes angry and embarrassed.
By using corporal punishment, educators instil fear in their learners.
The learners begin to strongly dislike them and see them as enemies instead of concerned custodians who are responsible for their well being at school.Constructive learning does not take place in an environment where the learners sit in fear of those who teach them [1] . This will therefore impact negatively on academic achievement.
Figure 2: This animation shows how educators contradict themselves by using punishment to illustrate that punishment is wrong and should not be used.
Many different studies have shown that the more interpersonal violence experienced by a person,as a child the greater the use of interpersonal violence as an adult. This will impact negatively on children and family members of the victims with regard to the relationships they share and environment in their household. The use of corporal punishment only increases the perception that violence is the answer to conflict or disobedience.
Research has shown that corporal punishment is not an effective way to discipline children because if it were effective, it would easily stop bad behaviour among ‘difficult’ children. However, in schools where corporal punishment has been used, it has been noted that the some children have been punished for the same reasons over and over again [3]. This reiterates
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the point that the use of corporal punishment only makes a child more stubborn and rebellious.
Educators use corporal punishment to discipline ill-mannered and disobedient children so that they learn from their mistakes and fear the punishment which would stop them from repeating their mistake and perhaps make them change their ways. What teachers sometimes fail to take into account is the reason behind the bad behaviour of the children; surely they don’t wake up in the morning to go to school with the intention of disrupting the class or upsetting the teacher. Children who ‘act out’ or behave in this manner may do so because of their situation at home. If children are neglected or not given enough attention or maybe even restricted to being themselves, they use school as an outlet and a way to be noticed and get attention.
By educators resorting to corporal punishment or other forms of humiliating punishment they may miss the point and actually fail to identify and deal with the underlying cause or problem facing the child.
Figure 3: This saying shows just how unfair society is in terms of their attitude towards corporal punishment.
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This article has covered the pros and cons of the use of corporal punishment.
While it can be agreed that discipline in schools is deteriorating and some educators feel that corporal punishment is the best way for them to control and discipline their learners, the use of corporal punishment and its effects are indeed a cause for concern. It not only violates the rights of children but scars them both physically and mentally which ultimately determines who they grow up to be.
[1] David Benatar.
Corporal punishment.
Philosophy department,Cape
Town., 2001.
[2] E Gershoff.
Coporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviours and experiments . Philosophy department,Cape Town., 2002.
[3] U Soneson. Ending corporal punishment in south africa.
Save the children Sweden.
, 2005.
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