“How to punish children”?

“How to punish children”?
Wednesday April 05, 2006

Alice,
I originally posted on this site hoping to open discussion and share feelings about Corporal Punishment issues and incidents with other Survivors of Corporal Punishment. I’ve so far had two correspondents, not counting you and Barbara, who were very friendly and polite but not able to share much about Corporal Punishment which is not a primary issue for them.

Am I expecting too much from people I wonder? Is it really such a terrifying topic? Maybe there’s something wrong with me in wanting to open this topic to public discussion and if so, would people please email me, anonymously, of course, and tell me the hows and whys? Am I being simplistic in singling out Corporal Punishment as a separate issue, perhaps?

Maybe not many who visit this site are actually bothered by Corporal Punishment in their childhoods, or they make a much better resolution of their suffering than I do of mine. Maybe its only me and a very few others who suffered so much. If anyone can offer advice or knowledge, please do tell me. There must be something I’m missing or haven’t noticed, and I hope somebody can kindly explain it to me.

Duncan McDermott
Corporal Punishment Survivor

duncan.mcdermott@btinternet.com

AM: I am so sorry, Duncan, what you describe is true, nobody wants to talk about corporal punishment, not because they didn’t experience it but because they don’t want to be reminded of their pain. You are an exception insofar that you want to remember and to talk about this issue. In France there is published a magazine called “Psychologies.” They published recently an article called “How punished children.” Psychologists were asked how to punish. Noone said that children shouldn’t be punished at all because by punishing they only learn violence, no, they said, that you must punish the child under 2 years old, otherwise the punishment wouldn’t be effective. I think we are moving in the old direction of poisonous pedagogy.
What about your survy? Could you send out some letters? did you receive some anwers? Keep on writing, we are not many yet but we can’t be silenced anymore. Alice