Do you consider corporal punishment for children, either at school or home, to be child abuse?

Personally, I feel that it depends on the situation and the level of corporal punishment, but I am not for the complete abolishment of it. I experienced it. Came out of it ok. None the worse for wear.

Got knocked unconscious by my primary school teacher at age seven. Ended up having weeks of blood, heart and brain tests, trying to establish why an apparently healthy kid had passed out in the middle of the day.

She had severe emotional problems, when I think back....

No, not particularly. I experienced it too, but back then we accepted that it was fair and neutral for the most part. There may have been individuals in authority with an emotional agenda abusing the system, I agree, but I never saw examples of it. Generally we felt that it was our behaviour that caused what was coming. Even then, though, in the 1960s, there were growing whispers about proposals to abolish corporate punishment.

Ab = away or off. Abuse is wrong use, = abuse.

Any teacher worth their weight doesn't need to use corporal punishment. It's a crutch for those who are not good teachers, and we should never allow it.

People are confusing discipline and abuse.

Corporal punishment done correctly is not violent, done out of emotion, or unexplained.

That being said, I don’t think corporal punishment is the best or more effective way. There are so many kinds of people and so many cultures. But some people have received no guidance and are so disrespectful and ready to hurt those around them, they only respond to anger and fear, just like a bully on the train...they’ll yell at the whole car but when one or two guys walk up and tells him to shut it, they usually do.

Belrick

Good luck with that in Japan and most nations.

YOU will be dealt with accordingly at the police station.

My friend's mother, who attended a Catholic school run by the Sisters back in the day, told me that she was told by them that her father was going straight to hell because of what he did. He was a sailor. She also told me that, being a little girl, it gave her nightmares.

Not physical punishment, but very psychological.

People are confusing discipline and abuse.

@personyouarenow, so true!

Corporal punishment: parents maybe, teachers No.

I remember my young son (about 3) having bath with me deciding that squeezing and pulling my you-know-what was a great and funny game. It wasn't - it hurt, a lot.

I tried reasoning, calmly, saying 'No' then more loudly, and each time it just got worse. So I took his hand and hit it telling him never to pull any you-know-whats again. Didn't stop him though, but it stopped me having baths with my son. Told the then-wife and bizarrely she replied that the son was allowed to pull my you-know-what as much as he liked.

Just now I wonder ironically if that experience was actually corporal punishment on me for following the dangerous custom in Japan of having baths with one's children.

Or corporal punishment on me for getting into that disastrous marriage in the first place.

I was "belted" repeatedly by my teacher in 4th and 5th grade elementary school for the smallest mistake and for her enjoyment. I swore to this day that if I ever met her again, I wouldn't hold back and let her know what she did to me.

My parents and older siblings were old school and felt I probably deserved it.

I didn't!

Nobody listened to what this witch done to me.

Totally 100% against this barbaric practice.

inkochi

If you can’t make your 3 year old understand that he is hurting you, isn’t that more the issue rather than needing or not needing a spanking?

And your wife...my goodness, this is an issue here in Japan, but private parts are not to be touched “as much as he/she wants.

Perhaps your wife needs a swat?

The reason I'm against it, is that in today's world, there is so much pressure and stress that it to easily gets out of hand. It's not always bad, but once you allow "a bit"' "to a certain extent", and "under certain circumstances", it becomes a matter of where do you draw the line? How much is enough?

I was punished this way while growing up; I accepted it as normal sometimes, but too often, I new it was overboard. Either I could feel that life stresses had taken over, and often, it knew it was because my dad was drunk. And the more he drank, the more the corporal punishments became aggressive and uncalled for.

Voting needed more options. School a definite no go area. Home, lightly at best. Better off sitting down and talking it over.

Twice only I slapped my older daughter. When she was six or seven. On the back of the hand, together with a lecture. Out of love. To help her remember.

Once when she dashed across the road without looking when she was in an emotional state. Once when she picked up a kitchen knife and pointed it at her mother. The younger one I never needed to slap.

@nankandamanda

Exactly. Some people think you are just hitting your child out of anger because they aren't listening to you, but in reality it's sometimes they need a little bit more to learn a lesson. So they can associate a little pain with something that they shouldn't do. Like when you tell them not to touch something because it's hot, but they touch it anyway. Once they get burned, odds are they won't touch it again and they'll listen to you the next time you tell them not to touch something. A slap on the hand or a smack on the butt isn't going to cause any damage, but hopefully the sting will make them remember what they did wrong next time they think about doing it.

If you hit an adult, you can get arrested for assault. If you hit a child, the same laws should apply. No one should hit a child.

I did not experience corporal punishment from my parents, and when I went to school the local education authority had banned it, long before corporal punishment was abolished in all schools. My siblings and I are good citizens, as are almost all of my contemporaries. No violence necessary.

I'd have zero problem delivering a few good wallops on his rear end!

And that would be assault.

And this is what's wrong with our kids today. They think that if their parent spanks them, it's assault. He didn't say 'give him a black eye' or 'put his arm in a sling' he said spank him!

"Abuse" is subjective and open to opinion which makes the discussion fairly pointless. More useful is to realize that corporal punishment teaches children that power determines rightness, which is a pretty terrible lesson for a parent to teach.

If my kid ever behaved the way some Japanese kids do in public, like screaming on the supermarket floor because they're told they can't have something, I'd have zero problem delivering a few good wallops on his rear end!

Teachers however, do NOT have the right to mete out physical punishment. Any teacher who dares touch my boy, will be dealt with accordingly!

Yes. And I believe that the parents and teachers who dealt it out often had severe problems of their own.

I'd have zero problem delivering a few good wallops on his rear end!

And that would be assault.

At school, yes. At home, no. Sometimes a child needs a good smack on the butt to learn a lesson, but it should only be done by their parents. Kids get away with too much these days and it's beginning to show in our entitled young adults.

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction drives it far from him. A small bit o' spanking only by parents and only at the right time, and very sparingly does indeed help all involved, spanker and spankee. Not with the hand (never discipline a child with your hand!) either, but a small switch or some such just to bring a bit of sting is all that's needed. My Mom perfectly used a little switch on me as needed, therefore my Dad never had to. Neither did my teachers.