Many parents use punishment to teach their kids the differences between right and wrong. They think punishment is necessary in helping them learn the distinction. To what extent do you agree or disagree with these parents? What kind of punishments would you recommend?
Educating the children is a headache for many young parents. Some of them resort to punishment in order to hammer home some lessons to their kids. As far as I am concerned, while there are numerous other ways to educate a child, punishment is sometimes necessary.
It is true that commendation and incentives in return for good behavior can also help the child distinguish the right from the wrong. Yet by doing so, parents will be sending a misleading message to the kids that wrongdoings do not lead to punishment. Consequently, the kids never learn the lessons. Punishment is preferable because it leaves deep impressions on the wrongdoers. Such is human nature that we all strive to attain happiness in life and avoid pain and suffering; the latter is often the strongest driving force behind our behaviors. As often as not, we are willing to sacrifice happiness simply to minimize our ordeals. Thus punishment is more effective than any other disciplinary approach. Without the deterrent of punishment, the incentive may have little effect because the benefits that kids gain from behaving wrongly can be much more tempting than the award offered by their parents.
Given that punishment is essential in shaping a child's character, how can we do it properly? Physical punishment is out of the question because for one thing, children are too young to take full responsibility for their misbehaviors, for another, punishing children with violence will only lead to more violence, fear and traumas. It must be remembered that the purpose of punishment is not to hurt the kid, but rather, to point out the mistake and prevent further recurrence or relapse. In fact, there are some kinds of harmless punishment that can carry the lessons home. For example, parents can forbid them to do things they really like such as playing games, watching TV, or going to parties, or make them do some housework like washing the dishes for a month. I believe these types of punishment will touch their soul instead of merely their bodies and thus can be more effective.
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