It makes me turn red with fury when I hear news such as this. A survey conducted in United Kingdom shockingly states that one in five teachers feel that students should be caned to discipline them. Not just that, closer home, four school children were severely beaten by their teachers at a Gurukul in Bhuj. And in Delhi, another teacher caned a few students that resulted in one being admitted to a hospital with back injuries, while three others received minor injuries.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child says NO to corporal punishment. In many places, hitting children has been completely banned such as in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Cyprus, Croatia, Latvia, Germany, Italy, Israel etc. Yet, cases such as this come to light. My question is that some people seriously believe that they can benefit children by physical punishment. At the most, it will instill fear in the minds of young children which is not conducive to their growth. If hitting dogs is against ethics for many, fail to understand how can hitting children be acceptable?
What are the values do we want our children to learn- is it that powerful ones have a power and a right to hit the one in the subservient position. If violence is bad then there is no good violence. It might sound far fetched to many, but I would say that what our children learn in the early years of their lives goes a long way in building their personality, thoughts and way of life. Will these children not do violence, not plant bombs, and not murder people when they think they are on the right side? After all, their own teachers taught them that physical violence is not a bad thing if done for a good purpose.
Tags: Austria, corporal punishment, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Rights of the Child, Sweden, teachers, united nations, violence