Letter of the Day | The time is ripe to ban corporal punishment

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Another time bomb has exploded on the future and safety of our Jamaican children. Recent news concerning a three-year-old boy being physically abused by his stepfather, which resulted in his face partially damaged, and allegations of harsh corporal punishment being administered by caregivers at the Clifton Boys’ Home in Darliston, Westmoreland, represent a prevailing ill in our Jamaican society to the detriment of our vulnerable children.

When will we wake up from our oblivion and slumber that the establishment of a corporal punishment law is decades overdue? Our children continue to be abused as lambs to the slaughter in the hands of angry, uncaring adults and are in desperate need of comprehensive protection. This legislation is our chance at ensuring legal protection to all categories of children.

Corporal punishment must be banned! What may have served well for many persons years ago is certainly not the sustainable meal for today’s children in the name of discipline. More than the provision of lunch money, schoolbooks, shelter and the strap, rearing children is down to a science. Children are human individuals with emotions that need to be expressed, a brain that processes the environment, reasonable expectation to be loved, communicated with [not barked at], guided and the opportunity to be heard [not silenced]. Children learn and flourish through effective communication, not the strap. Quit dismissing our budding young minds as being rude/bad and candidates for torture, but rather embrace them as possessing a valuable treasure useful for society’s thriving. We must nurture and preserve them. Adults can learn from children as much as adults expect children to learn from them. “And a child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).

Allow me to liken the whole concept of corporal punishment to profit-making in a company. Will a company stand by a failed marketing strategy, yet expect huge profit returns on a particular product? Such company lacks vision and fails in its understanding of the value of the product represented, or better yet, under-represented.

In a fast-advancing world, people evolve towards the concept of what works better for the improvement of lives and living. Therefore, as a nation, it is our responsibility to improve the lives of the Jamaican children and a mouthless, headless/brainless strap is a recurring failed strategy proven to encourage anger, rebellion and poor problem-solving approach. No, the strap does not talk, as some parents love to say, instead many research shows that it creates little monsters and angry birds who later blossom into abusive, emotionally defeated adults.

STRATEGY GOING FORWARD

The strategy going forward for disciplining children must always make room for an understanding of children’s emotional, mental well-being and struggles alike as well as taking into consideration how the home and school environment impacts certain psychosocial behaviours. The truth is this, many parents have suffered harsh realities as children and need drastic help themselves.

A drowning man can hardly [if ever] save a drowning man. Yet, even where we are drowning in our own past trauma and fears, let us not take our children with us, lest we plunge the next generation into an even darker hole while we claim to be helping them become better with the aid of the useless strap, strap buckle or blunt object. Parents, stop hiding behind your inability to parent properly and get help!

We have wasted enough time watching our children die daily. Let us show our children that we really care about their safety and future. We desperately need a law against corporal punishment.

CONCERNED PARENT