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My philosophy regarding spanking or no spanking is that if it is going to be your last resort in punishing a child for unacceptable behavior, do not do it in anger. My advice to parents and significant others in the life of children is that we must not confuse these three important concepts - Discipline, Guidance, and Punishment - when dealing with children.

Regarding corporal punishment: Part of the challenge in the debate over the biblical admonition to "spare the rod, spoil the child" is the misunderstanding of the "rod". It isn't used in the context of beating the child. The rod was the crooked J shaped staff a shepherd used to protect his sheep. It was used to fend off animals that would harm the sheep and to provide a nudge of direction to create boundaries as the sheep herd moved. It also was used by the shepherd to bring a strong-headed sheep into the fold... the sheep who continued to wander would have it's one leg broken by the shepherd to make the sheep stay close and be dependent on the shepherd as he tended to the sheep in order to keep him safe. I am not suggesting that we break children's legs- please make the correlation to the guidance that should be given to children to create boundaries, keep them safe, and teach them the way they should go.

There are few resources avialble for children with challenging behavior, caregivers need to trained to handle this in the classroom. parents should be offered classes in parenting. child abuse/ spanking are strong words.parents themselves should learn about the emotinal dev. of the child and seek help when necessary. Life is short. It is our obligation to assist and guide the child. I hope parents/ caregivers take an active role in this area.

I get so tired of people saying a simple swat on the bottom is VIOLENT! There are some cases where a child needs more than a soft tone and time out! There is a huge difference between abuse or violence and "spanking" when necessary. It should be used carefully and rarely, but it can be beneficial at times too. EVERY child learns and develops differently, RIGHT? So how can punishment all be the same for all children?? It needs to be a case by case thing. I am sure we have many smart people in the world maybe even a few doctors, scholars, teachers, etc... out there that have been "spanked" as a children and they turned out fine. We baby the children and give them their way too much that is why we have so many young adults in the world that "kick and scream" if things are not as they feel they should be. If we treat/punish everyone exactly the same all the time, how are we developing individuals? We can not shelter kids from everything and expect them to prosper in the world we send them into. There are times we need them to see behavior has consequences and sometimes it has to be harsh. Otherwise, we are not doing them any good as parents.

Sad to say CP is also sanctioned by several states and district schools-North Carolina being one.

I believe that parents of out of control kids need more resources and access to child behavior programs.

www.thetotaltransformation.com

Now see, it's articles like this that damage the credibility of ECE. That is such a leap of logic to assume that spanking 1) causes lower IQ and 2) cessation of spanking will raise IQ. Maybe these are countries with generally lower IQs to begin with and that's why the parents are not smarrt enough to use alternative disciplines; then they pass those lower IQs to their offspring in their genes, not in their spankings. Who knows? Not the authors of this research.

Is it possible that there is a difference in children's behaviors, positive emotional development (I don't know what self-esteem means any more) and IQs when they are raised by parents who take the time to communicate high expectations, and have consistent follow-through with their responses so that children can reasonably predict consequences AND parents who beat a child on the bottom as a first response OR parents who do not respond to their child's negative behavior choices with much more than a mild smile? Well, yeah.

The term corporal punishment is applied too strictly to too wide a range of physical responses to be of much use. As Educators we need to understand adult response as it relates to environment and parent education - the choice to spank a noisy child is much less urgent in a mansionette then it is in a small apartment with thin walls and a disapproving landlord who is waiting for reasons to evict. And a smack on the bottom applied to a child running into traffic after three verbal warnings seems much less abusive than a tuned-out smirk and the screech of breaks.

I think we can all agree that punitive physicality from an adult to a child is not an optimal response. But do we criminalize it? We would do well to try to understand context rather than apply labels as we educate adults to more efficacious methods.

I would love to see PROOF that this is true.
I know I wont get it. Because you dont have any. Its just your opinion of it. Know what I've seen from mothers who dont spank? Misbehaved and Out of Control kids! The moms are stressed and dont know what to do with themselves because they dont listen. Yes there is a difference between spanking your child and actually beating them. with spanking you do it in a calm manner and always remind the child they are loved and they were DISCIPLINED because of something they did. When a parent loses control (and I find its usually the ones who would never believe in spankings) they end up doing it out of anger and cross the line.
Instead you should be teaching parents how to exercise this form of discipline PROPERLY. Both my girls excel academically and in physical activities. they are well mannered and know how to interact in a respectful manner with adults as well as with children. my children do not hit other children and they stand up for those who need a helping hand. I've known a lot of people who are in excellent standing in their professional works and they've grown up with spankings. I've seen people who have gone without spankings in EQUAL jobs or situations who are IGNORANT and OBNOXIOUS among many other things, just plainly unpleasant. I would rather my children be humble and down to earth that being jerks to everyone else just because their parents were afraid to discipline their child.

My parents came from a country where even the schools were allowed to spank the kids as teachers are considered the children's second parents. And guess what? grade 6 work over there is grade 11 work in America! what does that tell you?
they are also more respectful of their teachers and dont believe cutting class is fun.

Wow! From the article it appears that this information is factual, yet in the first couple pages alone there are statements such as:
32 cases is not large enough to permit using the most rigorous statistical methods. Consequently the results presented must be regarded as PRELIMINARY.

In the first papragraph entitled "Corporal Punishment and Cognitive Ability" the THEORY that there is less verbal interaction by parents that use CP is not cited as information from any study. Rather, it seems that it is an asumption that parents using CP do not talk with the children regarding the behavior.

I'm disappointed in the way this information was presented.

Did you stop to think that this correlation may also correlate with parent IQ. The use of corporal punishment may or may not have an effect on IQ, but that should not be the reasoning in supporting laws that prohibit it. The lessons that are learned by children through the use of CP are a much better reason to do away with such treatment. CP depletes self-esteem, teaches that status allows for physical domination and increases instances of bullying. There are much better ways of teaching our children what is acceptable behavior. Teaching children what is acceptable begins at birth and should be continuous and consistant. It may vary for individual children, families and cultures. Many times the CP is abusive both physically and emotionally. The article was very weak in showing any real correlation to IQ, and should not be used to support the idea that CP is wrong. Better research should be done if this is the point trying to be supported.

I enjoy receiving Exchange Every Day, and I read nearly every one. The title of today's edition caught my eye: "Spanking Lowers IQ". I am familiar with some of the research, and I was surprised to see Exchange promote the information as a causal relationship. It's difficult to encapsulate an entire theory, research summary or public policy agenda in a paragraph or two. It is impossible in three words. A better title for today could have been "Does spanking lead to lower IQ?"

We (ECE Professionals) need to build up our professionalism and a great place to start is through the promotion of quality study and research. We should not engage in this tabloid practice of claiming that one particular action determines the downfall or success of a society. Regardless of where one is on the issue, it is reckless and foolish to make these claims.

I've always considered Exchange a valuable resource in my profession, and I think today's "Every Day" title is a fluke. I have no personal agenda with today's topic, and I am glad Exchange covers a wide range of ideas and theories. However, please, for the sake of our profession, consider the implications of lighting the match of causality in the middle of the professional woods. I doubt today's article will do much more than fuel a fire on each side of the philosophical fence.

Exchange, please help us strengthen our profession by continuing to offer a wide range of tips, tricks, information and ideas. However, please do so in a responsible way. Words are powerful. We can educate professionals, without eroding professionalism.

Correlation does not equal causality... Just because two things happen at the same time (spanking & lower IQ) doesn't mean that one causes the other. There could be a number of other factors that affect IQ as well.

If there are studies that show this, they should be cited in the article as well.

I'm disappointed in this article. It gives absolutely no evidence and merely sites a correlational study. Just telling us that higher numbers of parents using corporal punishment happen to occur in countries with lower average IQ does not tell us WHY the correlation occurs. Maybe the opinion against corporal punishment comes with a Western education, for example. Regardless of your opinion on corporal punishment, this is poor science and a rather weak article. The media needs to stop running with studies that are not conclusive and wait for further research to actually provide evidence!