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“Punishment” more painful than its sounds

By: Farah Charania

Giving punishment to children in the school is an established practice in educational institutes of Pakistan. One of the situations that I encountered was a girl of 7 standard .She developed anxiety and fear of attending school, whenever she was not able to complete her work, when some time she talks in the class or when she is unable to understand certain concepts, in these situations she was made to stand at the end of her class room with her hands up. As a result she has lost her interest in studies. I had seen her scolding her small cousins and giving them same punishment when she observes that they are doing things against her wishes.

People perceive these punishments as the key to educate children discipline. This perception is not a reality but is myth. Media and news paper regularly highlights the need for avoiding corporal punishment or the physical punishment given to the children in the schools. Corporal punishment is the intentional infliction of pain or discomfort and/or the use of physical force upon a student in order to stop or change behavior (Hyman & Perone, 1998). Forms of physical punishment that are commonly been seen are slapping cheeks, hitting children on their hands with sticks, child being hit on his or her buttocks, has to kneel down on the floor for long durations and when the child has to stand on the desk of classroom . But these punishments can be harsh and abusive according to different setting and places.

The false rationale that arises in our population’s mind is, why to avoid this punishment that is being traditionally given to the children in schools. As far as my observation is, the perception in people’s mind is that through these punishments teachers control children in the class; it’s easy to make them discipline and enhance their moral character, or increase the teacher’s respect in student’s eyes. But no one realizes the consequences. These punishments may affect psychology of children in many ways; they may adversely affect their performance in academics and daily life activities.

Discipline is the guidance of children’s moral, emotional and physical development, enabling children to take responsibility for them when they are older (Holden 2002, Wissow 2002). It involves teaching children the boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, and it makes them aware of the values and actions that are acceptable in their family and society where as Physical or corporal punishment is the use of force to cause pain, but not injury, for the purpose of correction or control (Straus and Stewart 1999). Therefore teachers have to change their perception of making child disciplined because an individual is not disciplined only when he or she is been artificially silent as a mute and is immovable as a paralytic .But a child should be given liberty that they may able to learn from their mistakes and were able to express themselves.

Recent case highlighted by media occurred in Multan, was that an eight-year-old girl was beaten so harshly by her teacher that she had to be hospitalized .This is one condition only, media and newspaper are full of such real life situations in which children had left schools or had harmed other children or even themselves or gone in depression because of so called punishments that are according to most of teacher’s assumption are made for enhancing discipline in children. It is being wisely said that human beings learn from their mistakes. But when these small children make mistakes they are badly punished that in my opinion is more of physical abuse than an act for improving child’s behavior and it seems as everyone knows how to teach children except those who teach them.

Another boy who was badly beaten by his teacher with a wooden stick now had left school and had developed a kind of school phobia. Who is responsible for the future of that child?

Other negative side effects of the punishments are running away; being truant; fear of teachers or school; feeling high levels of anxiety, helplessness and humiliation; and being aggressive or destructive at home and school (Griffin, Robinson & Carpenter, 2000).

According to research done by David Benatar (1998) Corporal Punishment is psychologically damaging, as it teaches the child that violence is an appropriate way to settle disagreements. So it’s clearly reflected that the more physical punishment will be used, the more disobedient and aggressive the children will be.

For a teacher its important to know that Physical punishment is related with increased child aggression, antisocial behavior, lower intellectual achievement, poorer quality of parent–child relationships, mental health problems (such as depression), and above mentioned side effects. Good behaviors and discipline in an student can also being achieved with other alternatives for example effective discipline can be achieved by using simple instructions rather than punishment. According to Arcus, 2002; Owen, 2005; Robinson et al., Society for Adolescent Medicine, (2003) Physical punishment has negative effects on children outcomes, especially if it is harsh, regardless of culture. Students are more likely to experience corporal punishment if they are poor, male, of ethnic minority status, or live within specific regions.

According to research done by Andero & Stewart, 2002; Owen, 2005; Society for Adolescent Medicine, Corporal punishment does not produce long-lasting changes in behavior, negatively effects the social, psychological and educational development of students, contributes to the cycle of child abuse, and promotes pro-violence attitudes of youth.

Being a nurse I would prefer that School psychologists or the school nurses can take leadership roles to encourage school districts to ban corporal punishment, develop effective discipline programs as alternatives, and correct misperceptions that support the use of corporal punishment. Consequently we would be able to give children a better learning environment in the school and would able to produces citizen who are not only better professionals but also they have better personalities and decision making powers.


“Mistakes are natural part of growing up. Children bloom like spring and flower under praise they want so much to be noticed and appreciated, to excel and have the excellence noticed”.