Side-effects of corporal punishment in schools

The act is an official punishment that provides an immediate discipline for the misbehaviour or indiscipline of school students. It serves the purpose and lets the child know that there are limits and certain expectations as to their behaviour, giving a sense of what will and will not be expected in an educational environment.

Although the purpose remains officially justifiable, is it a destructive practice or a useful action to spank a child if he/she breaks school rules? Making students act in a matured/responsible manner and to help them behave properly could be the whole point of the act. Howbeit, on the flip side, research and news show that corporal punishment in schools would lead to bullying, suicidal thoughts, loneliness and depression, low self-esteem among the students.

Side-effects of corporal punishment in schools

Read on to find some common negative effects of physical punishment on students-

Fear:

Corporal punishments can create a mind-set of fear in a student. Rule by fear may rule out the student's life, if it is inculcated as mere punishment. Out of fear, he/she would try to perform well and not out of sheer interest to learn and grow. Fear paralyzes student's mind, as not to exercise their creativity up to maximum extent, in their own right.

Low-esteem:

Students develop an attitude to avoid a challenge even without trying. And they tend to quit easily. He/she becomes inflexible, by ways of hiding their feelings of frustration and inadequacy. Making self-critical comments such as "I am good at nothing", "Why am I not important?", "I am such a failure", would become a part of the student's character.

Loneliness:

When students get punished in class in the presence of their classmates, it leads to shame and embarrassment for them to attract other students. The punished student will start to seem like the bad boy/girl type who is into trouble. So, they're left alone. Loneliness cripples their character, making it a dark spot in their mind.

Depression:

To continue further, corporal punishment and loneliness leads to depression. When a person becomes depressed, he/she is considered to be lonely as having no one close to them to talk or listen to.

Suicidal thoughts:

Depression in turn ignites suicidal thoughts. And the rest is imaginable. The last thought on a student's mind is to end his/her course of life, and it all began with the corporal punishment in the name of discipline.

Physical punishment may have long-term negative effects. Nevertheless, there are effective alternatives to corporal punishment. They help children tolerate pressure and frustrations, help them behave in socially acceptable ways, teach them to learn and practice ethical and moral standards, and improve self-esteem gradually. Some alternate ways to provide parents and caregivers with greater understanding of children's well-being are like - teach by example, spend quality time, improve on communicating rightly by listening, talking, and by explaining your reasons and so on.