First, Do No Harm
EDU150
Jared T. Byrd
March 11, 2010
Here’s an interesting happenstance. The very media focus we discussed in our Tuesday presentation on violence finds its way into the Thursday presentation on Abuse. While the story of the systematic, violent, physical abuse of Baby P is offensive to the spirit and arouses an awareness of the mistreatment of children, the story itself falls outside of the purview of educators. This child was beaten to death before he had a chance to attend school.
The choice of this story is sensationalist and designed to have a strong emotional impact. It does not have as much relevance as the story of a child who is smacked by a parent everyday for forgetting his chores while working on a project. It doesn’t have the relevance of a child who has no resources at home to work on a class project, or who has no adult to ask about things they learned in class because the parent is never available.
This kind of story will have one looking for horrors, and ignoring subtle, damaging effects with no physical scarring. Physical abuse will damage the body, but it is mental abuse that will destroy a person. Even in such cases where there is physical harm, it is the emotional effect that is lasting. It doesn’t matter where an adult strikes a child, if they do so to express to the child that they are worthless, powerless, weak, or if it’s to further establish the dominance of the adult over the child, or for no expressed reason whatsoever, the psychological effects are the real seated damage. Bruising will heal, even broken bones will mend, but the feeling of worthlessness and powerlessness can haunt. A child may strike out at others out of a need to feel some sort of empowerment, or they may retreat inward, attempting nothing because they feel they are worthy of nothing.
There has been a movement in this country against corporal punishment. Striking a child, they say, for any reason, is abusive and wrong. This is naïve and short-sighted. Pain, temporary and without harm, can establish negative consequences with wrongdoing. It is vital, however, that the nature of the punishment be clear to both the child and adult. It is vital that emotional harm is not inflicted. Utilizing corporal punishment without anger or harmful words is a difficult thing, and far beyond too many parents. Like many other proposals, the movement against corporal punishment is meant to be a blanket treatment for a problem too delicate for federal mandate.