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The
Center for the Improvement of Child Caring is proud to announce that
its founder and executive director, Dr. Kerby T. Alvy, has started a
new series of articles on his blog, The Parenting Doc, where he will
be indicating the many reasons why we as a society "must stop
hitting children."
Here's
what he has to say in the first article which appears today, October
14, 2009:
"With
this article, I am starting a new series on why it is so important
to stop hitting children, whether at home, school or any other
place.
This series is based on a fundamental and simple
value: people are not for hitting and children are people
too.
This basic value about what is not acceptable in human
relations is at the core of these articles. A corollary to this
value is that there are many nonviolent and effective ways of to
gain the cooperation and respect of children, and that these can and
should be taught to everyone who raises and works with
children.
This
series is also based on the deliberations of international
organizations who advocate for the abolition of all forms of
physical punishment with children, including the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child. These articles will also
reflect and share the mountain of research evidence that points to
both the social injustice and ultimate destructiveness of using
physical punishment to discipline children.
In
my latest book for parents, The NEW Confident Parenting, which I wrote with my
colleague, Dr. Camilla A. Clarke, an entire chapter is devoted to
the findings of hundreds of research studies that document how
destructive and ineffective physical punishment ultimately is. This
chapter appears at the end of the book after having demonstrated
numerous effective and nonviolent ways of obtaining and maintaining
the respect and cooperation of children.
The
chapter on physical punishment makes the point that many people
continue to believe in and make use of physical punishment because
they believe it really works. That is because, in some instances and
in the short run, it does work in stopping children from engaging in
behaviors that make us adults uncomfortable. But the vast majority
of studies that follow children for years find that the use of
physical punishment, and especially physical punishment that happens
frequently and harshly, results in numerous negative consequences,
including life long mental, physical, sexual and interpersonal
problems.
While
very few people believe that hitting children so hard that bruises
and broken bones happen -- here the hurt is too obvious to overlook
-- most people are simply unaware of the insidious, hidden damage
that physical punishment leaves in its wake.
Subsequent
articles in this series will present the findings of these studies
in greater detail, including studies that have been done after I and
Dr. Clarke wrote The NEW Confident Parenting. The second article
will define physical punishment.
Your comments are
appreciated and will be responded to."
You can receive
all the articles in this exciting series by subscribing to The
Parenting Doc by clicking here.
Center
for the Improvement of Child Caring
6260 Laurel Canyon Blvd.,
Suite 304
North Hollywood,
California 91606
(800)
325-2422
www.ciccparenting.org | 