LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The spanking argument

Tuesday,  October 18, 2005

Dear Sir,

I see that this has taken up much space over recent weeks and although a newcomer to the Cayman Islands and this is my first correspondence to a newspaper I can no longer resist putting in my two cents worth.

Spanking or smacking is still violence and while I appreciate that sometimes it may seem like the best solution, it unfortunately reinforces the idea that violence is the means by which we achieve what we want. A parent gets a child to behave by hitting that child.

Consequently the learned behaviour is violence achieves one’s goal. No matter the temptation, no matter the fact of it doing any long term harm etc. it sends out a wrong message that society should not wish to foster

I doubt most children who are gently slapped, spanked or smacked were permanently damaged, but their parents also had the doubly hard task of teaching them that violence is wrong at the same time as perpetuating it.
That’s all I got on this one but just had to make my point.

Yours – entering in to the spirit of the debate

L. Clarke

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