Pro-Active Parenting WA
A Brief History of Corporal Punishment and the Act of Spanking
Corporal punishments use has a long, branching, and thus, mysterious background. The most common form includes striking a child, specifically on their buttocks, whilst pain and humiliation train them away from activities deserving of this treatment at the hands of the perpetrator. What people fail to realize is that this was never once a tried and true practice. This stems from a far more barbaric time where decency was anything but moral or ethical by our modern standards. Prisoners, children, wives, naval officers, and employees were all whipped and beaten for their transgressions. Why only children now?
SPARTA
Spartan boys used to be whipped and beaten across the back to toughen them up, immunize them from pain, and build character. The Spartans were definitely the fiercest adversaries a foe could face on the battlefield, but some of the most brutal characters, blindly obedient. They would kill their own family if their patriarch commanded it. We should strive from adherence these ancient and barbaric mannerisms. While many fear that the absence of force would lead to the "wussification of America", we can remind them, more politely than a swift kick to the chest, that the purpose was never to toughen them up and that force weakens them physically and mentally. We currently do not live in this time frame and our children are not drafted straight from the breast into the military.
JUDICIAL PUNISHMENT
Corporal punishment used to be administered to some of our lowest offenders. Theft, fraud, freedom of expression, you name it. It would include stoning, whipping, caning, and the like. Prisoners were also assigned posts to stand at for public humiliation and some were also offered signs. These practices are currently considered to be cruel and unusual against our most dangerous offenders, but our children suffer them daily. Even lethal injections have to be performed humanely so as to present as little pain as possible. The use of corporal punishment against our offenders was disenfranchised due to the presence of more effective methods of control, an abundance of which are available for our children.
NAVAL FLOGGING
Flogging was used in the military to punish sailors for their transgressions. However, this was never done with the intent of making them “respectful” and it was never questioned whether or not caning, paddling or whipping was good for them. It was always understood to be detrimentally harmful to the grown men it was executed against. The act was performed for submission to their rule, to gain power over them, and make men fearful of mutiny. "Sea dogs" they were called. It wasn't until much later that the use of a strip of wood from a barrel was used against a mans lower half, "No Hits Below The Belt" having otherwise protected them. But this was long after blows were already administered here to children. Victorians and their predecessors believed that children were otherwise sexless, an advanced understanding of anatomy corrects this. Many reputable captains remarked in historic diaries that the use of force made for lesser sailors and worse men, much like the use of force against our more vulnerable children.
PAGAN RITE OF PASSAGE
Many attribute the origins of corporal punishment to the Pagan rites of passage. This is where it is believed that customary spankings hold their origins, such as the birthday and fraternity varieties. The recipients, however, were grown adults and volunteered for the practice. It is well understood that the churches have adopted many Pagan rituals for themselves, the Catholic church being an example. Consenting action of an informed adult is not justification for a child's unwilling and unaware participation, though.
RELIGION
The Catholic church, whilst having a notorious history with children, used corporal punishment as atonement of sins following a confession. This was used on women who were willing participants before turning its usage on teenaged girls. Priests and bishops worldwide would flog themselves to pure themselves of evil. Puritans believed that man was tainted with the original sins of Adam and Eve and thus needed to be purged physically. There's no longer a question of whether or not force eliminates a tangible sin; it simply does not. Modernized religions commonly practiced in the states do not adhere to these beliefs any more. Unfortunately, it was not modernized religion that once ruled the world or influenced our behavior, and without separation of the state, included forcing their beliefs upon us in our schools.
Quintilian (c.35 – c.100) wrote an early condemnation towards the use of corporal punishment.
“By that boys should suffer corporal punishment, though it is received by custom, and Chrysippus makes no objection to it, I by no means approve; first, because it is a disgrace, and a punishment fit for slaves, and in reality (as will be evident if you imagine the age change) an affront; secondly, because, if a boy's disposition be so abject as not to be amended by reproof, he will be hardened, like the worst of slaves, even to stripes; and lastly, because, if one who regularly exacts his tasks be with him, there will not be the need of any chastisement...Besides, after you have coerced a boy with stripes, how will you treat him when he becomes a young man, to whom such terror cannot be held out, and by whom more difficult studies must be pursued? Add to these considerations, that many things unpleasant to be mentioned, and likely afterwards to cause shame, often happen to boys while being whipped, under the influence of pain or fear; and such shame enervates and depresses the mind, and makes them shun people's sight and feel constant uneasiness ... scandalously unworthy men may abuse the privilege of punishing, and what opportunity also the terror of the unhappy children may sometimes afford others.” (Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, 1856 edition, I, III)
Plutarch, also first century, was noted for this summary: “This also I assert, that children ought to be led to honorable practices by means of encouragement and reasoning, and most certainly not by blows or ill-treatment, for it surely is agreed that these are fitting rather for slaves than for the free-born; for so they grow numb and shudder at their tasks, partly from the pain of the blows, partly from the degradation. Praise and reproof are more helpful for the free-born than any sort of ill-usage, since the praise incites them toward what is honorable, and reproof keeps them from what is disgraceful."
INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE
Mental institutions used to adhere to the cane for use against misbehaving patients. This was later removed from their establishments for three reasons; 1. It was deemed inhumane, which it is, unless against a child. 2. It was obviously not treating an impairment which spurred the misdeed, and 3. It aggravated their conditions. Unfortunately, the last two are two of the most forgotten. Too many times when someone is impaired and misbehaving on the surface as a result, it is "an ass whuppin'" that aggravates and creates these disorders, but is a suggested to cure them instead.
INSTITUTIONAL ABUSEpt2
Schools nationwide took the paddle and other weapons out of their classrooms where they were once commonplace. Why? Because they identified that it was damaging to students, did not help them learn, and exhausted what resources they had to study, otherwise making it harder. If only the 19 states that still use corporal punishment in schools and the 50 states that still allow it in the home would understand this as good reason not to use assault as an "educational tool".
MARITAL CHASTISEMENT
Legalized domestic violence was not only used against children. Until recently in history (given the thousands of years we have to account for), the act of corporal punishment was also tolerable in the field of spousal discipline, and was legally and socially condoned.
Much like the anecdotes we perpetuate today regarding the physical punishments of children, a common saying and old English proverb went as followed; “The Spaniel, the wife and the walnut tree, the more they are beaten, the better they be”. We no longer question whether or not a wife is better for a beating, having protected these women from the legal right for their husbands to strike them. To this day however, our equally human and more fragile children are still told that physical punishment makes them better adjusted. The absence of corporal punishment is strongly denoted as being the reason for delinquencies in youth. We have never, nor will any sane person ever, suggest unfaithful strong willed wives to be at the stem of the loss of marital correction.
The laws also reflected what we have in society today, the means in which chastisement was legal. “Moderate and reasonable force” being the term that applied not only then, but now with our children. There was a widespread lack of knowledge as to when correction could legally be applied to your wife, not unlike today, and an even further misunderstanding of “moderate and reasonable” chastisement. This is subjective in the eye of the beholder. What one judge deems to be reasonable and moderate, another will not, and worse off, what the punisher finds acceptable despite countering opinion and what the punished has no choice but to participate in.
“In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master-the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement” I do not personally believe birth to be a covenant, depriving our most innocent of their liberty. Despite actions of the pro-spank community, they also do not view it this way. Otherwise, we would end the practice... right? The law did not only change because we slowly and surely gave women the freedom to vote. The law changed majorly due to the amount of abuse cases that the courts were presented with. An amassing amount of abuse cases currently exist in our communities today and the victim is our future. We are amongst the highest in abuse cases per capita and the highest of any industrialized nation for abuse related deaths.