Cristofer Martinez  

ENG 170 

Boyle 

14 February 2022 

 

Is Hitting an Okay Form of Discipline? 

Spanking/hitting is a method of discipline that is normalized in many homes. Some think that it can be beneficial to a certain extent while others think that it causes behavioral issues and problems. The issue lies to what extent it is no longer considered discipline and when it is considered abuse. Hitting was so normalized that it was even a form of discipline in schools for a while. It was not until 1977 in Ingraham V. Wright that the supreme court ruled spanking constitutional which meant each state made up its own rules when it came to disciplining children in schools. Most states no longer allow corporal punishment today except for 19 states. I believe that hitting as a form of discipline is unethical and not okay.  

The question at hand is “Is hitting an okay form of Discipline?” To start with physical discipline can cause many issues in a child such as aggression. Children can begin to think that hitting is okay and might copy the behavior. It shows them that if they do not like what someone is doing, they can hit them to stop them. It can also cause relationships to diminish between the child and the person disciplining them. This issue can be long-lasting. The last issue it can cause of course is it can escalate to abuse. The purpose of my research is to figure out when physical discipline turns into abuse. A more general and grander question that could be answered through the research is “Is physical discipline ethical?”  

I will delve into different articles and resources to research this topic. I want to get points of view from professionals, parents, and children on physical discipline and their thoughts on it. My topic is important because I feel like physical discipline is still normalized to this day. It can happen in public settings and sometimes people do not look let alone say anything. Hitting a child should not be okay, they are delicate and a lot smaller than adults. My target audience is mainly parents, but I also want to target people who work with children in general such as daycare workers, teachers, etc. It can be helpful information for them to know and it could even allow them to notice things in the children that they are working with. My goal for my parent audience is to learn from my research and change their parenting methods to something more ethical.  

 

Reflection: 

The topic in itself was not very hard to come up with a thesis for. The brainstorming process was pretty easy for me. I like to just write everything in my head about the topic on a page and then begin to organize. The hardest part about writing this research paper was that I’m not very interested in the topic I am writing about. I was getting stuck a lot of the time because I couldn’t think of anything to write about, I couldn’t even meet the word count.  I’m not passionate about the topic at all, I was just writing just to get it done. I think that I did a good job in getting my point across and explaining why my topic is important and relevant. My weakest point was structuring my paper. I feel like there are points in my paper that are messy and not well organized.