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Re: [Phys-L] Corporal punishment



I may indulge in self-flagellation after reading all the crap that's been posted today.

Bob at PC

________________________________________
From: phys-l-bounces@mail.phys-l.org [phys-l-bounces@mail.phys-l.org] on behalf of John Clement [clement@hal-pc.org]
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 1:46 AM
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Subject: [Phys-L] Corporal punishment

Well, when I make a statement, I get compulsive about looking for evidence.
I have seen any number of articles about this and here is a site that quotes
some studies that you can look for:

http://www.naturalchild.org/research/corporal_punishment.html

And here is another site:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100809111232.htm

I already knew that it increases aggressive behavior, but the effect on IQ
was a new finding. The increase in disobedience is something that I would
expect.

But again, people who have been subject to corporal punishment tend to
approve of it, and I suspect that they had an influence on the party
platform that I referenced. Why don't those people look at the relevant
research rather than just coming up with biased opinions?

This is not physics, but it is cognitive science, and as educators we need
to be aware of cog. Sci. results. How it impinges on our classrooms can be
debated. For example do grades have a similar effect to corporal
punishment? If so what would we replace them with? I would note that in
Japan, the lower grades do 100% social promotion and individual grades are
not given. As I recall there is something similar in Finland for the lower
grades. So individual grades may be harmful for young children, but they
are probably necessary at higher levels.

So it does bear a relationship to education.

I have never seen any research that shows that corporal punishment has a
positive effect. I would suspect that a small infrequent slap would not
count, but a hard spanking would count as corporal punishment.

None of this research as far as I can tell deals with self-esteem.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


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