201421559 Seo Hyeon Ji

Please, Do not Confuse the Concept of the Discipline and the Physical Punishment.

If there is a correct answer to a certain problem, do you allow violence as

mean to persuade to other party? With the following example, think about why
people couldnt resolve their conflict in the simple way: violence. The cold war had
been ended with the Soviet collapse. If the president of the U.S. believed that the
capitalism is more practical ideology than communism, why he did maintain the state
of tension? What if that the Ronal Reagan hit Mikhail Segeyvich Gorbachyov on the
head, claiming that his was right? Could the cold war over earlier, not waiting the
collapse of Soviet Union? No one would agree with this idea. U.S. President Reagan
the representative of capitalism federal couldnt concur with the thought of
Gorbachyov, who is the chief of the opposite party. He might not stand contact with
the different view from him, and his nation. However, Reagan didnt hit Gorbachyov
because of it. He might concern about the physical conflict, the war, however, there
is an ultimate premise; they respect each other as a head of the state, furthermore, a
human being likes them. They have already realized that violence is meaningless to
communicate and persuade the other party.
The process of persuading someone is similar to manner of teaching children
how to act properly. Since they havent realized in the standard of the society,
children often do behave oddly that adults cant understand. Parents should
inculcate them to do the correct action which fits in their own society. In this context,
inculcating doesnt mean we are allowed to hit them. Then why do we inflict
corporal punishment on the error of children? It might leave the huge trauma

throughout the life of children. If the idea of children is discrepant to what society
requires, we should honor their personalities. An absolute standard and repressive
attitude from the adult cant directly change the value of children. Physical
punishment cant refer to a discipline method for children. Child abuser must try to
justify their criminal act using the concept of it. In addition, the existence of concrete
alternatives for children can be the grounds to oppose the physical punishment.
On one hand, we should pay attention to the negative side that the physical
punishment itself connotes. Physical punishment is usually hiding under the guise of
educational method; however, it must be considered as a synonym of family
violence, and child abuse. Although the definition of violence and abuse can be apply
to family members, the corporal punishment, especially committed in Korean society,
is often out of the awareness. Its because the traditional perspective of Korean
embrace the violence as training. Parents who beat sons and daughters usually
regard children as their possessions and believe that they naturally have the right to
decide the life of children (Yi, 98). Likewise, the traditional Korean families value the
hierarchy. Numerous behavior patterns were injected to children as the proprieties,
disallowing any exception. The action which is passed the bounds of the very
proprieties was regarded as departure and wrongdoing. The false move of children
so-called a target of correction was forcibly stopped by a physical punishment of
adults.
These corrections should be carefully considered, because every individual
has a difference in cognizance to the concept of them. Kim (96-113) did a various
research including the attitude of family violence toward their children, and the
degree of the real punishment case. There were 531 respondents who have children
under 18. 476 of them (89.6%) responded that they are supporting corporal

punishment, and 55 of them (10.4%) deny doing punishment. That is, about 9 out of
10 of people have a positive attitude to punishment of children. Kim also researched
how many parents did the real punishment to their children. He subdivided the level
of the punishment: punishment, slight violence, severe violence. The results stated
that the real case of punishment and slight violence have correlation with necessity
recognition of punishment, however, in the severe violence level doesnt showed
meaningful interrelation. In the case of parents who supported the punishment, 74%
of them did a punishment, 49% of them did a slight violence with their hands or feet.
And only 6.7% of them did severe violence with threatening tools. In an event of
parents who denied the punishment, 18% of them did a punishment, 17% of them
did a slight violence, and 2% of them did severe violence to their children. With these
results, we can realize that not everyone has the same idea about the corporal
punishment of children. Thats why we should consider if we leave the discipline
matter absolutely in the hand of parents. Some parents take beating children with
belt for granted, while the others face it as severe treatment and children abuse. If
we do not set clear criteria, the harsh mistreatment can be naturally committed under
the name of discipline.
Moreover, these negative experiences of childhood could leave a trauma
across the childs life. According to YTN news of Korea (2016, May 11), the 12-yearold girl who has escaped from the house of abuse shows poor learning ability, and
has eating disorders as the aftereffect of ill-treatment. As seen in this example,
children who are mistreated suffer mental anguish as well as personal injury. Kim
(2016, Feb 4) introduces another tragic case. The 13-year-old girl had passed away,
and police presume the cause of death as a traumatic shock from a child abuse.
Whats more serious is that the fear of domestic violence can be handed down

across the generations. Kim (96-97) mentioned that 92.2% of the people who
harmed hard measures in their childhood have positive attitude to physical
punishment toward their own children. This result suggests that the victim of family
violence has a great possibility to be an assailant of force to their sons and
daughters. We should stop the physical punishment to break the vicious circle of
unreasonable force as well as to protect the young victims of violence from their
parents.
On the other hand, we should know the definition of the discipline and find
out the proper way to do it. Kostelnik (20-21) said that the discipline is the process of
teaching children to act the way of social and cultural value. That is, discipline is an
action of parents, targeting socialization. We should separate concepts of discipline
and abuse. Despite of the side effect, a discipline is an essential part of education.
Since children cant understand the moral standards of society which are made by
adults, they should be allowed to have an opportunity to be mentally matured,
adapted to a member of society with proper education from their parents. The
violence should be ruled out in this process. Parents must know the two elements of
nurture before they do discipline. The one is that parents should understand the
range of children can comprehend. The other is that parents should recognize both
award and punishment can be meaningless if they do not carry out enough feedback
on childrens behaviors including sufficient interaction.
Each child has different purview based on his or her age. According to Piaget
(as cited in Brown, 65-66), the cognition develops of human through various stages.
He presented 3 stages: Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2), Preoperational stage (ages 2
to 7), and Operational stage (ages 7 to 16). The Operational stage can be
subdivided into Concrete operational stage (ages 7 to 11), and Formal operational

stage (ages 11 to 16). Since it is natural that the view of children can be different
from adults, parents need to know the characteristic of each stage to get down to the
level of children. For instance, young children who are in the Concrete operational
stage (ages 7 to 11), cant realize an abstract idea. Therefore, parents have to
propose some concrete and visible example to make them understand certain
concept. Understanding behaviors of children only from an adults perspective and
pointing out some shortcomings of little kids cant be a way to give a guide for the
future action. Such opinionated hint is no more than frightening and shrinking the
child. Parents should consider the cognitive developmental stages of their children
and do an education, providing the information which can be understood by their
sons and daughters. One thing to remember is, talking down to children mentioned
above, doesnt mean just simple explanations.
Kim (135) concretely explained developmental characteristic of school-age
children: which is corresponding Concrete operational stage in the categorization of
Piaget. Both cognitive and emotional abilities of children considerably grow in a
period of school-age. Children who are in this age can do logical reasoning, unlike
infancy when they only focused on their own awareness. They can put concern for
objective characteristics of the thing that they have observed, in order to draw a
conclusion from various aspects. Moreover, perspective taking ability is also
develops in this age. It means that children can infer emotion and desire of others,
imagining themselves in anothers shoes. Thanks to perspective taking ability,
children can improve the faculty of understanding the other party. On the emotional
side, children can comprehend the feeling of themselves and others, so that they can
help to others who have been faced negative emotions as well as analyze their own
sentiment. They also can consider positive and negative aspects of themselves to

form balanced concept of ego. At this moment, social supports toward them have an
effect on their self-worth. From the angle of grown-up, understanding level of
children is limited, however, children who have grown over Concrete operational
stage can understand specified level of concepts and emphasized with others. In
other words, if children get certain input from others, they can understand the social
rule and form the value about human relations based on it. Thus, grown-ups must
avoid disregarding knowledge of children even if their thought is short of their
standard. Its because underestimating of society can lead to low self-esteem of
children. To sum up, parents should observe their own children to grasp precise
cognitive development level; offer understandable information and rule to their
children maximizing the effect of discipline; give attention not to denigrate childrens
ability.
Besides, parents ought to check if their discipline method is effective. Parents
generally utilize reward and punishment to educate their children; they should depart
from the extremely dichotomous idea. Lets find out the definition of punishment.
Kohn (86) proposed two features of punishment. One is giving an unpleasant
action or banning on good ones, the other is containing clear purpose: make them
change their future actions. But punishment has a bad influence on children rather
leads good education. According to Skinner (as cited in Lee, 357), children can be
distracted with cares and do the wrong action because of the dread comes from
punishment. Lee (368) also pointed out that punishment is not an effective method.
Alternation with punishment is not an ultimate change, but temporary adaptation.
The result of the long-range punishment shows up disobedience or adaptation.
Tractability looks like proper consequence of discipline; however, it brings no good if
the cost of it is a dignity or confidence. What if parents provide positive stimuli to

their children? Children can sometimes win praise or get a reward. Sadly, its not a
perfect method, though. Deci and Ryan (as cited in Lee, 359) defined the reward as
only controlled by temptation. Although it has different approaches, reward and
punishment are the same in essentials. Lee (365) stated that we should escape of
stereotype that discipline has only manners: reward and punishment. We cant find
out the drawback of the existing notion in the method itself; it is in the absence of
educational feedback and authentic interaction. Therefore, concerning how to satisfy
prerequisite is much more appropriate than worrying about the effective way to offer
reward and punishment.
The past society of Korea identifies the concept of discipline with the one of
physical punishment. Since corporal punishment was regarded as a subordinate
concept of discipline, some children were raised in risky circumstances. And there
was a tragic that such at-risk family background was continued to the next
generation due to the victims of the past. To end this misfortune, parents should
figure out the range of understanding with the concept of cognitive development.
Also, they must realize the basic concepts of reward and punishment that it can be
meaningless if they cant satisfy the conditions. The concept of physical punishment
must be totally excluded in the range of discipline and the focus of it should be
shifted from the surface notion of reward and punishment to educative feedback and
interaction. Leading the children to be mature is not the fear arises from the violence,
or the temptation comes from sweet rewards. The answer must be the discipline
which follows the precise and proper conception and the existence of feedback and
interaction which allows maximizing the educational effect. Now, look back your
experience. Do you think all of your action that was believed as discipline was true
education method, unlike violence?

Works Cited

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http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/02/113_197399.html. 4 Feb,
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YTN. Mistreated girl who has escaped her house with bare feet, is suffering for
disordered eating as after-effect of abuse., Yes!TopNews, pp. Society. 11 May.
2016, http://www.ytn.co.kr/search/search_view.php?
s_mcd=0103&key=201605111505423265. Accessed 6 Dec. 2016. Web.