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Welfare organisation says no to Corporal Punishment
‘There are alternatives’ – CCPA Head Ann Greene
By Tiffanne Ramphal
While the issue of corporal punishment even now remains in suspension mode in the National Assembly, registering more ‘ayes’ than ‘nays’; the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) has made clear that it is against the practice.
According to Head of the CCPA, Ann Greene, while the agency acknowledges that the “jury is still out” with the issue, the entity is strongly advocating punishment that involves no violence.
CCPA Head, Ann Greene
She said that since the whole purpose of administering violence aims to arrive at one end result – that of getting an unruly child to abide by rules and regulations both in the home circle and at school – there is no reason why society should continue on with “vicious means of punishment”, since non-violent methods accomplish the same.
“Why must a child be beaten up to change his or her behaviour? Why must we get into violence to accomplish the same thing?” the CCPA head questioned.
She noted that ‘time outs’ and ‘grounding’ have over time proved to be effective means of non-violent punishment.
“If a misbehaving child hears that he cannot watch television for a month, he will be prompted to improve his behaviour. No child wants to hear that they cannot watch television,” Greene said while in support of the alternatives to corporal punishment.
She acknowledged that the Guyanese society may be of the view that these alternatives are only relevant in an affluent society; however she is urging that parents be open to incorporating them into their parenting techniques. She said that the alternatives have been proved to be effective at even the ordinary level.
Greene added that she has received reports of the non-violent alternatives accomplishing much more than sparing children from physical hurt.
“The reason why parents beat is out of anger and frustration. They cannot deal with whatever the issue is so they lash out; they resort to blows. Sometimes even after the beating, the root of the problem still isn’t being dealt with. It has not corrected the child’s behaviour,” Greene explained.
“Taking away the blows now gives them the opportunity to really deal with the problem instead of mounting on frustration. They can now find out what went wrong, when, where, and figure out how the problem can be solved… And parents have told us it is working. They now have a better understanding with their children.”
Greene said that this move will indeed help to reduce the communication gap of yesteryear where children and adolescents shy away from “opening up” to parents for fear they will be “beaten”.
She noted that there are cases where children admit that they cannot speak to their parents, nor are parents speaking to their children.
On this note, the CCPA Head urged that the parents establish a floor for free communication while children are very young.
“Communication with children needs to start very early. Parents need to build a rapport with their children at a very early age, because it would be very difficult to start when they get older.”
She therefore advocated that every parent take at least five minutes out of their schedule on a daily basis to speak to their children.
“Every parent, despite how tired you are, call that child and take just five minutes to talk to that child,” she urged. She said that in order to ensure a successful and productive future for children, active communication between parents is essential and needs to be integrated into our society.
“We say all the time that children are our future and so we have to take care of our future. How will they become our future if we don’t take care of them today? If we take care of them today, it would really put meaning to the term that they are our future.”
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