Some days ago Pope Francis I was surprised with these statements about how to correct children: "It's okay for parents to spank their children, as long as they do it with dignity". Of course the reactions did not wait (especially in Europe, where they have not been well received) and I wonder ... is it possible to whip a child and respect his dignity?
I know that this issue is quite thorny, and not because it is said by a Pope, a president or the neighbor next door: the education of children responds to values and the upbringing that each one has received, so it is impossible to agree with people on what is right and what is wrong, although it is not necessary to justify using whipping with a child ...
It can be corrected without hitting
"Once I heard at a wedding say to a father 'sometimes I hit my children a little but never in the face, with the aim of not degrading them'. Good, I thought, it makes sense of dignity"
According to CNN, these were the textual words of the Pope. I understand that before this was the most common way to discipline children, but society has advanced and fortunately the vast majority is clear that the best way is not this, even if you try to justify what is done "in an environment of love", as a pedagogue said in an interview that Risto Mejide did recently.
While it is true that much has been written on the subject of "punishment" and its multiple ways of doing so, using violence to impose discipline and good education is a situation in which one must reflect long before we are exposed to it ... arrived the time to place order, it is best to keep a cool head and think about how we would have liked them to correct us.
I must admit that when I read the statements of the Pope, the first thing that came to mind is how anyone who has never had children can say on this subject (I say this because right now I am living in that moment in which I am receiving advice on how to take my pregnancy ... even for women who have never been!). I am sure that your opinions, like that of all the people who come up with advice, are full of good intentions ... but parenting is something as personal as the fact of having them or not. Touch and prudence should be the first thing to consider, especially if it is a public character and its message reaches so many people.
Now that I am doomed to think about what kind of person I want my son to be, I wouldn't feel able to teach him that hitting another person is wrong if I do it with him. I think that teaching with common sense is easier than with conditionals that can confuse you, for example, how do you explain that sometimes it is justified and when not? ... or how to teach what respect is to another person when I am missing him ?.
Controversial aside, personally I think the Pope was quite unsuccessful in his words. Mixing in one sentence the blows to a child with dignity is something that many do not understand, however "traditional" we are when it comes to correcting them.
What do you think about it? For or against the words of the Pope?
Photos | Thinkstock, CNN Mexico
In Jared Beauty | Breeding without scourges: those around us and ourselves, The scourges are useless (I), The scourges are useless (II), Why do not we have to return to the authoritative education that our parents gave us
