No More Corporal Punishment Says The Council of Europe
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Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.
(Via Le Monde) Today, the Council of Europe launched a campaign against most forms of corporal punishment, including slapping, spanking, hitting, mistreating, humiliating and any other practice that damage the dignity of a child. The campaign will consist in TV ads , the publication of a manual for parents on violence-free parenting as well as materials for parliamentarians of the Council's 47 member countries.
Greece, Holland, Portugal and Spain have already banned all forms of corporal punishment. Most progressive groups support such bans whereas the "family values" crowd is against it, surprise surprise. After all, we all know that all social problems would be solved if parents were allowed to beat the stuffing out of their kids on a regular basis... that and prayer in schools of course. These conservative groups support an authoritarian ideology / parenting style and nothing says imposition of power in a hierarchical environment more than corporal punishment against weaker members of the group.
This campaign is part of a larger initiative to promote children's rights and the protection of children from violence in Europe. But considering the comments to the article in Le Monde, it's an uphill battle (for most commenters, the only way to impose limits to children and teach them to follow the rules is through physical coercion... oy). We have a long way to go to become civilized!
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it's really passed on thru generations, i think--
grandparents hit parents, so the parents hit their kids (unless they really really hated it or marry someone who won't let it happen or something), and so on...
i wonder whether they really do mean only physical stuff? "damaging dignity" is usually not physical.
and in private homes, who knows what goes on? (and what it does to kids--whether it's physical violence that messes up a kid or if it has to be extreme or injuring/scarring--or mental/emotional cruelty and totally dyfunctionally actions/relations, or both or other things like favoritism or emotionally absent parents, etc---there are so many things that affect kids and that affect whole lives.)
(In my family, we were hit, but it wasn't physical stuff that most deeply affected and shaped us at all--it was words and behaviors and labeling, etc.)
are they working w/Unicef or is it
totally separate?
i wish someone would stop the UK-
they're really criminalized tons of normal teen behavior with their ASBO stuff, and they "detains more children than any other country in Western Europe, with 2,900 under18s locked up in the past year. Thirty children have died in custody since 1990, yet there has never been a public inquiry into conditions in youth detention centres." -- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk...
Amberglow
It's a European Council initiative that does not try to legislate but to change behavior. Actually, the Council targeted not just physical violence but also emotional stuff (like humiliations and other demeaning behaviors) which is just another form of violence.
You're right, it is generational and cultural. Since all the countries that are part of the Council are democracies, the point is to educate parents not to use violence in the first place, and teach good alternatives.
And you're right about ASBO. I posted about that a while back here.
i wonder if you can teach good alternatives tho--
especially informally or thru media--it's not seen as bad behavior or as a problem for parents that do these things--and some see it as positive. And there's always enormous resistance to outsiders telling parents how to raise their kids everywhere, no?
And so much damage to kids is cumulative, and not visible at all.
It's not like parents are learning this behavior outside or from media.
(and all western democracies give enormous power and latitude to parents and have very strong privacy laws as well--and parents essentially are owners of kids, with kids having very few if any rights...)
Do other western countries have what we have--where if you do something like drunk driving or temporarily lose custody of kids for some reason, judges mandate classes? (of course, those all depend on first getting into legal trouble for a bad behavior, and our social services are not great, and don't see that much...)
maybe you could, bec of
the social services and stuff EU countries give? If France, say, gives you money and welfare and a guaranteed paid year or so off for maternity leave, they could definitely include parenting classes as a condition of getting it?
(or something like that...i think it'd have to become widespread and organized and integrated into other social services to really have effect.)
As far as I know
France does not offer classes. However, as soon as a woman becomes pregnant, she registers her pregnancy with the state and receives a variety of benefits. In exchange, she has to agree to 8 prenatal exams.
That kind of service continues after birth whereby children receive medical exams on a regular basis for their development, immunizations, etc. all that recorded in an individual notebook that follows a child up to 18 years old.
When I was in school, we had immunizations and physicals done in school every year. That included sexual education. That's how most abuse gets detected. That's also how all other sorts of problems get detected and services offered: for instance, in the subsidized daycare centers, if a child a discovered to have hearing problem, the center will arrange for specific therapy.
France has then a system of sticks and carrots: you get benefits, and quite a few of them, but in exchange, you agree to have part of your parenting monitored to a certain extent. All that is available irrespective of income.
There are no classes but a lot of individual help. For instance, if a new mother is unsure about how to behave with the baby, bonding and that stuff, she can request personalized home visits with an experienced midwife who will teach her stuff but also just provide reassurance and advice.
France indeed has a very good and comprehensive system.
it really does--
it would be easy to add classes during pregnancy i think, but then fathers are left out.
You were in public school and they gave you physicals? (parents in the US have to get their kids immunized before school and show proof-- or they can't enroll them--schools don't immunize even if parents can't afford a doctor, and there are no physicals--it would be wonderful to be able to coordinate a national health system with public schools and other social services--maybe someday here, but i doubt it more and more, sadly)
In France
we have national pre-school system, so, I started school at 2 years-old, like most French kids (even though it's not mandatory, these pre-schools are known to be really good and they prepare kids well for first grade).
And yes, we did get physicals, with lady doc for girls and man doc for boys. WE get immunizations from national health centers from birth until 2 (or from a private doctor but whatever you do, everything has to be recorded in your health notebook, no exceptions), after that ,we get them in school (it makes sense logistically since the immense majority of kids go to public schools, you get almost an entire age group right there).
That's also how we get sex ed: individually, just you and the doc answering questions. We were also taught how to do our own breast exams, etc.
That's why we have very few teen pregnancies. And for the few we have, school nurses are allowed to dispense birth control, emergency contraceptives or to take a girl to the doctor for all that and including abortions (no parental notification). But like I said, it happens VERY VERY rarely. I worked for 6 years in different high schools and I witnessed only 2 pregnancies.
In France...
And it's all true too!
Aren't you people jealous?? :-)
Bien sûr!
!