EDITORIAL - Spare the rod, spoil the child

Perhaps the social and behavioral scientists will have their explanation. But something seems to be amiss when, in this day and age when the rights of children are amply protected and corporal punishment is a big no-no, children also figure more than ever in crimes.

Back in the day when parents did not spare the rod, children were more disciplined. Despite getting punished for any wrong they may have done, children never lost respect for their elders.

Back then, it was still common for children to kiss the hand of their elders, to greet even strangers they meet on the road. There is nothing of the sort these days. In the language of this age, children have become dead-ma in their relationships with elders.

Unless actually prodded, they no longer kiss the hand even of their own parents. Greeting people good morning or good evening is a practice not just forgotten but actually avoided, in the context of the admonition “don’t talk to strangers.”

While children’s rights must be protected and respected, putting emphasis on this alone, to the total disregard of how limp-wristedness can affect the formation of children’s character, can be disastrous, as what we are clearly experiencing today.

Boys as young as seven raping and then murdering girls as young cannot but send chills down the spine of those who want only the best for their children. How can this be happening when we are doing everything we can to protect the rights of our children?

Perhaps the answer lies in those rights. What rights do children have really that cannot do with a little discipline. What protection can we give our children if, by refusing even to touch them when they err, they lose all sense of what is right and wrong.

Yes, it is easy to talk and admonish, to dialogue, so to speak. But we conveniently forget that even children have their own minds and that, sooner or later they will make up their minds that they have had enough of talking.

The business of raising kids to be disciplined, respectful, God-fearing and law-abiding citizens of the future cannot and must not rely solely on detached parenthood, of authority asserted from arms length. Protection from abuse and failure to discipline are two things apart.