Federal Bill H.R. 3027 "The Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act," sponsored by Carolyn McCarthy, is now before congress and it may die soon if it doesn’t receive enough support from Congressmen. This isn’t the first time it has come before congress and apparently it hasn’t passed in 2010; however if enough people write their congressmen then perhaps with enough grass roots support it may pass either this time or the next, hopefully this.
The implications of this bill are far greater than many people realize. This is part of a cycle of escalating violence that leads to much more crime, bullying, domestic violence and many other social problems including indoctrination that encourages children to believe what they’re told to believe without question. I have gone into the details of how this occurs in many other blogs and there are also many peer reviewed academics, some of which I have cited, that have done much more work to indicate how much damage this does to children; however, as usual, the decisions made by Congress continue to be made based on political beliefs and interests not rational academic research or the best interest of the majority.
This bill was brought to my attention by Julie Worley who commented on it in a previous post about sparing the child for Christmas. For more information on the subject see A summation of the bill or the complete bill and status, “A Violent Education” report at ACLU or “Protest our Children” sponsored by friends of Carolyn McCarthy.
I usually don’t like chain letters or other similar activities like chain blogs especially when they’re for something shallow; however when it comes to something that is important enough this could be an important grass roots way to spread the word, so I hope you’ll forgive the following request. If a few of you think this subject is important enough feel free to either ask a few additional people to write their congressmen in addition to writing yours or write a blog with your own input on the subject. The long term impact could be enormous if this bill is passed although many people who don’t understand the full implications may not recognize it.
This was first posted almost a year ago on Open Salon but the bill is still pending. There are some signs that there is a growing amount of support for this issue including the fact that a Delaware Law now Bans Parents from Spanking their Kids. this has already been done in Sweden and many other countries and it has been quite successful in most of them. When done properly these laws work without much if any punitive repercussions for parents who violate the law; instead they rely more on education programs to inform parents how to find a more effective manner to discipline children.
The following are some articles, web sites and books about how child abuse leads to more violence later in life.
“The Roots of Violence are NOT Unknown” and accompanying articles by Alice Miller
free on-line copy of “For Your Own Good” by Alice Miller and additional information including at least one other free book on the subject.
Excerpts from “The Truth Will Set You Free” by Alice Miller
Home page for Barbara Coloroso, an internationally recognized speaker and author in the areas of parenting, teaching, school discipline, non-violent conflict resolution and reconciliatory justice.
Home page for Murray Straus, includes articles and several free on-line books on the subject.
Excerpts from “Spare the Child” by Philip Greven
In addition to the sources above, who have more credentials than I, the following are some of the previous blog posts that I have done on the subject as well.
Does child abuse and bullying lead to more violence?
Daddy's Hands, Hard as steel when I’d done wrong
Public relation campaign for child abuse prevention
Child abuse and bullying link in study long over due
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