spare the rod and spoil the child – essay?

Just pick up several — feel good — pop psychology parenting books; they will give you many reasons in favor of avoiding time tested, plain common sense, boundary setting, discipline practices; look around, and you will see the results of these misguided philosophies.

No thank you…..

If you spare the rod, you take away the guidance children need.

The rod does not refer to a “stick” to physically discipline/punish children, the rod is the staff a shepherd uses to guide his sheep, and keep them safe.

Parents have the awesome privilege, and responsibility to teach, and guide their children; they would do them a great disservice by denying them guidance, and failing to set safe boundaries, and teaching them how to become a self disciplined young adult; I favor the rod…

That is a misconception. Children need boundaries to thrive. each child is different and has different needs. Some children respond with a look, others with a bit firmer persuasion. If you do not have some method of discipline, you will end up with a child that will probably become a sociopath. However, the purpose of discipline is to bend the will without breaking the spirit. Some children would be crushed by a system that is overly aggressive. Any discipline system must be created to meet the needs of each child within that family structure.

The rod is used to beat a child for discipline or a belt, right? So if you don’t discipline the child the child will become spoiled and a brat.

Well, “spare the rod and spoil the child” has nothing to do with spanking, corporal punishment or just punishment per se. It refers to discipline (a very different concept to punishment!).

The rod is actually a shepherd’s crook and not a stick for smacking children or anything else like that.

It’s more accurate to say this particular saying refers to the fact that children who are neglected in some way are most likely to end up spoilt (*NOT* that children who are never spanked are likely to end up spoilt!).

Hannah

I think you can look to our society for a lot of good examples. The more people begin believing that spanking is definately abuse without differentiating between the two, the more children are using drugs, having babies outside of wedlock at ages 9 and even younger, shooting and killing other children, and a general moral decline.

We have been sparing the rod, and the majority of children I see today are spoiled. Parents even complain if they don’t work hard enough to get to play sports and get upset if they are kicked out of school for cheating.

An old version of “spare the rod; spoil the child” means that if you did not keep your child in order with a whooping, he/she would become incorrigible and therefore not be a productive member of society.

Nowadays, it does not imply beating, rather, sparing any discipline at all will result in an unruly child.

A spoiled child was considered one that would not be able to make decisions, take care of them self, or learn skills useful in securing their own future.

I don’t really know why you’re looking for a good essay, but if you really want to know about this topic than I would recommend two books, that are amazing!

The first:

The Strong-willed Child by Dr. Dobson

The second:

What the Bible Says About Child Training by J. Richard Fugate

Why are you interested in child abuse? There are better ways to discipline a child.