Aggression brings no glory
My heart sinks to a low whenever I read about corporal punishment to children. The feeling was no different recently when I read the report by Sir Frank Peters about the many dangers of hitting our children.
Danger not just to them, but society on the whole. Just as we can’t keep kicking a dog and assume it will never turn on us and bite back, similarly we cannot keep hitting our children and assume they will not retaliate at some time in their life… as they appear to be now doing.
The Banghladesh society we know is not one to make us proud. It has so many faults, one wonders where to begin listing them and if we think otherwise, we are fooling ourselves. As Sir Frank has observed, there is a lot of aggression about that brings no glory only shame to the nation. Even the learned halls of our universities are filled with aggression and pertty hate. I sometimes feel like weeping because I see no light at the end of the tunnel, just a once-proud society decaying rapidly by the day.
Sir Frank argues that corporal punishment teaches our children to become violent… for them to see violence as the quick and eassy solution to all problems (inside and outside the classroom). There are hundreds of studies worldwide in his support, but we’re ignoring their sound advice
I once had great love and hope for Bangladesh, but not the Bangladesh it is today. Just like the effects of DDT, corporal punishment needs to end before we can expect a better society to blossom.
Nancy Muid
Uttara, Dhaka
[email protected]
