You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Present a written argument or case to an educated reader with no specialist knowledge of the following topic.
It is important for children to learn the difference between right and wrong at an early age. Punishment is necessary to help them learn this distinction. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion? What sort of punishment should parents and teachers be allowed to use to teach good behaviour to children?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer 1:
How much freedom a child should be given and what sort of punishment could be used to control them is a matter of great concern. Undeniably, too much freedom and lack of necessary control often lead youngsters to go astray while too much punishment makes them dull and less creative. I personally believe that punishment is meant to help children learn lessons and that is why certain punishments that do not involve beating the children is useful.
To begin with, early childhood experience and lessons have lasting impacts on someone’s life and that is why parents and teachers should try their best to teach morality and good qualities to children. Children are curious and sometimes less mature to understand certain harmful effects of doing something while every father and mother want the offspring to become an ideal and exemplary person in life. They often need to use certain punishment to teach a valuable lesson to a youngster and the sole purpose of this punishment should be teaching a morality, should not be driven by any sort of personal anger or frustration. Physically beating a boy or a girl is in no way should be used as there are far better ways of punishing a child to teach him something.
While physical punishment is no longer used in most of the developed countries, it could still be found in underdeveloped countries. This form of punishment, in my opinion, should not be used. More effective penalties could be not talking to the child for a misconduct or not taking him to the playground for a day or two. Similarly, parents could refrain from awarding the child with chocolate or toys and reminding the child why he does not deserve those. If parents have a friendly relationship with the children and simply expressing their frustration for an act of the child, that would work like the magic. From my personal experience, I can say that I took matters more seriously when my father stopped talking to me for a certain period for something he disliked about me and I vowed many times to myself not to do that again.
To conclude, punishment is necessary to teach children morality and help them learn to distinguish good things from bad ones. However, this punishment should not be physical, rather psychological and practical.
Sample answer 2:
Education is likely to be the most important thing to be learnt by every child and that education is not restricted in academic lessons only but also in behaviour field as well. Most people think that young children should be taught about attitude at an early age and a punishment is required in some cases to complete this education. I certainly believe that some punishment for the betterment of the children should be allowed which I will brief in the following paragraphs.
First and foremost, it seems that teaching good behaviour and virtues, when children are still in young ages, will be easier both by parents and teachers. Moreover, if this lesson is followed by an appropriate penalty, they will fear and think twice before breaking the applied rules. Research carried out by Statistics Center in Semarang shows that the plenty of youngsters are easier to have a good manner if they got this lesson before they reach their maturity. In addition, if the youngsters know that they will be rebuked and punished if they commit bad actions, they will usually stay away from committing mischievous acts. This research makes clear that a lesson followed by convenience punishments at an early age is likely to be a wise idea to create the youngest being a good member of the society.
However, the punishment should always bet to teach a lesson not to intimidate a child. The teachers and parents should always think about alternative ways before imposing any punishment to a child. If the child commits the same abominable act several times, then a minor punishment to teach a lesson should be given. A severe punishment by a teacher or parents could psychologically damage a child and the teachers and parents should always be careful about their way of punishment. Sometimes taking away a favourite toy from a child can be an effective punishment where no physical punishment is required. The teacher and parents should keep in mind that the main purpose of the punishment if to teach the child a lesson not to hurt him physically.
After hashing out the issue, it can be concluded that a lesson to have good manner should be taught as early as possible and the effective punishment like rebuking or taking away favourite toys.
[ Written by – Gustriza Erda ]
Sample answer 3:
Children are at such age of their life when they merely distinguish between the right and the wrong. It is very necessary for parents and teachers to teach them the same, first, by suggestion or advice followed by punishment as many times their inexperienced mind tempt them to do mistakes. Punishment should not affect a child negatively; rather it must be constructive for them.
Nowadays children are most vulnerable to get affected by surroundings and electronic media as they easily get exposed to such media. It is impossible to protect them getting exposed to the external environment. Hence it is mandatory for parents or teachers to make them aware of morality and injustice at this age and sometimes punishment is necessary to protect them. At an early age, a child possesses boundless curiosity as he is just exposed to an outside world or society. Thus they imitate what they see and that turns out to be disastrous at times. To avoid that minor punishment is the best way as fear of punishment makes them stay away from many wrong doings. To prove that, the Stanford University had done many surveys on children and the results show that 80% children who had already been punished for their particular mistakes had not repeated the same, on a flip side only 40% who are just advised.
On the other hand, punishments should always be associated with some lessons for children. Punishment must be fruitful and it must not be physically or mentally harmful. For example, world’s nursery in Japan asks children to plant trees as a punishment. Many schools in India punish children by asking them to run few kilometres. Such punishments are constructive for children’s health and society as well.
To conclude, I believe that children have to learn about positives and negatives at this age and punishment is one of the effective ways to guide them learn this distinction. However, parents and teachers must use constructive and positive punishments to show them the right path.
[ Written by – Mahesh ]