Bullying not helped by belt

By William Skinner
| Thu, November 15, 2012 - 12:01 AM

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Old habits and beliefs die hard. There are many unfortunate souls who believe that whatever success they have achieved was a direct result of being flogged or whipped.

It is a fallacy of monumental proportions. I guess that those who have become successful law-abiding citizens, but were not at the receiving end of some very “hot lashes” are nothing but flukes. Anybody who believes that bullying can be stymied or eradicated by corporal punishment has certainly never heard of “adding gasoline to fire”.

Bullying can only be effectively controlled by the involvement of family (parents), school and those children who have not yet engaged in bullying. We need to see bullying in the same light as unprotected sex, driving under the influence of alcohol, and disrespecting other people’s property.

Children must be trained from the age of five or before that inflicting any form of harm upon others is not acceptable.

And those who think that bullying is confined to actual physical abuse are way off base. Modern forms of bullying are now executed via emails, texts and other new media. They are widespread and just as destructive as the “schoolyard bullying”.

It is amazing that those who lift their pens, and regale us with the need to be civil and less violent are the same ones who feel the almighty “beatings” and floggings are the answers to all our problems.

It is time that we skip the emotion and stop reaching back into the land of nostalgia to solve serious problems.

There is need to stop dismissing those who have spent years researching societal ills and respect professionals, who don’t believe that grandmother’s strap or the headmaster’s belt soaked in turpentine, are the only ways to solve problems affecting wayward youth.