Week 4 Discussion: Spanking

A topic of focus this week was around guidance/discipline/punishment and spanking. We learned that while spanking is a frequently used parenting strategy in the early childhood years, it's actually associated with an increased risk for negative outcomes for children. Consider the questions below for this week's post. You don't necessarily need to respond to these specific questions (unless you want to); use them to guide your reflection on the use of spanking in the early childhood years.

1. What are your thoughts around the idea of discipline as a means of teaching rather than punishment?
2. Why do you think spanking is such an often-used guidance strategy?
3. What are your thoughts on spanking?
4. What are children learning when told not to hit peers or out of anger, but experience being spanked by adults?
5. In California early education programs, spanking by program staff is not allowed. What are your thoughts about those who feel spanking is an effective discipline strategy, yet early educators manage classrooms of approximately 20 preschoolers without the use of spanking.

Your initial post should be approximately 250 or more word