Training

Session
on
Alternatives
to
Corporal Punishment

Produced by the
Gender Research and Advocacy Project,
Legal Assistance Centre
 Aims and objectives

For many parents, the use of corporal punishment is a way of life. It is often the
only discipline technique used by parents. They might not even be able to think of
another method of discipline as they assume that any other method of discipline
would be ineffective.

The aim of this session is to teach children that there are alternatives to corporal
punishment. The training session will also help teach children that violence is not
the solution to their problems.

This training session may also help children to identify themselves if they are
being abused. In these cases it might be necessary to visit the police or a Woman
and Child Protection Unit, or to contact an organisation such as Lifeline (061
232221)

Target group Children aged between 7‐14

Duration 2 ‐3 hours

Text: Rachel Coomer

Project overview: Dianne Hubbard
Illustrations: Nicky Marais and Anthony Coomer
Funding: Royal Danish Embassy

© Legal Assistance Centre

PO Box 604
Windhoek and HIVOS
Publisher: Legal Assistance Centre
Namibia
Telephone: 061‐223356
Fax: 061‐234953
Email: Info@lac.org.na
 Start the session with a game:

Do like this, Do like that...

1. Stand at the front of the room where everyone can see you.
2. Ask the participants to copy your physical movements
whenever you say, “Do like this.” For example, you might touch
your leg or jump up and down, and the participants should do the
same.
3. When you say, “Do like that,” the participants should not copy
your movements.

The first time someone copies you when you say “Do like that,” ask the
group whether it is right that they should be beaten because they got it
wrong. Tell the group that it is an easy mistake, the game is designed to
catch you out. It would not be right to punish someone, particularly
with violence, for getting it wrong.

Many parents often use corporal punishment in day­to­day life when

someone makes a small mistake. This is not fair.

Tell the group that in this session they will be learning about the
different ways children can be punished. A punishment is not meant to
injure a person, it is meant to teach the difference between right and
wrong.

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 Use a story to settle the children down:

Photocopy the illustration on page 3 for the children to colour in

Sam the Zebra goes gardening

Sam the Zebra was very excited. He was going to visit his grandmother
and help her with chores in the garden. His brother and sister were too
young to go and Sam felt very important and grown up. He was so
excited that he danced around the room kicking his heels in the air.
Suddenly he kicked his legs a bit too high and knocked his mother’s
favourite vase onto the floor. It shattered into a hundred pieces.

Sam’s mother came rushing into the room. When she saw what had
happened, she looked very angry. “Sam, you have been very naughty”
she said. “I told you not to run around inside. You must go and sit in
the corner and think about what you have done for ten minutes.” Sam
had broken something very precious and he needed to think about
why his behaviour had caused it to happen.

After ten minutes Sam came to his mother and told her that he was very
sorry. He would not run inside again because it could break things. His
mother accepted his apology and sent him to visit his grandmother.

Sam’s grandmother set him to work in the garden straight away. She
told him to pull out all the weeds but not to touch the flowers. Sam
tried to follow his grandmother’s instructions about which plants he
should pull out (the weeds) and which plants he should leave in the
garden (the flowers). But it was very difficult because his
grandmother had not explained it very well and they all looked the
same.

When Sam’s grandmother came to check on him one hour later, she
found that he had pulled out all the flowers and left all the weeds in
the garden. She was very angry. She started to beat and smack Sam.
Sam cried and cried and said that he was sorry. “It was an accident”

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he sobbed, but his grandmother did not listen and kept on hitting
him. When she eventually stopped, Sam had bruises all over his body.
His grandmother told him to go home and he walked slowly back to
his house. He could not go very fast because his body hurt a lot. When
he got home, he went to his mother and told her what had happened.
She told him that his grandmother had been very wrong to punish
him like that. She sent Sam to bed to rest and went to visit the
grandmother to tell her never ever to hit children like that again.

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 What is corporal punishment?

Corporal punishment can be defined as the practice of smacking, slapping,

spanking or beating children for disciplinary purposes.

Corporal punishment can affect self‐esteem by making the victim feel scared, sad
or unhappy.

Corporal punishment is not a good way to punish a person. To understand this, we

will look at what it feels like to receive corporal punishment.

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 How do you feel when you are hit?

Ask the group the following questions:

1. What does the word “beaten” mean?

2. Where on your body are you usually beaten?
3. In what place are you usually beaten (i.e. at home, in public)?
4. What does it feel like to be beaten?
5. How do you feel after you have been beaten?
6. When you are big, do you think that you will smack your children?

Additional activity

If you have extra time, ask the children to draw an answer to one of the
questions in this section

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 Play a game to lighten the mood.

The game below is meant to be fun but it is also

looking at children’s attitudes to corporal

punishment.

Word association game

In this game, when you are told a word, you have to say the first word
that comes into your head when you hear it (i.e. grass → green; or
chocolate → cake).

You have to keep going around the group, thinking of words that are
associated with the last word spoken (i.e. grass → green → vegetables →
carrots → orange → sun → sunglasses → fashionable → shops →
money...)

Start with a new word when people get stuck.

Use the following words as starters:

Cup, hat, beat, grass, hit, potato, book, school, smack, blanket, bed, chair,
punish.

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 The long term consequences of
corporal punishment

The aim of this activity is to teach the children that corporal punishment has long
term effects.

Do you agree or disagree?

Place 3 signs around the room: Agree, Disagree, Don’t know

Read the following statements and ask the children to go to whichever sign they
think says what they think about the statement. Discuss each statement with the
children

z Physical punishment teaches children that violence is OK

(Agree. Studies have shown that children exposed to violence are more likely to be
violent as adults.)

z Physical punishment does not teach children the reasons for behaving.
(Agree. Physical punishment just scares children.)

z It is OK for parents to punish their children by beating them until they

bleed
(Disagree. This is violence.)

z Physical punishment can turn into physical abuse

(Agree. Sometimes parents can lose control and become abusive. This is why
people should not use corporal punishment.)

z Physical punishment makes children less likely to hit other children

(Disagree. Studies have shown that physical punishment often makes children
more likely to be aggressive to other children.)

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z Children deserve respect. This includes a right not to be beaten when
they do something wrong
(Agree. The Namibian Constitution, the highest law of the land says this.)

The difference between

corporal punishment and
other types of punishment

Sometimes a child will need to be punished because what they are doing might put
them or someone else in danger. Or it might be that what they are doing is wrong.
The aim of a punishment should be to allow child to understand that what they did
was wrong.

Corporal punishment does not tell children why what they did was wrong, so they
might continue to do it. Explain to the children that there is an alternative to
corporal punishment.

Ask the children to give examples of what type of disobedience requires discipline
i.e.

z Playing in a busy street full of cars

z Hurting somebody
z Breaking possessions
z Being rude
z Playing rather than doing schoolwork or simple chores

Explain to the children that parents should discipline their children with love and
care. Through good discipline, adults help children to behave better. Adults should
praise children when they do something right and reprimand them when they do
something wrong, but adults should not hurt them.

Ask the children to think about methods of discipline that do not involve smacking,
slapping, spanking, or beating. If you have a number of adults who can attend this

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session, ask some of the older children to leave the group and interview the adults
on better ways of discipline.

One way to help the discussion is to ask the children to think of an example of a
person in their lives who is a good role model when it comes to discipline.

z How does this person discipline children?

Examples of alternatives to corporal

punishment:

Verbal reprimand The parent explains what the child has done wrong.

Time out Ask the child to stop doing whatever he/she is doing and
calm down. (This is what Sam’s mother asked him to do.)
This might involve sitting in a specified place for a period
of time. The specified place is sometimes called the
naughty step.

Removal of As a punishment, the child is prevented from making a

rewards/pleasures visit to his/her friends or has to go to bed early.

Solve the problem If something has been damaged, the child could be asked to
mend it.

Take responsibility Sometimes, making a child own up to an action can be

for the action punishment enough (i.e. if a child stole something from a
shop, make the child visit the manager, return the item
and apologise).

Some children may still think that corporal punishment is acceptable. Explain to
them that studies have shown that corporal punishment actually increases

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undesirable behaviour and is less and less effective the more it is used. Corporal
punishment can also lead to a poor relationship between the parent and child.

Additional activity for older children

Ask the children to design a cartoon script. Half of the group should design a story
about a child who receives corporal punishment. The other half should design a story
about a child who is disciplined using alternatives to corporal punishment.

Summary

Finish the session by telling the children that there is a difference between
corporal punishment and other types of punishment. Corporal punishment does
not solve the problem, it can actually make more problems instead.

All children have the right to respect, and this includes not to be punished
excessively with corporal punishment. Tell the child that if they want to know
more information or want to ask for help, they should speak to one of the leaders
at the end.

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