Is it ok to spank your child, even if they are as young as one year old? Seventy percent of family physicians say yes, it is okay to spank your children. However, a recent study has come forth claiming that one in five kids who were spanked as a child continue to endure the abuse as a teen and into their adulthood.

This article, Spank No More written by Darshak Sanghavi claims the amount of children being spanked is decreasing. Sanghavi says “94 percent of parents endorsed hitting kids in 1968, but only one-half approved by 1999 and today it is still decreases”. But why is the abuse rate going down? Many believe it is because of the recent airing of the YouTube video of a Texas judge repeatedly belt-whipping his teen daughter and the recent deaths of young adoptees in Tennessee beaten with flexible tubing. Sanghavi concludes his article stating that the most appropriate way to punish your child is to make a discipline chart using plus and negative points. If the child does something good you should praise them and give them a positive point but if they child does something bad they should receive a negative point. The discipline chart will show kids the consequences of wrong actions without the abuse.

This article made some good points about the importance of not striking your child, but I feel as if it was lacking some evidence to back up their studies. In 2010 there were 3 million different abuse cases reported just in the United States alone, two thirds of these cases started as being spanked. It’s hard to believe the spanking rate is decreasing while the abuse rate is skyrocketing. Why would the recent airing of the YouTube video of a Texas judge whipping his teen daughter and the deaths of young Tennessee kids beaten make people stop spanking their kids? Both of these cases are extremely traumatic, however cases like this happen more frequently than the article makes it seem like. In 2010, 1100 kids were killed due to abuse. The final thing from the article that I disagree with is the discipline chart. The discipline chart runs off of positive and negative points, negative points being spilled milk, fighting with siblings, not listening to their guardians and ect. In my opinion, the discipline chart would just beat down a child’s self-esteem. They would be terrified to make the small mistakes necessary to help them learn and grow.

I agree that spanking your child is wrong; however it’s hard to believe that the rate of spanked children is decreasing. After reading this article I did some research of my own. Professor Wong from Princeton College says “The more a child is spanked as a kid, the higher the likely hood of abuse.” The abuse rate was higher in 2010 than in the previous seven years. If Wong’s study is accurate then the article written by Darshak Sanghavi cannot be right.