Examples of News Articles with Misleading Headlines

I believe spanking a child is wrong and should never be encouraged. Like you say, he beat her to death, albeit probably inadvertantly.

There's a few perspectives here- http://joyfullyrejoycing.com/changin...-religion.html

The Huffington Post, (which I click on much less often given Arrianna's exploitation antics), has mastered the art of headlines to up the click rates. Often there's no correlation between the headline and the story. It's hype. Using those tactics is fine with sites like Gizmodo, but for serious news I find it really cynical and repugnant, even slightly sinister.

And this is what's wrong with the world today, as they say. Spanking is a perfectly appropriate tool for younger children as long as its used appropriately. Lack of good discipline at home is one reason that children in school are so poorly behaved. If you are not a teacher (I am), you cannot imagine what it's like. Even in a great school like the one I'm fortunate enough to teach in, the attitude is unreal amongst kids and parents.

We spanked my daughter until she was about 4. It wasn't hard, nor often, but we did it. We did so as an immediate punishment for something the child simply had to learn not to do. It's the best way to teach certain lessons. It does no physical or emotional harm for a child at 2 to get a smack on the diaper after she screams at you. That being said, I don't support "delayed spanking" ("wait 'til your father gets home") or spanking children older than say, 4-5. We used three or four things: Time out, "break" (not really a punishment...just alone time to calm down), taking things away and finally, spanking (sometimes in combo with time out).

So yeah..I disagree with you. Do you have children? If not, you're respectfully not qualified to speak on the subject.

Spanking teaches children that you are right because you are bigger and stronger. Not the right lesson to teach them.

If you can't keep your kids under control without spanking them then you are a bad parent.

I was just about to write this exact thing. You can be a great parent with completely obedient children without spanking. You can be a terrible parent whose kids end up in jail even if you spank them. Or your kids could go either way despite your actions or best efforts.

But, as FJ says, teaching kids that when they get bigger, they have the authority to inflict physical punishment on others, is a horrible thing to teach.

Just out of curiosity...FloorJack, tonton...do either of you have kids and, if so, how old are they?

I don't have any kids and am not going to condemn anyone for spanking their kids if done in a loving way. I think back to my own childhood where never was a finger laid on me by any adult and how glad I am for that though. There are better ways to teach discipline as my mother, luckily for me, understood.


""The odds of a child being more aggressive at age 5 increased by 50% if he had been spanked more than twice in the month before the study began," says Taylor."
~ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...983895,00.html

I get that. I also have a girl, so I might feel differently because of that. Once she hit about 5, I found other punishments were more effective. Plus, I can't bring myself to spank her anymore!

That's complete bullshit.

Perhaps your household is different, but it's apparently the most in-depth study on the issue to be carried out. Don't the numbers even given you pause for thought and wonder want's going on? Do you think their lying?

From the article-

"But in a new study published in Pediatrics, researchers at Tulane University provide the strongest evidence yet that children's short-term response to spanking may make them act out more in the long run. Of the nearly 2,500 youngsters in the study, those who were spanked more frequently at age 3 were much more likely to be aggressive by age 5.

As 5-year-olds, the children who had been spanked were more likely than the nonspanked to be defiant, demand immediate satisfaction of their wants and needs, become frustrated easily, have temper tantrums and lash out physically against other people or animals.

The study, led by community-health-sciences professor Catherine Taylor, was the first to control for a host of issues affecting the mother, such as depression, alcohol and drug use, spousal abuse and even whether she considered abortion while pregnant with the child. After controlling for all these factors each of which can contribute to a child's aggression spanking remained a strong predictor of violent behavior."
~ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...983895,00.html

Tell us why?

I'm going to disagree and I'm going to say that throwing out any tool with absolutes does kids a disservice. The ugly reality is that world at large has violence, name-calling, and all sorts of mean things and saying never to all of them, or perhaps not even showing them or giving them the tools related to them is a profound disservice.

You see studies like Hands posts noting levels of aggression. Aggression is a tool. Like all tools you don't want to mismanage it but an absence it is just as much of a problem as too much of it. There are times when aggression is necessary though.

Time magazine and their reporting isn't a particularly credible fount of scientific info but take the results from that for just a second. They say the children are more likely to act out yet one of the prime causes of acting out is also high intelligence which often fails to recognize hierarchy for the sake of hierarchy. (To which I say thank goodness as both a gifted kid growing up and the father of two gifted kids.)

Also there are times in life when the world isn't going to care about your desires, can't or won't give you time to understand or express them or your feelings related to them and will in fact punch you in the face or kick you in the ass for continuing on with them. There are times where it is just the opposite and it is best to press on. The wisdom often comes from experience and that involves perhaps a few spankings or a few fights where you get your nose bloodied or do some nose bloodying. Violence is a part of the world and so is learning about it and managing it.

She's 12, she got into the best secondary school in Hong Kong based solely on merit, and I don't need to count the pocket change we leave around the house. She's a little lazy with homework, but other than that her worst problem is forgetting her housekey.

Agreed.

Perhaps, as a non-teacher, as well as someone who doesn't have kids, I am less qualified to venture a thought on this...

But it appears than many parents seem to disregard boundaries, re. kids, and allow them to do whatever they want, sometime to the point of running the household... ie everything revolves around the kid(s)' wants (rather than needs). The kid then develops expectations outside of the home environment, and when things don't work out accordingly, then trouble ensues. IMHO, a light spanking is OK as long as it is done as a *last* resort, in a direct response to the infraction, and immediately explained by the parents to the kid, and not "formalized" into a premeditated, formalized "ritual" punishment.

Then there's this: kids don't come with an "instruction manual". Although parenting skills (should) come instinctively, there's a correlation between problem kids and uneducated parents. What are the solutions...? And is society bothered enough to place this issue on the totem of priorities?

Yeah, don't throw out your crucifixion kit. That's one tool no parent should be without, without doing a disservice to their kids.

Keep them in fear and going behind your back. Get spanked or lie, easy answer for the kids. Lie and get spanked...well that's taught morals hasn't it!!?

Yet you don't endorse a society that runs on merit. How many students should be promoted ahead of your daughter regardless of their grades or performance on exams just because of a desire for diversity or due to being disadvantaged?



This kid certainly disregarded boundaries. You can hear the whiny girl defending him after he had licked glass, cursed out the teacher, and was physically intimidating her.

The other aspect of this is it only considers one type of aggression. People, Groverat specifically used to get upset about all the I used to post about female violence because it was not physical violence. Yet more and more is being written about and understood with regard to relational aggression. It is also understood that not only females do it, but regardless of who does it, it is a form of aggression.

Here are forms of it which studies like those on spanking seldom deal with.

Betrayal Where the abuser breaks agreements with the victim.
Exclusion/Solitude Where the abuser prevents the victim from socializing with the abuser's friends.
Gossip Where the abuser tells others personal information about the victim.
Humiliation Where the abuser humiliates or shames the victim in front of others.
Lies Where the abuser lies about the victim to others.

The kid in the video above declares and may in fact have never laid a hand on that teacher, but failed to see, as society does, that he was still practicing aggression in half a dozen different forms and that aggression and violence can be rendered unto others without lifting a finger.

Humiliation Where the abuser humiliates or shames the victim in front of others.
Lies Where the abuser lies about the victim to others.

Thanks for the example of relational aggression Hands.

Oh no, now relational aggression and ad hom's, too much!

On a more serious note.

There was a radio program over here that studied playground bullying. They found girls bullied far more often than boys but it went unnoticed. The girls bullying was often very cruel but adults didn't see it like they see boys pushing/punching etc.

Good point. Females tend to use their wits instead of fists ( this has a positive side as well ) and in this kind of arena can inflict much more pain than a punch. This could go more unnoticed to the casual observer.

Wow. We are completely on the same page.

<head explodes>

It's bullshit because there are too many variables. What does "spanked more frequently" mean? How hard was the spanking? Was it premeditated? Was it done on a bare bottom? Do you honestly believe people become violent because of spanking? I could give you example upon example of people that were spanked that never did a violent thing in their lives, including myself.

The problem today is there is no fear of punishment with most kids. They simply don't care. When I was a kid, corporal punishment was still legal in my state. My fifth grade teacher kept a paddle in the closet. Did he ever use it? No. But let me tell you...we knew he had it. We knew corporal punishment was allowed unless our parents wrote a letter stating it was not acceptable. There was discipline. Now? As a teacher in a great district, I get a "talking to" if a yell at a kid or class to much. Honestly.

No they don't but there's a growing awareness of it. A false domestice violence charge or claim of rape renders far more destruction to the person it is tendered against then a deep beating.

I actually do endorse a society that runs on merit. I just don't endorse a society that runs 100% on merit and discards any recognition of situational disadvantage. Just like taxation and social security.

I'm not one of those idiots who deals in fucking absolutes about these issues.

Now you might say that saying spanking is wrong is dealing in an absolute in that regard. I guess you'll be right. I also think murder for fun is wrong 100% of the time. I also think rape is wrong 100% of the time. We all have moral beliefs and these are where some of mine lay.

Sadly, Trumptman seems to believe quite strongly that false accusation of rape is a greater problem than rape itself. Together with his past rants on men's rights, I suspect there's some history here.

Gossip Where the abuser tells others personal information about the victim.

Thanks for the fine example of relational aggression there Tonton. I suspect people who are too busy denying groping and harassment of women in subways exist can be in denial on a whole range of issues. Ignorance is always bliss for them.

2 plus one on the way. There all over me.