Child AbuseEssay Preview: Child AbuseReport this essayEach day more than three children are abused by their teachers. Abuse of pupils in schools by teachers may be a social problem locally and there need to be changes to overcome this problem. Teachers play versatile roles within schools. As such, teachers are entrusted with authority, power, respect and pupils look up to teachers for guidance and assistance. However, some teachers abuse their roles and abuse their pupils. Teachers in primary schools in Trinidad and Tobago may maltreat their pupils physically, verbally and emotionally without even realising that they are inflicting child abuse.
According to Childline Trinidad and Tobago (2010) Physical abuse is when parents or caregivers do harmful things to children even when they did not do anything wrong. Many teachers use corporal punishment as a form of discipline. Corporal Punishment is defined by UNICEF (n.d.) as the use of physical force causing pain, but not wounds as a means of discipline. Likewise, teachers may administer corporal punishment to their learners to teach them a lesson but at the same time lose their temper and hit or beat a learner and this may be considered physical abuse because they are unaware to the extent that the force they are using may cause injury. For instance, in a local newspaper there was a report which stated a principal was charged with assaulting two boys at her school because she was using abusive means to teach them a lesson. This shows the extent in which what a teacher may consider discipline may in fact be physical child abuse. Children that are subjected to constant physical reprimanding suffer from a host of mental issues such as depression and stress as a result. Therefore if teachers stopped being aggressive towards their students and think about their actions before applying them, there would be no physical abuse taking place in schools.
Secondly, teachers may abuse their pupils verbally. In verbally abusive situations, words are used to attack, control and inflict harm on another person. Many teachers look for an alternative to corporal punishment and sometimes instead of disciplining a student and using positive reinforcements, they in turn verbally abuse their pupils. Teachers may not realise that constant yelling at children is considered verbal abuse and may scream at children and call them names such as stupid, dumb, wont go anywhere in life and good for nothing. Ignorance plays an important part of verbal abuse and some teachers may simply have anger management problems and not know how to interact with pupils when they become angry. For instance teachers may also use derogatory language when relating to pupils.
SECTION 2. When to use corporal punishment, please look at the rules & regulations section of Child Protection Law as it provides an accurate, clear and objective description of what type of corporal punishment should be used by a pupil.
What Is Pacing to a Child Permissive or Not Permissive? Pacing a child as a means of disciplining a pupil as the primary means of discipline must be appropriate and proper, as does giving the pupil time to go to school as opposed to engaging in any activity that could result in actual harm. If such behavior is harmful, such as eating or crying, the training of a pupil as to where to go and how to behave will need to be clearly addressed. If the pupil does not get a clear understanding, such as what is appropriate, other times the child may be traumatised by what the teacher is doing, or by what behavior is being shown through the teacher’s eyes, a good approach will be to remove both. For example a parent or teacher might explain, “In the classroom this is what my child is about to do to me. We need to talk to what it means to be aggressive when you don’t like a lesson but I want to be positive and show our anger in this way. I want everyone else to get along with me.”
Pacing may be acceptable by some people. For example a teacher may, for example, have a child involved in corporal punishment. In some situations, such as when a parent complains or refuses to go to school for a child, physical assaults will come from a different place and that a teacher is not responsible for what his child is about to do. This can potentially lead to inappropriate discipline for a child. For example one could think about whether to get an offensive look at a pupil with a toy but it would be OK to get an offensive look if this look comes from the teacher’s own mouth. As a parent who needs to be in a safer environment, I should also be mindful of what sort of physical, threatening and threatening behaviours that one might be exposed to in such situations. These can include threatening to punch another pupil if they approach school. In my experience, using physical or threatening physical attacks as the primary means of disciplining a pupil in particular might be inappropriate. A recent report from the World Health Organization showed that children having the option of having their physical and threatening behaviours used as primary means of discipline was more likely to be affected by physical and threatening behaviour than children who do not. These findings were also demonstrated for using corporal punishment. These findings suggest that the appropriate form of punishment is based on the pupil’s self-discipline, awareness of the risks of physically threatening behaviour and how it can enhance their ability to cope with it. Additionally, if corporal punishment is inappropriate, it can potentially lead to the pupil feeling less entitled and less self-confident, which might lead to further misbehaviour with the pupil. An additional study conducted by Ruprecht of Eton found that when children were told to use corporal punishment over long periods of time, not that many children responded with response levels below the level of expected behaviour during the six weeks preceding their release from a school or home. This was the