A best-selling controversial book that calls for a ban on corporal punishment to children in the home, schools and madrasas, has won a prestigious award from America's coveted 2014 Eric Hoffer Book Awards.
Breaking the Paddle: Ending School Corporal Punishment by Dr. Nadine A. Block of the Center for Effective Discipline, set out to highlight the many dangers and long-term effects to children – and to society at large – of corporal punishment.
Block succeeded in banning the archaic and sometimes brutal practice in the American state of Ohio and has been tirelessly working towards achieving a nationwide ban in her native America where teachers in 19-states are still allowed to beat children.
Over a period of 25-years she’s listened to, analysed all, and refuted the arguments that people have thrown at her favouring corporal punishment.
“You are so lucky in Bangladesh that corporal punishment is banned in all schools nationwide,” she said. “Corporal punishment has absolutely no positive effects, but countless negatives attributes. Young lives are being damaged and ruined unnecessarily through the effects of corporal punishment, and, consequently, an abhorrent society is created,” she added.
“How is it possible for a child to simply ignore the humiliation and hurt of corporal punishment? It’s like being slapped hard on the face and told to forget it. The tears might have dried, the pain of the abuse might have subsided and forgotten, but never the humiliation, and the empty gut feeling that society has betrayed them and not delivered the protection it promises. As a result, children feel insecure, helpless, and friendless and not knowing whom they can trust or turn to for help and support.
“I salute Bangladesh High Court judges Justice Imman Ali and Justice Sheikh Hasan Arif for having the wisdom and courage to introduce the anti corporal punishment law to protect the children and enrich Bangladeshi society,” she said.
The award-winning fact-filled book that all parents and educationalists should read, is supplemented with tables and extensive endnotes and available worldwide from Amazon.
BDST: 1755 HRS, MAY 25, 2014
