Hi Tipsters,
Along with the spanking debate, I thought I'd pass along something I
use in class. As a Peace Studies wannabe, I try to use materials relating
to those issues when I can. For example, I have a page full of dots that
represent the nuclear weapons in the world (as of seven years ago), and use
that to emphasize that, while we were very frightened of nuclear weapons
fifty years ago, we (read the people in the class) spend very little time
thinking of them now.
For the "spanking" section, I first ask how many in the class were
spanked as a child (raising my hand as well). I then show them a metal
rod, and tell the class that this is my newly patented "Kidzapper". It's an
electric kid prod, I explain, and is far superior to spanking for
controlling children. The shock cannot be set above a relatively low limit,
so there's no danger of overdoing it, and the child is perhaps less likely
to form negative associations to the parent (okay, that's rather specious).
The class, though they know the Kidzapper isn't real, is appalled at
the idea. I then suggest that if they are appalled at my 'zapper, but not
by spanking, it can only because they are habituated to the former and not
to the latter, as both methods use pain to control the behavior of children.
This usually gets a good discussion going as to why the 'zapper is
"worse". I am also careful to have the class understand that I am not
saying they had bad parents....
Joe Hatcher
Ripon College
Ripon, Wi
Joe W. Hatcher, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Ripon College
Ripon, WI 54971
USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
