Customer Reviews

The Case Against Spanking: How to Discipline Your Child Without Hitting

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Chapter 1 An Alien Point of View (on spanking)
Chapter 2 Abuse or Discipline?
Chapter 3 Why We Hit and What It Does to Kids
Chapter 4 Back to Basics: What You Need to Know About Effective Discipline
Chapter 5 Changing Your Appproach to Discipline
Chapter 6 Rewards and Punishments
Chapter 7 Anger and Resentment
Chapter 8 Using Therapeutic Techniques
Chapter 9 What We Need to Do Next

Some of the topics discussed in this book:
Discipline, Punishment, and Corporal Punishment
Why Ads Become Aggressive
What Spanking Does to Kids
Family Factors
What Is Your Orientation to Discipline?
The Dos and Don'ts of Prevention
Diagnose the Causes of Misbehavior
How to Set Up a Reward System
Dos and Don'ts for the Effective Use of Timeouts
How to Run a Family Council/Meeting
8 Steps to Anger Control
How to Produce Hostile Children
How to Defuse Your Child's Anger
What Not to Do When Your Child Blows Up
7 Essential Qualities of Effective Psychotherapy
Understanding and Avoiding Emotional Maltreatment
Teaching Your Child to Think and Act Rationally and Appropriately

Hyman's book offers plenty of good insight into raising children based on the growing Western movement towards corporal punishment alternatives. Rather than simply suggesting theoretical disciplinary approaches, he cites real world ideas & results from countries like Sweden where a general aversion towards corporal punishment has caused a significant decrease in violence.

True, Hyman proceeds with his book without really considering at any great depth, the possible virtues of spanking. Perhaps that is because the arguments in favor of spanking are so shallow: parents should be able to do as they please with their kids, or the Bible says it's OK. Hyman's evidence against spanking is admittedly mostly anecdotal. That's because there is very little else out there. He banks heavily on the common-sense and proven principle that if parents want their kids to treat others well, then parents should treat others well. If a parent tells his kid not to hit others, then hits (spanks) his kid, what is the child to think? To Hyman, and to even the most casual observer of human nature, actions are louder than words.

Here's another childrearing expert who seems to have confused his own personal value system with The Truth. A parent could get a long hearty laugh out of some of his recipes for programming children if not for the fact that this guy is actually respected and listened to in some quarters. His disregard for ethnic and cultural differences and traditions is staggering for someone so relentlessly pc. Cut the criminal justice budget and spend it all on therapists and social workers to therapize everyone into his particular view of how to train children!