Our culture is conflicted about childrearing. On the one hand, there are people like the conservative Christian psychologist James Dobson who, through his widely syndicated radio show Focus on the Family, has been a prominent critic of permissive parenting and an advocate for the use of spanking and corporal punishment for disciplining children. At the same time, corporal punishment has increasingly come to be regarded as a form of child abuse and is penalized by today's child protection laws.

In a four to six page essay (double-spaced), discuss the current controversy about corporal punishment in child-rearing with reference to the historical origins of this debate. Based on what you have learned so far from Claverley & Phillips' Visions of Childhood, I ask that you first trace the origins of each view in Western Thought by briefly summarizing what you perceive as the main point of each view. Then discuss within each view, the ways in which development can "derail" or go wrong and secondly, what each view imply about child development and how parents may most effectively foster positive development.

Required minimum 4-5 page