IELTS Essay: Family Discipline
读书人谢振礼海外投稿
Created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh
>Many people use punishment to teach the difference between right and wrong to kids. Many think punishment is necessary to help children learn the distinction between right and wrong. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
>Firm discipline is necessary part of teaching children. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Nowadays, parents are no longer commanders in the family, but children are. It has become increasingly evident that punishment is missing as a necessary part of teaching children to learn right from wrong. This can be seen in the way parents obey their children, which is as illogical as ''the tail wagging the dog'' when the opposite should be true.
It does not have to be that way because discipline is the natural order of things which obliges children to be in obedience. Strict discipline may represent a symbol of caring to a child. More often than not, the method of punishments works as well as that of rewards. So, there is no such thing as being too tough with a child. Giving advice while putting a child on the right path is the right thing for any parent to do. Anyway, the whole game is about love, considering that kissing parents and scolding parents are love just the same. Accordingly, it must be understood that excessive spoiling can ruin both children and parents alike, meaning that modern people's first part of life would be ruined by their parents and the second part by their children.
Following this logic, it behooves parents to exercise strict discipline in the family, considering that filial piety is often the fruit of the practice of strict discipline during childhood. The old common sense should still stand to reason that from strict discipline come good sons and daughters. Sadly, most children spoiled by their parents today are likely to spoil their own children tomorrow. In fact, besides school teachers, fathers and mothers by setting examples have decisive influence on their offsprings' behaviors. The good news is that some children keep following good examples at home--seeing, hearing, imitating, even learning to smile from their parents.
In conclusion, allowing children to dominate their parents is also like ''putting the cart before the horse,'' so to speak. The conventional wisdom--"spare the rod and spoil the child"--must be applied when teaching children to judge right from wrong. Children used to obey their parents. But that was then and it is now.
