It is the desire of most parents for their children to excel in their academic endeavors. To accomplish this, many parents impose pressure and provide their children with the support that they need to excel in class. However, there are some parents who adopt questionable tactics. For example, when a child returns home with a report card detailing poor performance, a parent could threaten to withdraw the child from an activity that brings the child joy. This form of punishment is ineffective and can have harmful effects. Parents should not discipline their children for poor performance in class.
There are various factors that contribute to a child’s academic performance. While the level of the child’s commitment certainly plays a role, such other factors as the support received from teachers have a more significant impact. It would be deeply unfair to discipline a child who performs poorly despite their best effort (“5 Tips to Help”, 2014). For example, suppose that after constant and relentless effort, a child continues to score poorly. This child is committed to his studies but their dedication and hard work do not seem sufficient. If the child’s parents discipline him, they would be acting unfairly and exposing the child to the threat of even poorer performance. Therefore, parents should be reluctant to punish their children for failing to excel in class. Instead, they should seek to understand the factors responsible for the poor performance.
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Stripping the child of certain privileges is one of the common disciplining techniques that parents employ. For example, a parent may ground a child, prohibiting them from participating in such activities as co-curricular programs. Evidence shows that co-curricular activities play a vital role in building a child’s confidence (Leung, Ng & Chan, 2011). Additionally, these programs have also been linked to impressive academic performance (Kariyana, Maphosa & Mapuranga, 2017). When parents ground their children, they essentially frustrate the children’s efforts to excel. A child who lacks confidence as a result of being punished cannot be expected to excel in class. If they truly wish to see their children perform remarkably well, parents should focus their efforts on providing support. Moreover, the parents should begin by speaking with the child with the goal of understanding the issues responsible for the bad grades.
The research community has attempted to shed light on the impact that disciplining has on children. Tang and Davis-Kean (2015) are some of the researchers who have conducted a study with the goal of establishing if disciplining helps or hinders children from improving their scores. For their study, they worked with two groups of parents. One of the groups was comprised of parents who yelled at and disciplined their children for poor performance. The parents in the second group were supportive and did not resort to harsh punishment in response to their children’s bad grades. Tang and Davis-Kean tracked the children of the parents in the two groups and observed that after five years, the children who had been yelled at and punished performed poorly in such competencies as literacy and achievement in math. This finding should serve as caution regarding the lasting adverse impacts of punishment. When they discipline their children, parents essentially leave them feeling unloved and this could set the stage for even poorer performance.
Spanking is one of the techniques that parents use when disciplining their children for a wide variety of bad and unacceptable behaviors. A majority of American parents seem to agree that this technique is acceptable. However, concerns have been raised about the effects of spanking on mental health. It has been observed that children who are subjected to corporal punishment can develop such mental health problems as depression and anxiety (Cuddy & Reeves, 2014). These problems can make it difficult for the child to perform well in school. Therefore, if they wish to improve their children’s performance, parents should be supportive.
From the discussion above, it is clear that in general, discipline is ineffective and can be harmful. However, when administered with love and restraint, discipline can help parents to achieve the desired outcomes. This is according to the Canadian Pediatrics Society. In its guidelines regarding how to discipline children, this organization prescribes a criterion that parents should use to ensure that the disciplinary approaches that they adopt are effective. Among other things, these approaches should be such that the child considers them to be fair, and that they should be administered by a loving parent (Canadian Pediatrics Society, 2004). Furthermore, the discipline that the parents administer should be developmentally appropriate while being self-enhancing. Essentially, these guidelines mean that the disciplinary techniques that parents use should result in the desired behavior and should encourage the child to engage in self-disciplining. When disciplining their children, parents should be constrained by these guidelines. While they are advised to exercise restraint, it is only fair to acknowledge that in some cases, disciplining is necessary and beneficial.
In closing, the question of disciplining children for poor grades continues to elicit mixed reactions among American parents. There are those who feel that disciplining is necessary to ensure good grades while other parents raise concerns about the damaging effects of disciplining. It is indeed true that disciplining children can have such adverse outcomes as compounding poor grades and exposing children to the risk of developing mental health issues. While disciplining can have some positive effects, its use should be minimized and parents should instead use approaches that build the confidence of their children.
References
5 tips to help parents handle bad grades. (2014). Advocate Aura Health. Retrieved March 14, 2019 from https://www.ahchealthenews.com/2014/01/09/5-tips-help-parents-handle-bad-grades/
Canadian Pediatrics Society. (2004). Effective discipline for children. Pediatrics & Child Health, 9 (1), 37-41.
Cuddy, E., & Reeves, R. V. (2014). Hitting kids: American parenting and physical punishment. Brookings Institution. Retrieved March 14, 2019 from https://www.brookings.edu/research/hitting-kids-american-parenting-and-physical-punishment/
Kariyana, I., Maphosa, C., & Mapuranga, B. (2017). The influence of learners’ participation in school co-curricular activities on academic performance: assessment of educators’ perceptions. Journal of Social Sciences, 33 (2), 137-146.
Tang, S., & Davis-Kean, P. (2017). The association of punitive parenting practices and adolescent achievement. Journal of Family Psychology, 29 (6). DOI: 10.1037/fam0000137
Leung, C., Ng, C. W., Chan, P. O. E. (2011). Can co-curricular activities enhance the learning effectiveness of students? An application to the sub-degree students in Hong Kong. International Journal of Teaching and Learning, 23 (3), 329-41.
