1. What are the key perspectives or schools of thought on the debate?
The two clear-cut perspectives in this controversy are those who are in favor of spanking and those who are opposed to it. Most people that feel strongly about this topic are parents, but there are also scientists and psychologists who are interested in the effect that spanking has on children.
People who oppose spanking cite studies that have found a correlation between being spanked as a child and having behavioral problems.
People in favor of spanking have tried to find fault with the studies by citing their own experiences with how effective spanking is to teach children important lessons and correct misbehavior.
Both sides use personal stories to back up their beliefs or views on the controversy.
2. What are the major points of contention or disagreements among these perspectives?
The argument focuses mostly on the effectiveness as well as the long term effects of spanking.
While some studies say so, there is no definitive proof that spanking causes violent behavior and/or mental problems later in life. The research does point towards that conclusion, but even if there were to be an unquestionable amount of data, there would still be people who would refuse to believe it.
People are also arguing over how effective it is. Truly, what form of punishment gets the message across probably differs a lot from one child to the next, and also from one parenting style to the next.
3. What are the possible points of agreement or common ground between these perspectives?
Both groups are mostly concerned with the well being of their children. They all want their kids to turn out well, they just disagree on how to help them become well-behaved, well-rounded individuals. Almost no parent would want to do something to negatively affect their child's mental health and later success.
All parents have experienced similar misbehavior amongst their kids. They know how hard it can be to figure out how to teach a child that what they are doing is unsafe or not okay. This is perhaps the biggest and most important piece of common ground between the two sides.
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| Image by Rouzet, Philippe. "perspective de Cathédrale." Uploaded 12/1/13 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license. |
4. What are the ideological differences between the perspectives?
It is difficult to find clear ideological differences between the two groups. Religion doesn't seem to play much of a role in which side of the controversy a person is on.
There have been studies and polls done to determine if race, education, or income level play into this controversy. There is no explicitly clear findings, but there could be connection between the family's race and the likelihood that they use spanking to correct behavior in their children.
5. What specific actions do their perspectives or texts ask their audience to take?
Most of the article I've found have been opposed to spanking. They use emotion to implore parents not to spank their children and to find alternate forms of discipline.
The texts that I have found that support spanking have been on message boards. People who write on discussion forums on this topic are less trying to start any sort of action rather than just opposing and questioning the uproar of people who oppose spanking.
6. What perspectives are useful in supporting your own argument? Why did you choose these?
In this controversy, it seems like personal stories and perspectives are the most effective. Reading through some of the posts on open forums, I felt myself moved by posts that support spanking even though I strongly oppose it. Personal stories easily evoke emotion in their readers, and any parent can understand where parents on the opposite side are coming from.
7. What perspectives do you think will be the greatest threat to your argument?
With what science there is supporting my side of the controversy, I think the biggest opposition to my argument would be other personal stories.
However, I think the best part of using personal stories is that no one can refute an individual's own experiences. They could only counter with their own experiences, but it is up to the readers to decide which story is more effective, truthful, or typical of the majority of cases.
Reflection:
Kelly and Savannah both have topics that are based more in science whereas mine is based a lot more in personal opinion. But we all are dealing with controversies that have either conflicting or not enough scientific evidence to draw a conclusion. We are also all investigating controversies that affect personal health. Kelly and Savannah are both are dealing more with physical health where I am working more with mental health and wellbeing.
Our arguments are very different from each other. My audience, similar to yours, is genuinely concerned for the well-being of children in the controversy; however, where you mentioned personal experience being a good source of information, I have found that my controversy is best suited with medical facts. I think it should be very interesting how both of arguments turn out, considering they are similar at a base level, but not as they get more complex.
ReplyDeleteOur contexts are a little different. In my project, there is a clear disparity between my two groups. Also, your project has a common ground between the opposing groups, where mine the agreement is a little harder to distinguish. Personally, I am not opposed to spanking so I am excited to see how you feel about it in your third project!
ReplyDeleteYour context and my context are similar in that in most cases people who grew up with spanking continue it with their kids, same as if you grew up shooting film, you continue to shoot film because it is what you know.
ReplyDeleteIm glad to see that your argument is also very opinion based. My argument Is as well however I notice that the opinions in your controversy are also backed up by statistics, which is the same as my argument.
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