IELTS Preparation: punish children or not Topic: Some people think it is necessary to punish children in order to teach them the difference between right and wrong. Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons for your answer. If you agree, what kind of punishment do you think should be given to children by parents and teachers? Give reasons for your answer. Nowadays, the importance of children education has been widely recognized throughout the world. This raises questions about whether punishment should be allowed to teach children the difference between right and wrong. Although some people are against punishment, I personally believe that some forms of punishment are essential and should be permitted. People who oppose punishment claim that it could exert detrimental influence on children’s psychological development. They assert children who are often punished could lose self-confidence and even develop hatred to society. However, they are oversimplifying the situation. Actually, parents or teachers do not simply punish children. Rather, they explain to children why what they have done is wrong and what kind of person they are supposed to be. And punishment is used as a supplement to make children remember the lessons. As a result, children are more likely to understand the circumstances rather than get to hate society. Yet others argue that punishment is crucial in education provided that it does not threaten the health of a child. For example, such punishments as withdrawal of privileges of watching TV or playing video games are acceptable. For one thing, these punishments teach children the concept of responsibility. This means a person have to take the responsibility of whatever he/she has done. In the long term, everyone has to be responsible for his/her own life. Knowing this in an early age is helpful in these children’s later lives. For instance, theft is supposed to be put into prison. Only when a child is punished for stealing even an eraser could he/she realize theft is wrong and he/she has to pay the cost for stealing. Those children, more often than not, turn out to be honest people when grow up. For another, punishment could be more memorable than mere education by words. It is because the cost people pay for their misdemeanor makes the lessons they learned memorable. To conclude, punishment exclusive of corporal punishment is necessary in children education since it teaches children to be responsible and is an effective method.