Punishment Is Necessary To Help Children Learn The Distinction Between Right And Wrong | Band 7 IELTS Essay Sample

It is important for children to learn the difference between right and wrong at an early age. Punishment is necessary to help them learn this distinction. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion? What sort of punishment should parents and teachers be allowed to use to teach good behaviour to children?

Here is a band 7 IELTS essay on this topic submitted by one of our students. Send us your writing samples for a free band score estimate or get a detailed analysis of your writing for a fee.

Band 7 IELTS essay sample

It is common sense that children should learn to distinguish between right and wrong from an early age. Some people believe that the easiest way to accomplish this is to punish them when they do something wrong. I completely disagree with this view.

Children are too young to understand why they are punished. They are easy to link their mistakes to the unhappy experience after punishment. However, they still do not know why their parents are angry with them and how to correct their behaviour because they are not mature enough to reform themselves. Therefore, instead of giving them punishment, parents should have the patience to teach them what is right and explain related moral rules when their children make mistakes. With this approach, children can acquire a deep understanding. In addition, parents need to set good role models for their children; thus, children can copy right behaviour from parents. In sum, punishments make children confused, and children have no right model to follow.

In addition, punishment has a negative effect on children. A better approach is to use encouragement to educate children because it has a positive influence on children. Encouragement gives children the space to try and explore and allow them to make mistakes. At the same time, parents should warn children when they are wrong and tell them what is right rather than punish them. That way they can boost children’s motivation to learn new things without worrying about making mistakes. By contrast, if children are punished when they make mistakes, they will lack a sense of security which is required for their normal development. As result of that, it is hard for them to make progress in the future since they always choose to do nothing to avoid mistakes.

To conclude, punishment is unsuitable to help children learn the distinction between right and wrong and parents should find more understandable and beneficial ways to teach them good behaviour.