"We urgently need an information campaign on educational violence, its nature and its effects".
More than 160 academics and professionals in the fields of childhood, care and justice, including Dr François Le Doze, lawyer Dominique Attias and psychiatrist Thierry Baubet, have written an opinion piece for "Le Monde" reminding everyone that it is possible to educate without resorting to corporal punishment or psychological abuse.
"The president would have to tell my mother that children shouldn't be hit. Then she'd stop hitting me." These were the words of a 9-year-old boy a few months ago to his school psychologist, who had explained to him that the law forbids hitting children. With his words, the child summed up the situation of many children in France, subjected to physical or psychological violence: according to the latest surveys, in 2007, 87 % of parents gave pats on the bottom, 71 % small slaps, 47 % severe blows, and, in 2009, 67 % gave spankings.
The law passed on July 10, 2019 states: "Parental authority shall be exercised without physical or psychological violence." This is the first explicit ban on educational violence in France, after 55 other countries, and thirty years after the adoption of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989.
But the law did not include a public information campaign, which we know needs to be combined with the law to change these deeply ingrained behaviors, as Scandinavian countries did in the 1980s and Germany in 2000. In France, the government has not implemented such a policy. In Sweden, following the 1979 ban on corporal punishment and the implementation of a major information and support campaign for parents, the proportion of pre-school children receiving corporal punishment fell from 50 % to 8 % in just a few years.
Ineffective
Educational violence involves physical or psychological violence aimed at correcting or controlling a child's behavior, in line with cultural norms. This type of violence is socially accepted, and has long been tolerated by French jurisprudence in the name of the right to correction. Physical violence includes: hitting with the hand (slapping, spanking) or with an instrument, kicking, shaking or throwing a child, scratching, pinching, pulling hair, pulling ears, forcing a child to remain in an uncomfortable position.
We also need to describe psychological violence, as defined by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, because many parents and professionals fail to recognize it as such: shouting, humiliating, threatening, cornering, belittling, denigrating, scapegoating and terrorizing children.
Yet educational violence is ineffective in terms of its explicit aims. On the other hand, the real effects are well established by epidemiological studies: relational difficulties, aggressiveness, violence and antisocial behavior, anxiety and depressive disorders, difficulties at school, somatic illnesses. In other words, the very opposite of what those who practice them expect. Neuroimaging studies show alterations in the brain areas involved in memory and emotional control. This violence leaves a lasting mark on the child and the adult he or she will become.
Studies conducted in both family and school environments have shown that the cessation of educational violence is beneficial, and that the adoption of non-violent educational methods and an empathetic attitude produces profound changes in the brain and psyche of children and adolescents, with very positive effects on their personal, relational, social and intellectual development. It's possible to educate without resorting to violence.
Helping adults
Culture, preconceived ideas and beliefs that a good slap never hurt anyone, that it's what made you strong, that children need to be corrected and punished to behave properly, play a key role in perpetuating these practices. These practices date back several millennia and are associated with violence against women and other social hierarchies - caste, class and slavery.
To ensure that children's rights are respected, and to protect them "against all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse" (article 19 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child), we urgently need to run an information campaign for parents and childcare professionals on the nature and effects of educational violence, and on ways of educating children without physical or psychological violence. This campaign could also help adults to free themselves from the violence they themselves have suffered, and which they often reproduce.
We call for the following actions:
- Inform and raise awareness among children, parents and professionals about the law, in the mass media and in public spaces where children are present, particularly in schools, from primary to secondary level, in the arts and in sport. Set up a parenting support program free of educational violence, accessible to all parents, from pregnancy onwards, supported and financed by the State and the Caisse d'allocations familiales.
- Introduce training on educational violence as part of initial and ongoing training for all professionals concerned. There are many such professionals, who would be very interested and able to support parents: doctors, carers, psychologists, social workers, teachers, after-school care workers, entertainers, judges.
- Promote research on the harmful effects of educational violence, on parenting, and on the exercise of authority in the context of violence-free education. And on the links between educational violence and vulnerability to sexual assault. Carry out regular surveys among the population to learn about educational practices and how they are evolving.
First signatories :
Dominique Attias is a lawyer specializing in family and juvenile law, and President of the Fédération des barreaux d'Europe; Thierry Baubet is a psychiatrist and Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Sorbonne-Paris-Nord University; Alice Casagrande is President of the Commission nationale de lutte contre la maltraitance et de promotion de la bientraitance ; Christine Charbonneau-Marzo is a child psychiatrist, head of the child psychiatry unit at the Barthélemy Durand public health establishment in Etampes (Essonne); Daniel Delanoë is a psychiatrist and anthropologist, associate researcher at Inserm; Manuèle Lang, journalist; Marie Rose Moro is a psychiatrist and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Paris University; Ophélie Perrin is a therapist.
The list of all signatories can be found on the website : Mda.aphp.fr/news
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