Corporal punishme

SOCIAL norms are informal understandings that govern the behaviour of members of a society”, according to Wikipedia.
Those norms can be viewed as cultural products (including values, customs, and traditions) which represent an individual’s basic knowledge of what others do and think that they should do.
Whatever was the norm in Papua New Guinea is no longer the norm now because new laws have changed the way we behave and think. Some things that were right before are no longer permitted today.
Take for example how we used to discipline children. My daddy, who is a Sepik man, beat me for getting an “X” on my exercise book and that resulted in me going to university, but will I do the same to my children? Certainly not, because if I did I would be taken to court for child abuse and if that put me in jail, who would look after my family?
If I am the bread winner then I should be managing my family and no children should be on his or her own. It is our norm that no children should be above their parents unless they have become adults.
Before making changes to laws let us first consider how those changes will affect the things we do. Many educated and successful people in PNG faced some form of corporal punishment as a child and that had gotten them to where they are today.
Do you think talking to Melanesian children will make them better people?

Linny Lemos
BTCD/3 @ PNG-Unitech