Monday, March 02, 2009

Punishments

My 10 year old had to write a report about Thurgood Marshall. I have to admit that I didn't know much about him. In case you don't know about him, he was the lawyer who won the "Brown Vs. The Board of Education" case that enabled the blacks to attend public school with whites. He eventually became a Supreme court judge himself.

Thurgood's name was actually Thoroughgood, but as a child he didn't like writing that out, so shortened his name. His father used a very interesting punishment for him when he was bad. He had him copy the Constitution. The intriguing thing about this is that it actually developed in him an interest in the Constitution, and the law, and spurred him to become a lawyer.

I have heard of those who have had their children memorize bible passages as punishment. As I thought about Thurgood Marshall copying the Constitution, I realized that I may have missed the boat in punishing my children as they were growing up.

4 comments:

Max Coutinho said...

Hey D!

Mr. Thoroughgood knew how to punish his kid.

Funny that you brought this subject up, cause last week I was having a conversation about punishment and I was saying that when parents apply an interesting punishment (like reading, or copying texts or writing compositions [in my case]) kids develop a taste for books, texts or writing...they may even offer themselves to go to punishment corner LOL...

Memorising Bible passages...it is an interesting one too, but sometimes it has an inverse effect on people (I don't know why).

Have a great day!
Cheers

Becky said...

That's a great insight. I'll have to remember it.

Nene said...

I could have used that tip when I was raising my kids. I wonder if I could still make them do it?

Dee Ice Hole said...

I copied the Constitution twice as a youngster---did it help correct what I was doing---NO---did it help me become sneakier (is that a word?) YES

Did it help me as an adult---you betcha---it is really nice to know what is in that document---at least read it once!!!!!