Summary Of Gently Does It By Cheryl Critchley

The opinion piece ‘Gently Does It’ written by Cheryl Critchley, asserts the dire effect ‘smacking’ young children has on their development and potentially aggressive future. ‘Smacking’ often elicits a vehement debate, with parents saying it is their right and decision whether “to smack or not smack”, with others suggesting it proposes an unclear and burred line regarding domestic abuse. Critchley’s article was posted on the 10th of August 2013 in the Sunday Herald. This choice of platform is concurrent with an older target audience, particularly parents who or may not be partaking in the ‘harmful’ act of ‘chastisement.’ A maternal tone is adopted by Critchley throughout the entirety of her piece, whilst showing growing concern for the probable

The inclusion of a rhetorical question forces readers to see how seemingly simular acts elicit differing responses from the public, and how this conditioned aversion is ‘damaging’ our young. Professor Susan Malone from ‘RACP Paediatrics & Child Health Division’ correlates Critchley’s contention by affirming that research shows a connectedness between corporal punishment and long term health issues such as ‘metal disorders and domestic abuse’. This appeals to the reader’s sense of protection and family, maintaining that the ostensible historical and innocent character of a ‘tap on the bottom’, could have unthought-of adverse effects on their own children. Emotive words such as ‘abuse’, ‘harmful’ and ‘depression’ are integrated not only in the first argument, but throughout the entirety of the opinion piece, to evoke a sense of culpability within parents who do ‘smack’ their children, outlining the negative repercussions these actions

Within Hawkins exposé an anecdote of his own children and parenting style is used, he says that his ‘3 children’ have never been ‘smacked’ due to his implication of different kinds of punishment, one suggested is the removal of iPods and iPads in response to ‘adverse’ behaviour. This positions the reader to both value Hawton’s opinion, and understand that his techniques do work, as made prevalent by the anecdote of his own children. The large image positioned in the centre of the article further reiterates both the authors contention and Hawton’s disciplinary opinion. The young child sitting on the stool in the corner, shows an alternative way of punishing children. The addition of the fact sheet on the left-hand side of the image summarises the main points of Hawtons advice to parents, providing a brief but implementable strategy for all parents to take from this