Open Letter to Governors of States
November 2000
Dear Sir,
I take the honor of addressing You to ask you to issue an appeal to the parents
and educators of your country to make them aware of the dangers incurred by the
practice of corporal punishment towards children, both at home and at school.
As a researcher into childhood, I have for several years been examining the
influence of the violence, suffered in early childhood, on the violence later
inflicted by adolescents and adults. It is difficult for me to summarize the
results of my researches and the content of so many of my books on the subject
without the risk of oversimplifying, but I take this risk in the hope that if
this letter reaches you, it will find an understanding and the determination to
act.
For thousands of years, the conviction has prevailed that a child is born with
evil instincts, and that these must be eradicated by repeated corporal
punishments so that the child can grow into a well-balanced adult. This
dangerous opinion stands in contradiction to the latest psychological and
neurological researches. They have recently shown that man is not born with a
fully developed brain, and that his brain structuring depends on the experiences
of his first three years. The child nurtured with respect and love will develop
a capacity for empathy towards others. In contrast, the beaten child will learn
to glorify violence unless, in his infancy, he meets a person who, through the
respect he gives him, imparts to him the notion of love.
The most murderous tyrants, like Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Ceaucescu, who were all
pitilessly beaten children, and whose childhood I have investigated, did not
benefit from the presence of a supportive witness. They only learned to deny
their suffering, to ignore the cruelty they endured, and subsequently they
inflicted both, on whole peoples. They avenged themselves symbolically for the
humiliations of the early years, without having the least awareness of this
fact. Terrorists, fundamentalists and neo-nazis are none the wiser when they
claim to act for political goals. We, and society as a whole, bear the
responsibility to open our eyes and recognize the obvious connections.
It is therefore necessary to bring the urgent information to the knowledge of
all as fast as possible, to protect new generations from the tragic consequences
of a very serious misunderstanding. Our parents administered corporal
punishment because at the time, everyone believed to it was harmless? Yet
parents today can and must know that by inflicting violence, they teach their
children violence (against others and against themselves) and they plant in
their souls the false conviction that violence against a defenseless person can
serve a noble cause. In fact, corporal punishment teaches the child hatred; it
is humiliating, immoral and dangerous.
Unfortunately, false information is not easily expelled from the minds of the
beaten children who make up the vast majority of mankind, convinced that the
humiliations they suffered were useful and harmless, and who therefore remain
insensitive to the pain of children. Since this information is rooted in us very
early, in the very first years of life, and since most people have been taught
that the blows received were salutary, they strongly resist the arguments of
reason and of the heart of an adult.
Your authority can, I hope, cross the barriers in the minds of your citizens,
barriers rooted for millennia. Also, the principle of education without
violence is accessible to all: to treat our children, as we would like them to
treat us themselves. The future of our planet will be in the hands of today's
children.
Faithfully yours,
Alice Miller
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Open Letter to the President of the United States of America