violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

4UNICEF/HQ02-0650. Alejandro Balaguerorder, and hardening the unseasoned childto the difficult, brutal and abrasive world.In Europe and North America, the idea ofuniversal education, paid for by the State orsubsidised by the State, to equip children forthe working world, for their civic and familyresponsibilities and for their personal fulfilmentdid not emerge until the mid-19th century,when the industrial revolution was welladvanced. From then until well into the 20thcentury, beating, humiliation and isolationwere routinely used as methods of teachingand discipline.PERU, 2002, Two boys do arithmetic using calculators andcoloured blocks in a school in the village of Los Angeles in thenorth-eastern department of San Martín in the Amazon.Background andcontextHistorically, many cultures have had hierarchicalsocial structures where those higherup have controlled those lower down throughviolence and threat of violence. These structuresand practices have extended to familiesand the relations between men and womenand between parents and their children. Theyhave also extended to schools and the relationsbetween school staff and children.In both families and schools, corporal punishmentand other forms of cruel or degradingpunishment have been widely favoured methodsof ‘discipline’ perceived as ‘taming’ theunruly child, training the presumptuous childto take his or her ‘proper place’ in the socialSince the 1990s, the global economy and theeconomies of many nations have been experiencingunprecedented rates of expansion.The industrialised nations have moved intoan era where knowledge-based industries arepredominant and where economies benefitfrom all the workers they can get, if thoseworkers are well-educated and flexible, readyto absorb new knowledge, adjust to new technology,move from job to job and place toplace, and work with people of many differentbackgrounds. It is now widely recognisedthat everyone loses when people are excludedon the basis of gender, race, religious beliefand other factors unrelated to their capabilityand potential. It is also widely recognised thatthe free-enquiry-and-personal-growth modelis one that best serves everyone’s interests andthat it requires safe and nurturing school environments.115Violence against children in schools and educational settings