ESLPod 1091 guide Want to be Fluent in English?

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ESL Podcast 1091 – Punishing Children

GLOSSARY
spanking – the practice of hitting a child on the bottom (rear) with one’s hand as
a punishment for bad behavior
* Maritza gave her son a spanking for lying to her.
to beat up – to physically hurt someone in a fight in which one is the clear winner
* The police have noticed an increase in the number of instances where gang
members beat up the members of other gangs.
consequences – something that results from something else, especially a
negative result; what happens as a result of one’s actions or inaction
* The consequences of getting caught cheating on an exam include receiving a
failing grade and/or being suspended or expelled from school.
to punish – to do something unpleasant to someone who has misbehaved, with
the expectation that doing so will discourage the person from misbehaving again
* The judge punished the thief with a $450 fine and 30 hours of community
service.
an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth – a phrase in the Bible meaning that one
would respond to a harmful or damaging action with an equally harmful or
damaging action
A: Wow, I can’t believe Shane broke your game. What are you going to do?
B: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I’m going to break his.
flogging – a serious punishment in which one is hurt by being beaten or hit with
a stick or another hard object many times
* Public floggings were a common way to punish criminals in the past.
corporal punishment – physical punishment; a punishment that involves
harming another person’s body, causing pain
* Teachers in public schools are not allowed to use corporal punishment against

students, because it can be interpreted as a form of child abuse.
severe – major; significant; very strong and serious
* Meteorologists believe a severe storm will arrive tomorrow evening.
to resort to – to turn to something extreme or to choose to do something that
one would rather not, when no other options are available
* If Lyle doesn’t find a job soon, they’ll have to resort to selling their home and
moving in with his parents.
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ESL Podcast 1091 – Punishing Children

violence – physical harm to people and things, caused intentionally by other
people
* Some schools have security guards who try to prevent violence by keeping an
eye on the students and checking everyone for weapons.
to withhold – to not allow someone to have something; to refuse to give
something to someone
* Employers are required by law to withhold some of their employees’ salary and
wages for state and federal taxes.
allowance – money given to a child regularly, usually once a week, sometimes in
exchange for chores and usually to teach the child to manage and spend money
responsibly
* How old were your children when you started giving them a weekly allowance?
to ground (someone) – to punish a child or teenager by not allowing him or her

to leave the house for any activities, other than to attend school, for a period of
time
* Evelyn was grounded for one month, so she missed the school dance and
wasn’t allowed to go to any of her friend’s homes.
to pull out the big guns – to bring all of one’s power or force to something; to
do something in a big, forceful, powerful, and impressive way
* Nancy’s boss and his wife are coming over for dinner, so it’s time to pull out the
big guns. We’re cooking some fancy food, opening an expensive bottle of wine,
and using our best dishes and tablecloth.
to talk some sense into (someone) – to speak to someone logically and clearly
to try to persuade him or her to do or agree with something; to make someone
understand something and decide to behave rationally
* Please talk some sense into Becca so that she stays in school and earns her
degree!
disapproving – not pleased with another person’s behavior or accomplishments;
feeling sad because one believes that something should have been done better
* A parent’s disapproving attitude can make children think they never do anything
right.
to quake in (one’s) boots – to be very scared or frightened, with one’s legs
shaking
* That haunted house was so scary that we were quaking in our boots!
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ESL Podcast 1091 – Punishing Children

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
1.
a)
b)
c)

Which of these is not a type of corporal punishment?
A spanking
A flogging
A grounding

2.
a)
b)
c)

What would happen if the parents withheld his allowance?
They wouldn’t let him play with his friends.
They would make him do extra chores.
They would not give him spending money.

______________
WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?
to beat up
The word “to beat up,” in this podcast, means to physically hurt someone in a
fight in which one is the clear winner: “One of the other students beat up Phil and
stole his lunch money.” The phrase “to beat the living daylights out of (someone)”
means to beat up someone very badly, hurting them significantly: “How did
someone beat the living daylights out of a person on a busy street in the middle

of the day, and nobody noticed?” The phrase “to beat (someone)” also means to
win a competition against another person: “The Wildcats beat the Fireballs with a
score of 28 to 16.” Finally, the phrase “to beat (someone) to (something)” means
to do something before another person could do it: “If you beat me to the
restaurant, can you order appetizers?”
to ground
In this podcast, the phrase “to ground (someone)” means to punish a child or
teenager by not allowing him or her to leave the house for any activities for a
period of time: “When we were kids, if we didn’t do our chores, we were
grounded for a week.” The phrase “to ground” can also mean to prohibit or
prevent an airplane or pilot from flying: “All planes were grounded due to the poor
weather conditions.” Finally, the phrase “to be grounded in (something)” means
to be based or founded in something: “The U.S. government are grounded in the
basic principles of ancient Greek democracy.” Or, “The teacher’s treatment of
students is grounded in her belief of equal opportunity and fairness for everyone.”

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ESL Podcast 1091 – Punishing Children

CULTURE NOTE
Corporal Punishment in Schools
In the past, schoolteachers commonly used corporal punishment to punish
students for bad behavior and to prevent other students from “committing similar

offenses” (performing the same types of bad behavior). The teacher would
“strike” (hit) a child’s hand or “buttocks” (bottom; rear) a “prescribed” (set;
established) number of times, most often with a “ruler” (a hard, flat surface with
numbers marked on it, used to measure how long something is), a “leather”
(made from the skin of an animal) “strap” (a long piece of material), or a wooden
“paddle” (a round, flat surface with a handle).
“Proponents” (people who think something is a good idea) of corporal
punishment believe it provides an immediate reaction to a student’s bad behavior
and allows the student to return to his or her studies quickly. But “opponents”
believe that it is “tantamount to” (equivalent to; the same as) child abuse and that
it teaches children to be violent toward others.
In modern times, the opponents of corporal punishment “have the upper hand”
(are winning), and corporal punishment is illegal in the public schools in most
states. However, corporal punishment is still legal in several states, primarily in
the southeastern United States.
In general, corporal punishment is becoming less common, and when it is
“administered” (used), specific rules “govern” (control) the number of strikes and
the “implements” (tools) that may be used.
______________
Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – c; 2 – c

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ESL Podcast 1091 – Punishing Children

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1,091 – Punishing
Children.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 1,091. I’m your host, Dr.
Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in
beautiful Los Angeles, California [singing].
Go to our website at ESLPod.com. Become a member of ESL Podcast. Take a
look at our ESL Podcast Special Courses, which you can download immediately
– no waiting. As soon as you buy them, you can download the audio files and
written materials.
This episode is a dialogue between Yuki and Al about what to do when your
children misbehave – when they don’t do what they’re supposed to do – and you
have to punish them. Let’s get started.
[start of dialogue]
Yuki: What are you doing?
Al: I’m getting ready to give Charlie a spanking for beating up his classmate. He
has to learn that there are serious consequences for his actions.
Yuki: You’re punishing him for beating someone by giving him a beating? That
doesn’t make sense. Our response shouldn’t be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth.
Al: I’m not going to beat him. This isn’t going to be a flogging. I’m going to give
him a simple spanking.
Yuki: Corporal punishment isn’t the answer. We can give him a severe
punishment without resorting to violence.
Al: What kind of punishment? Withholding his allowance or taking away his toys?
Those don’t seem severe enough to me.
Yuki: We could ground him for a month, only allowing him to go to school.
Al: That still doesn’t seem to be enough.
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ESL Podcast 1091 – Punishing Children

Yuki: All right, we can pull out the big guns then. We could have him spend the
weekend with your mother and ask her to talk some sense into him. He’s scared
of your mother.
Al: I’m scared of my mother. Do you think it would work?
Yuki: If I were a 10-year-old and I had to face your angry and disapproving
mother for an entire weekend, I’d be quaking in my boots!
[end of dialogue]
Yuki begins our dialogue by asking Al, “What are you doing?” Al says, “I’m
getting ready to give Charlie a spanking for beating up his classmate.” A
“spanking” (spanking) is the practice of hitting a child with your hand or some
other object on the child’s behind, on the child’s rear, on their butt – the part they
sit down on.
This has long been a traditional way of punishing a child, of indicating to the child
that what they did was wrong and giving them something to think about if they try
to do it again. I’m not arguing. I’m not saying spanking is right or wrong. I’m not a
child psychologist. I can’t answer that question, but I can explain what the
practice is, and it’s something that parents – at least, when I was growing up –
would do to their children to discipline them, to punish them.
Al is getting ready to give Charlie a spanking “for beating up his classmate.” “To
beat (beat) up” means to hurt someone physically in a fight. Charlie, it seems,
beat up his classmate – another one of the students in his class at school. Yuki

says, “You’re punishing him for beating someone up by giving him a beating?”
“To punish” (punish), as we mentioned earlier, means to do something to
someone to discourage them from doing it again, or simply out of a sense of
philosophical justice.
Once again, we won’t go into the arguments about punishment. Yuki says that Al
is punishing Charlie for beating someone up, for hitting someone, by hitting
Charlie. She thinks this is not very logical. In fact, she says, “That doesn’t make
sense. Our response shouldn’t be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
This expression, which comes from the Bible, means that you respond to
someone who does something bad to you by doing something equally bad to him
or her. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” might mean literally “If you take out
my eye, I’ll take out your eye.” But in general, the term means getting back at
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ESL Podcast 1091 – Punishing Children

someone or getting even with someone by doing something bad to that person
who did something bad to you.
Al says, “I’m not going to beat him. This isn’t going to be a flogging.” A “flogging”
(flogging) is a very serious physical punishment where someone is usually hit
with a stick or a rope, often on their back, as a punishment. There aren’t any
places in the United States, at least, where you would get a flogging. In fact,
you’d probably be arrested by the police if you gave your child a flogging.
Al is saying he’s not giving Charlie a flogging. He says instead, “I’m going to give

him a simple spanking,” meaning not a serious spanking, not seriously hurting
him. But Yuki doesn’t agree. Yuki says, “Corporal punishment isn’t the answer.”
“Corporal” (corporal) refers to the body. So, “corporal punishment” is physical
punishment – punishing someone’s body by hitting them, for example.
Yuki says, “We can give him,” meaning Charlie, “a severe punishment without
resorting to violence.” A “severe (severe) punishment,” is a very strong
punishment, a significant or major punishment. “Resorting to” something means
turning to something or choosing to do something when you don’t have any other
options available – at least, that’s what we typically use it to mean. “I had to
resort to violence when the person on the street started attacking me.” I didn’t
want to hit him but I had to. I had to resort to violence.
What Yuki is saying is that we don’t have to resort to violence. We have other
choices. We can choose other ways of punishing little Charlie without hitting him.
Al says, “What kind of punishment? Withholding his allowance or taking away his
toys? That doesn’t seem severe enough to me.” “To withhold” (withhold)
something means to prevent someone from having something, especially having
something that the person expects to have.
“To withhold your love” would be not to give your love to someone who might be
expecting your love. If the company you work for “withholds money” to pay your
taxes, that’s money they don’t give you in order to do something with that money.
And in fact, in the United States, if you are an employee, the company you work
for will withhold taxes from you. Al is talking here about withholding Charlie’s
“allowance” (allowance).
An “allowance” is money that is given to a child on a regular basis, often once a
week or so, sometimes in exchange for or because the child does some work
around the house, sometimes simply so that the child has the money to buy
things with. When I was growing up, there were no allowances. In fact, even if
you worked around the house – and you were expected to work around the
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ESL Podcast 1091 – Punishing Children

house – you would not be given an allowance. I never heard of such a thing even
for most of my friends, but it is quite popular among parents nowadays.
Al thinks that withholding his allowance or taking away his toys would not be a
severe enough punishment for Charlie. Yuki says, “We could ground him for a
month, only allowing him to go to school.” When a parent “grounds” (grounds) his
or her child, the parent is punishing the child by not allowing him or her to leave
the house and sometimes even to leave their room other than to come down and
eat and to use the bathroom.
Usually, however, “grounding” refers to telling a child that he or she cannot go
out and play with his or her friends – that he or she has to stay at home, other
than of course going to school. But Al isn’t convinced. He says, “That still doesn’t
seem to be enough.” He doesn’t think that’s a sufficient punishment to teach
Charlie not to go around beating up his classmates.
Yuki says, “All right. We can pull out the big guns then.” The expression “to pull
out the big guns” (guns) means to do the most powerful forceful thing you can do
– to do something or to use some instrument or tool that is the most powerful you
can possibly think of. In the case of punishing Charlie, Yuki says, “We could have
him spend the weekend with your mother and ask her to talk some sense into
him.”
Yuki is suggesting that Charlie spend the weekend with his grandmother, Al’s
mother, and have his grandmother “talk some sense into him.” “To talk some
sense (sense) into” someone means to persuade someone to agree to

something, especially someone who doesn’t seem to be acting rationally or
logically. To convince someone to change their way of thinking is to talk sense
into someone.
Yuki says that Charlie is scared of Al’s mother. Al says, “I’m scared of my
mother. Do you think it would work?” Yuki says, “If I were a 10-year-old boy and I
had to face your angry and disapproving mother for an entire weekend, I’d be
quaking in my boots.” “Disapproving” is when someone is not pleased with your
behavior or your performance.
Yuki is saying here that if she were a 10-year-old boy like Charlie and she had to
face – that is, to be with – Al’s angry and disapproving mother for an entire or
complete weekend, she’d be “quaking in her boots.” “To quake (quake) in your
boots (boots)” means to be very scared, to be very frightened. “Boots” are large
pairs of shoes that go over your feet, especially when there is rain outside or
snow outside. “To quake” here means to shake.
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ESL Podcast 1091 – Punishing Children

So, “to quake in your boots” would be to be so scared that you are shaking –
your whole body is shaking – and that’s the idea that Yuki is trying to convey
here: that going to Al’s mother’s house for the weekend would make the 10-yearold Charlie rather scared and would be a very severe punishment for him.
Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
[start of dialogue]
Yuki: What are you doing?

Al: I’m getting ready to give Charlie a spanking for beating up his classmate. He
has to learn that there are serious consequences for his actions.
Yuki: You’re punishing him for beating someone by giving him a beating? That
doesn’t make sense. Our response shouldn’t be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth.
Al: I’m not going to beat him. This isn’t going to be a flogging. I’m going to give
him a simple spanking.
Yuki: Corporal punishment isn’t the answer. We can give him a severe
punishment without resorting to violence.
Al: What kind of punishment? Withholding his allowance or taking away his toys?
Those don’t seem severe enough to me.
Yuki: We could ground him for a month, only allowing him to go to school.
Al: That still doesn’t seem to be enough.
Yuki: All right, we can pull out the big guns then. We could have him spend the
weekend with your mother and ask her to talk some sense into him. He’s scared
of your mother.
Al: I’m scared of my mother. Do you think it would work?
Yuki: If I were a 10-year-old and I had to face your angry and disapproving
mother for an entire weekend, I’d be quaking in my boots!
[end of dialogue]
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ESL Podcast 1091 – Punishing Children

Our scriptwriter doesn’t withhold any English from you. She gives you all the
English you need. Thank you, Dr. Lucy Tse.
From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Come
back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast was written and produced by Dr. Lucy
Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational
Development.

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