This was a story about the harmful impact of corporal punishment for each and every child, and the importance for each child to have trusted adults to turn to. The parents of a young boy fear he will not do well in life – that he is lazy and not taking his schoolwork seriously. They don’t know how else to motivate him, so they use corporal punishment. After all, that is how they were raised. Meanwhile, the son thinks he cannot talk with other adults, and even his peers, because then everyone would know his shame. But change is happening. The school staff are learning, and the boy is getting the support he needs to feel empowered. In this story, the children are given the chance to be heard, and end up proving they are smarter than the adults tend to think!

Change is happening in the real world, too. Many countries are adopting laws against corporal punishment, and parents are increasingly applying positive parenting methods. Sweden was the first to adopt the ban in 1979. Since the late sixties, the use of corporal punishment has reduced dramatically, with less than 5% Swedish children being victims of severe corporal punishment today. Similar progress is being made throughout the rest of the Baltic Sea Region, showing that it is possible to change attitudes and behavior.
However, one child being beaten, smacked, threatened and/or humiliated is one child too many.

The heart is a symbol of non-violence. When you champion this symbol of non-violence – either by pin, profile photo, poster, or any other format – you declare your support that all children should be treated the way you would want the children close to you to be treated: with respect, dignity and kindness.
If you would like paper copies of this comic book and our Non-violent Childhoods pin, contact the Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat at cbss@cbss.org.

You can download this comic book as a PDF here.

The comic book is also available in the following languages: