The talk about the shit, the tap on the fingers or the proverbial turn around the ears. The so-called pedagogical tick takes many forms and colors many Flemish sayings, under the motto “he who does not want to hear, must feel”.
But according to Child and Family, each and every one of them is unacceptable. “Some parents give their child a so-called ‘pedagogical slap’ to teach or unlearn something. They think that slap has an educational value. Together with many experts, Kind en Gezin emphasizes the importance of allowing a child to learn in a calm way for his growth and development. You cannot achieve that by hitting or using violence,” the organization’s website reads.
According to Kind en Gezin, children can get physically hurt, become more anxious, and even if the child adjusts his behavior – and the tap therefore ‘works’ – the child still learns that violence is sometimes permitted, even by someone you like.
Nonviolent education
Belgium is one of the few countries in Europe where the pedagogical slap is not yet prohibited by law. In 1979, Sweden was the first country in the world to enshrine non-violent education in its legislation. Since France also banned the pedagogical slap in 2018, all our neighboring countries have included the ban in their laws.
Last year, the gap in Belgian legislation caused a stir when a woman from Evere was sentenced by the Brussels criminal court to an effective prison sentence of four months for slapping her minor son. According to her lawyer, it was only a pedagogical slap, but the judge ruled that the mother was guilty of assault and battery.
Because to be clear, hitting children is not allowed in any case. The European Social Charter requires that “children and young people must be protected from neglect, violence or exploitation”. However, the pedagogical tip leaves a gray area.
“Open to interpretation”
To remove this gray zone, some educationalists have been suggesting for some time that the right to a non-violent upbringing should also be legally guaranteed here, with a complete ban on any form of corporal punishment for children.
That was also the explicit intention of the bill proposed by several CD&V MPs in 2021, including former Minister of Justice Koen Geens. The proposal sought to remove “a legal ambiguity” about the question of whether violence “in the context of upbringing” within the family would be permissible. In 1999, CD&V senator Sabine de Béthune was the first to propose banning the ‘pedagogical slap’ by law.
Strikingly, in 2024 CD&V suddenly opposes “a legal ban on parents giving their children a pedagogical slap.” This is evident from The (federal) Voting Test by De Standaard and VRT NWS, where exactly that statement was presented to all parties. CD&V continues to believe that the right to a violence-free upbringing should in principle be enshrined in law. But the party now believes that the concept of pedagogical slap is “open to broad interpretation”. “We have evolved as a party in how we look at the pedagogical impact,” the spokesperson acknowledges. “We don’t want to culpable parents and we don’t want them to risk a sanction for giving their child shit. That is something different from physical violence against children, which is quite rightly punishable.”
In this way, the party once again leaves room for parental authority to intervene physically in upbringing, while Geens’ bill took away every margin for this and Kind en Gezin judges that no gradual distinction can be made between a pedagogical slap on the one hand and physical violence on the other.
“Unreasonable”
CD&V is far from alone with its reservations. The N-VA also believes that a pedagogical slap “is not the same as hitting to punish”. Vlaams Belang is also on that line. “The condemnation of parents for a rare slap is unreasonable and must be distinguished from systematic child abuse.”
Open VLD is also against a legal ban, because “you do not want and cannot put an inspector in every living room or kitchen”. According to the liberals, there is little pedagogical value in a slap, “but legally banning it just makes it more difficult to discuss.”
Ultimately, this means that only Groen, PVDA and Vooruit still argue unequivocally in favor of a legal ban. “Physical violence against children is never acceptable. Like 92 other countries, we are introducing an explicit legal ban on corporal punishment for children,” Vooruit said.
On the French-speaking side we see exactly the same relationships between the parties. MR and Les Engagés are against a ban, PS, Ecolo, Défi and the PTB are in favor.