ATLANTA BARBER HUMILIATES KIDS BY PUNISHING THEM WITH OLD MAN HAIRCUTS FOR BEHAVING BADLY

There’s an old Jamaican proverb that states “If you can’t hear, you must feel.” It’s a warning for children and a polite way of saying “Respect these words or catch the belt.” Russell Frederick, a barber at A1-Kutz in Atlanta, is offering a slightly altered version of that message with his now famous “Benjamin Button Special” haircut.

“Since rolling out the novelty cut, he’s only had one taker so far, but the Instagram photo of that 10-year-old subject quickly spread over social media, accompanied by the caption ‘So u wana act grown…well now u look grown too.'”

While Frederick noted people applauded his efforts, others believed the practice could be the catalyst for long-term behavior problems.

“It’s not just that humiliating people, of any age, is a nasty and disrespectful way of treating them,” Alfie Kohn, author of “Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason,” told HuffPost’s Lisa Belkin in a report on such punishments. “It’s that humiliation, like other forms of punishment, is counterproductive. ‘Doing to’ strategies — as opposed to those that might be described as ‘working with’ — can never achieve any result beyond temporary compliance, and it does so at a disturbing cost.”

Frederick says these haircuts are only for “the most extreme circumstances” and, to date, only one customer requested the cut.

Finding healthy ways to discipline children is a challenge. While public humiliation may be an option for some, I’m of the mind the “Benjamin Button Special” oversteps the boundaries.

The advent of social media has ensured this picture can follow a kid for the rest of his life, making any positive gain in behavior outweighed by the potentially negative effects.