Did corporal punishment make sense when it was popular?

I think the liberal states got rid of it earlier than the conservative states. So New York was probably an earlier state to get rid of it. And the earlier bans might not have applied to parochial schools.

I recall living in a liberal state that outlawed smoking in restaurants pretty early. It was so surprising when I visited my parents in a moderate state that smoking was still allowed in restaurants. But when my parents’ state eventually did get rid of smoking in restaurants they completely got rid of it: including in bars.

The liberal state had always had a carve-out for bars.

So then for a while the moderate state didn’t allow smoking in bars but the liberal state did.

I think this varied based on the state. We did allow smoking in bars here way too long for my liking, but after we outlawed it in restaurants and bars, I remember going to Texas for work training and being grossed out how they still allowed smoking in bars.

Corporal punishment doesn’t make sense in the context of this thread, Kernel. It doesn’t make me want to punish an enlisted soldier, only an officer.

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Hfbb, Ms twig.

I am a very strong man and was scared to spank my kids, especially if angry.

And i would not tolerate someone else doing it to my child

there is certainly a lack of discipline in parenting. it is hard work. many times when you take something away, you need to give something up too. or face a battle of wills.

i did have a principal with a paddle on the wall. no recall of it ever being used

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So I had my wife give me her old textbook to see what it said-

Normal spanking, actually doesn’t follow the “higher incomes do it more” that I mentioned. On parent self-reported data, spanking is significantly more common among lower incomes. On teacher and student reported data on kids that were spanked, after controlling for race, it was more common amongst severe poverty (<$10,000 / year), but fairly even after that.

Where the inverse relationship happened was on the next step up - people who were pushed, slapped, or punched by an adult living in the home (based off of a survey of 35,000 young adults asked about their experience in childhood) was more likely to happen with parents of higher income and higher education levels.

You can have direct consequences for actions for kids younger than 3 that doesn’t involve hitting your kid. No doubt a good whack would more immediately create fear and compliance, but I act how I want my kids to act. I think it’s powerful to be able to say to one daughter “does daddy hit you? no. OK so that’s why we don’t hit your sister”

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You are saying that actual abuse, not ordinary disciplinary spanking, was more common in higher-income groups if I read that correctly.

Because while spanking may be considered abusive right now, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t when that data was gathered.

Right. Spanking was in the lower bucket and not more common in higher income groups (my memory was wrong there). It was the next bucket defined as “harsh physical punishment” - up from spanking but below “malfeasance” which included injury and burns.

Survey was conducted in 2012

got beat by both parents, AND my elementary school teacher.(you got whacked for every point you get below 100, I remember one time I was the only student to not get whacked in class, felt good).

asian here too. that was the norm.

probably won’t have kids. but if I do will likely include physical punishment.

We spanked our kids. A swat to the well-padded bottom, or sometimes a slap on the back of the hand. I never worried we might injure them. We didn’t hit them nearly hard enough to do that. Hell, CAN you injure a kid with an open-handed swat to the derriere?

In retrospect i regret it. The only time it was probably right was the time my small child ran into traffic, and i grabbed him in time to avoid real injury. I’m not sure what would have been effective, but I think the long-term effects of corporal punishment were more bad than good.

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seems like an odd comment - does that mean you thought it was effective?

I think most people who got beat growing up (aka all asians) will tell you it’s effective

No way man that hurt. I would totally let my kid flunk a class too.

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nope. my kids need to have the best grades in class. but also look the hottest.

I and other Asian kids were at the top of our class, so there was a time even for me when I thought if I hadn’t gotten pressured to be #1 "or else, " then I wouldn’t have made it.

Then I ran into the occasional white kid who was also at the top who simply just loved what they studied and weren’t pressured at all. Then I concluded such pressure was unnecessary. At all.

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welll would YOU have been as successful as you are today if you weren’t beat

Probably. I don’t think I would have gotten as high of an SAT or whatever but you certainly don’t need to do well in school to be a good actuary. Any D student can work their way into the field by starting in underwriting and passing exams, worst case scenario.

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sure, but it would’ve been a more arduous process. anyone can be anything if they tried hard enough. but your good grades made your life easier.

I personally don’t think it was worth it. I have an irreparable relationship with my parents.

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