@Phenom - you're arguing that one should treat a child as an adult!? Do you have kids? Have you ever worked with kids? Have you ever tried logically trying to convince a child of the beneficial qualities of pumpkin or coleslaw, or are you willing to maturely argue with your child that owning a razor sharp Katana at the age of 5 is not necessarily a good idea?
A child is developing cognition. We humans are unfortunately not born with it fully developed. I believe that a Katana is a bad idea for my 5-year old, and I will force that believe on him no matter how much he argues about it. An adult has free choice and hopefully the responsibility to own a long piece of sharpened steel - a child does not yet have that responsibility and (hopefully) his parents are wise enough not to grant him that free choice. Call me a tyrant then, but a tyrant on behalf of that very same child I "oppress".
I don't agree with dumbbell punishment at all. Though I do have sympathy for the teacher, I cannot in any way condone what he has done. To damage a child is simply not acceptable in any way, be it physically, emotionally or in another way. But I am in favour of physical punishment at the right time and in the right measure. Thing is, I haven't yet seen something that works as well in instilling a sense of responsibility into a child.
I think my father had the perfect approach. (By lack of a better word I'll call a "pak slae" a "beating", terrible though it might sound!)
He only beat me about two times, ever. But I always knew that he's not only threatening, he WILL do what he says. The times when I did receive a beating, he made sure that he wait long enough that he is no longer angry at me when he dishes out the punishment. That gave him the ability to be very objective about the punishment. He also made sure to let me know that I'm being punished for what I did, and not because he doesn't love me. As for the punishment itself, he never went over the top. To be honest, his disappointment in me always hurt more than the punishment itself. He also made sure that once the punishment is over, the matter is closed. I've done the time for the crime, and now it's over. The relationship never suffered because of the punishment.
But more importantly, he made sure to spend enough time with us kids. He never went to bed angry at us, and he always put his family before his job or anything else.
The greatest problem with physical punishment is that many parents see it as either a no-go, or as the only way of teaching discipline. In reality it is simply a tool, one of many, which should be applied with great care, and only after very carefully considering the situation.
*aggh, anyone agree that there should be licenses for having children? The more I type the more I realize how intensely complex the whole subject is.*
*Edit*
Maybe I should delete the whole post - there's a great difference between "trialling" and "treating" a child as an adult! With trialling I can actually agree. Sorry, phenom, from the context I thought you meant "treating".
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