"teapot" wrote in message
m...
On the train yesterday I was talking to a woman who was keen to tell
me that children need to be disciplined from an early age. I did
all
the neutral 'oh really, well that's not how I want to do it but
thanks
anyway' stuff but then she told me that she had read about it in a
book her pastor had lent her. It said that you should smack but not
with the hand as that is for love, but with a paddle. She was
reading
it because it was the book that the christian school she wanted to
send her child to used as a guideline. She said that she wanted to
know that she had done the best she could for her child when
judgement
day came. I said that if I believed in a judgement day I would
expect
to go straight to hell, do not pass go, if I ever smacked my child,
especially with a paddle. She said she would pray for me.

It left me so upset, her poor child. She said the governbment are
trying to ban it, I said I wasnt surprised and asked how a school
could discipline children like that without breaking the law. She
said
it was ok as they parents had given consent.

It is allowed here as well.I am not pro-spanking, but I am not
vehemently anti-spanking either
I believe there are times when it is useful and justified. A great
many people believe that
if you spank a child you should use a paddle, or some object other
than the hand, so the
child doesn't associate the hand with pain.
I grew up in the Southern US, where corporal punishment is the norm.
Kids get spanked and
are expected to be spanked. In the schools, it was also allowed and
done with a paddle. I think in the state
where I grew up, it is still legal.
That being said, I am not for spanking very small kids, or very old
ones. There is a certain age range where
it can be effective and appropriate.
I am NOT for "beating" kids.