Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, writing for the Wall Street Journal, reflects on the results of a new study by Calvin College’s Marjorie Gunnoe on the practice of corporal punishment, and various Christian perspectives/traditions on the topic. An excerpt:
Compared with those who had never experienced physical discipline, those who endured parental swats between the ages of 2 and 6 were much more likely to report positive academic records and optimism about their future. Even those who received their last spanking between the ages of 7 and 11 reported that they volunteered more, compared with those who had never been spanked. In fact, the never-spanked group never scored the best on any of the 11 behavioral variables analyzed. According to Prof. Gunnoe, her research, which was based on surveys of 183 adolescent children, doesn’t provide answers to parents as to how they should discipline so much as undermine the rationale for banning spanking.
Read the whole thing.
HT: Albert Mohler