On corporal punishment

Michelle Malkin has a column today about the Left's efforts to depict corporal punishment in U.S. schools -- only 13 states still permit paddlings -- as a scandal.

The real scandal? There's not enough corporal punishment in U.S. schools, which is why these young punks are so all-fired arrogant nowadays. Either that, or they're all doped up on Ritalin or something.

The abandonment of corporal punishment is one of the prime causes of the deterioration of American public schools. Before you can get kids to learn, you first have to get them to sit down, shut up and pay attention. It's a waste of time trying to negotiate with the little hellions.

Have you ever seen one of these mothers in the grocery store with a hyperactive little brat who knows she won't spank him? "Jason, please . . . no, I'm not going to buy that . . . come back over here, Jason . . ." Pathetic.

When an adult starts pleading and begging with a child, the moral order has been inverted.

Children are small, weak, helpless and dependent, and it is important that they be occasionally reminded of that fact. If a 5-year-old discovers he can yank his mother's chain by acting up, and without suffering any real consequences for his misbehavior, it's like giving nuclear weapons to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

My wife and I have six kids, and it's surprising how often strangers will praise the good behavior of our children. It's not really a secret how such good behavior is obtained.

Just a little example: From a very early age, if one of our children was misbehaving in church, my wife would take take them to the restroom for a spanking. So now, all she has to do, if they start acting up, is whisper, "Do you want to go to the bathroom?" and the disruption ends.

Psychologically, what makes corporal punishment effective is the child's knowledge that he can be spanked. You don't have to spank a child very often to convey that knowledge, but it's important that they understand: Pain is a potential consequence.

In the confrontation between adult and child, the adult's chief advantage is superior size and strength. To forbid corporal punishment is to deprive the adult of that advantage and thus create an artificial equality between adult and child. Once children are granted this privilege -- to do whatever they want without fear that the adult will employ coercive force --it inspires in many of them a profound contempt toward adult authority.

Elites disdain corporal punishment, but elites tend to live in very secure environments, where they don't have to encounter the consequences of their idiotic ideas.