Spare the rod, spoil the child
Do they? Really? Over the years, it has become a pet peeve of mine as well as a great concern over how a child should be disciplined. Maybe it's something that comes with age...but maybe it's something that no longer seems right...because doesn't violence breed violence? I'm not talking about spanking a child with your hand on their butt...I'm talking about hitting them with a belt or paddle. What the law now refers as corporal punishment. Where did we humans get the notion that hitting a child with something hard was discipline? "Spare the rod, spoil the child". Biblical reference? Not at all. In fact, it came from a 17th century poem titled “Hudibras” by Samuel Butler. The actual verse reads: “What medicine else can cure the fits Of lovers when they lose their wits? Love is a boy by poets styled Then spare the rod and spoil the child.” At the time that this was written, it referred to the spanking of a woman,...