Corporal punishment as discipline is not only ineffective, it's damaging.

[Jamastiene]

51. Spare the rod is THE rule down here in the Bible Belt.

At least, it is in my hometown. It just makes for meaner adults. The kids start doing whatever the fuck they want to do anyhow, up to and including perpetrating outright cruelty to animals and others. Beating them only teaches them fighting and violence as a way of life. It teaches them nothing and they grow up to become abusers themselves. It's a nasty vicious cycle and needs to be broken. It is better to teach a kid why something they did was wrong than to just smack them and hope that teaches them not to do that thing again. The smacking them thing just makes them meaner. They do whatever the fuck they want to do anyhow after that. It just makes them mean....doing more and more cruel and hideous things as time goes by. Corporal punishment for children is barbaric, although that might be insulting to the barbarians of the world. They aren't even that bad. It's a fucking stupid AND abusive way to raise a child.