Sorry - didnt mean to say that you were for or against anything
And I do remember the belt, the switch and the paddle hanging on the kitchen wall - as well as the long paddle in every classroom in every school I ever attended till I was in HS, and I can tell you that I learned "real quick" what to do and what not to do - with no questions asked - and no gentle explanations of "why".
Sorry - but since everyone started this whole feel good movement all I can see if that it spurned gangs in neighborhoods that used to have ball tournaments in the inner city (I did get to live in Wash DC for part of my upbringing so I remember it well) - spurned the hand out generation (somehow its tied to the MTV generation that has now matured and had their own frigging brats that think everything is theirs automatically)
and most importantly - its created a health-care system that sees the chaos and takes advantage of it, created mindless apathetic people that wont even go out and vote for their government, and clueless idiots that get "given" degrees in college now that (and I swear this is the truth) act surprised when you tell them that Alaska really isnt an island (this was from a girl with a masters degree) because they see the maps where Alaska is always a cutout in the map
Great education kids get now-a-days