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criminals were spanked when they were children. I have
never seen a study that asked a group of well adjusted
professionals if they were physically disciplined
as children and what part they thought
it played in their success. What would
our critics conclude by the fact that 90%
of the successful, nonviolent professionals were
spanked by their parents?
Research Supports Spanking
Many pediatricians believe that responsible
spanking outperforms faddish disciplinary approaches.
Marjorie Gunnoe, a developmental psychologist at Calvin
College, did a study of 2,600 people, about a quarter of
whom had never been physically chastised. She concluded
that young children spanked by their parents may grow up to be happier and
more successful than those who have never been spanked. According to the
research, children spanked up to the age of 6 were likely as teenagers to perform
better at school and were more likely to carry out volunteer work and to want to
go to college than their peers who had never been physically disciplined.
Child psychologists Diana Baumrind and Elizabeth Owens conducted a
study. Owens is a research scientist at the Institute of Human Development at
the University of California at Berkeley. As a mother of a three- and a fiveyear-old,
Owens says, “As a parent I am morally opposed to spanking.” But as
a scientist, she says, “A blanket injunction against spanking is not warranted
by the data. If you look at the causally relevant evidence, it’s not scientifically
defensible to say that spanking is always a horrible thing. I don’t think mild,
occasional spankings in an otherwise supportive, loving family will do any longterm
harm.”
Media Campaign
The media campaign against spanking is designed to win the perception
war. If they can make parents think that they are out of the mainstream, part of
an unpopular minority, they will come to doubt their natural parental instincts
and shrink from their responsibilities to continue the tradition of nurturing the
young through tested means, of which spanking is a part. The progressives will
then be free, without dissent, to pass unconstitutional legislation making any
form of physical discipline a crime punishable by imprisonment and loss of their
children to the state.
Common Law Right
A Minnesota trial court has ruled that “laws against school paddling do not
supersede the common-law right to spank a child.”
The Supreme Court in Ingraham v. Wright, 1977, held that school corporal
punishment of students does not violate the federal Constitution—does not amount
to cruel and unusual punishment.
The constitution of the United States recognizes the existence of common
law rights and offers protection in the exercise thereof. These rights are said to be
unalienable. That is, these rights, springing from God, being part of our nature,
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