The Right Way to Spank a Child
A medical academy wrongly conflates discipline with abuse.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has expressed opposition to “all forms of corporal punishment,” defined to include spanking and also “kicking, shaking, or throwing children; scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair, or boxing ears; forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions; burning, scalding, or forced ingestion (for example, washing a child’s mouth out with soap or forcing [him] to swallow hot spices).”
Child abuse is a serious crime and should be punished as such. The academy is also right to oppose verbal...