YOU may have been present when unruly children were noisily disturbing all those nearby. “If they were mine,” you might have thought, “I’d warm their bottoms good.”

Many persons, including child specialists and psychologists, are opposed to parents spanking children. In Science News (March 4, 1978) Dr. R. S. Welsh wrote: “The acceptance of corporal punishment in both the home and school should no longer occur.” Some claim that spanking teaches bad lessons—that the stronger can rule by force and that angry violence is suitable conduct.

However, other authorities think differently. Quoting Soine Torma, director of the Northwestern Child Guidance Clinic, a newspaper stated: “‘There has to be discipline, there has to be order.’ This extends to spanking he said, so long as ‘you spank for the misbehavior.’” And, in Dare to Discipline, Dr. James Dobson writes:

“It is possible for parents to create hostility and aggressiveness in their children by behaving violently themselves. . . . However, when the child has lowered his head and clenched his fist, he is daring the parent to take him on. If the parent responds appropriately (on the backside) he has taught the child a valuable lesson that is consistent with nature’s method of instruction.”