Giving tough love, with no hard feelings

One recent evening, when I got home after work, my wife told me about a major finding: Some parents of children in my son's class have been beating their kids for poor performance at school.

While waiting to pick up their children, she said, several mothers compared notes on home physical punishment when words appeared to have failed to correct behaviors like being absent-minded or careless in their children.

One mom said she would cry outside her house after she spanked her son over homework. Another admitted that she and her husband took turns to play the bad cop. All said teachers had acquiesced to physical punishment at home although it was forbidden at school.