Discussion: Spare the rod spoil the child

So, this has been a heated debate that has been going on between myself and my Western friends. I grew up in a very traditional Chinese school in Malaysia where caning is a norm and it would actually be amazing if anyone could go through the day without being caned!

• The class is dirty? Cane the whole class
• The class is noisy? Cane the whole class
• The class average for a subject went down from last month? Cane the whole class
• Have a stain on your shirt? Get caned!

During assembly in High School, we used to call the discipline teacher Eagle Eyes because, I shit you not, he would look-over the 2000 odd students on stage while the assembly was going on. After which, each student goes back to class single file. Eagle Eyes would literally just be standing beside the line pulling students out. "I saw you talking", "I saw you chewing gum", "I saw you playing around while the principal was talking". Each student would get lined up, hands against the wall, butt out, to get hit.

All this was the norm for us, so it did not really affect us that much. My friends and I would even make games out of it. In a class where the teacher would cane anyone who made even the slightest noise, my friends and I will start punching each other in the arm challenging each other to not make any noise lest the teacher caned us.

I was surprised at how shocked these stories were to most of my Western friends. They argue that children brought up in such an environment could be psychologically affected. My usual line of "I ended up fine...I think" would only get furious response of "JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE OKAY DOESN'T MEAN OTHERS ARE".

I would like to hear the Steemit Community's thoughts. What do you think about this heated debate?

1. Should a child be physically disciplined or should they not be?
2. Are there any permanent long lasting effects of physical discipline?
3. What would be a more effective way of disciplining children?

I am neither for or against physically disciplining a child. I think it really depends on the society the child is brought up in. The way I think about it, it's all relative to the culture of society. Because it has been such a norm in my society, as children growing up, we didn't really think much of it and thus grew up okay...I think. But in a society where caning a child is rare or almost unheard of, the shock and surprise of being caned may be what causes the psychological effect on the child?

Please share your thoughts! and follow me if you like having random discussions or topics to talk about.

P.S This is my first post, other than the introduceyourself, I intend to post more discussions like this. Please tell me how my discussions can be improved or if you'd like me to followup on these discussions to summarize the comments.