My personal experience with corporal punishment is probably different than most. My parents were not of the spanking persuasion, just a modest occassional correction for errant behaviour, which I have no problem with. Most Kiwi missionaries found the "Spank em black and blue" theology to be bizzare and offensive and therefore did not comply with guidelines set by those who set the rules. There were notable exceptions, generally those who had their children born within their time at NTM.
Disturbing were the staff at Numonohi who seemed to derive some perverse pleasure out of punishing other peoples children and one who bragged openly about how much fun he had out of tricking children into choosing their own punishment. I doubt they punished their own children the way they got stuck into other peoples, a point that would be interesting to clarify.
And then there was all the psyco babble about breaking a childs will. How many adults had their will to live replaced by a lifelong searching for a reason to exist and just following the only thing they knew because of this strange philosophy. And so are the mistakes of the past repeated in the next generation and the next, until someone has the courage to stop and say, this is all wrong?
Of course the pendulum of punishment has to considerable degree swung to far the other way, but that's another issue for another time.
On the Corporal Punishment issue, my parents got it about right
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