A Cultural Nod to‘Sparing the Rod’.docVIP

A Cultural Nod to‘Sparing the Rod’Everyone is probably familiar with stock cultural figures of the Tiger Mom， or the obnoxiously loud， pushy sports-obsessed dad. If you are a Westerner and have participated in Little League Baseball as player， fan， or coach， you will know the scene only too well： a parent publicly berating his or her youngster for a lackluster performance. Sympathetic onlookers know better than to intervene， preferring to avoid the toxically unpleasant atmosphere generated.Sports coaches have long become desensitized to the explosive nature of summertime sports-related craziness which， in most instances， is evidenced by parents throwing tantrums， unleashing their anger and spewing venom toward umpires， coaches， and children， all of whom are doing their best to simply try to play the game and enjoy themselves in the spirit of fair play， camaraderie， and above all， sportsmanship.A cursory examination of parenting styles， however， reveals none-too-subtle approaches when it comes to the actual molding of the minds and character of young people. A recent case of what could be termed “strong-arm parenting” caught the attention of media nationwide in the United States when a popular Major League sports figure was charged with criminal child abuse. This parent had struck his child with a wooden birch as a method of discipline.I would wager that this particular parent had been raised in the same manner by his parents， and would further venture to say that the older parents most likely held firm in their belief of “correctly” teaching their children good behavior and values， having read in the Holy Bible that “to spare the rod is to spoil the child.” I am familiar with this particular piece of philosophy， having myself been raised in a very strict Christian family. My father often lauded the methods used by his own parents on him when he was a child， informing us that his methods were far less severe. He would bellow， “Be thank- ful that I am not using the ‘c