klugeryid,
“Anecdotally speaking, corporal punishment seems to have been the standard method of discipline throughout the ages across all spectrum of Judaism.”
This again is a distortion. Something being permitted in certain circumstances is NOT the same thing as it being standard, or implored, or preferred, or whatever. I’ll ask you the same question I asked Joseph who conveniently ignored it: the Torah permits divorce, and sometimes obligates it. Are you ready to say that divorce is standard for Jews, or that the Torah implores us to divorce?
“What needs explanation is what and why has that changed.”
I think things have changed, but it wasn’t in the last 30 years. It was the last 150. Due to societal changes, parents have become more distant from their children, more tired, and more stressed. And therefore unfortunately many resort more quickly to anger and reactionary responses to children’s behaviors than in previous generations. Hence the increased calls to spare the rod. Don’t confuse 1950s America with the Torah’s ideal society. It was NOT normal or ok for parents to be so distant from their children.