There’s a lot on this subject, Little You Know, words of the Great Master of Wisdom cannot be dismissed with a wave of the hand or with one cursory post. I’d rather buy Shlomo HaMelch’s advice than the “growing array of reputable ????? on chinuch” available at your favorite seforim store. He certainly knew what he was writing. And he didn’t need any of the modern day “professionals” to be mefarsh (read:twist) his words.
Gemarah says there’s a mitzvah to hit even a son who is on the right path, so that he may grow better. Sholom HaMelech was writing from experience, he was whipped (physically) by his mother – and he thanked her for it profusely, that’s the tribute of ??? ???. He felt, he experienced and therefore recognized it’s great importance.
Of course it has to be delivered with a sense of love, in a manner that even the child understands it’s being utilized for his/her benefit, out of love and concern for him/her. This is the art so lacking today. Any blow out of anger will not only not achieve the desired outcome, it’s in itself detrimental on many levels. It brings outs and shows the dark, mean, cruel, enraged, untamed, animalistic side of the parent. It slowly shows the child how to act when angry. It gives the child a doubt if he’s loved, wanted, accepted. No – that’s not when or how to use the potch.
But modern day society has nothing, nothing to show or brag about for their achievements regarding “children’s rights”. Well, of course they saved youngsters from real live monsters, ones who had no business being parents or educators to begin with. But pumping up a child to such a degree that he knows, he just knows he’s in control, nobody will be allowed to touch him, lift a finger to him, is THE REASON they act the way they do. Again – of course there has to be a balance, but a child (at least in the beginning – as per Gemarah) must fear the rod.
A true mechanech knows how to instill fear WITH LOVE. A true mechanech does not strike out of any personal bias. So the child knows it’s all for his benefit. And one who does not know how, one who cannot have the child’s best interest in mind, cannot and will not be able to instill a love for Yiddishkeit, or the ?????, if he cannot truly connect with his pupil.
Shlomo HaMelech, understood mankind, he knew what makes them tick. Way, way before modern “professionals” came to distort and create havoc on the educational system.
Forgot to mention, Shlomo HaMelech was from the Gedolei Yisroel.