Corporal Punishment: Are There Effective Alternatives?

The topic of 'corporal punishment' and 'discipline' is difficult to deal with as it is always highly coloured by the emotional extreme from which a participant in a discussion considers it. I do not believe in corporal punishment nor have I found it necessary to resort to its use. I do, however, firmly believe in 'discipline' as it pertains to the learning process by which a student is guided in the development of self-control and in the recognition of his responsibilities to himself and to his group. This, in my opinion, comes as a result of good teaching as opposed to good discipline; while the latter results from the former, the reverse is not necessarily true.