Discipline and Punishment

“Some children, like certain patches of ground, are rockier than others. Such children require parents who are willing to take more pains over them. IF a farmer has two patches of ground, one of rich topsoil and the other filled with rocks, he cannot treat the two patches of ground the same way. Discipline is corrective, unlike punishment. When a magistrate executes a criminal, this is a matter of retributive justice. He is not attempting to discipline the criminal; that is, he is not trying to make him any better. The execution is a matter of justice, simply punishment. But parents who discipline their children are trying to correct them. They discipline them on the same principles they apply when they put their children into the bathtub. If one child is filthy, he might have to spend more time in the tub. His brother, who did not get quite so grimy, will not be required to spend the same amount of time there ‘in the interests of fairness.’ Consequently, under the oversight of a wise parent, the discipline applied to children will vary according to their condition” (Beyond Stateliest Marble, p. 191).