Recently, some disturbing videos appeared online. Some parents hired thugs to beat up a teacher in school. The teacher’s crime was that he had disciplined the student. Stories like this are becoming the norm, and it is one of the reasons why the quality of education has dropped. Worse still, it is the reason why many youths have become useless to themselves and a threat to the peace of society. My second son called me one day as he was returning from out-of-station duty. He had gone in the company of his immediate boss to do some work. He worked hard until his boss could not hide his feelings. He told him that he thought he would be a spoilt brat judging from his parental background, that he never expected him to be serious at work. “We were not brought up that way”, was my son’s reply.

When that happened, he called to thank his mother and me for not letting him and his siblings have their way, which would have destroyed them. Hearing him made me glad. I realised that the corrections meted in the past, ranging from shouting, denial of benefits to outright spanking was beginning to make sense. The sixth warning in this chapter of the Bible is to parents. They should never withhold correction from a child. There is a popular saying, “Spare the rod and spoil the child”. When a child is spoilt, not only will he be useless to himself or herself, but the parents will equally bear the shame and have plenty of heartbreaks. Discipline does not make meaning immediately, but those who subject themselves to it are the envy of the world later.