Hi Beep,Beep!
The first thing that 'got right up my nose' about this article was the sentence:' the psalmist wrote of children who are born in honorable wedlock..' some of the nicest people I know are born OUT OF HONOURABLE WEDLOCK.
The second problem, is it still sets physical punishment up as a piece of good godly advice.
Physical discipline is NOT given by people in a calm and reasonable state, unless there is something, 'not quite right about them.' People, smack, hit, physically punish their children when they are feeling, frustrated, enraged and unbalanced. Usually, the thing they are smacking their child over is completely out of proportion to what the offence is - for example fidgeting through JW 'boring as hell' meetings.
The WTBTS recommends smacking...FULL STOP.
Smacking doesn't work. In general, it does more harm than good. It is rarely given calmly. It creates fear. Fear does not allow learning, it causes the 'switching off' and 'panic' responses. You don't learn much when 'switched off or panicing.'
I would agree that talking to children educates them.