Spare the rod

John V Lloyd writes on the physical punishment of children from the perspective of his generation, full of inaccuracies and unsupported generalisations concerning the attitudes of parents which are not reflective of the great majority of the current generation of young parents (The Scotsman 200, May 30).

I speak from personal and professional experience as a teacher. I’m also married to a man who campaigned for years with colleagues in Children 1st and other organisations to change attitudes to the physical punishment of children.

Mr Lloyd styles himself as a writer and as such may I commend to him The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.

In this play the son of the family starts to beat his father and when the father asks him why, the son replies that it was what the father did to him when he (the son) was smaller and weaker.

This is what physical punishment does, it teaches children that it’s alright to resolve issues with violence and ultimately it’s counter-productive to family relationships.

John Finnie’s proposal simply moves to give children the same protection against assault that the rest of us enjoy.

Anton Chekhov made his prescient observation in 1904 and yet today we still have people writing to newspapers in defence of this archaic practice. It’s time to consign it to the dustbin of history.

GILL TURNER Derby Street , Edinburgh