Sam Levenson Quotes
Give your child a spanking once a day. If you don't know why, he does.
Levenson, Sam. In One Era and Out the Other. Simon and Schuster, 1973.
This seems to be the first instance of the famous dictum.
This Biblical passage is often used by fundamentalists who claim that any child abuse laws limiting their right to discipline their children is an unconstitutional interference with their religious duty. Even in the early American colonies this was an issue. See Cotton Mather: {612010}
This quotation has caused a great deal of conflict between some parents and local governments. In many states, beating a child with a “rod” of other implement is a crime—often a felony. Religious fundamentalist parents insist on their right to bring up their children in accordance with “God’s law”. In American society generally, we have decided that children’s safety and rights trumps the Bible where there are conflicts. Spanking with an open hand in moderate amounts is generally considered legal although most child development experts counsel against it as it models a resort to violence and tends to culturally perpetuate itself over generations. See {642236} and {642235}.
Samuel Levenson was an American humorist, writer, teacher, television host, and journalist.
