I taught for twenty-two years in schools that had corporal punishment, then another twenty in a school that did not. I didn't see that it made a great deal of difference in either case. If there was any advantage to paddling, it was that problems were dealt with swiftly (however, only if the parents were on the same page), and everything got back down to business quickly. What I did see, however, over that long career was that a higher and higher percentage of kids that attended school were "troubled" or "challenged." It seemed to me to parallel the breakdown of a society that was losing its common moral compass. The increase in dysfunctional , parents, homes, communities, and -yes- teachers has led to an increase in dysfunctional students. I think very few people now can even agree on the most basic ideas of "good" and "bad", or "right" and "wrong." To be functionally effective, organizations (families, schools, communities, nations) must operate with a set of standards for which there is common acceptance and agreement. That seems to be what we have largely seen disappear over the years of my teaching career. I hope it's not to late to turn that around.