Spare and Spoil?

To spank or not? A new article affirms not. Spanking, it asserts, is ineffective. My generation (Gen X) was one that was hit-or-miss with spanking. My parent's generation, that was another story. Yet, my parents' generation was more respectful (on the whole) to their parents than mine. Was it because we weren't spanked? Not really. It was because our parents had that "question authority" period known as the '60s to change their minds. Is it any wonder their kids began to question their authority? "Who are you to tell me what to do?" The reaction was not, "because I'm the parent" but rather, "I guess I can't make them do what they don't want to, that's not fair/nice/reasonable." Over the years we've paid for it--just look at school discipline--when I was doing teaching practicum in college, a student at one of the practicum schools threw a desk (no kidding)! Would a spanking have helped? He probably would have called the authorities and accused the spanker of abuse. Resentful kids know all the tricks.
Here's a thought, though: If you aren't going to spank, DO SOMETHING. (Pardon the all caps, but there is still discipline between spanking and nothing.) Kids will not behave on their own. They need guidance. Not lectures, not empty threats, not letting it go until it gets to a point where it can't be ignored. Here's my shameless plug: try Love and Logic. My parents didn't know about it, but they followed many of the principals without knowing it. Sure, they spanked too, but they knew a spanking was not a cure-all for every misbehavior. Let me tell you about the pile of rocks we picked up because we were misbehaving--on second thought, maybe I shouldn't admit so much.