Recently, the news has been filled with stories of grade school children being arrested and handcuffed. While I think the remedies chosen are definitely excessive, there is a point here that we really ought to consider.

Children need consistent and loving discipline from the minute they're old enough to consciously disobey. Although I personally think decisions on REASONABLE corporal punishment should be left to the parents, it doesn't need to be corporal to be successful. Children simply need to know there will be consequences for their inappropriate actions.

As much as I hate to say it, PARENTS, NOT professional educators, bear the brunt of the responsibility for the lack of discipline in the schools. Once upon a time, an unruly child could be spanked; parents took that away through threats of lawsuits. Then, they went after the practice of isolating an unruly child because it "hurts their self esteem". Detention? No can do; mommy and daddy might be a little "inconvenienced" and not make it home for "Wheel of Fortune".

The arrests of these young children are patently ridiculous, to be sure. I do feel that the teacher and the administrator should have been able to handle the situation. But too often, I have seen parents delegate to the schools certain things that should be taught in the home (discipline and sex education head the list on this score,in my opinion).

When disciplining our children, we've commonly used the standard, "if it's not going to be cute when they're 13, it's not going to be cute when they're 3". We give our children a lot of independence, but refuse to allow them to get into the habit of inappropriate behaviour. It'shigh time more parents were taught to do the same.

Oh, and you don't need "supernanny" to do it.