Teachers are leaving and few people choosing the field

Re:Teachers are leaving and few people choosing the field by watwut on Sunday February 06, 2022 @02:05PM (#30235773)

Belt spanking is spanking. Paddle spanking is spanking.

It was literally never true that the word would refer to beating a kid by open hand only. The books that teach parents to spank also give advice to use instruments and call it spanking.

Old books that contain spanking use the word beating as synonyms. It started to be used as different word when people started to take issue with it more often.

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Re:Teachers are leaving and few people choosing the field by FooBarBizBazz on Sunday February 06, 2022 @09:01PM (#30239265)

I agree with you that paddles or switches can be used for "spanking", and that "spanking" is a form of "beating", but still the words are different. "Spanking" strongly implies that it is done to cause pain without serious or permanent injury. "Beating" has no such limitation.

I agree that it is not the right way to discipline a child, but I can recognize this distinction in meaning.

I find this interesting, actually, as a form of argument. The annihilation of semantic categories. It's like argument via Sapir-Whorf.

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