've seen an increasing protest to physically disciplining children. What are your takes on it?
I don't believe in physical discipline and here are all of the reasons why:
http://www.naturalchild.org/jan_hunt/tenreasons.html
Science agrees: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/18/adrian-peterson-corporal-punishment-science_n_5831962.html
I believe it's needed in some instances especially at younger ages when children can't understand the reasoning behind certain rules. Pain is the body's natural form of parenting, in the most primitive way that even animals understand it outlines what something should and shouldn't do. Using it at younger ages and then supplementing that with reasoning later on as the child gets older would be my approach.
I had a mother that never disciplined me with force and a father that did. I can say first hand that I learned more from him than I did my mother even though he was present maybe 5 days out of the given month.
More often than not, the one physically disciplining children is doing it for themselves and not for the kid, and if the kid's bright they'll usually pick up on that. It doesn't teach anything more than a forceful sense of authority that they will later likely mimic themselves once they assume their role. It raises their sense of aggression, tends to teach bad lessons alongside any intended ones, and shows how lazy the guardian's approach to parenting really is.
I've seen better results come from structure and matters of the mind, a framework of reasoning. "Spare the rod spoil the child" is really a mantra of weakness from the parent itself.
"What age are you meaning?"
I would say 1-5. Ages that you can't sit down and try to reason with them.
"It's still lazy. Even with an animal there's ways that aren't enforced through fear. All it really does is "show them who's boss".
True but pain has proved to be fairly effective. It's precisely the reason the military is able to run as efficiently as it should. Being taught discipline through pain is what separates military personnel from civilians. I don't think you could replicate the same effect through passive means which is a reason i advocate it in moderation.
The huffington post is a website that is heavily influenced by liberal politics, not credible in the least. It's obviously going to be biased against physically disciplining children, it's trying to push an agenda. The article isn't even in a informative format. Maybe you should look into your sources a little bit more before backing them.