Absolutely right Anya, and thank you for pointing that out! As a teacher I see and hear of way too many instances wherein young children are left unattended like this. I am sure others hear of them too, they all too often make the headlines which describe how children were left in the car (for just a second) and are now missing, or burn themselves with cigarettes etc. More to the point, beating them won't, as you correctly mentioned, teach them a thing except that it's acceptable to use your fists instead of your brain. Here is a question for everyone- does that make it acceptable for a teacher to "beat a kid's ass" when he/she does something wrong? Even being threatened with physical harm (as I have been twice this past year, just one death threat, the other was only a beating)) I have to use brains instead of force, others ought to consider doing the same.