Trying to be helpful, a Chinese father at our sons’ elementary school advised me to slap my child’s face if he was being recalcitrant. He made a slicing hand gesture. “This is what I do,” he said. “It won’t work,” I said, appalled and hoping an argument based on efficiency rather than morality might persuade a father who clearly believed the Chinese saying that “a dutiful son is made by the rod.” Read more
