There's a lot of tension over discipline in the US. It stems back 60+ years; I haven't done a great deal of study on the matter, but I say that from the (large)

There's a lot of tension over discipline in the US. It stems back 60+ years; I haven't done a great deal of study on the matter, but I say that from the (large) amount of fiction and non-fiction I've read and the social expectations thereof. Anyway, I don't buy that discipline is inherently harmful to boys. Men have traditionally been involved with military/paramilitary type situations, which demand discipline. It's profoundly gender essentialist to assert that boys have to move around more. Also, dumb (c.f. History). It's profoundly valuable to learn how to sit down, be still, and concentrate on a subject matter you don't like. The real concern is the authoritarian attitudes and regurgitation for the sake of pleasing the power figures. It can break someone's mind to be turned into a perfectly molded authority-pleaser.