Advertiser columnist Ruth Wishart shares her thoughts on the Scottish Government's plan to ban smacking of children.

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If I tell you there was a leather belt involved in the assault, you’ll gather it didn’t happen yesterday morning.

But that kind of sanction was routine in my schooldays. Some teachers used it liberally but – significantly – many seemed to keep perfectly good classroom order without having recourse to corporal punishment.

Which led me to the conclusion that the better the teaching techniques, the less likelihood of needing to resort to physical violence.

It would be a lie to say my encounters with Lochgelly’s least welcome product line blighted my childhood in any lasting way.

But, all these decades later, I still harbour a grudge at the teacher who belted me for something done by someone else.

Maybe I didn’t shout “it wisnae me, miss” loudly enough. You don’t when you’re 7. (Yes Miss Graham, I mean you!.)

That’s long gone from schools now, and good riddance. But the newly announced smacking ban has caused a fair old stushie beween those who think it long overdue to give children the same protection adults enjoy under the law (guilty as charged) and those who think it’s the nanny state in full flight telling parents how to bring up their weans.

It’s easy to judge from the sidelines of course, but I remember spending a couple of days in the company of a charity child protection officer as he did his rounds of houses which had been the subject of a complaint.

Two things impressed me most: his utter dedication to what must have often been a dismal job, and his utter conviction that violence bred violence, and that children who learned that hitting was a “solution” to getting rid of frustration at “bad” behaviour were those most likely to adopt the same parenting style.

And, he said, we have to break that cycle of violence.

Now obviously sustained abuse of the kind he had to deal with is light years distant from an exhausted parent smacking a wilful, intransigent toddler.

Nevertheless there is something profoundly disturbing about an adult using their superior strength against a small child, regardless of the provocation.

It’s interesting that all the child-centred charities have given the government their backing on this one. They get my vote too.