Spare the Rod and spoil the child?

The headlines in one of todays leading tabloids was about 3 children's whose hair was cut due to Bad behaviour. A few days back here was one about a principal in a rural school in Andhra Pradhesh who gave shock treatment to a child to make her improve her grades. He felt by scaring her she would study better but it had the exact opposite effect on her, she refuses to go to school with the fear of having to face the same ordeal again . But the saddest one was of a teacher in Uttar Pradesh who beat a child to death because the child was talking in class..........it is so sad that in this day and age when we have advanced so much we still use such harsh means to control unruly behaviour.....
That was a thing of a past when our parents would smack us on our backside for all our mistakes and the smacking used to be so hard that we would not be able to sit for nearly an hour after .........but we as children did not have as much emotional baggage as the children of today.
We were so used to being shouted at and reprimanded in public ........try doing it with one of the kids of today and are you in for trouble. The tantrums they throw are enough to make Shakespeare's Shrew in 'The taming of the shrew ' a well mannerd lady.
But jokes apart we have to find a solution to this problem...........why do teachers have to take such drastic steps......................
I have a few observations which I would like to put forward:-
For one , the children of today have much more exposure to things so they HAVE to be handled with care You cannot just say something and expect them to follow it blindly, they will ask you WHY and you have to be able to answer it.
Secondly I also feel the quality of teachers have come down ...............I still feel its not thedegree that follow your name like a BEd etc that make a Good teacher but they have to be someone who is Good with children and makes the learning process a very interesting and challenging one.
Thirdly our eductaion system being the way it is as a Teacher you are eternally wanting to be upto date in completing your syllabus and instead of having to rush at the end, so you end up loading yourself and the child ........thus making studies not a very pleasureable thing but something you just have to get over and done with.
But then I guess all this still does not justify the physical abuse on those little minds and bodies of those hapless things who are put into the custody of the teacher with the good faith of their parents.
We have to find a way by which we don't have to take such harsh and ruthless steps to control children...........after all the Children of Today are the Society of tomorrow ..............and as we sow so shall we reap so lets try and sow something good so that we can reap some even better.