The rod being used sparingly nowadays shows that the parents

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

It is obvious that, in recent years, there has been a vast change in the attitude of parents towards children and perhaps an even greater change in the attitude of children towards parents.
Nowadays the rod is used very sparingly. Among families of education and refinement, a child may still be thrashed by the mother or the father, but not very often. The significance of the happening is not very great, and half of the time the spanking is marked by the irritable nervous condition of the parent rather than the act of the child.
A child may sometimes be mildly slapped by a teacher, usually when the teacher is irritated and short-tempered. But in nearly all cases, if a teacher dared to beat a child, or cause it real pain, the child would only have to tell its parents and the teacher would be discharged.

And if such small punishments do occur today, they are confined to a very early age of the child. A boy or girl of twelve or fifteen has no fear of thrashing from father, or mother, or school-teacher. School teachers are no longer allowed to beat their pupils, or even to slap them.