The following are some readers' responses to the March 12 Foreign Element column by Richard Parker headlined "Right or wrong, corporal punishment can produce winners." See many more in the comment section below the original article.

Coach endorses, defends violence

This is a shocking piece of writing. Shocking not because some aging Japanese male coach knows only violence as the way to motivate and get through to his student charges, but because of the total abdication of self-responsibility by the author.