While some of the older ones avoided crying until Mrs Wiseman began spanking them, every child sent broke down sooner or later. Mrs Wiseman never stopped spanking until well after she heard genuine tears. Like my Mother, she often said a good spanking began only after real crying. The first few times Mrs Wiseman spanked me, I tried to hold out only to discover my spanking went on and on. It didn’t take long to discover one could shorten the length and severity of a spanking by letting go earlier and crying freely. In any other situation, it would have been terribly embarrassing to cry within earshot of playmates. But because we all shared that fate sooner or later in Sunday School, most of us cried fairly readily. In any case, once a spanking started, one’s thoughts of embarrassment son gave way to feelings of utter helplessness and genuine repentance. Crying was the best method of venting such feelings and seemed to make spankings a little easier to take. And I know I felt a lot better afterwards when I let go earlier.