Wow.
Well, I'm pretty old-school as parents go, I guess...
Maybe real life is at some point going to break the child's spirit in far more significant ways.
Exactly how is formal schooling going to go, hmm?
(Nevermind. I'll bet that I know the answer.
)
Discipline is about training/civilizing children, not "punishing" them, first of all. Much of that is for their own benefit, whether they see it that way or no (and all too often it's the latter-- sucks to be the parent).
Sorry, but my personal belief is that children are born who they are, all right... and that a LOT of 'who they are' requires some fine tuning if they are to live in harmony with other human beings. In some cases, major tuning. They'd mostly turn out to be tyrannical and capricious dictators otherwise. Imagine an entire world filled with only people intent on serving their own desires in the moment... 
I don't really hold with the view that socializing/training children "destroys" their lovely and charming natural selves. I think that our natural selves are a lot like Howler Monkeys.
