Parents of school age children are faced with new challenges and must build upon the earlier lessons of being a person under authority. One of the primary focuses during these years is character development. A child must be learning how to respond to situations in life with biblical wisdom (trust and obedience toward God). His conscience must be developed as the reasoning factor of the soul, and parents must appeal to the conscience in order to help him develop the capacity to reason to right conclusions using the Scriptures as his guide. 

It is obvious that character development is not taught through the same methods as teaching a toddler to be under authority…  Spanking works well to teach younger children to obey, but it is not effective at teaching a 12 year old to be wise. As children grow, we must address the heart using godly communication, a clear appeal to their conscience, and an appropriate application of corrective discipline where necessary.