I'm not actually sure what story you read...
... but the moral was blackmail is bad and cheating is bad. While I didn't own up, I certainly got my arse kicked for it. The 6 weeks' of hell plus the scolding I took from my mother. End result? I never cheated on an exam. What I didn't write in the story was that when my mother scolded me for cheated I could see the utter disappointment in her face and realised this was more than cheating on a test. Lesson learnt, as far as my mum was concerned. Kind of like when children go drinking and parents let the hangover teach them the lesson. Likewise, my 6 weeks' of torture coupled with my mum's disappointment taught me a hell of a lesson. I never wanted to make her feel like that again. Now if you feel I went "unpunished", then please take it up with my mother. Personally, I felt I learnt my lesson.

Now if you want to talk about the morality of how to teach children, that's another issue for another thread...
(Don Draper is, indeed, mad and a man., Sun 28 Aug 2011, 8:57, Reply)