Vestin has been right on the money on the better ways of raising kids. I have taken plenty of psychology courses and child development courses and one of the common things that comes up is to talk, explain, and work with the child to solve the problem. It may not be easy or fast but it can help the child understand what is going on and proper behavior on how to handle such situations. Violence only teaches the child to ether; fear adults and not understand what they did wrong or teach them that violence is a solution to handle disagreements. No matter what age, if something is not fully explained to someone, they will not understand.

Like I said, this was all a very long time ago. Tenacity has as many positive connotations as negative ones, and my brother ended up fine. He channeled that tendency into courage and perseverance. Remember, he was just a punk kid at the time. He still had plenty of growing up to do.

I'm sorry if I sounded rude or overly negative about your brother's behaviour. I was merely commenting on how that could have easilly been the start of something worse (I've seen it happen). I'm glad to hear that your brother turned out to be a courageous fellow.