Michael Pearl

To Train Up a Child is a 1994 parenting advice book written and self-published by independent Baptists Michael and Debi Pearl that has generated controversy for encouraging child abuse. The book has been endorsed by the Institute of Basic Life Principles. To Train Up a Child gained notoriety after methods recommended in the book were found to have contributed to several high-profile cases of child death.

Background (born 1945) is an American independent Baptist preacher and author. After graduating from Mid-South Bible College, he worked with Union Mission in Memphis for 25 years. His 2006 graphic novel Good and Evil won the Independent Publishers' IPPY Award Bronze Medal in the Graphic Novel/Drama category in 2009 and was a 2009 ForeWord Book Award finalist. His other publications include No Greater Joy Magazine, Training Children to be Strong in Spirit, and Created to Be His Help Meet.

Michael married (née unknown) in 1971. Together they wrote To Train Up a Child, which they self-published in 1994.

The Pearls' teachings on physical discipline were endorsed by the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP). The Pearls and To Train Up a Child were briefly covered in the documentary series Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, which details the Duggar family and their upbringing under and connections to the IBLP.

No Greater Joy Ministries is the Pearls' 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The organization brings in between $1.5 and $1.7 million a year through product sales and donations

Controversy To Train Up a Child has been criticized for advocating child abuse. The book tells parents to use objects like a diameter plastic tube to spank children and "break their will". It recommends other abusive tactics like withholding food and putting children under a cold garden hose. Its teachings are linked to the deaths of Sean Paddock, Lydia Schatz, and Hana Grace-Rose Williams. In all three cases, homeschooling parents acted on the Pearls' teachings. Michael Ramsey, the district attorney who prosecuted the Schatz case, called To Train Up a Child "an extraordinarily dangerous book for those who take it literally" and "truly an evil book". He reacted to Schatz's murder by arguing that his link to it was unobjectionable because Pearl's children became "entrepreneurs that pay the taxes your children will receive in entitlements." Pearl said he bore no responsibility for the murders because the size of the plastic tubing he recommends in his book is "too light to cause damage to the muscle or the bone." He called Williams's murder "diametrically opposed to the philosophy of No Greater Joy Ministries and what is taught in the book." Pearl wrote, "The book repeatedly warns parents against abuse and emphasizes the parents' responsibility to love and properly care for their children", which includes training them for success." The New York Times reported that the Williamses' discipline tactics involved Pearl's book taken to extremes, such as the Pearls' advice that "a little fasting is good training." A witness in the trial reported that Hana Williams was subjected to "the use of a switch, cold baths, withhold food and force children outside in cold weather as punishment".