The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-06-06
THE PR ES s.
CINCINNATI, MONDAY, JUNE @.
Flogging in the Public Schools.

There is a general impression that our
Board has passed rule against the prac-
tice; but if such is the case, it has not
been enforced, and has been omitted in
the reports There is nothing in the
most recently published regulations to
warrant a teacher in whipping a child,
but also nothing against it This is a
grievous defect in our otherwise excel
lent School System. 1t was CHAMFoRT
who, when RULIEHEREs said that he had
only committed one sin in his life, asked,
When will that end ?" This sin of
Schools seems equally interminable; for
it is sad, incompetent abortive method
of controlling a child, and therefore
sin. at is worse than a crime-'tis a
blunder," said NAPOLEON: this is not con-
sidered an orthodox sentiment, but yet
the New Testament word for SIN is 4
MISSING. And if ever there was anything
which "missed il" it is the infiction of
physical suffering on a child.
If teachers would only reflect tho
roughly on this subject, and ask them
selves why they do it, they would blush
for the flimsiness or the lowness of their
motives in it. We know that most per-
sons are brought up to think it a scriptu-
raj injunction to fog Deacon LEATHER
STRAP never enters on his pious chasten-
ing of wayward youth, without saying as
grace before meat, that it might be full
filed which was spoken by the prophet,
Spare the rod and spoil the child.
The pious Deacon has just one hundred
and fifty various readings to explain away
the text, nearby, that " there is time to
dance"
(since all who take part in a waltz or cotillion
Who, as every true orthodos he Christian veil
Approaches the heart through the door of the
Where SOLOMON says there is no differ
ence between a man and beast, the
Deacon will discover that the wise man
only collected number of popular prov
erbs and sayings, some good, some bad
as are the proverbs Of all nations. But
"spare the rod and spoil the child is pure
inspiration,-the argument for which is,
that Leatherstrap has too little sense or
patience to find out the true way to a
child's heart or brain. We do not deny
that children are very trying; but the
teacher is put there to be tried, and his
or ber highest quality would be, when
tried, not to be found wanting. To beat
is confession of inadequecy; it proves
nothing except the greater physical power
of the whipper to the whippee. Have
you taught the rude boy the real excel
lenee of order and good conductp Have
you not descended to his own savage
level, and, by matching violence with
violence, inaugurated animal power as
the moral test?
We once knew an old New England
parson who informed his congregation
that the great evil in the raising of chill
dren, seemed to him to be the growing
disobedience OF PARENTS! They doubt
less expected that he would say the dis
obedience Of children; but the old man
had gone deeper, and seen that the child
was part Of Gods nature, as much SO
as a peach or plum. Nature is COM
manded by obeying her: he raises the
best peach and plum, who best knows
and obeys the LAW of peach and plum
He controls the child best who studies it
most deeply, and finding its individuality,
its law, lays hold on those sacred heart
strings. The rattan is the method of i'm,
patience; it ignores the divine plan Of
love which wins the affection of the
child, and gains the secret of its nature
by which it can always be controlled. II
cuts the Gordian knot, does not unite it.
We have the authority of Paul for saying
that if a man strive for mastery "yet is
he not crowned unless he strive LAW
FULLY"
We were about to write that such treat
ment Of children is BRUTAL. On reAec
ton, Mr.. RAREY's success in tanning
horses has made that designation too re
spectacle to be applied to the foggine
system. Is it not melancholy that tn,
age which has learned that the anima
can be best tanned without having lasf
even within reach, should yet regard tn,
human child as tractable only by blows
Let us suppose child to have behaved
rudely, obstinately; to have lied or swori
oaths. The teacher infi0ts bodily chas
tisement. Now what is gained unde
any result2 The child is quiet, or tn
child is penitent But its quietness i
sullenness, the gathering of all the bite