Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1873-12-18
rLOGGNG IN SCuooLs-

The New York Board of Educatju,
| isjust now struggling with problem
that greatly interests the whole coun
try, to wit: whether or not the teach
ers in the public schools shall be per
mitted to flog their pupils. The oues
ton is not easy of solution, nor is the
amount OF noise made on the one side
or the other to be taken as gusoe o
public opinion. The argument for the
total prohibition of the rod comes VERY
largely from those families whose
youngsters deserve and get if most,
and who, in consequence, are able tC
speak considerably louder than the
good little boys whose hands and backs
have never SmaTted.
That the question should awake such
genera! consideration at all is a striking
evidence OF the advance of democratic
sentiment. a quarter of a century AGO
a man would have run serious risk OF
being taken for ii iInatic who should
eontravene Solomaii's ipse oirit. Nor
do We see that the world has changed
50 very much that the wise mars YER
dlct Is not worth as much now as then.
lie must have had considerable expert
ence in the matter. There is no recOr,i
OF the number Of his children, bat if il
bore any proportion to the number oi
lis wives the prodnct must have been
abandSnt. We pause in plainiive con-
temptation over the prolonged ulul;.-
tion-the se,ierzo diG6oliq,se, as it were
-tilat must have arisen from those
seven hundred nurseries when the rod
pursued its matutinal journey, remind
ing the little fellows of their latter
ends, lest they should he spoiled.
This thing of school-fogging has no
doubt been carried to an extreme.
The punishments even of past decade
Or two occasionally trenehed upon the
barharouS. 1t is not humane, we sub
nit, to lay children out in a row ON the
platform, with faces on the floor, lust
for whispering in study-time. Our in
iantile slumbeTs were disturbed for a
fortnight by dreams of the soOty face
and ash-cOyered garments of an eight
year old thrust into the empty stove
fOi i've minutes because he bit the
teachers nose with Il spit-wad. Occa-
sionally, too, there would enter upon
the scene a sanguinary teacher-Inostly
feminines-w delighted in whipping
just for the pleasure of it. They used
q wiale-bone switch, and always pick
Ell out the little boys with fat legs and
tiSht-titting pantalOoIs, and never were
happy morning rntil tears were flow
ing over half the youthful countenan-
cvs assembled
TiieS2 things modern civilization.
with its new doctrines of moral suasi, n
and arbitration, does not look upon
with favor. But it will be difficult for
the antl-punishment party to tell just
where the line shall be drawn. Some
thing there must be to hold tn teIrorenl
over the head of the evilly-disposed
victim. Shall it be the fear of expuI-
sion? That will hardly stand the test
of the courts. A case has already been
adjudicated where an enraged father
brought suit against the Board of Edu-
cation for expelling his child from
school advantages. It was held that
the teacher stood to ward the child for
the time being, sin TOGO p0reastis," and
Syas itet at liberty to expel him before
using all other humane means for cer-
retting his unruly disposition. ei -
II, then, we Danish the rod, with
what stali we rule the child? Young
America go longer suffers torture from
being SEM over TO ''sit with the girls.''
"keeping i'll az recess has little reme-
dial effect, and brings about Il mean
ness In the child that reacts to still fur
ther disorder. The knowledge, too,
that there is nc corporal punishment in
store for them is more productive oi
mischief in the average urchin than a
cat and q tin-Dan in close proximity.
The best managed schools, to he sure,
areth0se where the rod is least fire.
qaen;ly resorted to; but it is goodIy
thing to have in the dim distance, with
2 discreet and kind-hearted teacher to
use it when absolutely necessary
= Cincinnati Times.