The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1875-10-28
GnilIInniIlon on Inc Rod.


| relapse into barbarian sufficiently to
suggest that, in the present state Of our
civilization and school organization, cor.
poral punishment Ia means Of grace
which we cannot abolish, and have not
abolished without injury. The necessity
Of using it is very, perhaps increasingly,
rare. The teacher who frequently and
freely resorts to II Is presumptively unfit
for his situation. But the power to Use
il should vest in the teacher, and IL n pre-
yentive OF mischief. Corporal punish.
ment has never been abolished In the
kingdoms OF nature or Of grace. Few
well.ttaincd or even ill.trained families
exist, in which, at some time or other, in
greater or lcss degree, some resort to it
has not been found necessary or made
cxpedient. Many q mother knows that,
while five Of her children can be govern.
ed by n look or an appeal 10 their reason
or their love, the sixth is amenable only
10 the argument Of n little whisk. Every
teacher knows that there are boys who,
by some inward conformation or some
defect OF home training, do not respond
TO the ordinary motives Of the school.
room. Our delicacy, which thinks il un.
manly and batbarOus 10 fog these boys,
has no last resort but TO send them home
But what ia this? We are depriving them
Of school privileges. We are Wrestling
from them the opportunities for educH.
ton. We are sending them back to par.
ents who have already showed them.
selves incapable Of training their child.
rem. Instead Of Supplementing the de-
iecs Of home, we intensity them. We
give the little victims over, unhelped and
hardened, to the cruel indulgence, to the
fatal unwisdom Of their untaught, inca.
pablo guardians. To turn many Of these
boys out Of school il to turn them upon
the strCet-is to let them loose into life
Of idlencs5 and lawlessnesS. II is unjust
TO the parents IA we'll M ruinOus TO the
child. The former have paid their share
Of the taxes which support the school,
and they have right 10 all the benefits
which the school Is capable Of bestowihg.
When they send their children TO school
the school ought TO teach and govern
them, not send them home again. This
Is just what the naughty boys want. In
very many cases the rod would not need
to he used. II the boy knows that by
playing tricks, or by prolonged idleness,
or contumAcy, or rebellion, he will only
be set adriit, lie will play the tricks
and wrench himself free from re.
straint II lie knows, on the contrary,
that the result Of his tricks and his man
ners will be personal Chastisment, pub.
lie discontinue, and social disgrace,
with his tasks to he performed just The
same at the end Of II all, he will &c very
likely TO give over his contention before Il
be meddled with. The mere knowledge
that n rod impends is the tnrning.point
between vice and virtue. The boy may
not be inherently vicious, but "roguish."
Halt Of his trouble il the turbulence OF his
animal spirits, the overflow Of his vitali-
~, hitherto unrestrnined, lawlesS, and, IL
left lNwless, certain 10 work mischief.
The school supplies Just that element Of
ausierity, perhaps Of justice, which the
home training lacked, and which the boys
character needed. / have heard teach
ers who themselves never inflicted cor.
poral punishment affirm that the evil ef-
tects Of its abolition we're clearly per.