The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-02-21

than whipping counsels, reproof and ad-
vice. No matter how incorrigible scholar
is, doubt the wisdom of ever allowing the
whip to be applied In Prussia, where dis
ciplne is the rule Of life, a boy was sent from
school to school. and from teacher to teacher,
only to be expelled and abandoned as a
hopeless case OF insubordination and wick
edness. He was whipped every day. kept in
solitary confinement, only to repeat his
conduct He was so hardened that corporal
punishment was proved to be a failure in his
case and he was given up as lost. Finally,
as the la resort, at the importuning of anx-
ious friends he was placed under teacher
who would not whip. This the boy knew,
and ere he had been at school long he be-
gan one of his fearful outbursts of temper,
foaming, frothing FROM his mouth, wild
with rage. The master bound his hands and
feet securely, and then laying him on the
floor called around him class of
little scholars and bid them sing. They
sang sweet, plaintive songs, but there were
no evidences OF feeling in the offender. The
teacher attempted some advice, but it was
unayailing. Again and yet again was this
repeated, until the blessed words and melo-
dy of the little singers touched the rough,
brutslized heart, and the boy burst into
tears. The master unloosed the bands,
talked gently and lovingly to the weeping
lad, and gave him back to the world purer
and better. After year he was one of the
best, most refined and obedient pupils in
the school, Whipping had failed, but love
had accomplished the work.
Teachers are as apt to become weary and ir-
ritable as other mortals; they have much to
vex and annoy them, but they have no right
to vent upon helpless pupils the anger that is
occasioned by other persons or causes. The
best teachers are those who are thoroughly
in love with their work, who are self-con-
trolled and we'll disciplined, and whip but
little. They understand the human ma
ture of their pupils. and allow neither
anger nor hate to force them into
the work of converting children into brutes,
but rather they seek to elevate and ennoble.
Whipping is not only cheap, but is quick
punishment. and the teacher employing this
agencycan speedily do the days work of
restraining and moulding the school, few or
many lashes as the law requires, and the
work is done for time and for eternity.
When we are educated up to the theory that
teachers are not to be hired as the lowest
grade of workmen are, the cheapest always
the favorites, but as we should engage phys;-
clans and ministers, those who can the best
help to save body and soul, regardless of
price, then we will secure throughout the
country men and women who will be abe
to give our children, not alone mental train
ing and discipline, but physical and moral
elevation. The teachers of our schools are
the guardians of the children while they are
in their most impassionable years. and if we
value the future of our boys and girls We
should be careful to detract notning from the
power and influence of educators when they
work for the good of their pupils, but when
in this they fail the voice of remOnstragce
from parents should swell until the camor
should awaken the world to the truth that
the training of the youth of the country is
the greatest, the most important subject ap
pealing to the world for attention. Do not
brutalize the children until they are hard
ened and SHINING, and then spend years of
praying and pleading to win them back. Do
not, in school or at home, let the lash mark
the flesh of your children and leave upon
the pure soul ineffaceable stripes of degra
dation. But keep them, the heirs of wealth
or the waits of sin, the children of virtue or
the despised of sin; help them to retain the
purity and innocence that is mark of the
Saviours love when He said: "Suffer them
to come to Me-"