Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1883-06-04
Corporal Punishment.

FROM Inc 81 LOUIE OlODc-DSA4OCfahi
The discussion as to the propriety of cor
poral punishment either in the school or
household has been carried on for number
of years. 1t is but branch of the main
question as to whether penalties of any sort
should be inflicted upon the body of human
being by legal or other acknowledged author
ity, whether in the army, navy, prison, FAM
lily or elsewhere. And while the discussion
Is going on 1t only needs an observation of
landmarks to carry the conviction that the
question is gradually settling itself. Cor
poral punishment has disappeared as a part
military and naval discipline; it has been
largely diminished, and in some cases abol-
ished altogether in penitentiaries, and there
has bee@a notable decrease of 1t in the
schools. In the family it may be said, as a
rule, to have been slipping down through the
grades of society until little or none of it is
left among the most cultivated and refined
class. There are great many very excel
lent people who still make use of the rod,
but the fact remains that the most highly
evolved fathers, mothers, guardians and
school teachers no longer whip. This may
be an affecting proposition to some, but it is
the stern, cold, and, it may be added, fortu-
nate truth Of the situation. Corporal punish
ment is disappearing in the direction that
most social errors disappear. Like prize
fighting, its outlet is through the gateway of
the dregs, though it has a somewhat longer
distance to travel.
The heart and the head go tsgether in this
movement. The humane instincts are receiv-
ing active support from common sense. What
was years ago condemned as impracticable
and visionary is being found not only to be
entirely practicable, but conducive to the
best results 1t is being ascertained that
though whipping may produce temporary
obedience in the child, its mere lasting effect
is unfaVorable. 1t is discounting the future.
1t is an act of short-sightedness. It is trite
saying that brutality brutalizes, and however
guarded and sanctided by holy resolution
personal chastisement may be, it is essential
ly brutal No amount of prayer or consider
| alton of the recipients future good can re-
move the fact there is a brutality in power.
| full person beating q helpless one, and the lat
! ter in his heart of hearts cannot help recog
| nizing it Is an outrage. He cannot reason II
out, but the impression is there not to be
1 eradicated. Society having sanctioned it, he
will get his revenge, when he is brutalized
4 and if the effect is not overcome by higher
mental development than that possessed by
the person who beat him, he will persecutG
1 others when his time comes, and probably
| with clear conscience.
1t inculcates disregard of the inviolabili
ty of the human body. If mans house i!
his castle, his body is trebly So and child
should not be taught 10 believe otherwise
Moral growth must come through reflection
| and rightly disposed energy, and feelings Of
resentment can only have a retarding effect
| There is a deeper truth than Is generally rec
| ognized in the saying of Trumbull:
No man eer felt the halter draw
| With good opinion of the law.
If men or children are to be taught to have
| good opinion of the moral law, it must be
| by some other means than brute force. Tht
iocular schoolmaster who claimed that il
learning could not be got into the head any
other way it must be driven up the backbone
| was fully as logical as those who assert tha
morals can be inculcated by beating Tht
| end to be gained and the means are incongru
! Gus. The connection bet tween the two in tht
4 comincn mind is false one. The menta
| nature of the child or of the man is true tt
itself and acts logically -albeit unconscious
ly and it revots at the misapplication. The
true theory is to lead, not to drive; to con
troll the source of impulse and desires, not tt
neglect the source and stand ready with
club, metaphorically speaking, to knock thu
| latter senseless when they move out of thu
ruts As the mental system of the child il
| abused by the old systems of instruction
| which compel the tedious learning of thing
| by rote, instead of illuminating tho philoso
ply of the subject to the struggling little in
| telIect and delighting it thereby, SO is thu
| moral nature abused by endeaVoring to nour
| ish it by blows.
If child is too bad to stay in school, bet
| ter send it home than whip it. A blow is al
action of wrath, however disguised, and Ike
! bagets like. Every seed bringeth forth after
its own nature, Old Izaak Walton told th'
| angler to take his fish out of the water as i
he loved it, but the fish with the hook in it.
month scarcely appreciates the force of sucl
love. To exhort chastiser to beat frml!
but lovingly Is advice of similar character
To some it may appear that the practica
| difficulties in the way of abolishing corpora
punishment in schools and households are in
superable, but this impression comes from
force of habit and from not seeing into thing
quite as far as others do. 1t is pointed on
that certain children can be controlled in n
other way in nine cases out of ten it will b
found that the children never had a fai
chance, and in the other case that there is
mental defect which indicates restraint rath
er than punishment. The matter is not to b
confined to narrow minded discussion.
is to be viewed on broad grounds. And il
whatever way local and temporary delibera
tions may result, the proofs are unmistaka
BILE that the time is approaching when th
rod will take its place beside the thumb
| screw, from which it will be adjudged to- diff
fer in degree, not in kind.