The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1886-09-24
Furnishing Children.

1t seems rs il in this age OF civiliza-
ton that physical punishment ought
never to be resorted to. 1t is not neces-
sary. A parent has full control of a
child when it is young and should keep
it. 1t can never be done by whipping,
for boy that is punished that way al
ways looks forward to the time when he
win be too large to be whipped, and as
he grows he has to be whipped n little
harder every time, which in itself
proves that form of punishment to be
useless and wrong In any other meth
cd of furnishing child can be shown
that he is simply enduring the conse-
quences of disobedient act, unless, of
course, more injustice is practised, for
children have fine sense of justice and
are not easily deceived by pretense of
it. Too much punishment is as dan
gerous rs too little. 1t is when one has
q glimmer of this idea that he quotes
the provcrb, 'Spare the rod" etc., to
fortify himself, when the proverb would
be better forgotten. 'Great rewards
betoken falling state" The same is
true of much punishment.
The object of all punishment is, of
course, to improve q child, to trim of,
or subdue its faults of character as they
appear, and give better chance for all
the good qualities to develop. There
are ways of furnishing besides whipping
that will defeat this end. and the whole
subject is matter to be gravely con-
sidered by parents of young children.
1t is common practice TO deprive
child of some accustomed or anticipated
pleasure because of disobedience. The
effect of such punishment depends up
on the circumstances. Suppose, for in
stance, boy has promise that he shall
90 to certain circus that is coming in
few days, but an occasion arises in
which some sort of discipline must be
resorted to, and he is told he cannot 90
to the circus. In such case all the
antagonism of the boys nature is arous-
ed. He can see no justice in the pun
ishment. He submits because he is
obliged to and the only relief he has is
in hating the authority over him, and
no doubt feels Il contempt, for time,
for one that can give Il promise and
then take it back. All the matters in
relation to the coming of the circus, his
mates all going, and everything in con-
nection with it will continually keep
his angry feelings uppermost and he
will all the time feel the injustice of the
broken promise instead of repentance
for his msdecd. Now if, instead, he
had been told that he could not go out
of the yard again for any pleasure, ex-
cept the circus, for q week, nor have
any boys in his own yard to play with
him during that time, but must amuse
himself as best he could alone in con-
sequence of his wrong doing, he would
many times during the week wish he
had behaved himself properly and would
not have that hateful feeling aroused to-
wards his parents. He would not be
made unhappy by his punishment; he
would have chance to think of the
matter fairly and would not feel abused
and outraged however uncomfortable
the restriction became. Instead of feel
ing angry at it he would wish he had
not done wrong. A child needs all the
sunshine it can have TO be fitted for the
storms that come in after life, and if in
doubt whether a punishment, in certain
cases, Is really necessity OF not al
ways give the child the benefit of the
doubt. A happy child will be the most
obedent. The docility of slave is not
what we want in children. The camel
moves no swifter before the whip, only
behind the flute. Rose Dalton, tn
Good HOuSekceDiH1.