The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1886-11-06
Furnishing Children.

Il
1t seems as ifin this age of civil
ization that physical punishment
ought never to be resorted to. 1t
is not necessary. A parent has full
control of child when it is young
and should keep it. 1t can never
be done by whipping, for boy that
is punished that way always looks
forward to the time when he will be
too large to be whipped, and as he
grows he has to be whipped little
harder every time, which in itself
proves that form of punishment to
be useless and wrong. In any other
method of punishment child can
be shown that he is simply enduring
the consequence ola disobedientact,
unless of course, mere injustice is
practiced, for children have fine
sense of justice and are not easily
deceived by pretence of it. Too
much punishment is as dangerous
as too little. 1t is when one has a
glimmer of this idea that he quotes
the proverb, "Spare the rod" ETC., to
fortify himself, when the proverb
would be better forgotten. "Great
rewards betoken a falling state"
The same is true of much punish
nlent.
The object of all punishment is,
ofcor rse, to improve child, to trim
off or subdue its faults of character
as they appear, and give better
chance of all the good qualities to
envelope. There are ways of punish
ment besides whipping that will de-
feat this end, and the whole subject
is matter to be gravely considered
by parents of young children. 1t
is acommon practice to deprive a
child of some accustomed anticipat-
ed pleaure because ofa disobedience.
The effect of such punishment de-
pends upon the circumstances.
Suppose, for instance, boy has a
promise that he shall go to certain
circus that's coming in a few days,
but an occasion arises in which some
sort ofdiscipline must be resorted to
and heis told he cannot go to the
circus. In such a case all the antag-
onism of the boys nature is arous-
ed. He can see no justice in the
punishment, He submits because
he is obliged to and the only relief
he has is in hating the authority
over him, and no doubt feels a con-
tempt, for time, for one that can
give promise and then takeit back.
All the matters in relation to the
coming of the circus, his mates all
going, and everything in connection
with it will continually keep his
angry feelings uppermost and he
will all the time feel the injustice of
the broken promise instead of re-
pentance for his misdeeds. Now if,
instead, he had been told that he
could not go out of the yard again
for any pleasure, except the circus,
for week, nor have any boysin his
own yard to play with him during
that time, but must amuse himself
as best he could alone in conse-
quence of his wrong doing, he would
many times during the week wished
he had behaved himself properly
and would not have that hateful
feeling aroused towards his parents.
He would not be made unhappy by
his punishment ; he would have h
chance to think of the matter fairly
and would not feel abused and out
ragged however uncomfortable the
restriction became. Instead of feel
ing angry at it hewould 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 pun
ishment, in certain cases, is really a
necessity or not, always give the
child the benefit of the doubt. A
happy child will be the most obed-
lent. The docility of a slave is not
what we want in children. "The
camel moves no swifter before the
whip, only behind the flute. ."---Good
Housekeeping.