The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-05-15
STRIKING PUPILS.
Thoughts Suggested by the Recent Strikes
of SchOol-Boys in the East.

Thoughts Suggested by the Recent Strikes
of school-Boys in the East.
There is a call in New York for the
good old-fashioned mother with the
good old.fashioned slipper. 1t is no
new thing for a school-boy to believe
down deep in his boots that he ought
to have more play-time and that long
hours in school ought to be abolished.
1t is no new thing for the average
school-boy to believe that school-teach-
ers are the greatest tyrants of the day,
but for a good many years these incen-
diary young gentlemen have been
spanked over the discretionary age
and have finally settled down to an ac-
ceptance OF the educational policy
planned by their seniors and their bet
tiers.
The boys at Green Point and at Troy
seem to labor under the impression
that they are to be classed with the
working-men who have grievances.
They seem to regard the public school
very much as striking employees regard
a grasping corporation or monopoly,
and they seem to believe that it is only
necessary for them to strike for longer
plav-time or for shorter hours of study
to secure them. but the boys are on the
wrong side. Gong to school, they
will learn in good time. has no more
relation to hard work than the futter-
ing of a bird learning to fly. These
New York boys have plainly mistaken
their mission. They are too large for
their clothes, and they hold their heads
to high to get a fair view of their OPP
%portunities. The only thing that can
meet the case is the birch rod or the
slipper.
In the ease at Green Point it appears
that there was at least one old-fash-
toned mother who took a right view OF
the cas- and who quelled the riot By
taking her young hopeful by the ear
and leading him into the school-room.
This would indicate that the race of
mothers has not entirely run out even
in New York, and if the public can be
assured that this good mother gave her
boy something answering to the old
style interview in the woodshed the
case of the Empire State will not be re-
garded as entirely hopeless.
If school-boys may strike for longer
play-time they may strike for more
%doughnuts, for more candy and for
more baseball, and they may in the
natural development of this theory
come to run the school to suit them
selves. Fancy a young New York
hopeful making a descent on his moth
cr's kitchen on baking day, with thirty
or forty of his comrades all armed with
ropes and baseball clubs, and making
a demand on his mother for the whole
supply of doughnuts that have just
come warm from the fire. If she re-
sists the next step would be 70 tie lGr
or to disable her with clubs, and if the
mistress of the home is subject to this
sort of coercion her power is at an end.
The New York boy is probably not
different from other varieties, and the
way to manage him is to begin at
home. If the fathers and mothers
have lost their grip then New York
ought to import a number of judges
like the one who recently sentenced 4
number of juvenile offenders to be
spanked roundly and soundly at their
homes at a specified time. But after
all has been said and done the demand
of the hour at Troy and Green Point
is for the old-fashioned mother with
the old-fashioned slipper, Ii she will
come to the front there will be the
quietest, gentlest set of boys at both
places that the country has ever seen.
If the race of strong-armed spankerS is
not extinct there will be no strikes on
the part of spankees Chicago Inter
Ocean.