The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-11-22
This paper Is Democratic IN principles
and is Independent In its vde0s on all
local questions.
Whipping in the schools.


A very lamentable scandal, as it
seems to us, has been caused in
one OF our schools, growing primarily
out of a popular weakness of the
present day and secondarily out of
the inherent tendencies of human
nature.
Principal Du RE, of School No. II,
has to deal with u boy who seems to
be insolent, insubordinate end unruly
in the last degree. The law, as it
stands, says that under no circum-
stances shall Mr.. Du Rie resort to the
only form of punishment which
would appear to offer the least pros
pect of success. And yet, under the
influence of outrageous p~rovocation,
and yielding to the natural instincts
of mankind, MI. Du Rie violates the
law and soundly thrashes the OBJ
noxious youngster as he deserves.
But the boy-blessed product of the
Nineteenth Century knows his
rights under the law, and, obtaining
no redress from his mother, he appeals
to a magistrate, who, not being
goaded into human weakness just at
that moment, does his plain legal
duty, and so the affair becomes a pub
lie scandal.
Now what are we going to do about
it? Shall we vindicate the law and
punish Mr.. Du Rie7 II we do, we pro-
claim to all the bad boys in the con
munity that they are stronger than
their masters, and that if they only
persist far enough in their badness
there is a point at which authority
must give way-or commit the
atrocious act of sending them to the
Reform School for simple unruliness.
On the other hand, shall we con
done Mr.. Du Rie's offence? Shall We
confess to the boys that the law is
wrong, and that physical force is in
the long run stronger than the law,
and that when a man cannot have his
way legally he had better step outside
the pale of the law and have his way
anyhow?
The truth Of the matter is the law is
a piece of mawkish sentimentality of
a very pernicious kind, and every once
in a while it results in a scandal of
just this precise sort. We constantly
hear of pupils whipped by teachers,
and every time the teachers are pun
for doing SO, as they nearly
always are, a serious harm is done to
the sense of discipline of the children
Of the community, so far as they learn
the history of the occurrence. There
is a point at which the whipping of a
bad boy-or girl for that matter
becomes a mere assertion of human
instinct and innate sense of propriety,
and the absolute prohibition of the
act is a constant source of difficulty to
those on whom the burden of control
falls.
We believe that If all the teachers
in the country were to vote in secret
ballot there would be a majority Of
three to one in favor of the establish
ment of corporal to be in
1icted, Of course, only by persons Of
discretion, on great provocation ,aand
within due limits, but still to be in
fiicted quite Enthusiastically. The act
of Mr.. Du Rie, which, through its
consequences, doubtless operates at
present to the great detriment of his
influence in his school, and to the inn
pairment Of discipline in the schools
generally, ought to have been a salu-
tary rebuke to the recipient of the
punishment, and an example which
would render another such infection
unnecessary in that school for a long
time to come.
Most of the elderly and middle aged
people Of the present day, and many
who are still young, have been the