The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1893-05-19
THE PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN.
A Difficult Problem which Calls For Care
full Consideration.

a DiffiCuit problem w
full Consideration.
There are as many theories upon tins
subject as there are children upon whom
to practice them. Nor is this to be won
dered at when each little one differs
from another so that each careful moth
er has to fall back upon her own Judg-
ment or experience and finds she cannot
rely on that of the wisest of her contem-
poraries. Very few children never re-
auire to be punished at ALL The dispo-
sition has to be altogether taken into &C
count in considering the method OF that
punishment.
There are rare natures, brutal from
their infancy, which demand stern, strict
accounting. Many others are so NOR
bidlv sensitive that word of condemna-
ton will go all the necessary lengths.
And most small people belong to happy,
normal condition midway between these
two, which requires firm, light hand
| upon the reins.
To all children justice appeals with
irresistible force, and injustice is one OF
their blacklist crimes. This is probably
! the reason they are absolutely at the
mercy Of their elders, and they have all
the keen consciousness of that fact nat
ural to slave placed under the unlim-
! tied power of his master. 1t certainly
| behooves parents to remember that this
| is not an agreeable situation. To be sure,
| the tiny slaves by no means seldom re-
volt in their turn and become the tyrants,
but that is so entirely the masters fault
that it is not worth considering here.
| The question now is what just and right
eous punishments may be melted out. Be-
yond peradventure not those barbarous
onslaughts Of sheer brute force of which
l have heard human beings with pre-
sumable human souls inside their bodies)
say ~ never should have given if l
hadn't been angry. couldn't strike a
child in cold blood" There is no reason
ing with such people, or one might ask;
Why do it, then, in hot blood? For the
child's good, or for your own revengeful
qualification? If the former, h wv is that
purpose served by an act of fragrant in
justice? And you admit that it is I'M
just, because you "cant strike a child
when just and calm. A decently admin
istered whipping, with moral to adorn
the sting, is one thing; cutting and slap
ing, or angry beating, is quite another
| matter.
There are other punishments quite as
hard to bear, but more dignifed and SEEM
ly, which teach the worlds great lesson Of
cause and effect. Such is sort of game
in these families which have a pound
wherein all articles are put which are
found lying about out of place and must
be afterward redeemed. Such is the
method adopted by one young mother.
Every Monday morning she gives to each
of her children row Of pins. Every
Saturday night she gives each one cent
for every pin left in the row. Sometimes
the debt is upon the other side and has
to be paid off in another week, for every
time any one needs a correction during
those seven days he has to present his
mother with one of his pins. There is
strict justice, and fine object teaching,
all sweetened like sugar coated pill.
A middle aged woman told me once
with tears in her eyes: 81 never shall
forget one lesson that l learned when
was nothing but baby. 1t was the ir-
revocable consequences of broken law.
l was in the habit of straying off after
school, and to break me of it my mother
forbade my going outside the gate for
week. In that week came a party, and
| parties were so rare i'll those days! She
told me afterward that she never was so
tempted to break her word. l bless her
memory now that she did not break it.
Yet, you see, cry over my lost gayety
to this day" RUTH HALL.