The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-06
PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN.

| Many Methods Are Both Foolish and Dan.
gsrous to Ii Health.
Said motherly old soul who has been
professional nurse a good many years
81 believe one of the domestic training
schools we need most is school for
mothers and nurse girls, or, at least, a
course of severe lessons on the punish
| ment of children. OF course children
| must be punished l know, too, that
we have progressed very materially in
this way The father nowadays who
would wallop his boys with trunk
strap kept hanging handy by the buckle
behind the kitchen door, as was COM
mon enough when was child, would
be in danger of an overhauling by the
Society for the Prevention of Crselty to
Children. But we have other ways,
some quite as serious in their effects,
not only on the character OF the child,
but physically as well.
Boxing the ears is an altoge ther too
common mode of punishment among
all sorts of mothers. When man pun
ishes child it is usually a serious mat
ter, for they seldom do 1t unless angry
and they have no conception of the
force of the blows they administer.
AT free dispensary on the west
side more than dozen cases of deaf
ness in little children have been treated,
every one of which was due to a fract-
ured ear drum, caused by a blow on
the side of the head Quite naturally a
chiid's ear drums are weaker and thin
ner than those of an adult, and even if
the membrane is not broken inflamma-
ton is likely to be caused by a blow
and to result in impaired hearing. A
blow on the ear causes the air to rush
suddenly and with great force against
the ear drum much in the same way
that wave in the surf would do, eX-
cept that the conclusion of the air
makes the latter more powerful and
consequently harmful.
Keeping the children after school is
another barbarous mode of punish
ment. In the first place it gives the
child the impression that school is
sort of punishment and his being kept
later is simply prolonging the torture
Besides, children, as a rule, are kept in
the schoolroom long enough and should
be let out into the fresh air as soon as
possible. Besides, it Furnishes the
teacher, who is often, overworked and
tired, as well as the child
''Pve known mothers to wonder why
their children were so timid and easily
frightened, when they themselves had
often shut those same children in d
dark closet for the most trivial
offenses Such punishment frequently
affects a brain, brings on spasms, and
sometimes results in the death of a SEN
sitive child from the terror inspired
''Do really believe children ought to
be punished at all? Why, of course.
Both rewards and punishments are
necessary for children. If child is
very unruly or bad tempered it is either
because of his mothers lack of early
training or because of inherited tenden-
cies, and in either case justice ought to
be tempered with mercy. If child is
positively cruel there is no way but to
make him feel the pain he inficts
There are two things only for which
child should be punished-disobedien
and untruthfulness-and if a child is
taught to do right for rights sake and
not for fear OF punishment very little
punishment will go long way. Obi
cago Times.