The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-03-24

The conviction and punishment OF two
teachers in the public schools Of Chewelah
for the brutal beating Of . pupil 10 appar-
entity Ia the line of justice. No person 10
dt to teach school who is incapable Of self
restraint, and corporal punishment. IL in
iicted ~ all in schoo., should never b
done in passion. A parent who Furnishes
Q child brutaily In passion always does
the child more harm than good, and tho
parent suffer, moral deterioration every
time brutal. passionate punishment 10 in
ficted. A bold. vigorous child, when pun
ished With passionate brutality, has oil
its worst passions aroused. becomes sullen
aud rufianIy, and . timid, sensitive child
generally becomes liar and . hypocrits
to escape punishment.
Corporal punishment at homo or In
school should always DO the last resort.
and then should be inflicted with calm
ness and dignity; If severe IL shopld be
due to . sense Of duty. not TO burst OF
passion. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the
poet. describes the corporal punishment
inflicted 20 frequently and 20 brutality BY
school teachers in his youth a. something
he recalls today in his old age with feel
ing Of horror and disgust. Children were
horribly beaten in his youth on small prov
ocation. and his own testimony Was that
its practice gradually became . morbid
passion for punishment among school
teachers. George Coimxn, the younger,
an English dramatist and satirist, pub
lished poem In the first decade Of this
century entitled "Rodiana." in which he
described the average schoolmaster 80
man who came to love logging for the
sake Of logging, so that the school lives OF
children were made q terror to them be-
cause the smallest oifense against school
order was punished by brutal beating in
presence Of the whole school.
Itmay not b possible to govern every
school without corporal punishment, but
brutal punishments inflicted in . mood of
passion by teacher are worse than use
less: they are bad for both teacher and
child: they educate the teacher to . NOR
bid, vindictive love Of cruelty for cruelty's
sake. and they make the child either an
ugly, suiien, hateful creature or make
him hypocrite and liar to screen him
self from punishment. A teacher who can.
not punish with calmness and dignity Is
not Il. to preside over a school. How
long would discipline be maintained in an
army If every infraction Of discipline
were punished by kicks and blows by tho
non-commIssioned officcrs3 Corporal pun
ishment in the army cannot be inflicted
without due elaboration aud decorum
and Is only resorted to in extreme cases.
Even In prisons barbarous punishments
are not inflicted except In desperate cases.
and even in that case it Is not performed
in passion. Flogging is not permitted In
the American or English navy, and as q
rule II 10 safe to say that a school teacher
who cannot govern his school except By q
resort to brutal punishment 10 not fit for
his calling.
Recently there Was an exhibition of
cockhghtsng in the suburbs OF South Seat
tie, where the spectators watched brace
OF pngnacious fowls gait each other to
death with steel spurs. 1t was a disgust
ing exhibition, which ministers to the
traied by prizefghting. doghghting. bull
lighting and bearbaiting. When these
sports were almost universal in the last
century brutal logging in the army and
navy and in the public schools were uni
versal. Brutal logging In tho public
schools Is an education to . manhood of
cruelty. aud is a relic of dolorous age
when everybody believed in bsrbsrous
punishment: an age when . literal hell
was preached from the pulpit: an age
when hangings were all public: an age
when lunatics were confined in iron cages
sad beaten by their keepers. If child 10
incorrigibls he had better be removed
from school than to be made an object
lesson OF brutal. passionate corporal pun
ishment at the hands Of the teacher. It
does the school no good; it certainly does
the teacher harm. m axes him An object of
hate and contempt, destroys his moral in
tiaenec and proves his incapacity for the
enlightened government OF his school.