The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-05-16
REWARDS AND PUNIshMENTs
The Lessons Taught By the Laws OF
Nature Good For Mans Guidance.

Nature is sometimes recommends
as furnishing an example to man O
the proper method of disp nsing re-
wards and punishments. Nature il
sure, prompt and memorable. Wher
her laws are violated punishment iall.
upon the offender, no matter what hi.
rank; when he obeys NATURES laws he
is rewarded as by an abundant har.
vest. But nature is not such a good
guide in this matter as might appear
from such a general consideration OF
her system. Her rewards are blindly
made and take no account of motives
The child who puts his hand in the
fire gets burned and learns not to dc
it again. But the fire is without dis
elimination; it burns not only those
who arelessly or willfully expose them
selves to it, but the innocent who are
surrounded by flames not of their own
making, and even the brave fremen
who 60 to their rescue. As the rain
falls upon the just and upon the I'M
just, SO natures forces deal impartally
with the evil and the good.
The punishment tor violations ol
natures laws is too inexorable, and the
system cannot and should not be fol-
lowed by man. He must discriminate
between those who are willful violators
of the law; those who are misled into
wrong doing and may be won back to
right living, and those whose careless
ness or misfortune has rendered them
liable to punishment. And man in
his experiments with systems of re-
wards and punishments has found
moreover, that it is not always wise to
punish. He has to deal with human
nature, which is much more complex
than elemental substances. He finds
that punishment does not act merely
as warning to apprise one of the
danger of repeated violations of law,
but shat it sometimes irritates and rem
ders stubborn the man upon whom it is
visited and he finds also that it is al
most beyond his powers to "make the
punishment fit the crime" 1t is not
possible to do without it altogether,
but if possible offenders are taken in
time they may be kept from doing
that viii, ii uld expose them to pun
ishment.
Rewards for we'll doing may, in
short be substituted, in part, for pun
ishments for evil doing. This is espec-
tally true of ordinary conduct where
there is no moral ofense or crime in
volved. AT one time schools were
managed almost exclusively on the
system of Furnishing pupils for the vlo-
lation of arbitrary laws; today the few
rules that are posted are founded upon
obvious reason, and their violations
are SO infrequent that there is nofxed
code of punishment. On the other
hand, rewards are frequently offered
for good behavior, diligence and the
like, and the discipline maintained is
better than it was under the old sys-
tenn. In the management Of children
the home system of rewards for good
behavior should not be made SO obvi-
Gus or specific as to lead the child to
set more value on the reward than
upon appreciation, but rewards should
be substituted as far as possible for
punishment.
Whether a child is kept from play
with his associates as a punishment
because he has neglected his lessons,
or is rewarded with freedom and in
dulged in some desire because he has
done we'll, may amount to the same
thing in the end, but it is better to
give him the idea that he is being re-
warded for good conduct than to lead
him to the belief that some natural
right is being taken from him as pun
ishment for infractions of rule ofcon-
duct of which he cannot see the Justice.
Children as we'll as grown people make
excuses 10 and from themselves, and
they naturally resent punishment as
savoring, at least. of injustice. On
the other hand, they are grateful for
kindnesses and tavors, and i is much
better to cultivate their gratitude than
their resentment. The child who Is
habi,ually restrained and punished
may have his disposition spoiled and
be rendered more intraCtable than be
fore.