The Savannah morning news., 1904-05-08
THE NEW ATTITUDE
TOWARDS CHILDREN.

The simultaneous announcement
that the public schools are about 70
return to corporal punishment. and
that man in Kalamazoo has
invented a patent spanking ma
chine that is guaranteed 10
carry repentance and reformation
in its walks, is more than CO.
incidence. It is special Providence.
OF course there was never anything the
matter with the old-fashioned. hand
made spank, except that there was
never enough of it to go around, and
so the invention of something that
promises to enlarge its scope and use
fulness meets a long felt want. for
there is no such other crying need in
America as the unspanked children in
need of a good padding.
l am quite aware that these views
will not meet of the approval of most
mothers, and that ] shall be considered
a rank Philistine by the child culture
cult, but TO my mind there is no other
sin equal TO that of letting a child
make itself and everybody else about
il miserable and uncomfortable when
it could be sweetened, reformed, made
agreeable and optimistic by a judi
ciously administered spank. For the
spank stands to the child for law and
order and respectability, and IT is
happy just in proportion as 1t is amen
able to it, The child criminal is just
as miserable, and unrestful, and
guilty as the adult criminal There's
no peace in law breaking.
The most curious evolution of mod
ern civilization is the new attitude we
have taken towards children, and its
fundamental principle is that a child
must not be made to behave. He is
no longer forced into the straight and
narrow path and made to stay there.
He is beguiled into the ways of right
eousness and politeness and civility,
and if he condescends to walk in that
direction, everybody breathes a sigh
of relief and is thankful for small ia
Vors But if he behaves it is simply
a matter of grace. Nobody is rash
enough to try to make him.
In olden times there didn't seem to
be any particular difficulty, of furry,
about raising children and when most
of us We're brought up; it was a per-
fectly plain and simple proposition
without any sterilized milk or steril-
lied philosOphiZing about it. We were
dressed simply, reared plainly, spanked
when we We're bad. kissed when we
reformed, laugh obedience to our par
ents, respect for our elders, and had
the fact forcibly impressed on our
youthful understanding that children
were to be seen and not heard. Now all
of that is clean out. AS for the seen
and not heard theory it has fallen into
utter desuetude so far as the modern
child is concerned. After the first baby
is born into a family, even the most
optimistic abandon hope of getting any
-.
ent for the next twenty years. 1t is
always what Tommy thinks, or the
clever thing Sallie did that is the sta
pie of talk, reinforced by corrections
and cancellations from the author. mo,
mamma, didn't say it that way said
It so and So" Papa, tell the lady
what / did" and so on. No effort is
made to suppress these infant terrors.
On the contrary, they are dragged to
the front and kept there.
Once upon a time l was invited to
spend an evening with a number of
charming people, among whom was a
noted traveller, scarcely less famous
as a raconteur than he was for his
adventures. l am sure that all the
other guests, as we'll as myself, went
expecting 10 sit in absorbed silence,
listening to the great man, but alas,
for our hopes, early in the evening
the young son of the house brought
forth a copy of the American Boys
Hand Book of Sports and insisted on
reading aloud how to build an ice boat
For one solid hour we writhed in ST.
lence while he droned along with all
the fascinating elocutionary effects pc
culiar to inexperienced youth. Nobody
dared put their impulse into execution
and gag him. and at the end his mis-
guided mother turned on her outraged
guests and beamingly asked us if we
didn't think Charley read remarkably
well for a child of that age? | trust
that was an extreme case, but do you
know a house in which there are chill
dren that they are not the eternal
subject of conversation? There, there.
beloved, don't ransack your memory
any more. You don't. Neither do l.
l don't believe in suppressing chill
dren altogether, or even too much
but / do think 1t is a rank injustice
to any child to raise him up to think
that he is of supreme and paramount
Importance and that the world is wait
ing breathlessly TO hear his opinion.
1t is going to be a bitter day for him
when he finds out he Is not the only
pebble on the beach, and ne will get
many a hard lick before life knocks
the inflated self-esteem out of him and
reduces him to the proper size for
the little bit of a place he is going to
I'LL in the world.
Another cherished theory is that you
must not force a child to do anything
Lead him, entice him. Always pre-
sent duty with a halo around It and
the right thing in an alluring and
attractive light. 1t is a lovely idea.
The only trouble is that life contra
diets ii at every turn. 1t is very, very
seldom that duty is wreathed with
roses. 1t is part of the temptation and
deceitfulness Of sin that the wrong
thing is always the attractive thing
Any parent who teaches a child that
1t is pleasant and easy 10 do right
has given him a broken reed to lean
on in his hour of need. It Is not easy
70 always do right; duty is not al
ways pleasant. 1t is bitter hard. and
cruel as death at times, and it is al
ways dead easy to do wrong. Il never
give my children any duties to do at
home" says one woman, triumphantly
exploiting her theory, "as duties, be-
cause that would be ddstasteful to
them, but l make a game of it, and
they never discover that ii is anything
but play" Yes, but how about the
day when that child-grown into a man
or woman-faces the work that is
stripped of its tinsel and disguise, and
that is nothing but a hard, unroman-
tic, twelve-hour a day job? The
chances are that If the child is a boy
he will throw 1t UP and go and loaf
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