The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1904-04-08
SPANKED IN THIS SCHOOL.
Old New England Teacher Allowed
His Pupils to Vote on Form
of Punishment.

do believe in spanking children"
an old teacher in New York repeated
as he reflected over the question, says
the Sun. 81 do not wish to be quoted
afirmatively. but your query recalls a
system which one of the early peda-
gogues adopted when was one of his
pupils.
81 often wished that Dickens could
have known the man who taught me
my a b abs. Whenever 1 see Henry Ir-
wing walk across the stage I recall the
gait of that New England man who
was regarded with fear and veneration
in the village where he taught.
His schoolroom was under the roof
Of his home. An outline map hung
upon the wall, and on the table behind
which he sat when he was not in mo-
ton was an apparatus with which he
philosophy. The majority of the
school, however, knew about as much
of that study as the natives in our far
eastern possessions know.
"He was easily frustrated, and,
may add, he was frequently in a per-
turbed condition. When he was inter-
rupted in his lecture he called out the
recalcitrant who was the occasion of
the interruption and Quizzed him with
severity.
"He always gave the boy a chance
to justify himself, but if the boy failed.
as was apt to be the case, he left it to
the other pupils to say whether the
boy should be punished. In other
words, he polled the school. He called
the roll and voted the ayes and noes.
eff the ayes had it, the old peda-
gogue then submitted the question as
to what the punishment should be-.
AS he called each boys name he asked:
How shall Master - be punished,
by switch on the back. spanking or by
the ferule on the hand?'
when he footed up the count, he
appointed a mentor to keep tab on the
school while he led the pupil out Of the
schoolroom into the dining-room OF
the house, and turned him over to his
wife. She administered the punish
ment voted, the pedagogue remaining
in the room while the chastisement
was administered.
Cured but once day it would not
have retarded the course OF study, but
as it was quite frequent the wonder
was tAat we ever made any progress.
think most of the time was taken up
In calling the roll of the school on the
two propositions.
at rarely happened that a boy es.
capped 1t was the opportunity Of the
other pupils to get even.
ct kept up a continuous feud, as
you can readily see. for the boy upon
whom punishment was voted naturally
voted for any other boy who was ar
raigned to get the severest punishment
in the category. This led to frequent
fights after school.
strangely enough, as 1t now seems
to me, our parents approved Of this
system of punishment. / never knew
of but one father who questioned the
pedagogue, and the latter's explanation
was so satisfactory that the complain
ing father acquiesced.
'The pedagogue said that he handed
the pupil over to his wife because he
did not believe in whipping a child
when he was laboring under excite
ment. The chastisement by his better
half, he said, was not actuated by any
personal feeling.
Perhaps not. Poor woman! When
she died the only one to mourn her
loss was her husband. I remember
how. on the day of her funeral, we
had holiday. and that we hanged her
in efigy down by the old swimming
hole"