The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-03-10
PEDAGOGUE HALF A CENTURY
New York Principal Retires After
Fifty Years of Teaching.
He's Come TO Believe That WaIIOp-
ing Public school Boys Isn't the
Best Way of Treating Them.

The oldest and most tovial pedagogue
in active service in the city of New
York. Almon G. Merwin, principal OF Pub
I lie School q, in Kosciusko street, near
+ Broadway. Brooklyn, has put in appIi-
cation for retirement, which he was le-
gally entitled 20 ten years aso, says the
/ New York sun.
/ When ne was a young maE-he began
/ teaching at sixteen. out in Delhi Della
ware COunty-he believed that the rattan
was a good educational adjunct; in TACT.
/ he had about as much faith in 10 as most
! Of the teachers Of his carly pedagogic
days, but he found that il was not a
good thing to apply generally. Perhaps
there were special cases in which fog
/ ging might have been good, but he is
now inclined to doubt if It ever was or is
good
Some mothers with the old-fashioned
/ ideas about discipline recently have come
to Mr.. Merwin and requested him TO
please give their boys q good licking
His opinion in the case of some Of these
boys he did not hesitate TO express to
/ the mothers. He said the boys really de
y N
would not permit a teacher TO give IT,
and that the mothers had better take the
bad boys home and let the fathers do the
job Mr.. Merwin is of the opinion that
the knowledge that a pupil has been
whipped by q teacher is not good to have
circulated around Ii modern school The
discipline is better than il was in ,the
days Of the rattan and the ferrule Fire
rNr-f1T Hra-ff
deal TO impart a sOldieTlike spirit to the
boys. \ certain refinement Of character
came after the abolition of corporal pun
ishment. Boys put upon their honor were
likely 90 be better than boys subjected
to the rule of fear.
All small bOys-Or very nearly all-Mr
MCTWin said, were little Savages, or as
primitive as the man Of the stone age
They were meTciless TO animals until they
were made TO understand that animals
had feelings very much like the feelings
of little boys. But the boys were not
made to understand this by walIopings.
There was no doubt about II, the boys
that were licked most had a more cruel
disposition toward animals than the boys
who got along without Hckings.
When a boy is I'm the incorrigible class
Mr. NIerwin thinks the best way to edu-
cate him is TO segregate him rather than
to beat him, and by a rigid system of
discipline 10 get him into shape Some
apparently stupid are really merely dor
mant intellectually. When they wake I'D
they become apter pupils than those who
we're ahead OF them in the early classes.
An army of boys has passed through
the various schools Of which Mr.. Merwin
has been principal One of these boys
is Justice Joseph Aspinall Of the Supreme
Court, who assisted hast week in the pres
entation of a loving cup to Mr.. Merwiu
The justice was not a bad boy, the prin-
CiDdi said. but was very mischievous. II
remember once that I decided to try the
rattan on joe" said Mr.. Merwin. "He
came up smiling willing to take the pun
ishment ] looked at him and decided
that rattan would not make a good i'm
preston on a boy like that, and I Just
said Joe, so TO your seat -