New-York tribune., 1907-09-29
STICKS VERSUS TRICKS.

4
Having wearied for the nonce of the debate
| over the government control of corporations
| the public in this vicinity is now invited u
turn its attention to the more vexed problem
of the government control of bad boys Ho"
shall the teacher manage naughty Willie, VINO
throws lighted matches in F1ossie Jones's hair,
and unknd Tommy. who sees no harm III stui-
fing defunct mouse down the schoolroom reg
lister? Shall the teacher lead the Offenders
firmly but painlessly to secluded spot after
school and tell them that such conduct Will.
if persisted in, bring them to the gallows! or
shall she invoke the big stick in the princi-
cipars office and stimulate the reasoning cen
tres of the Juvenile brains via the Sensory
nerves of the epidermis? These are tile alter
natives over which controversy is once more
waxing voluminous. Legions of arguments
have been aGduced, and IN them the teacher'
Willies father, Tommy's mother, the family
doctor, the good little boys and girls, the prln-
cipal. the politician with whom Tommys big
brother has pull the school board, the up
ward striving of the human race, the 'brother-
hood Of man and about everything else except
the nebular theory and the vermiform appendix
have been reckoned with, duly weighed ana Ia
beed 4 pro or con.
Most of the debaters have confused two
radically different questions. One is the ad-
visa abty of allowing public school othcals 10
fog mmanageabe pupils. The other is the poSsl-
bility of controlling a child by moral suasloh
and various diplOmacies (such as rewards, hu-
initiation. ridcule and so on. We say these are
different questions, for the simple reason lhat
even if every child in the world could be prop
erly controlled without the least violence II py
no means follows that teacher with fifty
pupils, all of whom know that corporal pun
ishment is forbidden. can find either the time
&ba 10 blish diSPpliQP. 1t Is a COLI
mon experience of school teachers to have ali
their warnings and lectures to bad boys met
with the grnnng boast: Huh! l don't care
what you say. You dasent touch me or
you'll lose your job And so long as half-
perverted children and those uncontrolled at
home are admitted TO classes in rod-sparlhS
schools there wilf always he Il small but in
fiuentfal class of incorrigihles corrupting the
manners of the majority Teachers are there-
fore confronted with problem which cannot
be solved by any abstract theory of moral
suaSion' That there are rare teachers VINO
can subdue young toughs by sheer force Of
personality and a knack for quick diplomacy
NAV be admitted without proving the impro-
priety or rselessness of carefully supervised cor
poral punishment in a huge school system WIFE
thousands Of average teachers.
But who shall WELD the stick? In large clty
schools surely not every teacher, who woud
often be sorely tempted TO substitute force or
arm for mental energy in order TO save time
and nervous strain. Preferably not the princl-
pal whose knowledge OF the individual cases
turned over to him would usually be meaGre;
the man behind the stick must know his patient
in order TO make punishment most effective.
mere spanking machine savors too much or
Jail Might fiogging not he restored. then. with
the greatest success and the least possible abuse
by setting aside in each large school room
for pupils who have repeatedly given grave Of
fence after fair warning and by putting this
room in charge of a teacher empowered To
swing the singing fail? The walls Issuing
from this dread room would be a living warn
Ing TO the other pupils 10 go and do otherwise
The tea cher in the vale of tears would have 10
be selected chiefly for skill In handling ohstrep-
erous children by rare tact. Such an lnstitu-
ton would reduce the stick almost TO trick;
il would be a sword Of DamoCies, always I'M
pending but never falling save by the persist
ent viciousness of forewarned youths.