The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-02-25
CI1rLDnEN IN SCHOOL.


 The Brooklyn Eagle has been looking into the subject of corporal punishment in schools and harks back to Solomon. with his advice about using the rod. ~soIomon's ideas" The Eagle remarks. ''ars too oid-fashioned for the New York Board of Education. which is nothing if not modern. progressive up-to- date. and ready to swallow any fad that win make pubiiclschooi look Ike anything but a school. Members of the Board have disputed the wisdom, of Solomon. They have spared the rod until the child is just about spoiled. soIemniy. they are now debating the subject of restoring the rod to its old place of usefulness as the real repre- sentative of authority. They have asked the superintendents., the princi- pals and the teachers to give their opinions on the subject and to state what sort of instrument. if any. should be used and where 1t should most prop erly be applied. Think of that, After these centuries of fixed tradition on the subject. they are worrying over the anatomy of chastisementi"
 Well. Solomon was wise man in his day, anl 1t might be better if more of his good advice could be followed in our day. True. he was speaking at . time about generation very different from the present. but do children change very much from generation to generation? We think it will be in- teresting to quote at some length from The Eagle editorial. as follows:
 A majority of superintendent and principals are in favor of restoring the rod, but the minority is strong and clamorous against what 1t chooses to regard as a method brutal and bar. laugh at these weigRty dIscussions ever so simple Q matter. They liked q teacher who knew how to yield the stout stout hickory ' switch sn sq as the most HS iIs- portant part of the curriculum. When their children caught a whipping at school they got another at home for
 
 schools. disciplinary training schools and houses of refuge in those days.
 Of course, the people who denounce corporal punishment would tell our grandfathers that the world has the race so improved that the rod has become an unnecessary and harmful barbarity; all of which sounds well, but ss the veriest bosh so far as rais- ing boys is. concerned. Even in King Solomon's day there were people to preach against the rod and to say that humanity had outgrown such barbar- Ism. Solomon put them in a proverb:
 There is a generation, O how lofty are their. eyes! and their eyelids are
 It is the same way today. Vision aries lift up their eyes and imagine that all humanity fs being raised with their eyelids. They think that human nature has changed entirely in the last generation. They don't stop to think the pointN where the rod was aban- Aoned, but that always 1t was taken up fRgain. Occasionally there is & boy who can grow to manhood without needing 2 good licking, but he is either public sch eols would be less like pub lic jokes if teachers or principals could exercise the only form of authority which can command the respect of a large percentage of modern children. will drive the Board of Education back to corporal punishment. Meanwhile II looks a little silly for digniled school superintendents to be wasting time de. batting oyer the best instrument to use and the best place to apply 1t. Why not follow tradition and take the advice oi ] Principal Vlymen--"Any suitable in- strument on the cushion provided by nature"