New-York tribune., 1908-03-05
NO RODS IN SCHOOLS.
BAD kids" ESCAPE WHIP.
Board of Education Decides Moral
.SuasiOn VIII Do.

By a vote of 81 to II the Board or Educatloh
at a special meeting at the board rooms last
night, rejected the report of the special COM
mittee on corporal punishment favoring the In
PRODUCTION of the rod in the public Schools ana
decided that the incorrigible as well as all pad
pupils in the schools should continue to enjoy
the balm of moral suasion- The decision OF the
board a surprise to many, as the speclai
committee had made exhaustive study or the
discipline in the public schools, and presented IN
pamphlet form the opinions of 27o school super
intendents and principals in this city and else
where in the country in favor of the use OF the
rod against 200 opposed to 1t.
Commissioner Jonas, the chairman of the COM
mittee on corporal punishment in moving for the
adoption Of the resolution introduced by his COM
mttee in December, said he and DR.. Mcdonald
and Mr.. vandenhoff, the other members OF the
committee asked that the power to administer
corporal punishment be given to the principals,
with restrictions stated in the resolution MT
Jonas said he wished to move for this reform In
the school system, in view of the fact that the
city superintendent in lectures declared that the
use of the rod be a curse while the subject
was under investigation by committee OF the
Board of Education.
Nevertheless" continued Mr. Jonas, III
seemed the committee somewhat like an at
tempt to influence in advance the views or the
board the question, the committee knowing the
views Of the city superintendent only from state
ments in the public press
Mr. Jonas said he had left the long argument in
favor of the report DR.. Mcdonald When the
discussion on the question of passing the resou-
ton of Commissioner Jonas open to the board,
Dr. Mcdonald read a long argument in favor or
corporal punishment, which he prefaced with the
statement that before this investigation was start
ed he was opposed to the use of the rod as cure
for the evils of the ncorrgible schooboy, but since
he had read the reports of the different principals
on the condition of the discipline in the schools at
present time he converted TO the use OF 1he
rod rather than moral suasion the only effective
means of discipline in extreme cases. An honest
must look at honest fact, no matter where
it stands said DR.. Mcdonald.
THE proper way to discipline children in the
schools is TO nstil true moral pleasure with rlght
acts and pain with wrong acts done by the pupils,
said DIR. Mcdonald. NO fair minded man will
a the old rigid methods of fogging-
That is not what is asked for in the report of the
committee. There children who need corporal
punishment and who cannot be governed by moral
srasion-the fncorrigble boy who persists in dis
obedience and defiance of school authority. If
corporal punishment is restored in the restricted
way proposed in the resolution and in a manner
to be decided by the bylaw and elementary school
committees then there will be fewer that need
expulsion and there will be fewer cases to be pun
ished when it is known. The schoolmaster's rod Is
preferable to the policemans club
Commissioners Harrison and Bruce started the
argument against the of the rod declaring
that a restoration of this form of discipline
would be degrading to the teacher and the school
system
DIR. Maxwell attempted to show that the
report of the committee favoring the use of the
rod by the principals in extreme cases only, and
with the parents consent showed the danger of
using it all.
The law invests the city superintendent with
discretionary power to commit to a truant school
only when the parents consent" he said. "and
you may rest assured that the present city su-
perintendent will commit a child to a
truant school when a parents consent was OBJ
tained only to her child from torture Dr.
Maxwell opposed corporal punishment because II
was brutal and degrading, and denied that the
school discipline at the present time was worse
than it was before corporal punishment was
abolished.
Commissioners Stern. Coudert and others
spoke along the same lines advanced by DR. Max
well, but when Commissioners Freifeld, Greene
and Higgins took the floor each one called at
tention to the fact that the arguments advanced
by the city superintendent and others were not
on the facts presented Commissioner Higgins did
not see how a good fire drill, broken street gangs
and orderly public meetings were the results OF
the rule of moral suasion in the public schools
He argued that the opinions of the men in the
classrooms should be taken in preference to the
oracles in 59th street