The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-10-30
PUNISHMENT OF PUPILS,

VT TOTlL0s
Two teachers of the public schools
OF the Twin Cities have recently been
reprimanded by the board of education
for inf1ictings corporal punishment up
on refractory, pupils. What can teach
ers do to maintain order and discl-
pine in their rooms when the pupils
snap their fingers in their faces and
offer defiance to constituted authority ?
That is question which is worthy
OF consideration. In our opinion. the
boards of education which fail to sus-
tain the teachers in the infliction of
proper punishment for the preserva-
ton OF discipline are derelict in Their
duty. Some boys arc attending the
public schools who have no respect for
parents or teachers and who ought to
be in the reform schools. What are
teachers expected to do with such
young blackguards? The foolish moth
ers imagine that their young cubs are
paragons of propriety and that the
teachers who dare to schastise them for
impertinence, disobedience and insub-
ordination are monsters Of cruelty.
They HE themselves to the nearest
member OF the school board and enter
a complaint against any teacher who
mas had the temerity to curb and check
their boys in waywardness.
What they should do is this. If any
teacher through loss Of temper, Sc
verely Furnishes. a pupil cuts OF
bruises him, or IN any way Injuries him
physically, the parents have redress
in the courts for assault and battery
en- their darling. offspring. and a Judge
and jury will do Justice between pa
rent and teacher. That is what the
trainers of the laws of Minnesota evil
IDENTIFY desired to be done in cases OF
this kind for they are eloquently ST.
lent upon corporal punishment in the
schools of the state. But in cities it
IS otherwise, as school boards make
certain rules and regulations. for the
guidance of teachers.
The board of education of the city of
Minneapolis has made it's own rules
for the government of the schools
In its annual report for 1907 we find
that pupils requiring discipline shall
be reported by the teacher to the prin-
cipal for investigation, and if the pu
pill still continues unruly after being
reprlmanded by the principal, then
the case is referred to the superinten-
dent. and until his decision IS rendered
the pupil shall he suspended On pas.,
$50 of the same report we find the
following:
I'm no case shall corporal punish
ment be resorted to, except that a
principal may be allowed to inhic;
corporeal punishment upon a pupi,
when all other reasonable means OF
correction have been found Intellectual
and he has written permission from
the parents of the pupil: and that
each case of such infection of cor
poreal punishment shall be reported &c
the superintendent. If pupil resort to
violence he may be summarily elected
from the grounds by the principal, and
for this purpose he may call upon iii,
1anltor of the building for assistance.
The other day. in one of the schools
OF this city. an unruly boy of T. who
disobeyed the teacher. was gently rep.
rlmanded He became obstreperous
threw himself on the floor, made faces
at the other children, and gruntet
like pig. The school was in con-
fusion. The teacher inflicted a slight
punishment with rubber hose ani
the boy rushed home to his kind, low
ing mother. who Immediately repaired
to the school and addressed the teach
er in all the modes and lenses of vitu-
peration.
The matter came up before tbs
board of education on last Tuesday
and President Elwell, who knows more
about furniture than he does of schoo
management and pedagogics, PLACED
himself on record against corporea
punishment. His attitude was en-
dorsed by Rev. NJ. Falk Gjertsen. who
ought to be attending to his duties
as pastor of Bethany Norwegian Luth
eran Church. instead of acting in thS
capacity of a member of the board OF
education. Plenty or educated citizens
of his nationality in the city to occupy
the position. The rubber hose 80:
whipping pupils must stop" exclaimed
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