The Washington herald., 1913-09-12
Ugly Step backward.

Remembering the turbulent mixtures
that makes up some of the classes in our
public schools and recognizing the mon
umentaI task of guiding, instructing and
disciplining the most unruly OF all, IL
seems VenturesOme for a rank outsider
to attempt to say which is the better
way.
But one believes that II the world Of
parents, and perhaps the world of
teachers. once began TO suspect that
there was a chance OF a return to even
a faint shadow of the awful days OF
Nicholas NiCkIeby," the vague rumors
of corporal punishment never would go
any farther.
For. in spite Of the perplexities that
teachers must meet in their efforts to
deal with children who do not yield
readily TO moral suasIon, it would seem
long and a very ugly step backward
10 take up the rod In our schools and to
admit that kindness and tact cannot
mold their own with physical violence.
Perhaps it is a God-giFen endowment
that whispers TO some understanding
men and women the best way TO deal
with Child-nature when II happens, as it
does some sorry times. that child-nature
has dropped away from the best that is
in IL and reached almost the worst
Even the most inexperienced of US rec
ognize that there are little folk SEEM
inElv impervious TO the force OF moral
Suasion, and with no special gift to show
the way to the Unapproachable little
minds and hearts. what can teachers fall
back upon when there is need for disci-
pline?
Children ImpreESed by FirmnesS.
In homes. in school-rooms, all over
the world where there are restless: un-
ruly boys and girls who have no re-
spect for authority and who seem to
love to tumble into defiant ways. it is
said that nothing is so sweeteuing as
Eoodly bit of physical punishment
Some parents and educators declare,
over and over again, that there are
dispositions that will not yield 4 peg
to mildneSs, to persuasion and the like.
but will expand and unfold in the wake
of discipline that reaches their sturdy
little bodies.
But perhaps il is rather the Out-and-
out firnlness that such dispositions re-
spect and to which they render the hOm-
age Of yielding, because it often hap
pens that when that kind of punish
ment is adopted rs a last resort il means
that someone has reached the limit OF
patience and knows no such thing as
weakening. And most OF little folk are
nightly impressed just by determina-
ton.
1t is hard enough in the home where
one little turbulent nature offers no kind
of index to the makeup OF the others
there and where one small offender will
WELD to persuasion and reason while an
other will be defiantly Indifferent, though
persuasion and reason run along by the
hour.
But when in place Of three or four
small Wills and ways. there are thirty or
forty t. deal with. some Of them sweet
and tractable and lovely. others just
looking for trouble every minute OF every
day-it is not strange that there is a
conflict of opinion and not remarkable
at all that teachers nave nerves.
Better Way.
And II is not necessarily an arraign-
mcnt OF them or their mcthods if they
do not know the particular way for the
Individual child who needs wise CUrrec-
tion: hut we must believe that in every
instance there is A better. a Surer way
than that reached by corporal punish
ment
Doubtless child-nature is pretty much
the same. yesterday. today and forever.
the world over; but it seems that in all