Licking Valley courier., 1921-03-10
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.
BY Strickland Gillian.

Once reads, these days, of teacher:
being fined heavily for committing az
assault with n deadly weapon II
one read no further than the head
lines, one would gather the impress
siOh that the teacher had shot OF
stabbed a pupil or hit him over the
ibex with an anvil or a mattock.
We find when we read further that the
teacher merely gave the ruction-raiscr
an ordinary good, old-fashioned whal-
ing with such good, wholesome tool
as rod, a piece of barrel stave, a
ruler or a piece of rubber hose.
In our day, old-timer, wouldn't
that have been good joke? Re-
member how they used to throw the
fear of the Lord into the legs Of you
and me for committing misdemeanors
And remember that although we filed
formal protest just to keep the
teacher from making a regular In.
door sport Of it we thought at heart
the walloping was just? 1t loosened
up our hides and made us grow. W
sometimes hOwled bit, which was
good for our lungs; we behaved our
selves for quite awhile afterward 9.
which was good for our souls as well
as for the school.
But nowadays! While I am warm
ly in favor of the no corporal punish
ment thing, and right in the step with
modern thought as to the Ineffective
ness and uSelessness of Il as discipl.
mary measure, yet / cannot horrify
over it. My own legs may have keen
memory Of the stripes with which my
school morals were healed. My faith
er also welded mean spanker. So
! cannot bring myself to be shocked
when some husky teacher takes some
little snip and applies suasion to what
appears to be nearer the brains of
the lad than his hat is.
If ] had lived in these present days
and had been treated as / was when
was an iniquitous lad in school, the
jails would be filled with teachers
who had committed assaults" on me
with deadly weapons" And yet |
lived and throve and had my reason.
able happy and moderately successful
be2ing ] didn't know was burtnl,
ana criminally treated, so all was
well. As matter of principle II
never admitted that the whipping
got was deserved, Every young per.
son is an expert in discovering good
and moral reasons fur every ornery
thing he does. But the reasons |
then brought ingeniously If not In.
genuously forward will not stand be.
meath the white light of my adult rcas.
oning faculties. My own son cannot
put the same line of reasoning across
with me,
| had one teacher who was n rod
artist supreme. was pes.lfpiouS.
There were so many things more inter.
esting than books-little dirty humnn
beings all around me-, and little dirty
human beinES are the most interest.
ing things III the world to other III, T.
tie dirty human beings-that | seemed
unable to find snilicien, time tor INV |
lessons. Ever aud anon there was
II wild cpckle Ia the school, and at the
those ot the best investigation that
teacher knew how to make he always
seemed to bring In n verdict TIA, nj
It, In the mat,e4, of correct
conclusions 4llVw mc to state his |
batiips average was close to one
thousand.
one day he handed ms an ultima.
lum, That wNNt, what he called Il. ]
He has never. heard of ultlmati. We
didn't have them In those DAYS. la,
stead, we had "the law laid ,town 10
us The ultimNtum was TO the gen.
eral purpose and effect that the next
time he had occasion to brand me as