Evening star., 1932-01-17
PARENTS ARE TO BLAME
In FAILURES OF PUPILS
Lack of Discipline Is Often Chief Cause
of Troubles School Chill
dren Encounter.

Moreover, in this case he had never
used corporal punishment, and In
'sparing the rod he had seoHed the
child"
Modern pedagogy frowns upon cor
poral punishment, and rightly so, for
there are administrators" who know
not how to apply it; abuse of this age
old method of discipline has been re-
sponsible for its being held in i'll
repute today. Yet many a healthy lad
of past generations was raised on
prayer and hickory" and f1ourished
by it.
Child Obedience Urged.
Parents permitting willful children to
grow up unrestrained do a far greater
harm than proper administration of
corporal punishment could ever do. The
observations of James J. Walsh and
John A. Foote in recent journal are
apropos: Children must be made to
understand even from their early years
that they must not do what they are
told not to do or that definite penalties
Will follow. They will have to suffer
something for their refusal to obey
what they have been told"
Many Of our leading judges of juvenile
courts are now on record as emphatic
ally believing that many of the boys
and girls under 16 years, who are
brought before their courts as violators
OF the law, would not be there If they
had been properly punished when they
were young. Parents in too many in
stances have become victims of a SEN
timental psychology which asserts that
child should never be punished.
1t Is tragic to watch the modern
mother forbid her child to do q certain
thing, threaten dire punishment, and
when the youth proceeds to transgress
her law, to see the utter failure in full
f1lling the punishment. Her words be-
come an empty threat; the son regards
them as such, and daily he storms the
citadel OF parental discipline until at
last all barriers are down.
The opposite of the over-indulgent
parent Is the one who is too severe. He,
likewise, Is parent failure" More
over in the case of brutality in the
home, the one at fault is likely to be
the father rather than the mother.
The effect upon the children Is either
to cause the development Of a perpet-
ual cringing attitude or to result in the
hardening of the children to all pun
ishment. Both results are bad. To be-
come over-sensitive and fearful is as
bad as to become immune to discipline.
Inc school in such a case does not dare
for the children become the victims of
punishment out of all proportion to
the tranSgreSsion.
Severe Punishment Bad.
The following example illustrates the
SchoolS solution in such a case: Vic
toria was referred to the grade adviser
by the head of the modern language
department for failure in studies, anc
oy her section teacher for defiance OF
regulations. Her influence was bad.
Investigation showed that she cane
from home where brutal beatings
were the only mode of discipline. Vic.
toria was attractive and probably he,
graces made her somewhat of a belle
Her father saw red" whenever Vic
torla came home late and being of
Latin extraction, the application OF
punishment always took the severest
OF turns. The girl became hardened,
cold and cynical.
When disciplined in school we found
sullen, morose attitude assumed: she
showed an indifference to regulatory
measures which left our hands tied
Yet things could not go on as they
were. Things came to a climax Her
audaclous, pugnacious, cynical spirit
was broken one afternoon during an
interview which / had determined was
to be the last. The usual quiet dis
cussion had been met with the usual
cold, half-sneering responses. Brute
force, mentally applied, found its re-
sponse in sobbing, penitent girl
whose cynicism had been overcome.
Kindness on my part followed the
storm of wrath which I had poured
out. Il am going to try to be a diff
ferent girl" she said, weeping con-
vulsively.
Il am glad to hear you say that, Vic
toria. I responded. Il know you will
do better" The tears of this high
school miss flowed as they had never
flowed at home. She registered a pen
itance never witnessed before. Would
it last?
AS the days passed + actually mar
Veled at the change. Victoria's atti-
tude in class and section room became
one of helpfulness and willingness to
cooperate, and an occasional smile lit
her previously cold features. One day,
a week or two later, I called her into
the office. She had an inquiring look
on her face. What had she done, 1t
seemed to say. "I sent for you, Vic
toria, because I want you to know I
appreciate your helpfulness in the
class ROOM" said IT want to thank
you, you have been help to me-" AS
the purport OF my words dawned upon
her her eyes again filled with tears,
and she answered somewhat incoher-
emily. I excused her with a kindly
gesture.
Had no one ever told her before that
she was helpful? Had they never been
able to discover her lovely spirit at
home? I wondered. The spirit of de-
hance, engendered in the home, as the
result of severe and perhaps unmerited
punishments. had been overcome by
curious admixture of kindness and of
force. What the home had accom-
plished in warping this life the school
had been able finally to set straight
again.