CHILD DISCIPLINE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 45, 22 February 1930, Page 20

CHILD DISCIPLINE

SCIENTIST DENOUNCES "SPANKING":

;'A serious warning against the alleged 'etils of "spanking" is given by Dr. Joseph Jastrow, a member of the, ISfatib'nal. Committee for Mental Hygiene and a past president of th'o American Psychological Association, | which is sure to provoke discussion on both sides of the Atlantic, says the New York correspondent of the ''Daily Express" (London). ' -;.; The art of successful child discipline ik. menaced by'! parents who are, "chronic spankers," says Dr. Jastrow. Thb eminent scientist, in giving his views on the subject of child discipline, describes the harshness of parents as a type of hysteria which is to-day the outstanding problom in the training of children. ; ' "This hyateria is illustrated by temper outbursts, of which spanking is &.;.; often tl"s result," says Dr. JastroWi,A "Sparo the rod and spoil the child has no standing in the light, of presentday knowledge. Children have difficulty in controlling their emotions, and; in fact, the emotional'problems of the child aro those that present the greatest difficulties. The child, however, must be taught emotional control. Education, training, and discipline are necessary because we cannot j let the child grow up by living out his original nature. He is so full of fierce impulses, which it would be impossible to tolerate in our civilisation. "Now enters the, spanking parent when.the child is being helped to control his emotions.; ISomething has gone ■wrong during the day. The parent is upset because of the weather —or tho stock market, and on top of it all the'

youngster docs sometUiug 'naughty,'— according to the parent. "This strikes the match, and the flare-up has started. The emotional irritation already set up cannot be vented on the weather or the stock market, but this 'naughtiness' must be stopped, and' no time is like the present to begin. The spanking follows. "The child 'souses tbis.siibsconeioiisly and frequently is fully awarq of his parent's emotional problem. Ho is in contact with a. grown-up who is himself still infantile, giving vent to his emotions on the slightest-provoca-tion. ■' ~. •• f "Such- an experience lessens the youngster's desire to want to control his own impulses, and when this situation occurs again, the aggregate effect on the child is", enormous. ; "The child does reason. Ho reasons from such knowledge as he has. He grows in reason ?by wise encouragement, not by the-rod or the wrath of the chronic spanking parent. We are told that older, generations did pretty well under a very different set of ideas. The truth is that the human race' is tough and will survive any variety of miseducation. , "This is true in the history:of medical treatment of the body. ; The same applies to mental health The tough children survived on the old- spanking regime. .They even thrived in some instances' The tender children were the victims.',.Tho -neurotic difficulties of to-day are in no '.small' measure traceable to unwise handling of sensitive children."