The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1884. Punishment in Schools

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 4, 10 January 1884, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1884. Punishment in Schools

• A considerable amount of discussion is going on in various parts of the Colony as to the good or evil that may result from the administration of corporal punishment in public schools. From the sides taken by the advocates and opponents of the system, it is easy to detect the nature of the punishment which was inflicted on them in their callow days. The public school man advocates flogging because in his case such was only inflicted some hours after the offence had been committed, and the rod was applied with a deliberation and vigor which made him careful to avoid, if possible, a repetition of the dose, while he was satisfied in his mind and body that he had been justly, even if severely punished, without having lost his selfrespect or veneration for constituted authority. On the other hand, the man who had the bad fortune to be educated at a private school, where, with very few exceptions, punishment was only administered when the master w&s in a passion, can only remember in after life the loss of self-respect endured after an unjust caning administered by a brute mad with ungovernable rage. Such punishments never did and never will do a boy any good, and as the man remembers the evil consequences to himself, he is naturally desirous that flogging in the case of his own children should be done away with altogether. For ourselves, we believe with King Solomon that "He who spareth his rod hateth his own son," and although that great and wise man was utterly ignorant of School Boards, and many other educational improvements since his time, yet his opinion carries considerable weight even to this day. A blow should never be struck by a schoolmaster immediately on tlie commission of an offence for several reasons, the first and most important of which is that he is angry, and so liable to strike harder than he wishes or intends. The second is that if a reasonable interval is allowed to elapse between the crime and its punishment, the offender has time to realise his position, and his reflections during that time will probably result in his resolving to avoid similar offences in the future. The hands or the head should never Be the parts selected on which to apply the instrument of punishment. In the case of girls we oppose corporal punishment utterly and without exception. There are hundreds of other ways of punishing a girl, while the rod is the only way of " harrowing up the soul " of a refractory lad, and teaching him the great moral law that the head schoolmaster is the greatest power in his little kingdom, and obedience to him ! in all things will be the wisest and best line of conduct. When a boy is down on the black list for punishment his feelings of respect for his master and executioner approach the illimitable, and when it is all over, he has reached a state of pure and unadulterated happiness as nearly as he ever will in this life.