EXIT THE CANE!

Hokitika Guardian, 11 March 1931, Page 7

EXIT THE CANE!

EDUCATION BOARD'S BAN. BROAD STRAP REPLACES IT. Quietly, very quietly, a recognised symbol of the teacher’s authority lias been banned. An educational adjunct known only too well to many generations must no longer be used in the primary schools of the Auckland district. The cane, by which iso many teachers of the old type “whacked their way to promotion and pay,” is to disappear.

Such is the decree of flic Auckland Hoard, though it is not conveyed in these words. One of the new regulations issued by the board makes some very definite ruins regarding corporal punishment. This must be administered sparingly, and only by the headmaster, or with powers delegated by him and only per medium of a broad leather strap. Visions of a new technique immediately arise. Long practice. has created many an expert in the wielding of a length of rotan. It will take many month,s for the wielder of the rod. to acquire the same facility with a. broad piece of leather, ami it U a moot point whether children will suffer or benefit by the change. There will be dead stock, too, in the hands of stationers, some of whom in Auckland city undertake the supply of school canes, the -lives of which vary with the temperaments of the users. Now will come the frantic search for leather fulfilling the requirements of the board’s regulations. A body abreast of the times, and considerate of teachers’ pockets, might with some justification, have prescribed rubber, for the good old horse rein is now a scarcity.

IS IT LEGAL?

Tin;re are gems of humour in tin* new regulation. Punishment is to bo applied “only on the hand.' 1 except in extreme eases. As one teacher interprets this in extreme eases one may apply the leather in “extreme places.“ Supreme Court judgments in this country have placed the teacher “in loco parentis.” Many a father lias applied the rod to the hinder part of his son’s anatomy with undoubted beneficial effeet, upon that son’s character. Whore the chastisement has been just aml beneficial no society for the protection of children would do other than approve of the action. Thus the teacher wonders whether, forbidding the cane, as the board does by implication, this body is really within its rights. Some headmasters contend that the infliction of corporal punishment is their personal responsibility—is, in fact, their duty as “temporary parents,’’ and that a regulation proscribing only the strap would be held ultra vires by u court, of law. Xo teacher, however, seems to be- sufficiently heroic to desire a legal test of the question, So, exit the cane enter the strap, with a subdued application of the latter. Children will rejoice.

A WONDERFUL TASKMASTER

To-dav, however, the cane is no longer the* important educational factor that it wan a generation ago. The school atmosphere lias changed, lonelier and pupil are no longer deadly enemies. Many who train our young go through the whole year without having recourse to the rod. Personality in theso eases replaces punishment, ami usually only where personality is lacking is there much need of other means of control. The modern idea of freedom without license permeates the schoolroom. Children are more amenable to discipline; they are led rather than driven, though some query the consequent thoroughness of the resulting instruction. Jn old days teachers were judged by “results.” And the easiest method of securing results was a frequent application of the cane. “So many mistakes in spelling, so many cuts’’ was a common rule, and a knowledge of spelling or of other subjects came often through fear of pain. One teacher relates cheerfully how he "'as sent to observe the methods of a successful man of his cloth. The demonstrator of these methods gave a lrssou lasting three-quartern of an hour. During that time he whacked no fewer than 35 pupils in the class, It, wap, strenuous work, but at tile olid of tile period every child was Well awake of the matter driven in. That teacher is to-day an inspector of schools, and doubtless preaches a modern doctrine which lie did not practise during his own march to promotion.

A WISE DECISION. In past the cane has been abused and sometimes cruelly and senselessly abused. Now it is banned in the Auckland district. Its passing will not he mourned by youngsters but its banishment "ill recall many memories to their parents. Incidents concerning men now dead and gone will be revived, and the tempering influence of time will mellow the one-time juvenile judgment that they were brutes. Most of the disciplinary thrashings inflietm. over a quarter of a century ago will he appreciated for their full beneficial value, and parents "'ill lie left to reflect on the old motto concerning sparing the rod and spoiling the child. The sparing consequences must now fall on them. The rod is no longer a prerogative of the Auckland teacher. Actually, in these days of scientific education, lie does not need it. ami the Education Board’s dictum, despite what in.iv he argued against it. is. as a general principle, an essentially sound one. There is still that most, adequate provision for “extreme cases” and there is an entirely praiseworthy prohibition of corporal punishment of girls over twelve years of age.