Amenable to Discipline.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 78, 6 September 1912, Page 6

Amenable to Discipline.

By E.H.C.R

Tn the Education Commission's report, dealing with the proposed demilitarisation of the junior cadets, praise is piled on thick because, of the boys' "general amenability (o discipline" as the, outcome of military drill.

Exactly so: but we never doubted it

The point is that the more one. is made ''amenable to discipline" (whose discipline?) tho less is he "amenable to reason." The true meaning of "educate." by the way, is "to draw out," to bring out the intelligence inherent in mankind. It is tho function of the reasoning faculty, is impelling in its action, "coming from within."

j The outside application of military drill, under compulsion, and the subordination of one man's reasoning to the will or dominance of another, works in an entirely opposite direction; is compelling in action, numbing and paralysing in its influence and degrading in results to controller and controlled alike.

True discipline, as opposed to military discipline, lies not in th© direction of obedience or servitude as a resultant of another's dominance, but in "selfcontrol'; the control of one's own thoughts and actions by one's own inward intelligence.

Except by tho prostitution of natural law, there is no man living has the right to dominate another. And a prostituted right must', of necessity, bo ■a wrong.