CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2659, 27 July 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS.

Mr. CI. W. Williamson, headmaster of the Waipawa school, the third in size in Hawke's Bay, in a report to his committee usueasome very plain language about the use of the cane. Ho says I have made careful enquiry into the complaint made by Mr Whyman (regarding the excessive punishment of his boy by Mr Hurt, the second master) in accordance with the committee's request, and find that the punishment was merited. The boy is nearly fourteen years of age, and it would liea hard matter to punish a boy of that age severely enough without leavin" a mark on his hands. There, must of necesity bn a wale wherever a blow is struck. I myself do not remember ever being punished at school in that way\vithout bearing the mark of it for two or three days. The discipline of the school must be kept up, and the boys of that age, if the} trausgress, must be punished in such a way as to make them remember it, otherwise it only creates a laugh amongst them. The fact is there is too much 'molly-coddling' of boys going on to the detrimeut of all manly feeling. In my time if a boy went home complaining about being punished he would not only have been unmercifully chaffed by the other boys but would have received another thrashingat the hands of his father for nut being aiaii enough to take a hiding when he deserved it. In the colonies it is different and h"Uco the outcry of larrilunism from one end of the country to tho other ; and I am afraid it will soon come to this, that teachers will not be able to oven look at a boy without their being threatened with a report to the school committee. It is no wonder, when such a state of things exists, that one finds boys when ordered out for punishment putting on their caps and running out of school, as happened to-day when a boy was called out by Mr Burt. When 1 acquainted his sister with it, in order that tho I.i.d might bo sent back to school when she returned home, I was coolly told " Oh, father, told him to do so." According to the regulations, corporal punishment is to be administered by certificated teachers, aud I should wish it known by parents that iu the preservation of order and discipline of the school, for which I am responsible to the Inspector and the Board, at the risk of 10-iug my positiou if I fai', I shall never shirk my duty in this respect, and should a boy fail iu respect or obedience he will always net, if lie deserves it, a sound good hiding. Speakiug from a lengthened experience extending over oO years, I can conscientiously assert that there is loss corporal punishment ad. ministered iu this school than iu any other school I know of, mid I am afraid its infrequency is tho cause of so much hubbub beintr made about it when it does occur. If Mr Whyman still b els aggrieved bo has bis remedy iu a court of law.