SPARE THE ROD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 107, 9 May 1927, Page 19

SPARE THE ROD.

South American people are very idealistic, and are firm upholders of the principle of individual and national dignity. So strongly is this characteristic developed that school teachers are not permitted to cane their pupils when they misbehave. It is held that punishment of that nature is an affront to the individual, and a policeman may be called in if a teacher lays a hand on a child. However, they are practical as well as idealistic. Mr. F. S Battley, Vice-Consul for the Argentine, told a story illustrative of this fact at the League of Nations Union luncheon to-day. The Mayor of a South American town interviewed the headmaster of an evangelical school, since he wished to send his children there, believing that they would make more progress than at the State school. The teacher said it was the practice to administer corrective punishment whenever necessary, whereupon the parent replied: "Tut, ttrt" . (or word* to that effect). "As Mayor of this town I cannot let you say anything which is against tile laws of .the country, but as a parent I leave it to you to get my children on as fast as you can!"