CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 91, 18 April 1929, Page 6

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS.

A friend of mine has recently had tho distressing experience of having bis boy subjected to corporal punishment for the awful crime of returning to school without a note after having been absent through sickness. The parent, I am glad to say, strongly protested. The brutal action, which I understand was defended, was contrary to his more enlightened methods. I believe a major factor for this sort of thing is that our leading educationists and psychologists are often themselves at fault. Science, to say nothing of love, is discarded at this point. The short cut of punishment is really a long road in th*r end and is generally an admission of incompetence. It achieves no good, but oniy injures or destroys the better attributes possessed by both the punisher and the punished. Leading educationists, who deserve the greater blame, appear to be only on a par with teachers and parents as a whole where this is concerned. While claiming to be scientific, they will swallow the shame of being unscientific in this vitally important matter. If they dare not teach a line of conduct greater than that of the nation, which values punitive method* and cannot have them discredited, they are not true scientists. D. McCORMACK.