CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24093, 1 November 1943, Page 6

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

Sir,— i think “R.H.H.” will see, on consideration, that his attributing to me defence of religious or political persecutions is as unjustified and irrelevant as if I charged him with being a pacifist. Nature gives a child a pain in its middle to warn it hot to eat too much. Later, the child learhs higher motives for temperance. Meanwhile the fear of pain inclines it to form temperate habits. Very little corporal punishment should be needed for the average child, but the fear' of it is often a useful deterrent before the child fully understands higher motives for good living.—Yours, etc., NATURE. October 29, 1943.

Sir,—l Have been at a Christchurch secondary school for nearly five ‘ years. Although punishment is given not only by masters but by prefects, complaints are very rare. Every boy who' contacts ers that he is being punished unjustly has the right of appeal. Moreover, most boys prefer corporal punishment to lines, which are far more irksome. I therefore consider that I am express* ing the opinion of most boys when 1 say that corporal punishment is preferable to any other type of punishment; and surely the opinion of the boys themselves is more important than that of theorists, who can never thoroughly understand the schoolboy psychology, with which they are so concerned.—Yours, etc., « . , VIRGAE, October 30, 1943.