School Punishment.

Hastings Standard, Issue 87, 6 August 1896, Page 3

School Punishment.

How the peccant schoolboy is punished in Otago—and some startling examples are given—the Post learns from a perusal of the report of the conference of the Otago School Commissioners held in Dunedin last week. One of the members of the conference, Mr Sidey, stated that lie happened to be in one of the city schools the other day, and he noticed in one of the passages a boy being rather mercilessly thrashed, not on the hands, but on the body. So far as he could ascertain, the boy's offence was not a serious one. The teacher (who was not the head master) after inflicting considerable punishment desisted, but afterwards returned to the charge. Another member said that though the provision made by the Education Board was that no person except bead masters should be allowed to inflict punishment, he had found it necessary to delegate that power, otherwise the head master's whole time would be occupied going from one room to another inflicting punishment. Mr M'Adam said that if the children did not know their lessons the teachers " palmed " and thrashed them instead of teaching them a remark that was received with applause. Mr Harraway stated that a little girl of his (eight years of age) was thrashed on the hands so much that her knuckles were not discernible. On another occasion he knew of three large blood-marks inflicted on a pupil's hand by a teacher. In another instance a teacher was going along a crowded form and trod 011 the feet of one of the boys, causing him to give utterance to a cry of pain. The teacher, turning round, kicked the boy on the shins, saying at the same time, 1 ' Keep your hoof out of that.'' (Sensation.) One of his daughters was also made to undergo what is called " knuckling." Her arms were twisted back, and whilst held firmly in a painful position the knuckles of her hands were struck. The Chairman of the School Committee whore these practices were said to have been carried out said that the Committee, had come to the conclusion that it was utterly impossible for the head master to inflict all the punishment. In this instance one of the pupil teachers was responsible for the extreme punishment which had been inflicted. Mr F. M. Lester considered that in this humanitarian age we should altogether abolish corporal punishment. The way to stamp out brutality was not by being ourselves brutal. He knew of public schools in Dunedin that he had been invited to visit, and the strap was going there at times for the space of an hour and a-half or two hours without intermission. (Laughter) He could understand beating a refractory horse or a dog, they not being possessed of reasoning faculties, but children were supposed to ,be rational beings—or else our schools could be of very little use to them. Flogging dies hard, and the time seems yet distant when we shall spare the rod and save the child.