LEARNING V. LEATHER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIII, Issue 12242, 30 June 1900, Page 5

LEARNING V. LEATHER.

_Sir,---Seeing It ' noted. in the 1 “Lyttelton Times' of June 14 that the South Canterbury Board of Education had appointed a committee to confer with, the. Inspectors and report on corporal, punishment, as an old school committee yhan, I feel strongly moved to crart spaertfo show' the necessity for something of thfo sain©; kind here. Some years ago, the /North Canterbury Board issued a strip tA teachers, which appears to me they from the Industrial School Act (see; government Gazette, Oct. 17, 1895; voX/2, page 1611, 1 Order-in-Gouncil Oct. 14, 1895) ; —“.A leather strap may be used -ptovided' such strap does pot exceed bno ; and a 'half, inches in' breadth, twenty'five'inches 'in .'length, one-quarter inch in thickness, ahd four and three : quarter. ounces in weight, and shall hot' be piferced with holes, nor cub into a.fringe, and that in the punishment of girls and young boys a lighter sbrdp shaill.be used.” “- The manager, if a imah; shall hot administer- any\corpcral punisbment to any girl; with ms own: hands, but shall direct that it shall be administered by the matron or female officer of the school.” If. this is, the Act they are working on, the latter paragraph is often broken through. X ; wish to know in how far bur primary, school teachers are justified in applying corporal punishment under on Act that only applies to such schools as Bumham, or are they only doing so by custom, relying on the mere fact of the Board supplying the weapon, which is often used in ways never intended by the Board? I Save known of it being used oh a boy of nine years for killing a mouse in the school, porch previous to school hours; on Children who have over two miles to walk on a cold wet winter morning, school opening at 9 a.m., for being a few minutes late, often causing them to play truant or return home, if they find out they are late. Also' on children who have been kept at home through sickness. They thus get behind the class, and the pupil-teacher instead of teaching them, sends them in to the head-teacher for leather on the plea of inattention. Surely the day is past when learning can be driven through the skin. Now I would suggest a remedy to check this practice, if at all general. Let the Secretary to the Board of Education write-to one. or. two of the headteachers of model. schools in' Ireland—there is one in-the chief town of each county—and ask their ppicign of corporal punish-ment-and also for a specimen copy of the weekly card which is filled up daily, showing their attendance, conduct, and Learning. Such card is sent home weekly, signed by the parent, and returned on Monday morning. They could add a punishment column, teachers filling it up and parents stating if they were satisfied. This card would show parents, truant officers, and committees each pupil’s weekly standing.—l am, etc., SJAMBOK.