THE CANE IN SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19604, 5 April 1927, Page 12

THE CANE IN SCHOOLS.

Sir, —As a retired teach, r who spent about 40 years of his life iu the primary schools of the Dominion, I cannot but be interested iu the discussion on the above subject. I remember being some years ago at a meeting of inspectors and teachers where this matter was discussed. One teacher said that he felt, iq nine ' ca,ses out of ten in which he found it necessary to inflict corporal punishment, /''• that, ii' pure justice had its way, the "cuts" would fall on the parents, not on v the children. If parents would only have sense enough to refuse to listen to tales out of school and refrain from interfering " in the relations between pupil and teacher, corporal punishment would be Etlmost unnecessary. But if a child thinks it has a backing up at home it will play up at school. I have myself taught a school where the parents supported the teachers, and I found it & simple enoifgh matter to obtain good discipline without " recourse to corporal punishment, except upon very rare occasions. Dominie.

Sir, —Will J.R. give some evidence that "the modern school of psychology approves of physical punishment for child- "~ ren" ? It seems to me that the wholetrend of thought of recent educational psychology is against it. This is well illustrated in Bertrand Russell's "Educa- .. tion and the Good Life." Referring to that old classic "The Fairchild Family," he describes how little Henry was taught Latin. Henry was told he could never become a clergyman unless he learned it. This inducement proving insufficient,. Henry was shut up in an attic, fed on bread and water, and forbidden to speak - to his sisters. "After a certain period in prison, the boy, we are told, began to love Latin, and worked assiduously ever " after." Russell contrasts this with Tchekov's story about his uncle who tried to teach a kitten to catch mice. Ho brqught a mouse into a room with the kitten, but as the kitten's hunting in-,.. stiuct had not yet developed, it paid no attention to the mouse. So he beat it. Day after day the same process was repeated until the kitten was given up as unteachable. *ln later life, though otherwise normal, it couid never «see a mouse without sweating with terror and running away. "Like the kitten," writes Tchekov, "I ~ had the honour of being taught Latin by my uncle." The two stories illustrate the old discipline and tyie modern revolt against it. No teacher who is reasonably" humanitarian and has some knowledge of modern psychology will willingly use the cane. It is employed in our secondary schools, I believe, mainly because the antiquated disciplinary methods prevail and are encouraged as part of the "tradition" : and in our primary schools mainly because the classes are so large that only the cruel and barbarous use of. force can immediately produce quiet and order of the sort that terrorism temporarily provides. The remedy for the latter is reduction in magnitude of the classes. There are many punishments (if we must "punish" at all) quite as drastic as caning. I know of one school where ~ the boys say they would prefer the strap to being "jawed"' by the head, a man of the sterner and stricter morality that is somewhat out of fashion. Preference, for titfi cane is no proof of its superiority; a goo™ talk may have more lasting and desirable effects. M. C. Irvine.