THE STRAP.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143786, 9 May 1912, Page 4

THE STRAP.

PLEA FOB lIS BANISHMENT. INVERCAROM U May 3. Mr. James Hendry, mspocior 10 the Southland Education Hoard. made some into resting comment u|K;u the man* agmucnt ui schools in his monthly report. 10 tho Education Hoard today. •‘Every Leac-hoi, - ’ he said, “may be presumed to have in Ujs possession several ol liio very large number of excellent treatises, now available dealing «dh the jnanag«:/:.eni and governmont ot schools, and may iunder be presumed to have made ninseii move or less familiar with the principles enumerated therein. It cannot have es cui-ed the most umei ieonve student that however much the writers of these books may seem to bout variance on certain points of school policy, there is at least one matter with respect to which there is practical unanimity, to wit, that corporal punishment should never be inflicted for intellectual faults, for stupidity or ignorance. It should be resorted to only for the worst offences, flat disobedience, obstinacy, vice, gross impertinence, and even for these when there appears to be no alternative, when every other means of dealing with tho offences has been tried and failed. Surely then tho corollary is obvious, that tho instrument of corporal punishment should not be constantly in view of tho children. Acceptance of tho above quoted principles would result in its banishment to the teacher’s cupboard or drawer, to he produced only on the few occasions when its use is imperatively necessary. All teachers will cheerfully subscribe to tho dictum of the text books, yet many of them signally fail to square their practice with their professed belief. In numerous cases the strap is a permanent exhibit on the school wall or on the teacher’s table, a perpetual 'memento obedire.’ The folded leather may bo used as a pointer b}’ a teacher correcting desk work, it may bo observed like the pistol butt of the bad man of the west protruding from, the teacher’s pocket, it may even on occasions serve the purpose of a necklet to an infant mistress. Now all thus is as wrong as it can be, and it is quite unnecessary that I should point out wherein it is wrong. For an exposition of tho hoard’s attitude on this matter teachers are referred to a pamphlet forwarded to the schools some years ago. Therein they are reminded that the efficacy of the strap is in inverse proportion to the frequence of application, that the injudicious employment of this artificial stimulus to exertion and good conduct tends to frustrate the very object the teacher has in view, and that the indiscriminate and frequent administration of corporal punishment is an indication of lax discipline, the cause of which is to be sought in the teacher himself.