SCHOOL METHODS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 148, 26 June 1934, Page 5

SCHOOL METHODS

CONTROL OF CHILDREN. CORPORAL, PUNISHMENT. CONDEMNED BY INSPECTORS. The question of corporal punishment and its relation to control in the schools is dealt with in the annual report of the inspectors of the Otago Board of Education. “Control,” states the report, “is a strong feature in almost all the schools, aud we regret that not all teachers keep a record of corporal punishments, as advised by the board in 1932. This hampers our work iu connection with character-building. From evidence that has come before us, we have reluctantly to admit that corporal punishment has iu certain cases been used as a teaching method. The keeping of a record would enable us to suggest ways and means of avoiding suoh a practice whore it may exist. As our teachers are imbued with the worthiest of motives, we think that such suggestions would be welcome concerning what is no longer considered correct teaching procedure. “The majority of our teachers,” proceeds the report, “realise the importance of school training as a preparation for right living and true citizenship. and we recognise with satisfacton the earnestness of t-heir endeavours. With a view to giving such training, most of the treatment is incidental to the work of the school as a whole. The problem of character building is perhaps the most difficult, one which the teachers have to face, in that it hinges upon the relationship of the individual to society. If the children are too much repressed, they lose initiative, and the general unfolding of their personality is cramped. If they have overmuch freedom they tend to become irresponsible and perhaps out of harmony with their fellows. “It seems, however, to have been proved that the better way to deal with the expression of undesirable instincts and tendencies is not so much by repression as by endeavour to switch the working of these innate interests into desirable channels. Our discussions with teachers as to character-training often resolve themselves upon this principle, easy to understand, but not so easy to carry into successful application as might at first sight appear.”