One sound thrashing keeps 50 boys in order

There are times, as Arnold of Rugby, one of the most devoted lovers of boys that ever lived, once said, when “severe physical pain is the only way to deal with the case.” – A former teacher advocates sound thrashings in a letter to  the New York Times in 1910.

To the Editor of The New York Times –

Nobody wants to “give everybody else the license to maul children,” as your correspondent, “Herutan” puts it. Nobody advocates “cruelty and torture” in the schools. Nobody pretends that they used to enjoy being licked. But there are times, as Arnold of Rugby, one of the most devoted lovers of boys that ever lived, once said, when “severe physical pain is the only way to deal with the case.” And in these cases the power to administer the punishment ought to be vested in the Superintendent.

Discipline is impossible in the classroom without wholesome respect for the authority  of the teacher, and the knowledge that the feeble girl or woman in that position is supported by a courageous and muscular Superintendent is a tremendous help toward maintaining order.

One sound thrashing to one boy will keep fifty in order for weeks, where fifty reprimands daily would be laughed at.

EX-TEACHER.

As published in The New York Times, 16 September 1910.

Picture credit: Kernled

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