Head says let teachers cane if they want to
“Teachers as a body are a most conscientious class. To them children come first. I say: Leave matters of discipline to those who are trained to exercise it.” – In 1949 a headmaster pleas for the continued use of the cane.
Hand
me that cane!
By
R. Thompson, headmaster of a junior school
HERE are three stories from the newspapers —appearing
on two consecutive days. The theme In each the naughtiness children.
1 Two boys chuck their free lunches about The
headmaster punishes them by stopping their lunches. But certain members of the
Education Executive think him wrong.
2 At County Hall, London, a conference of 250 experts
meet to solve the problem of naughty children. “Too much pocket money,” says
one. “Fifty per cent of British homes are without discipline,” says another. “They
feel shame when their children are sent to approved school,” states a third.
3 “Teachers should be given back their canes to stop
children causing damage to property.” This is suggested by a member of the St.
Albans (Herts) Divisional Education Executive Committee.
*
The answer lies hidden. I think, in the first extract had those two
boys been found in the gardens the councillors who disagreed with the
headmaster, pulling their favourite rose bushes and chucking them each other,
the councillors would presumably have said: “That’s right, lads, don’t forget
the chrysanthemum beds. When you’ve hooked them out, trot round the park. You’ll
find sufficient plants keep you happy for week.”
However well-intentioned these outsiders are – and their
numbers are growing daily – the headmaster should be left alone to exercise his
own judgment as what punishment should be given. If not capable this he should
never have been made headmaster.
Many teachers are afraid to use the cane – not much
bigger than a meat skewer – in junior schools for fear the consequences.
*
I’m all for the maximum freedom one can give kiddies.
But many, parents and teachers alike, are confusing freedom with licence.
In the old days, so-called discipline was often
maintained by brute force, a disgusting state of affairs which no
decent-thinking person would ever wish see back.
Today we’ve gone to another extreme trying to explain
and excuse and excuse every violation of communal life in psychological terms.
Many condemn the cane as the cause of mind traumas, inhibitions. frustrations,
and all kinds of complexes.
My personal experience tells me that the lash of a
sarcastic tongue can injure, mentally and spiritually, infinitely more than the
lash of the longest cane.
*
HEALTHY
children, faced with certain rules and a choice between approval and
punishment, usually conform. Without any disciplinary framework, children have
no chance learning the restraints needed for communal living, and many would
suffer from a sense of insecurity.
If the teacher doesn’t rule, the class will, and the
weakly and mentally sick child would be exposed to the bullying mob leaders,
young exhibitionists and uncurbed sadists.
True discipline depends on affection, not fear, both
in home and school. Affection is the outcome of respect. No normally healthy
child respects a sloppy disciplinarian.
How often have I heard grown men say, when discussing
their childhood days: “I liked old so-and-so best. Mind, he was strict, you
couldn’t play him up. But he was a grand teacher and a fine old sport at heart.”
And children don’t change
*
ONE day our youngsters will have to conform to the
strict rules of society.
We should instil these rules, right from infancy, by
kindness and firmness. Better a whack now than six months in a remand home
later on – though whacking is seldom necessary if the child is handled properly
from infancy.
Mistaken kindness in early training is, I am sure,
largely responsible for landing children in the juvenile courts in their early
adolescence. Unqualified interference from outside does not help the cause of children,
it only hamstrings efficiency.
Teachers as a body are a most conscientious class. To them
children come first. I say: Leave matters of discipline to those who are
trained to exercise it.
As published in The
Daily Herald, 24 September 1949.
Picture credit: Wizard.
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