a sound thrashing administered now and then is far less cruel. Nearly every
evil instinct in the child is aroused through fault-finding and scolding.
How long will it take to teach the parent, once for all, that scolding,
nagging, shutting up in the dark closets, and every other form of arbitrary
punishment arouse in the child a sense of injustice and resentment, which,
if not corrected later, will result in estrangement and loss of love
between parent and child? The child has a right to expect justice from his
parent. Only where this is found will the child develop that sense of
freedom and independence of thought and action which produce the highest
type of individual--one who is able to govern himself.

"But what shall be done when more serious offences are committed?" The
parent may well ask. In all likelihood there will be no serious offences if
the slight ones are treated properly. A mother came to me with her face
full of suppressed suffering. "What shall I do?" she remarked, "I have
discovered that my boy steals money from his father's purse." "Give him a
purse of his own," I answered, "and give him ways of earning money of his
own." It is asserted that more than half the boys sent to reform schools go
there because of theft. How many of them might have been saved if they had
been taught how to earn and to know the value of an honest dollar?

But so long as human nature is imperfect, and frailty so common, we must
expect in every family some occasion to arise that will tax the patience
and the love of the parent to the uttermost. No rule can be given that will
meet every crisis; common sense, justice, forbearance, faith and love may
be used in vain; and reproof, censure, and corporal punishment may also
fail in some supreme emergency, the only recourse that remains after all
these are exhausted is to permit the natural consequences of the deed to
fall upon the head of the transgressor.