worse in reality than "You are a very naughty little girl, and I am
ashamed of you," and all sorts of other expressions of candid adverse
opinion? Besides these forms of impudence, there is the peculiarly
irritating: "Well, you do it yourself; I guess I can if you can."

In all these cases the child is partly it the right. He is stating
the feet as he sees it, and violently asserting that you are not
privileged to demand more of him than of yourself. The evil comes in
through the fact that he is doing it in an ugly spirit. He is not only
desirous of stating the truth, but of putting you in the wrong and
himself in the right, and if this hurts you, so much the better. All
this is because he is angry, and therefor, in impudence, the true evil
to be overcome is the evil of anger.

[Sidenote: Example]

Show him, then, that you are open to correction. Admit the justice
of the rebuke as far as you can, and set him an example of careful
courtesy and forbearance at the very moment when these traits are most
conspicuously lacking in him. If some special point is involved,
some question of privilege, quietly, but very firmly, defer the
consideration of it until he is master of himself and can discuss the
situation with an open mind and in a courteous manner.




CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.