To punish for this--is only a cruelty, and to punish by brutal
methods is a piece of stupidity. It works against the
possibility of elevating the child beyond the level of the
beast or the savage. The educator to whose mind flogging never
presents itself, even as an occasional resource, will naturally
direct his whole thought to finding psychological methods of
education. Administering corporal punishment demoralises and
stupefies the educator, for it increases his thoughtlessness,
not his patience, his brutality, not his intelligence.

A small boy friend of mine when four years old received his
first punishment of this kind; happily it was his only one. As
his nurse reminded him in the evening to say his prayers he
broke out, "Yes, to-night I really have something to tell God,"
and prayed with deep earnestness, "Dear God, tear mamma's arms
out so that she cannot beat me any more."

Nothing would more effectively further the development of
education than for all flogging pedagogues to meet this fate.
They would then learn to educate with the head instead of with
the hand. And as to public educators, the teachers, their
position could be no better raised than by legally forbidding a
blow to be administered in any school under penalty of final
loss of position.

That people who are in other respects intelligent and sensitive
continue to defend flogging, is due to the fact that most
educators have only a very elementary conception of their work.
They should constantly keep before them the feelings and
impressions of their own childhood in dealing with children.