Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 235, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1916 — The Growing Importance of Egg Farming... TRAINING TODAY'S BOYS AND GIRLS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Growing Importance of Egg Farming...

TRAINING TODAY'S BOYS AND GIRLS

Professor Asks for a Scientific Method of Punishment. \ EFFICIENCY EXPERT REPUES But His Plan of Correcting tho Child by the "Automatic, Reflex Method of Nature" Won't Always Work.

By BIDONIE M. GRUENBERG. A professor in a southern city, who Is evidently not a specialist on children, writes to an “efficiency expert” for information on the “scientific method of punishing a child for misdemeanors, such as theft, falsehood and disobedience.” He asks rather pathetically, “Is there no sane middle course between the old-fashioned whipping and the new-fangled, spineless Idea of nonpunishment that makes the typical American child either a mollycoddle or a bully, according to temperament?” The expert replies by laying down a principle: “The right way to correct a child is by the automatic, reflex method of nature. Every violation of natural law carries with it a natural penalty, which, through pain, disgust or deprivation, teaches the wrongdoer .not to repeat his mistake. . , . Each parental rule should be based on-some natural law, and the natural penalty for transgression should .be discovered and applied.” Now there is just enough truth in this reply to make it soun<j right; and there is just enough error in it to make it misleading or dangerous. It is true that the child learns from his mistakes, that every unpleasant experience .teaches the lesson, “Don’t do that again.” This Is a “natural law,” and the application consists in establishing unpleasant associations between the actions we disapprove and certain consequences. This is the obverse of the principle of “rewards,” nflmely, establishing pleasant associations with the approved acts.’ But the falTacy in the alleged principle is brought out by the expert’s own illustration of how he would apply it. "He asks us to suppose that a boy, having been told not to eat between meals, disobeys the parental injunction and is seized with an attack of cramps, The way to enforce obedience; says the expert, is “not by administering pain killer inside and a switch outside —the usual inefficient method,” but by allowing the transgressor to suffer the “natural consequences” of his misdeed, with frequent reminders that he is getting what he deserves for his disobedience. He recommends also a harmless bitter “medicine” to add to the child’s disgust, In order to “Intensify nature’s method of discipline.” “No coddling, no chastising, but the immediate linking of cause and effect in the mind of the child, and the natural revulsion from a deed that produces physical or mental pain; this describes in byief the efficiency plan of juvenile correction.” To every experienced mother two thoughts will instantly occur. Suppose the lad disobeys and gets away without any cramp-having fortunately a tough digestive system? And suppose, as sometimes happens, that a

child of the angelic, obedient kind gets a violent cramp? One is tempted to ask whether the expert knows any children, and whether he has tried out the methods he recommends. It would take a child of an unusually docile •and flabby mind to accept the doctrine that the pain was the consequence of disobedience, and a child as soft as that is really no problem at all. If we are concerned. In the supposed case, with teaching the child to refrain Irom food between meals, we should see that he has plenty of wholesome food for each meal, and that the meal* come with sufficient frequency. We should see to It that he is spared the. temptation to eat when he should not eat, and we should cultivate in him an effective faith in our Judgment as to the best time for en ting. But if we are concerned with making the child obey the,/ proposed method will be equally ineffective —or “inefficient,” If yon like. For the only lesson that a normal, boy can get from the association between disobedience and “punishment” Is the lesson to avoid getting caught If we extend the principle of natural penalties a little further we may see Its futility or even its viciousness. The child that disobeys the order not- to cross the crowded street alone meets the “natural” consequences of a direct

bile. Undoubtedly the lesson .« v,.n learned, but it Is much more expensive than It need have been. The hoys wbe> swim out beyond their depth have a variety of opportunities to “learn.” if one of them loses his head sod drown* he has but reaped the natural reward of disobedience. If another loses hi* head, but is saved by a strong companion, he Is thoroughly scared, and aIBO learns a valuable lesson. If the third, in the face of danger, muster* all his moral forces and calmly float* until rescued, he has learned the bent lesson of all. Does it follow therefore thatwe should'give our "orders and Id the children obey or not, trusting to the “natural consequences’’ to teach them wisdom? The efficiency man Is right when be says that we should concern ourselvea more with correction and discipline than with punishment, and we moat be sure that the distinction we make is more than verbal. There is a sane course that avoids the brutal and nodiscriminating whip, as well as the other extreme of letting “nature take her course,” and that sane course W certainly not to depend upon “natnrar penalties. The fact U that there can he m fixed rules for the discipline of children, Every offense is a new situation; every child presents a peculiar combination of problems. Our method of correcting will be Influenced i*y our attitude toward the child —whether we seek to impose our own more or less arbitrary scheme of retributive Justice. But if we are sure that w#

Consider the Motive and the Temptation Rather Than the Consequence* are seeking the child’s own good tq our discipline, and not merely giving relief to our feelings, these few suggestions ought to prove helpful: Never punish a child in anger. Consider the motive and the temptations rather than the consequence of a deed. Condemn the misdeed, but not tba child. Make sure that the child understands exactly the offense with which • he is charged. Make sure that the child sees tbo connection between the offense and the penalty that is imposed. Never administer excessive or unusual punishment. Never exaggerate the magnitude of a child’s offense.

A Harmless Bitter "Medicine” to Add to the Child's Disgust.