A task.-When and how.

however suggest, that it be used with great care, and never unless the circumstances imperatively demand it. It may be the means of cultivating the grossest hypocrisy, or of inducing open rebellion; and it sometimes gives the other pupils an advantage over the culprit, which may do him personally much harm. The teacher should be convinced that this is the best thing he can do, before he resorts to it.

5. The imposition of a task. In every school there is more or less work to be done; such as sweeping the floors, washing the benches, preparing the fuel, and making the fires. Unless objection should be made by parents, this is one of the most effectual punishments, especially in cities and large villages, where work is a burden, and the attractions of play are most powerful. Some difficult schools have been governed for months with no other punishment than labor thus imposed. The plan is, that if two boys neglect their studies so as to attract the attention of the teacher, they shall be nominated as members of the committee on sweeping,—a duty to be performed after school hours. If one or two more are decidedly disorderly, they shall be required to make fires, bring up wood, or perhaps wash a certain portion of the room. This is always assigned pleasantly by the teacher, with the under standing, however, that any failure to do the allotted work thoroughly and faithfully, will be attended with a reappointment till the object is secured.

If parents should object to this, it is not absolutely essential to the teacher's success; but where no objec

An objection.-Answer.-Not strongly urged.-The rod.

tion is made, if judiciously managed, it may do very much in many of our schools towards producing that quiet order, which otherwise it might require more cogent and less agreeable means to secure.

It has sometimes been urged as an objection to this mode of punishment, that it would tend to attach the dea of disgrace to useful labor. It is conceived that his is by no means the necessary consequence. On he other hand, it would serve to teach the difference here always is between a duty imposed and one volntarily undertaken. The same objection would apply in our prison discipline, where a man by a wilful disregard of law and the rights of others, very justly forfeits his services for a time to the state.

I would not lay very much stress upon this mode of punishment, though I have known it resorted to under favorable circumstances with very good effect. It would of course be more effectual in a large town or city than in the country, where boys are in the habit of laboring at home, and would be quite as willing to labor after regular hours at school.

6. Actual chastisement with the rod of correction. I have no hesitation (though others have) in placing this among the class of proper punishments. As this involves a great question on the subject of school government, and one that is debated with great zeal and warmth in almost every educational meeting that is held, I shall feel justified in giving a little more space o the consideration of it.

Corporal punishment.-Views of others.-Nothing to conreal.

SECTION IV-CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.

I am aware that when I enter this field I am treading on ground every inch of which has been disputed. I come to the task of writing on this subject, however, I think, without prejudice or asperity. Having nothing to conceal, I shall express my own views honestly and frankly,―views which I entertain after diligently seeking the truth for some twenty years, during which time I have listened to a great deal of discussion, and have read carefully and candidly whatever has been written by others. Nor do I expect to give universal satisfaction. There are strong men, and I believe honest men, who run to the opposite extremes in their doctrine and practice, and who defend the one course or the other as if the existence of the world depended upon the issue. There are those, who not only claim the right to chastise, but who insist that whipping should be the first resort of the teacher in establishing his authority; and to show that this is not a dormant article of their faith, they daily and almost hourly demonstrate their efficiency in the use of the rod, so that their pupils may be living witnesses that they act in accordance with their creed. Again, there are others who as ear nestly deny the right of the teacher to resort to the rod at all, and who urge with all their power the efficacy of moral suasion to subdue and control the vicious and the stubborn in our schools; and who are ready to assert unequivocally that no man is fit to be employed

Men see differently.-A privilege claimed.-Authority at any rate.

to teach the young, who has not the ability to govern all the various dispositions he may meet in any school, without the use of corporal punishment.

I have no disposition to question the sincerity and honesty of each of these classes, knowing as I do, that different men see with different eyes, even when the circumstances are the same; much more when their circumstances are widely diverse. I have no bitterness of language to apply to those who go to the extreme of severity; nor any sneer to bestow upon the name of "moral-suasionist." But while I accord to other men the right of expressing their own opinions, I claim the same privilege for myself,-yet without wishing to obtrude my opinions upon other men any further than they will bear the test of reason and experience.

It is agreed on all hands that the teacher must establish authority in some way, before he can pursue successfully the objects of his school. I have described the qualifications which the teacher should possess in order to govern well, and I have also given some of the means of securing good order without a resort to severity. Probably in a large majority of our schools, the teacher with these qualifications and the employment of these means, could succeed in establishing and maintaining good order without any such resort. This should in my opinion always be done, if possible, -and no one will rejoice more than myself to see the day, should that day ever come, when teachers shall be so much improved as to be able to do this universally. But in writing on this subject, it is the dictate

We must take the world as it is.-Mr. Mann quoted.

of common sense to take human nature as it is, and human teachers as they are, and as many of them must be, for some time to come,—and adapt our directions to the circumstances. Human nature, as it is exhibited in our children, is far from being perfect; and I am sorry to say that the parents of our children often exhibit it in a still less flattering light. Perhaps no language of mine can so well represent the concurrence of circumstances making corporal punishment necessary in our schools as it has been done by the Hon. Horace Mann in his lecture on "School Punishments." "The first point," says he, "which I shall consider, is, whether corporal punishment is ever necessary in our schools. As preliminary to a decision of this question, let us take a brief survey of facts. We have in this Commonwealth, [Massachusetts,] above one hundred and ninety-two thousand children between the ages of four and sixteen years. All these children are not only legally entitled to attend our public schools, but it is our great desire to increase that attendance, and he who increases it is regarded a reformer. All that portion of these children who attend school, enter it from that vast variety of homes which exist in the state. From different households, where the widest diversity of parental and domestic influences prevails, the children enter the schoolroom, where there must be comparative uniformity. At home some of these children have been indulged in every wish, flattered and smiled. upon for the energies of their low propensities, and even their freaks and whims enacted into household