DISCIPLINE IN SCHOOL & CLOISTER
Subscriber’s copy.
DISCIPLINE IN SCHOOL
AND CLOISTER
BY
Dr. JACOBUS X....
PARIS
ISIDORE LISEUX
MCMII
Five hundred copies.
Printed in France
C. Unsinger, Paris
FOREWORD
The subject dealt with in thepresent work touches one ofthe dark patches of our social life. Floggingas an aid to education, a mode of discipline,or a means of repression is universalin time and space. The subject has alwayshad a strange fascination for curious minds.The facts presented here are all drawn fromauthentic sources. They are stated plainly,without any attempt at colouring them.
DISCIPLINE IN SCHOOLAND CLOISTER
Right up to the beginning of the presentcentury the birch rod was an ordinary partof a school’s equipment, and only a fewyears have elapsed since it was looked onby the schoolmaster as the ultima ratio.Indeed, we would not swear that, in certainout-of-the-way places where, in spite of therailway, civilization has not yet penetrated,the teacher is not still known by the insultingbut picturesque name of bum-brusher.Today, at any rate in our French schools,this method of correction has been abandoned;and yet, is the time so far gonewhen it would have been regarded as revolutionarynot to use the whip or rod?
But was corporal punishment really effi2caciouswith vicious and undisciplined children?Was there no risk of defeating one’sown object—might not a slumbering vicebe aroused in the attempt to train an ill-formedcharacter?
This consideration had not escaped thewisdom of a theologian, who was also amedical man, Father Debreyne: ‘Flagellationmay have a result quite different fromwhat one expected. It is therefore veryimportant to abolish this form of punishmentfrom our homes and schools as beingindecent, disgraceful, and dangerous tomorals.’
Should we have a more perverse imaginationthan our ancestors if we credited themwith malign thoughts; or must we believethat a wind of sadism has blown over ourpoor humanity during long centuries? Assuredly,the intentions of most of themwere pure, but how many black sheep theremay have been in the flock!
In primitive times the whip was the attributeof brute force. The father, havingcomplete authority over his child, delegatesthis authority to the teacher, who exercisesit with more or less rigour according to his3temperament or temper.
The best policed people have not felt calledupon to abandon this instrument of government.If education was severe in Sparta,where children were submitted early tothe most difficult exercises, it was hardlyany milder at Athens, if we are to judge bythis description of Greek customs. ‘Hardlyhad a child escaped from the tyranny ofhis nurse, when he fell into the hands ofthe teacher, the grammarian, and th