Bewildering Stories Editorial

Where the Devil Walks Through

by Don Webb

In response to Jerry’s editorial “Frothing at the Mouth,” in this issue.

Perhaps the use of corporal punishment on (at least theoretically) adult teachers is a bit out of line, so we won't go there, but I said I was sinking into insanity.

Well, Jerry, we’ve always agreed, haven’t we? And once again, I agree, especially about the crazy part. Why? I’m getting decidedly mixed messages. Let’s sort them out. Since you’ve brought up the subject, we can compare “favorite teachers”; that will show us where our differences are.

On one hand, your 3rd grade teacher:

And we all learned. Expanded reading skills, the multiplication tables, some history, care and feeding of small animals, the list goes on.

I gather that she was commendably competent. But then:

we had a healthy respect for her, and a fear of displeasing her. I remember my third grade teacher with affection (third grade is when I discovered Science Fiction) and I remember her as a strict disciplinarian who moderated her discipline with love for her students.

That strikes me as very odd. I remember all my grade-school teachers. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but I never thought of any of them as being disciplinarians, particularly. And with one exception I’ve always considered them rather dim. I realize now that even their competence was often doubtful. I put up with them.

Only my first grade teacher do I remember with affection. But because she was a strict disciplinarian whom I feared displeasing? Quite the contrary! She was the least “disciplinarian” of them all.

Did she have “discipline problems” in our class? Possibly, but none that I recall. And that means she made no public example of anyone, which is a sign of respect.

I saw her again many years later, and was mortified to discover that she couldn't have been over 5'2", if that. She towered over us.

That puzzles me: why should size matter? And it obviously did matter, both in third grade and years later. In contrast, I’ve never given it a thought, then or now.

And even the tough kids were afraid of her.

Again, I’m puzzled: does that mean that the not so tough kids were even more afraid of her?

No one was afraid of my first grade teacher. She had three things that none of the others ever quite matched: she knew exactly who she was; she loved her job and did it well; and she loved her pupils. I realize now that she exemplified discipline, but it was not a word she used, and not only because we would have understood it only as “punishment”: she didn’t need it. I knew my classmates well: everyone wanted to follow; no one trembled in their shoes at what might happen if they acted up, because no one gave it a thought.

As for the later teachers, many knew who they were and did their job as best they knew how. But they didn’t love their work, and they did not love their pupils. We felt it at the time: they put up with us as much as we put up with them. And that’s when “discipline problems” began to appear.

What to do when kids get out of line? Well, one reaction — I won’t call it a solution — is: hit ’em:

The problem, at least in my view, goes back to well-meaning child-psychologists and behaviourists in the late 50s and early 60s who said, "Don't hit (and/or spank) your children. You're teaching them that violence is the solution to problems."

What’s wrong with that?

And well-meaning parents, and well-meaning politicians made it illegal (in many cases) to physically punish and/or discipline a child.

I agree. I’m familiar with the kind of adult authority figure you extol:

But a couple of whacks with a paddle by a competent adult authority figure is NOT abuse. One of the great things about physical discipline by the Principal, or whomever, is that it is quick, effective, embarrassing, and there is no emotional connection. Spanking a child because you are angry at him can lead to quite a few problems, but let's face it, there are some children who love to get authority figures angry at them.

As long as we’re on the subject, my grade school principal would have agreed with you completely, and he was quick with the leather strap. I got hauled in once, in second grade, for literally stepping out of line. He was too busy at the time to whip me, but I saw then what I can put words to now: he lived in a permanent state of stupid overreaction. He didn’t solve problems or even take the trouble to understand them; he just beat them and sent them away. Did we fear the principal? Very much: we never knew what he was going to do next. Did I respect him? Hell, no, nor do I now.

If you strike anyone, let alone a child, you had better be so angry that you’re completely out of control. Otherwise I can think of only two motives: hatred or sadism. I learned from that principal that humiliating and striking a child is an act of hatred. And that hatred just may be returned some day. As kids get bigger, the problems get bigger. And one day the kids will become too big to hit and too angry to put up with it. Then what are you going to do when they come for you? Not with a strap or paddle, but with a gun? Talk about sowing the wind...

Frankly there are times it seems like it would be appropriate and effective to bring back the stocks, or the whipping post, but in reality I wouldn't care for that at all.

Although the disclaimer sounds a little tepid, Jerry, I’m sure you wouldn’t care for it. However, I believe many people would. It was not so long ago that the world’s navies flogged and keelhauled sailors. What did Thomas Jefferson face for writing the Declaration of Independence if he’d been captured? By law:

“You shall be hanged by the neck, but not until you are dead. You shall be disemboweled and your entrails presented to your living eyes.”

Apparently the corporal punishments of 250 years ago were ineffective. Spank ’em when they’re young, flog ’em when they’re older, and then, to show you really mean business, hand their guts to ’em. I’m sure the British of the time considered it “discipline.” It wasn’t: fear and respect are synonymous only to tyrants. We know the consequences: open the door of violence and the Devil walks through.

Discipline, love and respect are what my first grade teacher had in spades, and in no case was discipline ever confused with punishment. How to handle discipline problems? Know yourself, know your pupils, know your job and know what you intend to accomplish. If anyone doesn’t want to go along, they don’t have to, but they can’t stay and bother those who do. And that must be the model of the culture itself, because teachers need the support of a culture of discipline. They’ll get it neither from ineffectual hand-wringing nor from violent repression.