Correction That Corrects: Chapter XIV, part II

DISOBEDIENCE. Of course many different acts of misbehaviour come from disobedience. The reader will notice that I place disobedience before disrespect, because often disrespect is an outgrowth of tolerated disobedience. The child who knows that it can disobey and escape punishment will never have the same respect for parent, governess or teacher, that he will have for her who demands obedience. Even as a teacher of music I can vouch for this.

It is hardly necessary for me to state that I spank for every act of disobedience. This surely is understood from what I have already said. But to emphasize my point I will say I do not believe in mere slapping. I maintain that the tot either needs a spanking or, he does not need slapping. If a child deliberately touches a thing, when I have forbidden him to do so I do not slap his hand, I turn him across my knee and spank. I am fully aware that many will not agree with me but I am positive that my system brings better results. On one occasion I told a tot of two not to touch a cake; at once she “made up her mind” not to take any of the cake, but deliberately she went over and touched it. I did not slap her hand; I took her to the nursery and gave her a regular spanking. There is absolutely no excuse for disobedience, I care not what be the age of the child. “I just can’t get my babies to mind,” means one of two things: “I am unfamiliar with child training, through my fault” or “I am positively too lazy to take the trouble to systematically spank my babies.” I could fill a large volume with examples from mothers and from governesses who have come to me, each one saying, to this effect: “It is simply a revelation how quickly your method brings obedience. I am surely sorry I did not know of it before.” A few examples may be interesting, and should prove profitable.

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