punishment is obstinacy, but what is called obstinacy is only
fear or incapacity. The child repeats a false answer, is
threatened with blows, and again repeats it just because he is
afraid not to say the right thing. He is struck and then
answers rightly. This is a triumph of education; refractoriness
is overcome. But what has happened? Increased fear has led to a
strong effort of thought, to a momentary increase of
self-control. The next day the child will very likely repeat
the fault. Where there is real obstinacy on the part of
children, I know of cases when corporal punishment has filled
them with the lust to kill, either themselves or the person who
strikes them. On the other hand I know of others, where a
mother has brought an obstinate child to repentance and
self-mastery by holding him quietly and calmly on her knees.

How many untrue confessions have been forced by fear of blows;
how much daring passion for action, spirit of adventure, play
of fancy, and stimulus to discovery has been repressed by this
same fear. Even where blows do not cause lying, they always
hinder absolute straightforwardness and the down-right personal
courage to show oneself as one is. As long as the word "blow"
is used at all in a home, no perfect honour will be found in
children. So long as the home and the school use this method of
education, brutality will be developed in the child himself at
the cost of humanity. The child uses on animals, on his young
brothers and sisters, on his comrades, the methods applied to
himself. He puts in practice the same argument, that "badness"
must be cured with blows. Only children accustomed to be
treated mildly, learn to see that influence can be gained
without using force. To see this is one of man's privileges,