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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-03-02, Page 21Page 8—Crossroads--March 2, 983 wismilmmlunimiew Bill Smiley ackto the ' as cs With parents screaming "Back to the Basics", teachers trying to remember what the basics are, and Ministries of Education never letting the left hand know what the right hand is trying to do, it's almost in- evitable that the subject of corporal punishment in the schools is revived. It's a perennial, and it's al- ways good for a headline, whether you are for or against. It's almost as popular as i capital punishment for criminals. And you have no idea, gentle reader, how many people, including stu- dents, are in favor of that. I'm quite sure that a referen- Discover the Exciting World of Travel and Tourism If you like to travel .. and meet new people, investigate the thrill of the travel business. Karen Hall Careers Travel Program pro- duces top level grad- uates for placement in the fasrt growing travel industry. March classes filling now. Call 743-4691 KAREN HALL CAREERS 10 Young St., Kitchener dum would show a majority of Canadians would vote to restore that particular form of official murder. But while criminals make. up a comparatively small segment of our society, rotten kids are always there in great numbers. And there's always someone who wants to pound them, vicariously, through the. school system. Usually, the business of beating kids is seen in black or white. Or black and blue. On the one hand, you have the funamentalists, who go back to the Old Testament, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." These people forget that several of the disciples were fishermen, and that what this particular one meant was, "If you don't let the kid use your spare rod once in a while, he'll grow up to be a lousy angler." I don't remember Jesus ever saying anything about pounding kids, but I may be wrong. On the other side of the stick are the other crazies: psychologists and such, who think a kid who is thumped will be warped for life; mothers who read articles by psychologist; and former child -beaters who are now vice principals. And in between, as usual, are all the confused, decent and sensible people like you and me, who have given our kids the odd belt, and felt rotten about it. Both the extreme camps, of course, are full of crap. In the first group, we have peo- ple who were whipped un- mercifully when they were kids, and now, by some weird type of logic, insist it was good for them. They can hardly wait to spread some of this "good" around. 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Portrait Studio RABIES* CHILDREN* ADULTS . FAMILY GROUPS Also Available: Instant Passport Photos your money. worth ... and more Sears were whipped unmercifully when they were kids and are trying to prove that that is what has made them queer ever since. A plague on both their houses. Most of us olders were whipped now and again, but not unmercifully; and we deserved every stroke of the hairbrush, skelp of the yardstick and swish of the willow -stick. It didn't warp us physi- cally or psychologically. It taught us something about the society we would be liv- ing in as adults — that there are certain limits, and if you transgress them, you take your licks. My mother 'used to work over my kid brother and me about every two weeks, whether we needed it or not. She used a fly swatter, which has a sting like a scorpion, or a yard stick, which transfers fire to the bum, when we got under the bed andAhe fly, swatter wouldn't reach. It did us no harm whatever, and probably saved her sanity. My dad, like most men leaving the dirty work to the mother, rarely laid a hand on us. But when he did ... boy, some hand. He could spank your whole ass, not just one buttock at a time, with that hand. The same kid brother and I were in the same class in school one year, and once a week, our teacher, Old Mary Walker, would give us a good strapping, along with a few other delinquents. We thought the world of her, and she of us. The strappings stung, but once hi a while, Old Mary would give herself a good crack on the thigh. This doubled the number on each hand, but rasied our status in the class. I've smacked my own kids, occasionally, and the grand - boys, but their smoldering anger, and mine, never lasted more than fifteeen minutes, because the smack- ing was not done in malice, and they knew they were asking for it. Beating kids in school? Many parents would like it done. Many others would have a lawyer on you. There are only two reasons for a teacher to use a strap: 1. he or she is a poor teacher; 2. it adds a little drama to the humdrum of the classroom. In fifty years, I've never seen strapping scare any- body or deter anybody. A word to the bleeding hearts. There are many more insidious ways to warp a child's personality than physical punishment. The real sadists of the classroom, and they are very few nowa- days, are those who use per- sonal harassment, hectoring and sarcasm. These can do far more damage than a good thump. Ask any kid. In the whole debate, naturally, my sympathies are with the teacher. There are times when I would have been happy, not just to whip, but to strangle some kid, and go to jail for life meaning five years, with good behavior. Looking back, I al- most wish 1 had. It's peace- ful in prison. But I have no time for the bully in the classroom. Teachers who know their stuff and have some strength of character have few disci- pline problems. However, let's think for a moment about the sensitive, young woman teacher who asks a lout to do something, and he says, "Screw you."? So the punk gets a "suspen- sion" for a few days (trans- lation: holiday). And the teacher sits, shattered, among her crumbled ideals. What to do? I'd turf him out of school for a year, and let his parents put up with him. Serve both parties right. Any opinions? Let's have them. TERRY SPROUL CONSTRUCTION Asphalt Shingling Old or New Buildings In E3usiness over 10 years. Free Estimates CALL EVENINGS: Brussels 887-6185 friends create inferior feelings. By DOROTHY ST. JOHN JACKSON Certified Master Graphoanalyst Dear .II)orothy: I am a man of 40 and have some good friends who are all successful and profession- al. They tell me of their projects, their advance- ments, etc. All I have is an office job that is routine and boring. There is oppor- tunity for advancement, but I don't seem to be get- ting anywhere. I always feel less"than my friends, but they keep including me. — Y.L. Dear Y.L.: Is it possible, through your association with these success -minded friends (whom you consid- er to be your superior) that you have developed a neat little inferiority complex, seen in the low t crossing? Is it possible that you have allowed them to use you and take you for grant- ed, seen in the rigid begin- ning upstrokes? You strongly resist being taken advantage of and yet you yield so easily to their influence, seen in the rounded top or slurred s. You are an intelligent person, seen in the wedge- shaped n, and you're a good worker, seen in the long, strong downstroke on j, in- creased by the closely dot- ted i's. You just need to open a little. You are closed in. seen in your small and tightly knit writing. You need to have a dream. You need something to excite you, someikting to stir you into action. So if you should feel that your friends are intimidat- ing you and are standing in your way of achievement (because you feel inferior), you must get the situation in hand now. You don't have to give them up (your friends). You just have to make more. Make some friends who, you inwardly feel, will make you feel superior. Balance them out a little. You never succeed if you lose your self-confidence and become afraid of trying. No matter where you go in life or how you do it, one fact is for certain. There will always be those who have accomplished more than you. And there will al- ways be those who have ac- complished less. You have to be ready for this, by knowing your top potential and recognizing your limi- tations. Let's Talk By REV. LEE TRUMAN The power of enthusiasm As an after-dinner speaker, I was introduced by Mike Williams. Mike had read a research paper I had written on tension and he shared his observa- tions about the paper with the crowd. Mike said he had only read the first two pages of my paper before falling sound asleep. This brought real laughter from the au- dience, but it was obvious that Mike was still ner- vous. He had that shaky quality to his voice of a man under pressure and I saw that the palms of his hands were wet. After my presentation he asked if we could talk and we spent most of that night discussing his problems, one of which was tension. There are two kinds of tension: The first is the kind of tension that puts drive into a person and spring into his step, causing him to excel beyond what he had even hoped he would be able to achieve. The second kind of ten- sion is that which gives a person the shakes and causes him to fall apart rather than unifying his en- ' HERON/AWE Vex Phillie pitcher Steve Carlton holds the N.L. record for ca- reer one -hitters with 6, who holds the A.L. record? gYQ s.,a4ly-euo /awJn) 81 sign -Aailaqun uo po&ptld Jalla4 gots foaAl uoipul puolaAap ergy for a great achieve- ment. The real key to overcom- ing most of our anxiety and a great deal of inward de- structive tension is the power of excited enthusi- asm. What this does is get us out of the state of thin- skinned sensitivity which is fuel for the bad type of ten- sion. A rule of thumb is that the less one is aware of oneself, the less likely the destructive type of ten- sion will be a problem. You can put it on a graph just like a person's temperature. When enthu- siasm goes down, tension will increase. The answer often is to get away from the tension -producing situ- ation even for a brief peri- od. Break the negative power of the situation and you will be able to deal with it more objectively and recover your perspec- tive. Tension is so much a part of our modern life that sometimes we have to run away from the world in order to get strength to live effectively in that world. There are retreat houses sponsored by vari- ous churches where a per- son can go and a strict rule of silence is imposed. You do not utter a word as long as you are inside the bounds of the retreat. Only if you have experienced this can you know how this can refresh and rejuvenate the inner person. An Episcopal priest, John Thomas, Wrote: "Si- lence is the element in which great things fashion themselves." • 1 thought of Isaiah 3:15: "In quietness and confi- dence shall be your strength." Silence does lead to con- fidence and confidence is the basis of strength and strength makes a person more competent and cer- tainly happier, which is the matrix of an enthusiastic person. Our lives would be much fuller if we lived them more enthusiastically, received the beauty and bounty of life gratefully, and let it all rest in the hands of the one who made each of us the unique per- sons we are. 6 Shaping Their Cars & Trucks for Less Friction at Gas Pump F.. Ft *HEW 1983 Fairmont 4 Dr. 6 Passenger 6 cylinder, automatic transmission, power steer- ing and power brakes,cloth bench seats, rear defroster, dual Halogen headlights, radial ply whitewalls, to -tone paint. 8,25O (Excluding freight, licence and tax) Or can be leased for just $288.57 month. * NEIN 1983 Mustang GLX Convertible Metallic blue with white convertible top, V6 engine, automatic transmission, power steering and power brakes, console, interval wipers, tilt leather steering wheel, speed control, power win- dows, AM/FM cassette, Michelin tires, wire wheel covers, reclining bucket seats, 12.9 financing available on this exceptional auto. 'Or can be leas- ed for just $353.83. 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