[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] hope Mr. D. B.
Kittermaster will answer the most important practical question arising out of his very valuable article. This question is : If he were appointed headmaster of an orthodox public school of long traditions, what would he actually do about beating? Would he try to get his staff and seniors to understand the truth and co-operate in fading the cane out gradually, or would he forbid it forthwith and deal with the resulting outburst?
If he tried heroic measures, he would be in the position of a man suddenly depriving a large number of addicts of their drug—the drug that gives an immediate superficial solution of many ills. In the words of the headmaster of Fettes in his article in " The Headmaster Speaks " (p. 86), " It is expe- ditious, and nearly always efficacious." In other words, it gets you out of a hole without compelling you to undergo the painful labour of thinking about the real cause of the trouble (which may be in yourself) and tackling that. If the head- master can say : " The boy concerned has been punished, and the incident is now closed," he protects not only himself from the accusation of being weak, but also the boy from the vindic- tive righteousness of the unto' guid, who are confident that, unless the pound of flesh has been exacted, evil has triumphed.
The missionary who, with a gunboat standing off shore, abolishes the barbarous initiation rites and occasional human sacrifices of a savage tribe, with a stable social structure re- quiring these rites, does good if he succeeds in establishing a new and equally stable social structure with a higher code. But if the result of his heroics is a disintegration of the tribe, he has done harm. He who abolishes beating in a traditional public school, without waiting for the senior members of the staff to retire, and the junior to be well-chosen or become more knowledgeable, must first count the cost and be exceedingly sure of himself. What would Mr. Kittermaster do, or (if he prefers it) recommend?—Yours faithfully,
ANOTHER HEADMASTER.
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