Chapter 19: - Page 5 of 8

Here he paused for a while, then resumed: From the day on which I was so grossly insulted I began to examine myself and I found that I was in fact very ignorant.  I applied myself day and night to the study of Spanish and whatever concerned my profession.  The old Sage lent me some books, and I read and pondered over everything that I could get hold of.  With the new ideas that I have been acquiring in one place and another my point of view has changed and I have seen many things under a different aspect from what they had appeared to me before.  I saw error where before I had seen only truth, and truth in many things where I had formerly seen only error.  Corporal punishment, for example, which from time immemorial has been the distinctive feature in the schools and which has heretofore been considered as the only efficacious means of making pupils learn—so we have been accustomed to believe—soon appeared to me to be a great hindrance rather than in any way an aid to the child’s progress.  I became convinced that it was impossible to use one’s mind properly when blows, or similar punishment, were in prospect.  Fear and terror disturb the most serene, and a child’s imagination, besides being very lively, is also very impressionable.  As it is on the brain that ideas are impressed, it is necessary that there be both inner and outer calm, that there be serenity of spirit, physical and moral repose, and willingness, so I thought that before everything else I should cultivate in the children confidence, assurance, and some personal pride.  Moreover, I comprehended that the daily sight of floggings destroyed kindness in their hearts and deadened all sense of dignity, which is such a powerful lever in the world.  At the same time it caused them to lose their sense of shame, which is a difficult thing to restore.  I have also observed that when one pupil is flogged, he gets comfort from the fact that the others are treated in the same way, and that he smiles with satisfaction upon hearing the wails of the others.  As for the person who does the flogging, while at first he may do it with repugnance, he soon becomes hardened to it and even takes delight in his gloomy task.  The past filled me with horror, so I wanted to save the present by modifying the old system.  I endeavored to make study a thing of love and joy, I wished to make the primer not a black book bathed in the tears of childhood but a friend who was going to reveal wonderful secrets, and of the schoolroom not a place of sorrows but a scene of intellectual refreshment.  So, little by little, I abolished corporal punishment, taking the instruments of it entirely away from the school and replacing them with emulation and personal pride.  If one was careless about his lesson, I charged it to lack of desire and never to lack of capacity.  I made them think that they were more capable than they really were, which urged them on to study just as any confidence leads to notable achievements.  At first it seemed that the change of method was impracticable; many ceased their studies, but I persisted and observed that little by little their minds were being elevated and that more children came, that they came with more regularity, and that he who was praised in the presence of the others studied with double diligence on the next day.