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The School Principal Who Made Arguing Students Settle Differences By Having Fistfights
In 1915, education methodology was a bit different than what is seen today
Being an educator is never an easy job. The various needs of students, with new issues coming up every day, make for a lively and often difficult vocation. Naturally, a lot of out of the box thinking is required, but unfortunately not every idea is the best. In fact, one of the worst was from a principal a century ago who made quarreling male students have fist fights to settle their differences.
The unique and misguided idea of principal C.W. Robinson was reported in the March 11, 1915 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It had been discovered that the head of the Garfield School in Pine Lawn, St. Louis County, Missouri, had implemented what quickly became a controversial method for addressing arguing students.
Robinson occasionally resorted to making male students fight each other when disagreements failed to be settled more traditionally. This became widespread knowledge after the father of one boy, who was “defeated” in one of these impromptu bare knuckle fights, complained to the school board and threatened legal action.
