“A boy is a long time before he knows his alphabet, longer still before he has learned to spell, and perhaps several years before he can read clearly; and yet there are people who, as soon as they get on a young horse, entirely undressed and untaught, fancy that by beating and spurring they will make him a dressed horse in one day only. I would fain ask such stupid people whether by beating a boy, they would teach him to read without first showing him the alphabet? They would beat him to death before they would make him read.”
Duke of Newcastle.