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Title: Practical school discipline, Volume 2, part II
Applied methods
Author: Ray C. Beery
Release date: September 27, 2023 [eBook #71746]
Language: English
Original publication: Pleasant Hill: International Academy of Discipline, 1917
Credits: Richard Tonsing, MFR, Missing pages were produced from images generously made available by University of Victoria Libraries, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRACTICAL SCHOOL DISCIPLINE, VOLUME 2, PART II ***
PRACTICAL SCHOOL DISCIPLINE
Applied Methods
_PART II_
_By_
RAY C. BEERY
_A. B. (Columbia), M. A. (Harvard)_
_President of_
INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF DISCIPLINE
PLEASANT HILL, OHIO, U. S. A.
COPYRIGHTED, 1917, BY
RAY C. BEERY
COPYRIGHTED IN GREAT BRITAIN, 1917
_All Rights Reserved_
PREFACE
The present volume, the third on “Practical School Discipline” (the
second on “Applied Methods”), completes the series of books designed for
the I. A. D. Correspondence Course for Teachers.
Some of the members of our Teachers’ Club may be interested to know that
a similar course of correspondence and study has been prepared for
parents. Possibly some of your own “hard cases” can best be reached
indirectly, _i. e._, by introducing these volumes for the parents into
the home of the hard case. If you know a parent who has failed to
discipline his child properly, why not mention the Correspondence Course
for Parents in your next Parents’ meeting! Take along your teachers’
book to illustrate the sort of practical treatment the various “cases”
receive in the parents’ books. In helping the father or the mother, you
are also helping the child, the school, and yourself.
Regarding the present volume our readers will note that in accordance
with the statement contained in Part I, Part II is a continuation of
that book. Partly to emphasize this fact of continuity, but also to
avoid repetition in the complete index in Part II, the pagination and
the numbering of the cases follow in consecutive order the two similar
series of numbers in Part II. The division between the two volumes is
made between topics, however, so that except for the very close relation
between the two books, each of them may be regarded as complete in
itself.
Finally, permit us to express our hearty appreciation of the cordial
responses which are coming from the members of the Teachers’ Club, and
again to assure them that their interests are ours.
CONTENTS
DIVISION V
PAGE
CASES ARISING OUT OF THE ADAPTIVE INSTINCTS 361
DIVISION VI
CASES ARISING OUT OF THE EXPRESSIVE INSTINCTS 577
DIVISION VII
CASES ARISING OUT OF THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS 671
DIVISION VIII
CASES ARISING OUT OF THE REGULATIVE INSTINCTS 745
DIVISION IX
CASES ARISING OUT OF THE SEX INSTINCTS 829
DIVISION X
AN ILLUSTRATIVE CONTRAST BETWEEN FAILURE AND SUCCESS 859
DIVISION V
Adaptation may serve either of two ends. It may fix the child in a
life of indifference, of inefficiency, of crime, or it may fit him
into a world of noble acts and lofty endeavor.
CASES ARISING OUT OF THE ADAPTIVE INSTINCTS
_What are the adaptive instincts?_ By the adaptive instincts is meant
the power that an individual possesses of fitting himself, more or less
easily, into the situation in which he finds himself. Such power of
adaptability is of the greatest possible value to the human infant,
coming as he does into an extremely complex environment, physical and
social, and with the further certainty before him of extremely complex
activities in adult life.
Fortunately the long period of plastic infancy offers constant
opportunity for readjusting one’s habits, tastes, accomplishments, etc.
Three chief means for making such readjustments are found in the child’s
tendencies, (1) to imitate, (2) to play, (3) to satisfy his curiosity.
“Example is usually far better than rule and imitation more effective
than explanation....”
—_Thorndike._
1. Imitation—of Acts; of Habits; of Social Ideals
Betts[1] defines imitation as “the instinct to respond to a suggestion
from another by repeating his act.” This is simple and entirely covers
the ground. He goes on to say that the instinct is one of the earliest
to appear, being very plainly discernible before the normal child has
reached the age of one year. It often reaches its height by the time the
baby is two or three years old, but is never lost and sometimes persists
strongly into old age. When a child imitates the same thing several
times his imitation becomes a habit, and so two powerful factors unite
to form a customary type of behavior.
Footnote 1:
The Mind and Its Education, 170.
[Sidenote: Appealing to the Imitative Instinct]
One might think that imitation, being strongest in young children, would
appear almost exclusively in the lower grades of school; but in fact it
plays an important part all the way through the high school. The things
imitated change, but the instinct remains. In treating cases which are
caused or influenced by this powerful instinct, which the great French
sociologist Tarde considers the greatest factor in human conduct, there
are four methods which can be used:
1. The expression of strong disapproval of the acts and their results.
2. Forceful repression—punishment.
3. Changing the nature of the example imitated.
4. The substitution of another and better example for the one
imitated.
The first and second of these four methods are two degrees and modes of
the general means of opposition. They are sometimes effective, and they
are sometimes necessary and wise. If a very great evil is going on, for
instance, it is fully justifiable to use any means to stop it, before
its harmful effects cause too great suffering and injustice. If a
teacher finds a bully imposing on a small child, even although he may
know that a good example to the bully is the means for his ultimate
conversion to kindness and justice, he should stop the bullying first by
the best means at hand, and afterward set about the character conversion
of the bully.
Moreover, with very young children, in whom habitforming is largely a
matter of pleasure and pain in the reactions of their deeds, punishment
that is swift, sure and wise should follow the imitation of a bad act
after its evil nature has been made clear. With older children, however,
who have passed this early stage, the third and fourth means are usually
more effective. Common sense, supplemented by a fair knowledge of child
nature and the rudiments of psychology, will dictate where one set of
methods ends and the higher set, which trusts more to the child’s
developing judgment, begins.
Imitation begins, as has been said, in infancy. Its forms will be found
to belong to one or another of the following types:
[Sidenote: Types of Imitation]
1. Imitation of commonly observed acts, such as shaking hands, eating
with a spoon, making faces.
2. Imitation of a strong personality, or of strong mannerisms in any
personality, which catch attention and command admiration or
disapproval.
3. Imitation of an imaged ideal, brought to the imitator through
fiction, vivid history instruction, seeing a play, etc.
4. Imitation which is unconscious, usually under stress of high
emotion—mob action.
Of course the most common of these types of imitation is that of the
common customs of the people who surround the young child. Otherwise it
would mean little to a child to be born into a family in which gentle
manners and kind deeds set a daily example fit to be followed closely.
The manners of most children are those of their homes; only with a
certain degree of maturity will they see the manners of other homes and
elect to imitate them instead. Next in importance to this imitation of
the social example, is that of some strong personality.
This imitation usually comes through admiration, although most people
will also recall the disgust with which they have realized that they
have unconsciously imitated some mannerism of an acquaintance, of which
they heartily disapproved. This shows that it is not necessary to admire
an act in order to repeat it. It is necessary only that the act make a
vivid impression on one, an impression which may be received by some
persons just as readily through strong repugnance as through strong
liking. Twists in pronunciation are thus imitated in spite of one’s
dislike of them, as an involuntary tribute to the strength of the
impression made upon the hearer.
Another strong stimulus to imitation is the desire for the praise of
others. John wins father’s enthusiastic praise for the thorough way in
which he cleaned the motor-car, and his brother Carl cleans it the next
time it is muddy, not because he likes the work but because he wants to
be praised also. Winnie makes a face at the teacher and wins the praise
of her schoolmates in the shape of an approving laugh, and Jennie
imitates her at the first opportunity in the hope of winning a laugh
also. That is one reason why successful people are so much imitated; in
addition to what comes to them through the admiration of the crowd,
there are many who hope to win similar rewards through similar efforts.
And then there are those who imitate others because they want to surpass
them at their own game. This is emulation, usually classed as a distinct
instinct by psychologists, and yet so closely related to imitation that
the same general principles of treatment apply to both.
Faults which have been learned by imitation can rarely if ever be cured
by didactic instruction. They have been learned in a far more vivid way,
and their unlearning is best accomplished through the substitution of
other habits, imitated from some attractive and vivid model. If the
process of substitution can be made a pleasant one, the work goes
faster. In general, the dramatizing of the proposed new order of things
is the surest and quickest way of teaching it, with children who are
young enough for this method. Merely to condemn old habits, without
suggesting a new and better way, is usually pure waste of time.
(1) _Mimicry._ “The young child imitates mainly the simpler bodily
attitudes and vocal and facial expressions of those with whom he is in
vital contact. As he develops he imitates ever more complex activities
of a social, political, ethical, æsthetic and industrial character. In
the beginning it is the doing of an act, not the results thereof, that
interests the individual; the reverse is usually true in maturity.”[2]
Not infrequently, however, does the child fail to distinguish between
the act that is suitable to imitate and that which is not. Like every
other instinct, although of great value to the individual when properly
directed, yet if not guided into legitimate channels, it becomes often a
source of great annoyance.
Footnote 2:
O’Shea, Social Development and Education, p. 422. Houghton, Mifflin.
CASE 62 (SIXTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Mimicry of Speech]
Miss Burch was from Massachusetts, and had an exquisitely soft voice and
unimpeachable pronunciation. She came to Peoria, Illinois, to teach in
the public schools, and found these two assets very much in the way.
Mabel Gulliver, a little girl whose cleverness was largely the product
of much running of streets, turned both to account in a series of
imitations that “delighted crowded houses” whenever she chose to hold
forth. As she did this frequently, poor Miss Burch soon found herself
helpless and ridiculous in her own school-room.
“Authah, will you ausk the janitah to give us a little moah heat?” Mabel
would flute, with inimitable saccharinity. “And I want you all to cease
lawfing at once, foah this is the clauss in correct pronunciation, and
if youah to be cleavah like me you’ll learn how to do it properly.” Miss
Burch’s manner was the perfection of simplicity, but in Mabel’s
imitation it appeared with a simpering ingenuousness both funny and
untrue.
Miss Burch realized the situation and wept over it. She did not know
what to do. Realizing she was the subject of ridicule, she became
self-conscious and timid, and her discipline grew worse and worse.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Things were in this bad shape when Mr. Nearing, the superintendent, came
to visit her one day. He was so kind and sympathetic that after school
Miss Burch told him the whole story, and asked his advice.
“The trouble with you is,” he said, “that your most prominent
characteristic is one which lends itself to ridicule here in the Middle
West, where we don’t know an Italian “a” from a mud-pie. Now, don’t
think of changing your pronunciation; to do so consciously would be to
be affected. But make the children forget it in something more exciting.
If you’d start a museum for your nature study, or get up a little play
for Christmas, and make Mabel its chief factotum, she’d have an outlet
for her energies, she would still lead her crowd and have their
admiration, and your pronunciation would fade into the background of the
Things That Are. It’s all a matter of relative emphasis.”
Miss Burch did try this plan. She had her room dramatize and then play
The Birds’ Christmas Carol, and in the intense interest of this project
the teacher-mocking was forgotten. When Mabel remembered it again, she
and Miss Burch were such good friends that it was out of the question.
COMMENTS
When the imitation takes place in the school-room the matter is much
more under the teacher’s control, for there is no end of ways in which
the child can be kept too busy to indulge in histrionic performances.
But whatever is done, the teacher should not appear to notice that a
pupil is disrespectful to her.
ILLUSTRATION (SEVENTH GRADE)
George Henderson was dubbed by his classmates “the clown” because he was
always doing something laughable. Usually his fun was of a harmless
type, but occasionally his pranks overstepped the bounds of propriety.
[Sidenote: Mimicry of Gesture]
His teacher, Miss Stanton, had unconsciously fallen into the habit of
making nervous little gestures when she was explaining lessons to the
pupils, and, indeed, when she was talking with the pupils outside of
school. Several times during recitations she had noticed George
entertaining the pupils near him by imitating, under the shelter of the
desk, of course, all the little movements of her nervous, energetic
hands. She resolved to overcome the habit of emphasizing her words by
gesture, but the more absorbed she became in her teaching, the less
could she think about her hands. If she concentrated attention upon her
hands, her teaching suffered and the whole class became listless.
Resolved not to sacrifice the class for the sake of one fun-loving boy,
Miss Stanton next tried another plan.
“Mary, you may name all the capitals of the countries of Europe,” she
said.
When Mary was about half through with her list of capitals, Miss Stanton
interrupted her with,
“That is far enough, Mary; George may finish.”
Now George knew the capitals perfectly, but he had been busy behind the
desk with a particularly successful imitation of Miss Stanton’s
movements, and suddenly surprised, could not recall where Mary had left
off.
Miss Stanton waited just a moment, then said, gravely, but without any
indication of resentment,
“I am sorry to have you fail on anything so important as this, George.
Jack may go on.”
George sat quite demurely for several minutes, for he was a little
disappointed at losing a chance to recite a lesson which he had really
prepared with considerable care. However, he comforted himself by
thinking: “Well, she called on me once. She won’t do so again,” and
after a short time he went serenely on with his dramatics.
Miss Stanton also went on apparently oblivious to what was taking place
behind the desk. After a few minutes she said,
“Stephen, beginning with the northern countries, tell us what the
farmers raise in each of these countries.”
Again she stopped the recital in the midst of it, with
“That will do. George, go on.”
Again George lost his chance to recite, not because he did not know the
lesson, but because he had not been listening to Stephen. In his
confusion his face flushed, especially when Miss Stanton said, in a low
tone:
“How is this, George? Two failures in one day? I shall expect a better
lesson than this tomorrow. Wilbur, will you finish the recitation?”
George sat quietly for the remainder of the recitation, thinking to
himself:
“Well, if she has called on me twice, she may get around again. Gee! I
knew all that.”
Miss Stanton did not call upon him again, however, that day. On the
following day George decided that it would be well to give enough
attention to the recitation, at least to “keep tab” on what the others
were reciting, and gradually he learned that he was likely to be called
up at any time that he allowed his attention to wander far away from the
work of the hour. Not a word had been said about his pranks, but they
ceased to be troublesome to teacher or class.
Some children are natural actors. They mimic grown-ups in a ludicrous
way. This may be done unconsciously, but sometimes pupils purposely
imitate a teacher’s walk, attitude, voice or phraseology, just out of a
desire to raise a laugh at the teacher’s expense.
CASE 63 (FOURTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Mimicry of Walk]
George had an unusual gift of ability to mimic others. Even at the age
of nine years he could easily entertain his classmates by imitating
various men of the town. His teacher, Miss Giles, was a stout little
woman whose arms seemed not to hang closely enough to her body, and as
she walked she swung them as if they propelled her through the air. Her
voice was fretful whenever she repeated a command, which was often, or
whenever she expected disobedience. One day as he followed Miss Giles
across the room, the impulse seized him to mimic her gait. This he did,
with marked success. When he returned to his seat he began to study her
mannerisms with a view to entertaining others. At recess he showed the
boys how she held her hands and nodded her head while she talked. The
next step was to imitate her voice. This he did successfully.
One day, about ten minutes before the afternoon session began, Miss
Giles was sitting at her desk, grading penmanship papers, when Marie
Allbaugh rushed in and said: “Miss Giles, come out here and listen to
George. He’s playin’ like he was you.”
Miss Giles hardly understood what Marie wished to tell her, but she
followed the child to the front yard where a crowd of children were
around George. Unnoticed by most of them, she joined in the circle in
time to hear George say in a very good imitation of her voice,
“Children, quietly take your books,” then in a fretful tone with a
frown, “I said _quietly_.” “Whoo-ee,” shouted one of the listeners, and
all joined in a laugh when suddenly they noticed Miss Giles standing
there.
“George, march right into the house,” said she in her harshest tones.
“You shall not have another recess until you have apologized to me for
this.”
Soon the bell sounded for the afternoon session. When the recess period
came, George started to walk out with the other children.
Miss Giles saw him, and said, “George, take your seat.”
After the other children had all left the room, she went to George’s
seat and said, “Are you ready to apologize?” Just then a shout came
through the window from the children at play. George wanted badly to
join them. He said, “I don’t know how.”
“Say, ‘Miss Giles, I’m sorry I mocked you at noon,’” said she. George
considered. If he said he was sorry he would be telling a falsehood. He
would try to be excused without that so he said:
“Mother lets me play like I was other people. _She_ don’t care, so I
thought you wouldn’t.”
“But, George, you must always show respect for your teacher.”
George meditated again. The shouts of the children at play gave him an
idea. Wasn’t he sorry he did it? Wasn’t that just what was keeping him
indoors while others were at play? Of course, he didn’t want to stay in,
so of course he was sorry he had done the thing that kept him in. With a
bright, smiling look at Miss Giles, he said: “I am sorry, Miss Giles,
that I mocked you at noon.” It looked like a sincere apology and it
passed for such.
“You may go,” said she. She considered the case well handled.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Miss Giles would do well to join in the laugh at her own expense. She
should supervise every moment of the children’s play period. George will
not then have an opportunity to use his imitative powers. He will be
swept into active games and be only one of a crowd.
An apology should not be demanded of a pupil for any mark of disrespect
toward the teacher. Respect can not be developed by force.
If, in spite of these precautions, you sometimes find yourself the butt
of the children’s sport, quietly drop into the play school, take a seat
as one of the play pupils and carry off your part as a naughty child.
“Take off” the troublesome child so well—(not any particular one,
however)—that the children will laugh with you and the whole thing will
pass off as play, nothing more.
COMMENTS
Miss Giles had a rare opportunity of showing her pupils how to take a
joke. She would have gained friends and lost no more prestige than she
did by trying to force an apology. A wholesome laugh with the pupils is
one of the best things to help overcome disrespect on the part of the
pupils. It would be better, of course, not to be obliged to laugh at
one’s own expense, too often. Supervised play solves many problems like
this one.
An apology unwillingly given is a lie or at best only a subterfuge. No
teacher can command respect by demanding it in so many words. The
teacher can compel respect only by showing her pupils that she deserves
it.
ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Mimicry of Mannerisms]
It was a rainy day at Mount Pleasant Rural School. After the noon
lunches had been eaten the children were at a loss to decide what to
play. Finally Alice Mitchell said, “Let’s play school. Who’ll be the
teacher? Who’ll be the teacher?”
“Let me!” “Let me!” several of them almost yelled. Maud Jameson, an
overgrown girl, nine years old, was accustomed to having her way. She
was one of those positive children who win leadership by right of having
good opinions tersely expressed. Her older sister even followed her
lead.
Without more ado, she commanded the children to take their seats and
began a mock school day.
Miss Baldwin was at first scarcely interested in the children. Soon,
however, she was struck by Maud’s imitation of her own expressions. Was
it conscious or unconscious? She could scarcely tell. Would Maud dare to
mock her in her presence? She was not sure as to that. At any rate she
decided to study the situation, realizing that after this noon time she
need not again say:
“O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us.”
Maud passed along the seats making faultfinding comments as she went.
“Laura, turn round,” she said, with exactly the touch of impatience
which Miss Baldwin herself would display.
“No indeed!” she answered to one who asked permission to speak, with
exactly the amount of sarcasm Miss Baldwin herself used on similar
occasions.
Maud rapped on her desk, and looked around frowning and shaking her head
as a signal to be more quiet—Miss Baldwin, unmistakably. She tapped the
bell for the children to stand together, and stamped her foot as she
told them to sit because some lagged.
“Whoever fails to get up this time may stay in at recess,” she
announced, with Miss Baldwin’s own expression of irritation.
For half an hour this went on. Maud scolded and sneered, stamped her
foot and found fault while Miss Baldwin listened with varying feelings.
At first she decided to stop Maud and punish her. Yet she considered
that her explanation of the reason for her punishment might be hard to
make satisfactory. Her second thought was to study the situation in
order to ascertain whether the other children considered it merely a
joke on their teacher. They seemed not to do so. Her next thought was of
shame as she realized the atmosphere created by her attitude toward the
pupils as shown by Maud. She therefore resolved to let the matter pass
without criticism, but meanwhile to profit by the picture given her of
herself as teacher. This resolve she kept, and as she learned to be
patient, she saw less and less need for impatience.
(2) _Leaving the room._ The first grade teacher should allow her pupils
to leave the room whenever they ask her. In case it becomes an annoyance
then is the time to study the matter carefully and apply consistent
methods. The things to be gained relative to pupils leaving the
school-room, are that they should leave and enter quietly and as much
unnoticed as possible; that they should not remain absent from the room
too long, and finally, that they do not abuse the privilege by leaving
oftener than necessary. The teacher must be very judicious in
withholding the privilege of leaving the room. The physical condition of
the child may be such as to require him to do so often. If anywhere in
school management the teacher needs to practice common sense, it is in
controlling pupils who leave the school-room. Right habits should be
established in the first grade. It is difficult to keep children from
abusing the privilege, and in their anxiety to prevent abuses, teachers
often use methods which arouse the antagonism of the parents. With the
first grade child the best plan is to have a private talk with the
child, explaining the necessity of going quietly, of going as
infrequently as possible, and of returning as soon as possible. Be
careful to express approval if the child heeds your admonitions and
repeat them when he forgets.
In the case of older pupils, who consciously take advantage of the
extended privilege, we suggest that you first attempt to gain the
confidence of the offending pupil. To do this, talk to him about his own
interests, show that you are interested in the very same activities,
sports, etc.
It is also a good plan to give some definite errand for the pupil to do
for you—something that he can easily do and will enjoy doing—and after
the child does it, show your appreciation by saying something like this:
“You are so kind. Thank you ever so much.” This will help you in gaining
the pupil’s confidence.
After securing this basis of confidence, make it a point to talk to the
pupil individually at some suitable time. Speak first about something in
which the child is interested, then say, “There is another thing I
wanted to speak to you about. Whenever you go out at recess, be sure to
get your drink and do all other errands before the bell rings so that
you will not need to leave during study hours unless absolutely
necessary. Try to remember this, will you?”
CASE 64 (THIRD GRADE)
Miss McLean, after a few days of exasperation over excessive requests
for permission to leave the room, finally decided to correct this. She
found in one day that every pupil left the room at least twice during
the session of school and this was a total of fifty requests.
[Sidenote: Frequent Absences]
“This will never do!” she said, the next morning. “You must learn not to
interrupt the school work this way. Now, I want you to see how well you
can keep to your work this morning. We will not give any permissions to
leave the room between now and recess and between recess and noon time.”
In the afternoon she relaxed somewhat. The next day more permissions
were granted, and finally the situation became as bad as ever.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
This effort at reform needs system. Adopt the simple rule that only one
person at a time will be given permission to leave the room. Ask that
each request be presented by first raising the hand. _If your pupils
respond readily to your management_ you may sometimes trust them to
write the name on the board near the door instead of asking permission
vocally. This plan, however, is more suitable to the high school, and
even then supervision of the privilege must not be relaxed.
If you do have pupils write their names on the blackboard, upon their
return, require them to note after their names the number of minutes
they were absent and let them make up this “lost time” at intermission.
In case any pupil insistently leaves the room more often than you would
expect, institute an inquiry as to his physical health. Ask the family
physician or the mother for this information. In order to cut off the
bad effects of his example before the other pupils, you can pass the
word about, privately, that the doctor has asked you to give Tom or Mary
several interruptions of study during the day.
COMMENTS
It is easy to catalog the causes that lead to excessive attempts to
leave the classroom, study hall, or grade room—restlessness, indolence,
mischief-making, desire to play, conspiracy to meet another pupil,
carelessness in habits of nature, physical ill-health.
Trouble arises over this matter by careless management on the part of
teachers. Caution is necessary at two points: (1) Do not allow too many
interruptions of the work; (2) Do not injure the health of pupils by
refusing necessary privileges.
ILLUSTRATION (SIXTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Simultaneous Absences]
In the Normal (Ill.) public schools there were twelve rooms. Miss
Haybarger had the sixth room. Soon after the opening of school in the
fall, a most obnoxious situation arose because from three to twelve
pupils were released continually. There were enough pupils out of the
rooms to meet on the grounds and indulge in games. Miss Haybarger
decided to save her pupils from this misdemeanor by insisting that only
one pupil leave the room at a time and that all “time lost” should be
made up. She reported that some days passed in which there was not a
single request for permission to leave the room.
This result can be further explained by the fact that every minute of
school time was filled with carefully planned and interesting work. Her
general manner made work and diligence the only possible order of the
day.
Epidemics of leaving the room are especially trying whenever a
substitute has charge of a room. If a regular teacher has good control
of his room he should send a note to the pupils, to be read to them by
the substitute, in which he says something like the following:
“I am sorry not to be with you today. Be even more considerate of the
substitute teacher than you have been toward me. I am expecting a fine
report from him as to your behavior today.”
This message will do much to stop irregularities. In case the children
are inclined to take advantage of the regular teacher, the following
case will be a helpful study.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
A teacher who found that one of her brightest boys was setting a bad
example in this respect, dealt with it in a tactful way which proved
entirely successful. She was an excellent teacher, who trusted her
pupils very fully. They responded to this trust on the whole admirably,
but in one particular case her usual methods did not work. She said
nothing to the boy whose restlessness was causing the trouble, but
assuming that his frequent absences from the room were caused by
ill-health, she called on his mother and asked her to have Robert’s
health looked after. The mother promptly sent Robert to the family
physician, who made a careful examination but found nothing wrong. All
this to-do over his health, together with the trustful anxiety of his
mother and teacher, embarrassed Robert exceedingly. He finally went to
his teacher and told her that he was “now quite well,” and that she
would not be annoyed any more by his frequently leaving the room. He was
better than his word, for he stopped leaving the room during the
sessions altogether, and when he stopped the other boys almost ceased
also. Without having said a word to any boy, without having shown them
that she knew they were indulging in a foolish and childish trick, the
teacher had cured the evil by dealing with the ringleader in a way that
made him ashamed of the quality of his leadership.
(3) _Coughing epidemics._ Often pupils indulge in epidemics of coughing.
One pupil begins, and by suggestion other pupils join in the annoyance.
The usual method of prevention is a scolding which may arrest the
outbreak but does not remove the tendency to repeat itself. The very
fact that the teacher notices the coughing intensifies the suggestion.
It is to be understood that children often suffer from colds and must
cough. It would be cruelty to attempt to stop them. A better way would
be for the teacher to ask all the pupils to stand and take several deep
breaths and make some arm movements. The windows must be opened to admit
fresh air for the breathing and exercises. The teacher can do this
without the pupils having the slightest idea that it was for the benefit
of the pupil who coughed. In extreme cases of coughing the teacher can
go quietly to the pupil and ask him to leave the room and take a drink.
In most cases this will stop the coughing. When coughing in the
school-room is unavoidable, every pupil should be taught how to cough
into the handkerchief. The article serves as a muffler for the sound and
as a protection of one’s neighbors against contagion.
It is quite worth while for the teacher to remember that the more
attention she pays to an outbreak of this kind, the more troublesome it
will prove to be, the oftener it will recur. One teacher who came into a
school in the middle of the term found that the pupils used coughing
outbreaks to annoy and worry their former teacher. They tried the same
on her. But much to their surprise she went right on with her work and
pretended that nothing unusual was going on. The youngsters carried
their outbreak to the limit of their capacities, still the teacher went
on unheedful of their efforts at annoying her. When noon came she
dismissed a band of worn-out youngsters. She had won. They felt
themselves outwitted. They did not try to annoy her again.
Sometimes a pupil hiccoughs in a way to be annoying. While at times
hiccoughing can not be helped, still indiscreet teachers have scolded
pupils for it and thereby caused every pupil that could hiccough to do
it in a most annoying manner. Whenever a pupil hiccoughs, a teacher may
quietly ask the pupil to leave the room or she can have the entire
school stand and take several deep breaths. This will usually cure
hiccoughing. At the same time the windows should be opened to admit
fresh air.
(4) _Giggling._ Some pupils are addicted to “giggling.” In such cases
the teacher will find that to notice the annoyance will tend to
exaggerate it. If she can ignore it, the possibilities are that the
misdemeanor will cease. However, if it is so marked that it requires her
attention, the method applied must be indirect. It is quite certain that
if a teacher will persist in having a pupil that “giggles” do something
every time he indulges in the annoyance, he will be cured of his trivial
habit after a month or two.
Laughing in a proper way will hurt no one, and is by no means a
misdemeanor. It does children good to laugh and would sweeten the lives
of many soured teachers if they would laugh more. Often all the pupils
seem to want to laugh. The discreet teacher will let them have their
laugh; he will join with them. When the fun is over, he will say, “Now
let us all get busy.” If there is a tendency for the laughing to become
too boisterous, he may say pleasantly, “I like to see people have fun,
but if you will remember to laugh quietly when anything funny happens, I
shall appreciate it very much.”
CASE 65 (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Giggling at Nothing]
Miss Mayne’s room was as still as a busy school-room can be, when a
little crackling giggle broke the stillness. Such a noise always stirred
Miss Mayne, who prided herself upon her discipline, as a fly stirs a
light sleeper. It affected her as a personal affront.
“Marian, what are you giggling about?”
“Nothing,” says Marian in a stifled voice.
“Don’t tell me that. What were you giggling about?”
“I don’t know. The other girls were, and I giggled, too.”
“Mattie, were you giggling?”
“Yes, ma’am, I s’pose I was. But I don’t know what I was giggling about,
either.”
“Well, then, I think I’d stop. I can’t see the sense in laughing about
nothing. Let’s have no more of it.”
Silence for a little while. Then a perfect gale of chirping, gurgling,
little-girl laughter—as cheerful a human sound as exists for the
child-lover, perhaps because of its very meaninglessness, its
spontaneity, its birth in healthy animal spirits. But Miss Mayne must
uphold her reputation as a disciplinarian. And this time she knows who
started the epidemic.
“Lulu, you began that giggling, didn’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What is so funny?”
“I don’t know, Miss Mayne, truly I don’t. I just have the giggles.”
“I never heard of anything as senseless as this thing you call ‘the
giggles.’ You may come up here and stand in the corner until you get
over ‘the giggles.’”
Up to this time Lulu had been simply a lively little girl with impulses
under poor control; but at this punishment she became a resentful one.
At first she was inclined to turn around and make faces at the other
girls, but, as they were afraid to smile in appreciation, this grew
monotonous, and soon Lulu began to think of herself as badly abused. She
had never been taught at home that giggling is a sin; she had an idea
that she was very unjustly treated, and her sense of fairness was
outraged.
The next day Lulu, who was a prime favorite and a leader of the girls,
began systematic teasing of Miss Mayne. She persuaded the other girls to
annoy the teacher with a constant irritating succession of coughs
whenever she started to explain anything. Mattie was to say that the
room was too close, and when the windows had been opened Muriel was to
complain of the cold, and the rest were to join in a storm of coughing.
This program was carried out, and with great success. Miss Mayne finally
saw that she was being hectored, and took revenge by standing three
girls and one boy, who had joined in the fun of his own accord, on the
platform. Here they had great fun, standing with grave faces, pretending
to study, until a good chance came to make a face at Miss Mayne. Lulu
capped the climax by asking Miss Mayne to put a cold compress upon her
throat, as she said this always relieved a cough for her. She folded a
handkerchief and dipped it into cold water, and Miss Mayne, looking into
her upturned pitiful face, did not know whether to forgive and pity her
or to shake her. She finally decided to shake her, which made Lulu
really sober for once and temporarily restored the peace.
Lulu was a good girl for several days after this, but when her high
spirits demanded another good time in school, she found similar means of
leading the other girls and boys into mischief. There was an
intermittent feud between her and Miss Mayne, in which the teacher
usually came out second best. Miss Mayne had to admit to herself that
although her school was sometimes as good as could be desired, when Lulu
wanted to she could lead the whole room into a maddening course of
annoyance that spoiled the order and spirit of the day.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Natural leadership, a rare and valuable gift, is usually combined with
unusual ability of some kind or other, and is always carefully to be
reckoned with. When Miss Mayne found the girl who started the giggling,
she might have said to her:
“Lulu, have you found out something that is too funny to keep? No? You
are just giggling because you are giggling? That is too bad; suppose you
step out into the hall until you are over the attack; perhaps it is too
warm for you here.”
Assume that your pupil knows that people look with a certain contempt
upon causeless giggling, and explain why. Make clear how important it is
for people to be able to control their facial muscles, their expression,
their laughter; how absolutely necessary it often becomes to be able to
forego laughter. Then suggest some simple exercises for the gaining of
this control; and above all, show an appreciation of the trouble a
lively little girl has to control her risibilities. Give her permission,
if necessary, to step out of the room when she feels an uncontrollable
desire to giggle; usually being alone helps to control the spasm. If
possible, interest this leader, with her wealth of spontaneity and high
spirits, in some enterprise in which she may use all her surplus energy.
Step out into the hall and ask Lulu solicitously if she has recovered
from her fit of giggling; probably she will be ready to step to her seat
and go on with her work quietly. If she is not, make her comfortable in
the hall, and tell her to wait after school for a little talk. You are
not punishing her in doing this; you are trying to cure her of a
disease, to help her gain a control which she has not so far
accomplished.
COMMENTS
By treating the meaningless giggling as a disease, for which kind words
and a remedy are appropriate, it becomes less desirable in the eyes of
the girls; it is like a headache or a cold. With the leader removed and
no irritating opposition on the part of the teacher, the giggling will
soon die down.
This attitude is not a pretense on the teacher’s part. The truth is that
spontaneous giggling is sometimes a sign of serious nervous trouble, and
suggests the need of a specialist’s care. Oftener, however, it is simply
the sign of poor nervous control, and can be overcome by a little wise
and kind guidance.
An epidemic of giggling becomes as irresistible to a group of little
girls, and often to big ones as well, as an epidemic of measles. They do
not know how to control it, and if they think it is going to tease the
teacher, they probably do not want to. The suggestion of the need of
control, the friendly helpfulness in proposing means of gaining this
control, and the readiness to allow legitimate laughter when it occurs,
all remove the idea of wrongdoing, blame, and antagonism. There is no
longer any fun in giggling to annoy the teacher; she is not annoyed, she
becomes sympathetic, and the teaser becomes conscious that something is
wrong with herself.
When the laughing first breaks out, however, and everything seems funny
to the pupils for the time being, then is a good time for the teacher to
say something funny too and thereby associate herself with the pleasure
the children are having. The fact of having indulged them in their
merriment for a moment will give her greater power to stop them when the
laugh is over.
Sometimes, too, an epidemic of laughing comes merely as a reaction from
a long continued period of study. It should not be treated as an offense
in such a case, but rather as a symptom of fatigue.
ILLUSTRATION (SECOND GRADE)
[Sidenote: Laughing Permitted]
Unusual silence reigned in Miss Grey’s room one Friday afternoon, for
she had allowed the children as a special treat for Friday to have a
period of their favorite pastime, paper-weaving. With absorbed attention
they had worked out their own designs and little Teddie Hendricks, in
his eagerness to show his teacher what a wonderful figure he had made,
could not persuade himself to wait until she could come to him; he must
go to her. His older sister had carelessly left her geography on
Teddie’s desk and he had been using it as a sort of framework for his
design. A pile of unused strips of paper lay on one side of the
geography. He picked up the geography upon which both the paper mat and
the strips of paper lay and started for his teacher. When about half way
across the floor a sudden gust of wind from the open window caught his
papers and sent them flying in all directions. With a puzzled look Teddy
stared first at the bare geography which he held in his hands, then at
his teacher, and then burst out laughing.
“Well, Teddie, Mr. Wind is having some fun as well as you, isn’t he?”
asked Miss Grey. “Never mind, we’ll pick them up.”
But the charm which held the room in silence was broken. One giggle
after another was heard from time to time and presently Miss Grey said:
“Children, you have worked so beautifully this afternoon, we’ll all have
a little fun together. Teddie may get the bean bags and we’ll have a
little game of catch. Girls in this row! Boys in that one! Let’s see how
many can catch without once dropping!”
Ten minutes of substitution of one activity for another cured the
giggles and the rested children went quietly back to work with no
further attacks for the remainder of the afternoon.
(5) _Chewing gum._ Frequently some teacher is heard to say that his
pupils annoy him by chewing gum. They even go so far as to chew rubber
or even paper and when told by the teacher to throw away their gum
innocently remark, “I have no gum, it’s only paper.” Whenever such an
annoyance exists it is largely due to the indiscretion of the teacher.
The trouble with too many teachers is that they denounce the chewing of
gum as an evil, making it out as a sin, when in truth, it may be
beneficial to many and often such teachers use it themselves when their
pupils do not see them. Is it any wonder pupils worry them by chewing
gum during school and finish up by sticking it to the under sides of
their desks?
How much better it would be for the teacher consistently to explain to
pupils that there really are benefits to be derived sometimes from
chewing gum, and that when at play or out-of-doors there is no harm in
it, but that in company, in school or in church, it is not a neat thing
to do. Such a teacher has told the truth and her pupils, large and
small, will respect and appreciate her for it and they will do more;
they will not annoy her by chewing gum during school sessions. The habit
is largely a matter of suggestion and imitation. One pupil introduces
the custom, the others follow out the suggestion. By relegating the
custom to the school ground, when the pupils are busy with physical
activities of other sorts, the practice will be reduced to a minimum.
CASE 66 (EIGHTH GRADE)
Miss Smith came from the State Normal School to have charge of the two
upper grades after forming some very definite ideas on how to maintain
order among adolescent boys.
[Sidenote: Gum Chewing]
The second morning she was conducting an arithmetic lesson when she
found that Susie Hall was enjoying her chewing gum more than she did the
assignment.
“What is your name?” said Miss Smith, pointing somewhat definitely
toward the offending pupil.
“I am Susie Hall.”
“Well, Susie, are you interested at all in this work in arithmetic? I
could hardly believe it since I see your jaws going” (mocking Susie in a
very exaggerated fashion).
Susie was just a little surprised to have her manners noted so keenly
and commented on so quickly, and replied, “Yes’m. I guess I like
arithmetic.”
“Well, we can’t have this gum chewing, and you can just step away from
the blackboard and find some place to throw out your chewing gum. When
that is done, come back and we will see what we can do with this
arithmetic.”
Now Susie was only one of a dozen who in former days had more or less
privilege in the matter of gum chewing, so that there was a sympathetic
wave of resentment quickly resounding throughout the room.
Nevertheless, there was no immediate outbreak of anger from Susie or
anyone else in the room.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Instead of immediately attempting to suppress the gum chewing in a child
almost totally a stranger, go across the room, and, after asking Susie’s
name, summon her to you, and very quietly ask her to put away her gum.
After doing that, request Susie to help you in keeping good order. The
chances are that a girl like her would be more or less bold and
dominating among her associates, so that if a feeling of goodwill toward
her teacher could be developed, it would be a valuable asset in
maintaining the order of the room subsequently.
COMMENTS
Miss Smith transgressed seriously in making so bold an attack upon the
existing situation. She did not yet know the past habits of her pupils,
so that discretion should have restrained her from being so brusque and
outspoken in her attitude.
ILLUSTRATION (SEVENTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Helping to Keep Good Order]
Mr. Franklin took charge of the Ellsworth grammar room and found that
his predecessor had been extremely indifferent in the matter of eating
sweetmeats and gum chewing during school hours. This knowledge came to
him by reason of the remains that he found in the teacher’s desk from
the year preceding. This disclosure led him to expect several of the
pupils’ desks to show the same state of affairs; indeed, he found
additional proofs that eating and chewing gum in the school-room were
entirely customary among the pupils. Subsequently, the first instance
which came to his notice received definite attention.
Ellison Perkins chanced to be the offending pupil. Mr. Franklin waited
until recess, called Ellison to his desk, and made some inquiry based
upon his suspicions as to the custom of the pupils and teacher during
the past year. Ellison slowly made admissions that gave the teacher
thorough knowledge of the situation.
“Now,” said Mr. Franklin, “I suppose that you and the rest of the pupils
in our room do not believe that chewing gum during the school hours is
the proper thing for well-trained pupils.”
“No, I suppose not,” said Ellison; “leastwise in some places they say
that we shouldn’t eat in school, and now and then teacher gave us a
mighty talking to, but he didn’t stop us.”
“Well,” said Mr. Franklin, “we can’t do that way this year. I want to be
sure of what you think is right about the matter, and if you are willing
to help me keep this room clean, and help the pupils to see what is
right about matters of this sort, I shall be very much obliged to you.
We can’t stand anything that interrupts our work unnecessarily. Of
course, we don’t intend to work every minute, but if we lose a few
minutes now and then for such things as gum chewing, it takes too much
time.”
“Yes, I know,” said Ellison, with more intelligence than eagerness,
since he recalled that during the morning he had himself revived the old
habit; nevertheless, Mr. Franklin aroused the conviction that he was
right. His appeal to do the right thing was successful and even though
in a somewhat frail fashion, he linked up Ellison in the plan of reform.
(6) _Eating in school._ Many a first grade child has been caught by the
teacher eating some morsel of food, a bit of candy, or an apple during
school hours. Such a practice can scarcely be called a misdemeanor. It
is only childish nature manifesting itself. Some teachers say that no
child should be punished or even reprimanded in the slightest manner for
eating something in school. The first thing a teacher should do when she
discovers a little child trying to satisfy his hunger, is to give him a
knowing smile and a negative nod of the head. He probably will put the
tempting morsel away. Should he get it again, the teacher can walk to
the offender’s desk and take the food away. Should this habit become
troublesome, the teacher may require all the pupils to leave their
eatables at a certain place in the school-room. A little tact and
patience will keep in check the tendency to eat things in school. It is
a breach of good manners; it is a childish trait and should be treated
as such. Its chief harm lies in the fact that if the act is unchecked,
other children through suggestion and imitation will soon be following
the example.
CASE 67 (SECOND GRADE)
[Sidenote: Eating Candy]
Miss Shannon was in the middle of the forenoon’s work when she noted
Alice surreptitiously munching candy. Her question, “What are you
doing?” brought a useless “Nothing.” Stepping back to Alice’s desk she
found a little girl with mouth crowded full of candy, hiding additional
stores in her ill-concealed handkerchief.
“Where did this come from?”
“Eliza gave it to me,” was the response.
“Is it possible! Eliza, have you any more candy?”
“Yes, ma’am. I have more, but not much. I haven’t eaten any in school
time.”
“Well, I want to see it. My, what a lot! I sometimes forget and take a
bite of something to eat in school myself. I’ll tell you what let’s do.
We all like candy. Eliza, won’t you pass the candy to all of us?”
“This won’t give a taste to us all. I’ve got so little,” was Eliza’s
natural response.
“Well, let’s do it anyway. Then we’ll be through with it quickly.”
The plan was actually carried out. Pieces were passed from hand to hand
and each child was supposed to break off a bit and pass on the lump. In
about five minutes the eating was over and work was taken up again.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
There seems to be a breakdown of discipline in this case where a
surrender to appetite is unnecessary. Require Eliza and Alice to deposit
their sweetmeats with you, on the ground that you will help them to be
polite to other pupils who have no candy. After school is out in the
afternoon, restore to them their property with a mild caution as to good
manners. If the offense is repeated, keep the candy till the second
night. Commend them for their self-control in waiting.
COMMENTS
Miss Shannon exceeded the bounds of propriety in proposing to eat in
school hours contrary to her own rule. She should by no means confess
that she could not control her own appetite; such admissions induce
children to yield to their own impulses.
This habit of eating in school is natural and likely to appear, but
excessive severity is not necessary to overcome it.
ILLUSTRATION
[Sidenote: Sweetmeats]
Not many weeks later Miss Shannon had occasion to treat the same
situation again. Following better judgment, she said to the offender,
“Would you please let me have your sweetmeats to keep until you need
them?” There was some hesitation, but her calm assurance of good will
won.
“Now you can come to me after school is out and I’ll give you what you
leave with me. But please don’t bring your sweet things into the room.
Eat them up before school begins or save them for lunch.”
She took the occasion to say to all:
“Our papas and mammas keep plenty to eat at home, so that we need not
eat food during school hours. I want you to help each pupil in the room
to have a profitable time. We can’t do it if someone is eating. So we
won’t bring anything to eat during study time. If anybody forgets, he is
to leave his eatables with me until it seems best to give them back to
him.”
CASE 68 (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Eating Oranges]
Georgiana Luitivieder’s parents sent her occasional express packages of
fruit from Florida during the mid-winter months. She was the only child
in her grade whose parents spent the winter south; hence she could not
resist the temptation to take fruit to school the next day after a case
of lovely oranges came fresh from the trees.
A whole dozen was scattered among the members of her grade. The first
signs were the yellow adornments that bedecked a few desks; one or two
fell to the floor and rolled away. At the same time Abigail was seen
eating an orange on the sly. Miss Galdsworthy was much annoyed by the
troublesome oranges. Here are her orders:
“Abigail, bring your orange and lay it on my desk.”... “All in this row,
who have oranges, bring them to me.”... “And in this row.”... “The one
who brought these oranges to school may stand.” “Very well, Georgiana, I
want to see you at recess. Now, Henry, you may call the janitor for me.”
When the janitor came he received orders to take the oranges away and
not to give them back to the children. He marched off with a basket full
amid groans and protesting exclamations from all over the room. (After
his departure), “I should think you would know better than to bring all
those oranges into the school-room. I don’t want this ever to happen
again.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Having found out who had distributed the oranges by private inquiry,
call Georgiana to you and say:
“I want you to collect all these oranges and keep them for a ‘spread’;
they are lovely things, but they’ll be in our way if we keep them lying
around. You are going to help me keep order, aren’t you? And I’ll help
you to have a good time.”
Then announce to the school:
“We’ve decided to have our oranges in a delightful ‘spread’ to come off
at the recess period. So we must gather up the oranges for that
occasion.”
Promise some additions to their resources and program, and make a
splendid thing out of it.
COMMENTS
Pupils are hopelessly alienated by a procedure that exceeds the bounds
of propriety. Georgiana’s generous impulses were outraged by loss
threatened or actual of the luscious fruit. A teacher on the ground
before school opened would have found out what was about to happen, in
all likelihood, and could have forestalled it entirely. But if the
teacher directs these generous impulses, she will not only avoid
school-room disturbances, but she will be taken yet more intimately into
the confidence of her pupils.
ILLUSTRATION (SIXTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Peanuts]
“‘You _used_ to eat once in a while in school’! I can’t believe it,”
said Miss Arbuthnot, the first time she caught one fifth-grader munching
a peanut. “We don’t eat in school when I teach. I’ll tell you what we’ll
do. Let’s make a rule that no one shall take a bite or chew a single
chew when school is in session, but instead of that we will have our
girls prepare us on Friday noon a light lunch, once a month. How many of
you favor that? Hands up!”
All agreed, and each child brought a small contribution from home. The
luncheon was daintily served in the domestic science room and
constituted a fine safety valve for several strong impulses in the
hearts of thirty-five sixth-grade children.
CASE 69 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Caramels in School]
Murry Blane found three young women among his schoolmates in high school
that he felt very warmly toward. Having an abundance of pocket money, he
spent many dollars first and last in bringing tokens of his regard to
his three friends. For the most part he managed to do this quietly, so
that his devotion was not subject to discipline, but when Charles
Wingate became principal, things took a slightly different turn.
Mr. Wingate knew very well that there were always pairings off of young
folks in high school. He watched for these groupings of the boys and
girls, and when he saw Emma Moore laying a row of caramels on her desk
the first question that came to him was, “Who bought the candy for this
girl?” He immediately went to her desk and quietly asked the question,
“Emma, where did this candy come from?” Such a question had never been
put to her before, although efforts had been made many times to
eliminate lunching from the high school.
Her first answer was, “Why, friends of mine bought them for me. Isn’t
that all right?”
Of course the neighboring pupils heard the answer and knew what the
question was and consequently their interest was very deeply aroused.
“O, yes,” said Mr. Wingate, “it is all right for your friends to buy you
candy, but it is unusual to see it displayed in this fashion as if it
were for sale.”
“Yes, I wouldn’t offer that candy for sale. It is too precious for
that.”
Following this witty speech, Mr. Wingate saw that the concern of other
students was becoming too intense and gave up further remarks for the
time being, but an hour later when the matter of having the candy had
apparently been dismissed from his mind, he found the time to say to the
girl, “We don’t want that candy display to continue, nor do we want any
more of it brought into the assembly room. I want you to tell me who
else shares with you this abominable habit of bringing stuff to eat to
school.”
Emma hardly knew what to say, but managed to frame an answer: “Why, I
don’t know who brings stuff to eat. Everyone brings what he wants, or
doesn’t bring anything, just as he likes.”
“Does Murry bring candy to the girls?”
“Maybe he does,” said Emma. “Why don’t you ask him?”
“I shall ask whom I find necessary to interview, but I am asking you
whether he brought candy and gave it to you or not.”
“Well,” said Emma, “several of my friends bring candy, both boys and
girls. Perhaps Murry brought some. I wouldn’t say that he didn’t.”
Evidently the interview was not going to be satisfactory, and so Mr.
Wingate said, “Well, that will do for now.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
In high school it is necessary to steer a safe course between
suppression of legitimate pleasures and attacks on ill-mannered customs
made half-heartedly because of dread of colliding with school sentiment.
Mr. Wingate should not have attempted so broad an inquiry in so public a
manner. It would have been quite sufficient for the moment if he had
said, “Emma, will you please conceal this candy until later? It is too
attractive to be safe.”
If there were no grievous interruptions of school work, decisive action
should have been deferred until profitable conversations had given Mr.
Wingate an opportunity of developing definitely some sentiment upon the
obnoxious habit. This could be begun the very same day on which he
encountered the row of candy on Emma’s desk, but owing to the desire of
high school girls very generally to make a good appearance in public,
Mr. Wingate might readily attempt to cure the ills of his own school by
a series of definite lessons on good manners.
Link this up with instruction in domestic science, so as to give it due
emphasis and dignity. Make it evident that eating is to take place only
at the table or under circumstances where the entire group enters
without embarrassment into the pleasure of the occasion.
COMMENTS
Mr. Wingate ventured on uncertain ground. He was in a minority when
attacking the custom in so public a manner. He pulled on a projecting
beam and loosened the whole framework of a social custom without knowing
what his next move would be if things came tumbling down.
What was needed was a larger program of action.
The plan of working out the dilemma from the standpoint of domestic
science gives permanence and dignity to the reforms proposed. A
disciplinarian must never intimate that his requirements are trivial or
personal or disconnected with the general good of the school. As soon as
one or a hundred pupils can feel that they are out of class by holding
to an old custom the reforms proposed will make rapid headway.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Marshmallows]
Mr. Pendleton was principal of the high school at Downs, Ohio.
Having been fully forewarned by past experience that high school pupils
easily fall into the eating habit in school, he had provided a place in
his course in domestic science for instruction on manners on the street
and in public places with regard to eating.
But, in the first place, he discussed the matter briefly with his
teachers and found that there was a satisfactory state of opinions there
on this as well as on a dozen or twenty other small points which he
decided to deal with early in the school year.
Miss Davis, instructor in domestic science, agreed to make this a
preponderant point in her instruction. Even in class she strictly
prohibited and prevented “lunching and munching,” insisting that those
who received instruction must eat at the table and observe all the rules
of good conduct.
With this example and instruction as a recognized fact, the girls of the
high school were ready to yield very graciously to Mr. Pendleton’s
request that no one bring articles of food to the high school. This
request was made, by the way, only after Eloise Thomas, member of the
first-year class, had walked into the room one morning with a generous
sack of marshmallows in her hand. He made no allusion to her
individually, but spoke as follows:
“I have been very much pleased so far this year to see that the usual
customs of public assemblies have been observed on nearly every point.
Sooner or later it may be that someone may be attempting to distribute
sweetmeats among his friends and so occasion an interruption in our
regular work. Of course such a thing could hardly be tolerated in a
company of well-bred people. The standards that have been set in our
domestic science department are entirely in accord with requirements of
good society, so that I trust that every member of the school will be
governed by them and cheerfully assist in maintaining the good conduct
that has so far been observed during the school year.”
(7) _Smoking on the school grounds._ Sometimes it is impracticable to
change the example except by changing the giver of the example. If a
fine boy or girl can be made the leader where a weak or vicious one has
been leader, wonderful changes may take place. Such a change was
effected in the following instance.
CASE 70 (SEVENTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Cigarettes]
The practice school of Bodeling College was so good that large numbers
of boys and girls came out by streetcar from the neighboring large city
to attend it. These boys and girls took the cars at a convenient station
near the campus, where an enterprising business man had built a Station
Store, which furnished textbooks, stationery and refreshments, and gave
shelter in bad weather. This store was a great convenience, but the
college authorities found it also much of a nuisance, for here a group
of “smart” high school and town boys gathered, to loaf and smoke and set
a bad example to the smaller boys in many ways.
The grammar grade teachers found the cigarette evil especially hard to
deal with. The seventh and eighth grade boys, seeing their elders
swaggering about with cigarettes, imitated them freely. There were a
number of fine high school boys who did not smoke, but they rarely went
home as soon as the smokers, and so the smaller boys saw most of the
smoking set.
Miss Steele, the seventh grade teacher, went to Miss Hardy of the eighth
and they had a conference. At its close, Miss Steele announced her
program:
“I’m going to appeal to plain reason; I shall show them so clearly that
they can’t fail to understand how cigarettes hurt them in every way, and
then appeal to their sense of loyalty to themselves and their future.
When they know how cigarettes rob them of health and ability, their good
sense will dictate to them what to do.”
Miss Steele planned her campaign well. She was a large, plain,
wholesome-looking woman, a good thinker and a notable figure in all
movements for public welfare in her community. Her pupils all respected
her, and her school-room management was above criticism. She planned and
delivered now a series of talks on cigarettes, in which she explained
clearly just why they are so especially harmful to the young and what a
losing game the cigarette-smoker plays. Her pupils all listened closely,
the smokers with the rest.
When she had exhausted the subject, she asked all those who were
resolved never to smoke cigarettes to raise their hands; for she had had
successful experience with the effectiveness of a public pledge. Every
pupil in the room but one raised his hand. This one pupil was the son of
a prominent attorney, a smoker and a leader among the boys. His father
had instilled in him so keen a sense of honor that, because he did not
intend to stop, he refused to make the promise.
But in spite of this well planned campaign the smoking in the seventh
grade continued. Some of the boys, with the low ideals of honor which
characterize youthful cigarette users, had had no intentions of
stopping; others were sincere in their intentions, but yielded to
example or habit when the effects of Miss Steele’s warning grew cold. As
the stories of the failure of her efforts came to the teacher, she
became more than ever convinced that the use of cigarettes causes
unspeakable moral degradation. It did not occur to her that her method
of attacking the evil could have been a mistaken one.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
To combat successfully the smoking habit in the seventh and eighth grade
boys, it is necessary to substitute for the sensory pleasure of smoking
an equally intense or more intense stimulation of another sort.
Show the pupils that indulgence in habits of this sort will certainly
rob them of keener delights of a more innocent type.
See to it that the innocent pleasures are _within reach_—not far distant
and hazy in outline.
COMMENTS
Miss Steele failed by placing before her class a motive so remote in
time that it could not be very intense as a stimulus to self-denial.
Thirteen-year-old boys have not done a vast amount of thinking about the
possibilities of the distant future. For them the present and the
immediate future are the all-absorbing topics.
How could the three desirable conditions—nearness in time, innocent
enjoyment, and intensity of stimulation—be combined so as to supplant
the undesirable conditions which had led to the smoking habit? This was
the problem over which Miss Hardy was pondering.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Athletics versus Smoking]
Meantime Miss Hardy had been studying her psychology, and between times
had been talking athletics with her old pupils who had passed on into
the high school. The high school teams were well coached and in football
had made a good record that gave promise of being equaled in basket
ball. The best man on the teams was Raymond Johnston, who was one of
those marvels of all-around excellence who happen once in a while to
rejoice the hearts of teachers. He was a big, handsome boy, with a bluff
charm of manner which won all hearts, and ready friendliness which made
him the idol of the school. He was a star student, who had made a good
record in debating as well as in athletics.
Raymond Johnston belonged, moreover, to a prominent family in the nearby
city, a family in which high ideals of manners and morals were so
intrinsic a part of living that the children grew up healthy,
unconscious exponents of all that is best in character and living. It
was this fine, talented boy whom Miss Hardy chose to do for her boys
what she knew, able as she was, she could not herself do effectively.
At first Raymond Johnston declined with embarrassed modesty to give a
series of talks on athletics to the eighth grade pupils. But when Miss
Hardy had explained to him clearly the great need, and had shown him
that he alone could do the thing that must be done, he finally
consented. The two planned a campaign as carefully as Miss Steele had
done; and when the plans were complete, Miss Hardy told her pupils of
the treat she had secured for them.
In the first three talks there was no mention of cigarettes at all. The
speaker gave a lively account of the four great ball games, with
blackboard diagrams of positions and plays, and anecdotes from his own
experience which added the personal touch needed. For a boy he was a
ready speaker, and his enthusiasm knew no bounds. When he had given the
three talks, Miss Hardy saw with satisfaction that the first step was
gained; her boys and girls understood the games very well, and discussed
them with the air of conscious experts. All day they talked of nothing
but forward passes, and overhand serves, and left-twist curves, and the
latest “dope” on basket ball prospects. This was in the winter term,
when basket ball held the front of the stage. She knew they must be
talking athletics at home, awake and asleep; she knew that, vivified by
his virile example, Raymond Johnston had won that room to the athletic
ideal of manhood in a healthy and natural way, and that with an ideal of
conduct-controlling vividness gained, the rest of the campaign could be
carried out with good hopes of success.
Then Raymond gave his fourth talk on “The Making of an Athlete.” He
talked about fresh air, food, sleep, clothing, training and regularity
of habits. He touched on the ethics of sportsmanship, and every boy in
the room resolved to be “square” and conceived a vast contempt for the
“yellow streak” that the high school hero treated with such scorn. Then
Raymond took up the cigarette question, as the next step in his outline
of the athlete-making process.
“Of course a man can’t smoke if he wants to make the team,” he said.
“Some of the high school fellows do smoke, but they aren’t the ones who
make good at athletics or anything else. You’ll see them hanging around
the Station Store afternoons, when the fellows that make the team are
out training. Why don’t you eighth graders come out and watch us
sometimes, by the way, instead of going right home after school? You’d
get lots of pointers that would help you. You have your own teams, don’t
you? If not, why not organize some? You ought to have three or four in
this grade, for you’ll be in the high school next year and you ought to
be in training.
“But remember, you can’t eat piles of doughnuts and you can’t smoke if
you ever want to do anything in athletics. Rich food puts your digestion
out of commission, and smoking goes straight to your heart—and that’s
what you can’t stand when you’re playing. They make you fall behind in
your lessons, too, and then you’re not allowed to play on a team. I
never smoke, and the other fellows that do anything in athletics or
debating don’t either. We can’t; we know better.
“Now, I hope this spring you fellows will all get out and get some good
training in baseball and track, because when we’re gone we want to hear
that the high school is keeping up her old record; and it’ll depend on
you fellows that are coming on. You can do as well as we have or better,
if you just will.”
Miss Hardy’s plan did work. It worked because she substituted a good
ideal for imitation instead of a poor one. The poor one had been
presented to her boys without her consent; she had to make an
intelligent effort to get the fine one vividly before them. She did not
arouse opposition by making her cause too obvious, by forcing the
didactic tone; it appeared as one part of an attractive program—but it
was made clear that it was an indispensable part. She followed up the
talks with suggestions that fostered the organization of baseball teams
in the spring, the regular coach coöperating with suggestions and
occasional instruction. Her boys seemed to have forgotten that they ever
thought it smart to smoke. When she left at the end of the year, the
coach told her that he was certain that not one of her boys was a user
of cigarettes.
ILLUSTRATION 2
[Sidenote: Remove Temptation]
Miss Hardy was succeeded the next year by a young man fresh from the
training department of a great university, who was enthusiastic and
keenly analytical. The non-smoking eighth grade boys had now gone into
the high school, and he was met by the same problem that had defeated
Miss Steele. He realized that while Miss Hardy’s plan had worked with
her boys, still the evil existed in the community as a constant menace,
and he resolved to reach the root of the trouble if possible.
There seemed to be several roots: the smokers in the high school, the
Station Store where the boys loafed, the indifferent parents, the shops
where the boys were sold, contrary to law, the materials for their
cigarettes. The story of how these elements in the problems were reached
is too long to recount here; but it was done by arousing the interest of
the parents, who were stirred into action by a rather lurid talk given
by the new eighth grade teacher, and who organized for the definite
purpose of removing the temptations to smoke.
The efforts of Miss Hardy and Mr. Sulzer, the eighth grade teachers,
were successful because they attacked the force which set the example.
Imitation grows into habit rapidly, and when both imitation and habit
are allowed to become cumulative, it takes more than a logical protest
to change conduct. In one case, the bad example was displaced by one
which was made more attractive than the old model; in the other, public
conscience was aroused and used as an agency for the elimination of the
bad example. The worst kind of a bad example is that of older people who
connive at an evil.
ILLUSTRATION 3 (HIGH SCHOOL)
The following letter from a correspondent of the I. A. D. Teachers’ Club
also has a bearing upon the control of smoking on the school grounds:
[Sidenote: Boy Is Caught Smoking]
I was principal and high school teacher in a little school down South.
One of my most interesting pupils was also the most difficult to
manage—Herbert, a bashful, overgrown, intelligent, fourteen-year-old,
the ringleader in all mischief and the idol of the playground.
One of the grade teachers caught one of her boys smoking cigarettes one
day. Upon investigation three other culprits were discovered among her
charges, but it seemed that Herbert was also guilty. The nature of the
case and the custom in that state demanded that the younger boys be
whipped, but I knew that Herbert was more truly responsible and my heart
was heavy, for I had worked hard to gain his confidence and I was fond
of the boy. A mistake on my part would make him sullen and unmanageable
and the smoking would then go on in spite of me.
After school was out, I dispatched the younger boys as quickly as
possible, asking Herbert to wait in another room for me. He was very
sober when I came in and I was wondering how to begin the difficult task
ahead of me, when a glance from him gave me a clue. It was defiant,
appealing and apologetic, all at the same time. The boy and I had been
somewhat like chums up to this time.
“Herbert, tell me all about it, won’t you?” I began. “I want to hear
just how it happened and how much smoking there has been.”
“There hasn’t been very much,” he said, with his eyes down. “We’ve
smoked dry leaves and corn shucks, but we’ve only smoked real tobacco
twice.”
He was on the defensive at once, I saw, but his confidence was in a
measure restored by my opening—giving him a chance to tell his side of
it. I drew him out, not condemning him, but merely looking very grave,
until I had a full account of just when and where the smoking had
occurred. I did not insult him by doubting him and he gradually lost his
defiant attitude and grew more and more shame-faced.
“Herbert,” I said, when the recital had come to an end, “what would your
father say?”
“He would lick me until I couldn’t stand up.” This was literally true,
for the boy’s father was a hard drinker and subject to violent fits of
anger when his children displeased him.
“I shall not tell him, this time. But if it happens again, I think he
should know about it,” I said. “Herbert, you know you can do what you
please with these grade boys here in this school. They look up to you
and follow your leadership. You can make them do what is right or you
can lead them astray.”
He shook his head violently at this, but was too near to tears to speak.
“We may think we aren’t our brothers’ keepers, Herbert, but we are, just
as the Bible tells us. It is really you who are responsible for this
affair, because you are older and know better than the others the evils
that come from the use of tobacco.” And I talked to him a little about
the effects of tobacco upon growing boys. I thought he seemed impressed
and penitent.
“I’m going to put you in charge of the whole matter. I want you to see
to it that there is no more smoking after this. You can report to me
once a week what sort of success you have, but we won’t say anything to
the others about the arrangement.”
He protested that he couldn’t do it, but finally blurted out “I’ll try,”
and I shook hands with him on the agreement.
The reports proved the success of my scheme and I found I had made a
warm friend and ally of Herbert.
(8) _Manners, good and bad._ Nowhere, perhaps, is the influence of the
imitative instinct more potent than in the shaping of one’s manners.
“_Manners make the man_,” is a legend inscribed over the door of one of
the buildings of Oxford University, and in order that the pupils shall
go out from its doors possessed of the high claims to the respect of
their fellow men which good manners affords, exquisite care is taken
that those adults who are daily associated with the pupils are
themselves possessed of such manners as are worthy of imitation. All
unconsciously to themselves, these manners will soon be reproduced in
the pupils with more or less exactness.
But if good manners are assimilated through association with those who
possess them, bad manners are no less surely learned in the same way.
The teacher who is confronted then with a room full of rude, noisy,
untidy children, should never regard these bad manners as a personal
affront to himself, but rather as a result of social “copy”
unconsciously imitated by his pupils and requiring time and patience and
a substitution of “copy” of the opposite sort before such manners can be
eradicated.
[Sidenote: Social Imitation]
Persons outside of the school quite often show a lack of respect for
those whom they meet on the public highways or on the streets. This lack
of proper training is not very different from that of pupils who
constantly disregard the rights of other pupils or who persist in
mistreating other pupils whenever they can get a chance. Those pupils
who persistently do these things are simply following “social copy.” The
motive underlying each of these misdemeanors is the same, namely,
selfishness, which is the basis of impoliteness. No polite child will
jeer at strangers or even acquaintances or schoolmates, nor will he
disregard the rights of schoolmates, expecting more for himself than for
those with whom he associates. He will not mistreat his playmates “just
for fun” or for the pleasure of tantalizing them. Much of such lack of
kindness and politeness is due to neglect on the part of parents. Many
parents never take the time to teach their children to be kind and
thoughtful of others. When such pupils enter the first grade, their
conduct can be changed greatly by the teacher who will make the effort.
It is presupposed that the teacher will himself practice every trait of
politeness and kindness. He will not be guilty of any of the above
misdemeanors. That means much to the pupil who disregards the rights of
his associates. Still the teacher’s conduct along these lines will not
wholly prevent a pupil from practicing one or all of these misdemeanors.
Close supervision of all the school-room and playground activities will
do much to prevent rudeness, but will not entirely abolish it. Naturally
parents and patrons expect the teacher to be the mediator for better
conduct on the part of some pupils.
Perhaps suggestive control will effect prevention in the first grade
better than any other method. Just before school is dismissed the
teacher may tell a story to all the pupils, the point of which is to
teach kindness towards others. She may then suggest how fine it would be
for all of the pupils to go home on this particular evening and be
courteous to every one whom they meet. She can suggest the little
courtesies of saying “Good evening,” etc. Her entire talk must be
permeated by a spirit of kindness and she must expect that her pupils
will do nothing less than she has told them. The chances are that they
will obey her for the first evening, but on the second evening they will
forget. In a few days she may need to repeat the talk. Each time she
makes the suggestion she should follow it up by approving the children
for good conduct while going home.
If the teacher wishes to deal with a pupil individually she can apply
the same methods as for the pupil that quarrels or fights. (See
treatment of quarreling and fighting.)
Often school children show impoliteness in a marked degree. It may be a
result either of poor home training or because of the teacher’s bad
manners. The teacher who is impolite can not expect her pupils to be
polite.
Some teacher may ask, “Just what constitutes impoliteness on the part of
the teacher?”
That teacher is impolite who meets her pupils outside of the school-room
and does not speak to them; who does not beg pardon when she accidently
bumps against a pupil; who does not say, “Thank you,” when a pupil
bestows a favor; who does not greet her pupils with a cheery “Good
morning” or a pleasant “Good night”; who is rude and rough; who speaks
in a high-pitched tone of voice instead of a sweet, low, pleasing tone;
who says gruffly, “What?” when she should say, “Repeat it again,
please,” and who keeps her desk in disorder. There are other traits of
impoliteness, but the above will enlighten the teacher who fails to know
the marks of ill-breeding.
To prevent impoliteness on the part of pupils, the teacher needs but to
practice the opposite of the above. She may give a few talks on
politeness, but the best way to teach that subject is to be polite. The
little ones are imitators. They like formal politeness and will imitate
the teacher. Extremes of formality must be avoided. Overdoing the matter
has a tendency to repel pupils.
Every trait of politeness can easily be taught if the teacher will watch
for its occurrence, and then casually remark how she admires that
particular characteristic in her pupils. A certain little boy tipped his
hat to an elderly lady as she passed the school. The teacher saw it.
When school convened she said, “I am proud of my pupils because I saw
one lift his hat to a lady today.” She said no more, but every boy
aspired thereafter to recognize women by lifting the hat. On another
occasion a little girl picked up her glove. Her recognition of the act
was, “Thank you, my dear.” Others heard it. Afterwards they sought to do
the teacher favors. Again, she stood by the window when a farmer passed
the schoolhouse with a large wagon. The wind blew off his hat. A little
boy ran and picked up the hat and returned it to the farmer. When the
bell rang and all were in their seats, the teacher told the pupils how
proud she was of them because they were polite. She avoided singling the
boy out. That would have caused envy in some of the pupils, but to be
proud of all, made all feel that the act was a possession of the entire
school and that which one boy could do, could be done by any pupil.
CASE 71 (SECOND GRADE)
Miss Wallis, teacher of the primary at the Wendell Phillips School, was
picking her way carefully through the crowd one Monday, when her eye
fell on Walter, one of her own pupils. He, too, was moving as fast as
possible and just before attempting to cross Thirty-ninth street he
overtook a lame man. The crutches sprawled out somewhat helplessly and
annoyed many of the passers.
[Sidenote: Street Manners]
Walter halted scarcely a second, but as he dived past the unfortunate
man, he brushed hard against another pedestrian and fell toward the man
with the crutches. All in a second the one crutch was knocked out of his
hand and down he fell with a heavy thud to the walk.
Walter did not look back until he was across the street and then he saw
no sign of the lame man.
At school Miss Wallis took a firm hand in the matter, by having Walter
stand before the pupils of his room, tell his story, and let Miss Wallis
rush past him and knock him down. The fall, plus the injury to his
feelings, made him take a good cry on the spot. His teacher concluded
the incident by saying:
“Now, I guess you will not do that again soon, will you?”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Instead of the negative instruction, _i. e._, telling what not to do,
teach a positive lesson; let one pupil impersonate a lame man; have
several pupils or all of them rushing past him; let some one or two
offer to pilot him across the “street,” which may be marked off on the
floor. In discussing the matter, if discussion seems needful, assume
that all of the pupils really want to be courteous and kind but forget
it in their haste.
COMMENTS
The attempt to impress the lesson, by dramatic exhibition, may easily
fail because the wrong theme is presented or the realistic feature is
carried too far. Particularly when working with young children, the
negative types of action should not be dwelt upon if it is avoidable.
Acquirement of polite manners can be attained only by gradual steps.
Assisting a lame man on the street is a matter that every child in
school can comprehend. For young children the lessons in politeness
should bear on the obvious and most necessary points of contact between
persons. Although many impulses to courteous treatment arise in a child,
there is always need to teach him how to perform the acts which
convention has fixed upon as necessary to good breeding. The greatest
advances will be made by helping the child to take the other person’s
point of view. This will be certain to elicit sympathetic responses.
ILLUSTRATION (THIRD GRADE)
Verna Gielow was a black-haired eight-year-old, who made progress in her
school work none too easily. She had only brothers at home with whom she
played out-of-doors nearly all of her spare time.
[Sidenote: Dramatizing Effectively]
At school came her first serious lessons in courtesy. Miss Johnson, the
primary teacher, had her whole room organized as a family, father and
mother, aunts and uncles and children. It was a birthday celebration for
grandmother, there were songs, a “piece” to speak and a “dinner” to be
eaten. Only thirty minutes were devoted to the whole thing, and no extra
school time preparation was needed. The “dinner” was made up of dishes
produced by the imagination. The necessary instructions as to good
behavior were given as needed.
The event passed off with great satisfaction to pupils and teacher. All
that was needed for Verna was special supervision and commendation, as
she was given the place of mother, which she represented with hearty
eagerness.
CASE 72 (SIXTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Picnic Manners]
North Lord School celebrated the coming of summer with a picnic. Miss
Bradford attended carefully to everything except the behavior of her
pupils. Scarcely had the crowd gathered, before she began directing the
boys and girls how to conduct themselves. Calling out from a distance,
she said:
“Shame on you boys for taking the swings first. Let the girls have a
good time, then you can have the swings if you want them.”
Several older girls made a dash for the bridge that led over to the
other side of the railroad tracks. They were out of sight in a moment
with the teacher on a hot chase. When she overtook them there was
another scolding.
“You’re a pretty lot! There’ll be several girls sent home now if there
is any more running off like this.”
On returning to the group of children she heard a confusion about the
lunches:
“Here, let me. I’m going to get out the lunches.” “No, get out, you
can’t manage this.” Meanwhile some one was ordering them all away from
the lunch baskets.
Thus it continued to the end with noisy, and in large part, fruitless
attempts on the part of Miss Bradford to keep some sort of order and
decorum.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Arrange for details of conduct before the event comes off on occasions
like this. As a basis for good order, organize the school into
committees, assigning specific duties to each and develop a sense of
dignity in each pupil, sufficient to sustain the part appointed to him.
Give explicit instructions on certain urgent matters.
“If the girls gather around the swings, offer them an opportunity to use
them; the chairman of the swing committee will see that this regulation
is carried out.
“Paul will attend to the lunches. Any one may place a lunch in his care
at any time, and receive a check for it. But no one can get his lunch
out until 11:45. Paul will attend to this without fail.”
Do not attempt too many regulations; be content with a few clearly
stated, necessary directions.
This method with slight modifications should be followed with children
of all grades.
COMMENTS
System and reasonably good manners have an appeal for children because
of the desire they have to imitate adults. Appointment to office gives a
child authority and evokes a corresponding respect from other children.
If each child is given a task, he quickly senses the situation when
required to conform to the standards of courtesy which he wants others
to follow in dealing with him.
It is always needful to plant at once, perhaps many times, seeds of new
acts, sometime before the fruitage is expected. A little reflection will
often permit a child to adjust himself, when, if required to act
instantly, he would break out in rebellion.
ILLUSTRATION (SIXTH GRADE)
Superintendent Blair yielded to an urgent demand to hold a miniature
barbecue in celebration of the series of victories in athletics. The
Lecompton High School had not lost a game of basket ball during the
season after meeting eight opposing teams.
[Sidenote: Handling a Crowd]
Miss McAuley, in charge of the sixth grade, was appointed custodian of
the water supply and as head usher, with instructions to drill the boys
and girls in her room to do the necessary work. She gave instructions
and practiced her pupils on these two matters.
“The ushers will say, ‘Dinner is now served, come this way, please.’
‘Men’s hats may be left here.’—‘May I show you to the drinking
fountain?’—‘This way out, please.’”
At first the novelty of the situation created more or less of a titter,
but in a few days the pupils mastered the set phrases and practiced on
their own number with a real enthusiasm.
Every other room in the school had a small part in bringing the event
off in a satisfactory manner. Of course the general conduct of the
school was thoroughly modified by this intensive method of instruction.
CASE 73 (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Rudeness]
“John Mason! I saw you! You go to the office at once!” Miss Maile spoke
partly as a form of apology to a gentleman who was brushing the dust
from an expensive hat. The embarrassed teacher continued:
“I am very sorry that John treated you so rudely. I saw him rush by you,
glance at your hat as it rolled away and dash on to where I stood. He’ll
catch it from the principal.”
Ere long the principal began his interview. He spoke with voice of
thunder: “Well, what are you in here for? I saw you here last week,
didn’t I? Come, now, tell me your story.”
“I knocked a man’s hat down.”
“Yes, I know you knocked a man’s hat down. But tell me about it. What
did you do it for?”
“I was sailing in the east door and struck his hat—”
“Now, just tell me why you knocked his hat down and why you went on
without picking it up.”
“I just hurried and didn’t see—” John felt very little like doing
anything more about excusing himself, he could not tell why.
“You may go. If I catch you again acting like that I’ll tan you right.”
The boy was dismissed with a shove that showed but the faintest trace of
friendliness.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Miss Maile can easily keep this matter out of the superintendent’s hands
by inviting the gentleman into her room, appointing a committee to
apologize for the room, since one of its members has committed a breach
of good manners. The words can be very few.
“We are sorry to have been rude. Please excuse us.”
We would suggest also in a school where there is a strong tendency
toward bad manners, that you apply the principles of suggestion and
approval. Some morning when the pupils are in a good mood, say:
“I want to tell you how _proud_ I am this morning.” (Smile at this
point, allowing your pupils to wonder what you are going to say next.)
Then, after waiting four or five seconds, continue: “I have been
watching pupils in my classes lately, both here in the school and
outside, and I have noticed many pupils who are very polite. It looks
fine to see a pupil pick up something another has dropped. I remember a
boy—a fine looking fellow—everyone liked him, and I used to wonder why
it was that everybody spoke to him and why everybody liked him so well.
I noticed that whenever he saw a chance to do a kind act for anybody he
always did it. If he happened to annoy anybody, he always stopped and
told the person he was sorry; whenever he walked in front of anybody he
always said, ‘Excuse me,’ and he always made everyone feel happy because
he was so kind. That is the kind of a person _I_ like, and I believe
that is the reason he was liked so well. I visited a school once in
which all the pupils were just as polite as could be, and the teacher
seemed to be proud because the pupils showed such good manners. I tell
you, I am going to watch from now on to see how many boys and girls in
my room are polite. It is certainly fine to do a kindness for someone. I
like the boy or girl who does it.”
The next day, smile again and say, “I’m even prouder than I was
yesterday morning. I saw several kind acts yesterday by my pupils. I
tell you, I appreciate it very much.”
COMMENTS
If acts of courtesy can be made a social affair, a powerful impetus will
be exerted toward reform. So long as a boy thinks he acts exceptionally
well if he is polite, and so stands in a class by himself, he will give
only grudging attention to matters of etiquette. Just as largely as
possible we should use the group to teach the individual.
In the case cited, the superintendent and teacher taught more
ill-manners by their example than they did good manners by precept. They
were brusque, rude, unsympathetic, tactless, and ineffective.
Strict conformity to rule can be as clearly required and uniformly
enforced by methods that are not dictatorial and terrorizing. The latter
may secure a few immediate formal results; the more cultured methods
will draw out a pupil’s interest and hearty response.
ILLUSTRATION (SEVENTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Accidental Injury]
Robert and Josiah Nash are thirteen-year-old twins. Their present sport
is kite flying. Yesterday they were intently gazing skyward and backed
up into Mrs. Scudder’s star flower-bed on the north side of her house.
The quickest way out was to continue their backward course. They left a
path of destruction as they emerged on the opposite side.
Mrs. Scudder saw them as they left the premises, and was thoroughly
angered with them as she rushed to view the remains of her precious
flowers.
The boys were too much concerned with their fun to attend to the damage
they had done, but just before supper time, the two appeared at Mrs.
Scudder’s front door. Her face fell into a troubled appearance at once,
but the boys got in the first words:
“We came to settle for the damage we did this afternoon,” was their
first sentence. “How much do we owe you?”
“Now, would you think it damage! I should say there is damage! I saw you
boys go on and I thought that was the last I’d see of you. Come out here
and I’ll show you.”
All of their courage fled for a moment at these words. But they
obediently followed her, not knowing what next to expect. The three
stood about the beautiful flower-bed, as Mrs. Scudder resumed.
“Now you boys have done the manly thing and I am going to meet you more
than half way. Let us all quickly straighten up these poor trampled
things and water them. If you’ll help me do that, I shall thank you very
much, and we’ll consider everything square.”
The task was soon accomplished. On the way home the boys vowed that they
did not wish to be so careless again since Mrs. Scudder had, after all,
shown such a good spirit toward them.
In a system of schools organized with any approach to thoroughness the
most serious problems of politeness have been solved long before the
grades are completed. Repeated associations and the formation of
friendships with persons of dignity, refinement and culture, no doubt
will necessitate more adjustments as time goes by. How to acquire the
manners of a new environment, and the necessity for so doing are fully
worked out in the grades. But too often, something remains for the high
school to do in the direction of training in good manners.
CASE 74 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Reforming Manners]
Mr. Robertson found enough trouble on his hands when he took the
Allentown High School without giving any special attention to such
matters as politeness and good manners, generally.
His first assistant, Miss Sibley, finally overcome with disgust, fairly
demanded of him that he do something to improve conditions.
“These people are perfect boors. They have no more caution about the
commonest courtesies than street Arabs.” In fact many of them did roam
the streets with no home restraint.
Aroused from apathy, Mr. Robertson set his machinery into action. The
next morning he gave a long talk in the assembly period, mentioning
about twenty forms of courtesy which he insisted they must adopt.
“You must be careful to tip your hats, boys, when you meet ladies. Don’t
talk loud on the street. Don’t shove people about when you hasten
through a door,” etc.
Several whispered remarks showed how the talk was taken.
“What’s this he’s stuffing down us?” “Something’s come over him. He’ll
get better!” “We can’t take on all that gaff.” “I get all of that at
home that I want; shut him up!” Finally some one turned the laugh on the
affair, after getting permission to speak.
“People around here wouldn’t understand us if we tried to go through all
those motions. Can’t you tell us something easier?” Mr. Robertson
dropped the matter and began to watch for results thereafter. He saw
none except some crude mockeries of courteous behavior.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Correct the blunders of this man, by thinking out a plan of action with
some care. If it seems best to make a public speech on politeness first,
point out instances where the school has shown excellent breeding. Cite
cases of ill-breeding with pupils in another school as the subjects.
Point out prominent persons of the community who have shown you marked
courtesies. Take up but four or five points at a time, briefly, and with
dignity so as to compel respect. A little raillery need not be taken
seriously, as it may easily conceal genuine respect for what you
propose.
COMMENTS
Building on the ground already gained convinces pupils that the new
habits recommended are not a novelty but an extension of something they
already respect. Only so can unfamiliar customs of courtesy be
introduced, especially if some of the children come from uncultured
homes. It requires real pedagogical skill to convince the untaught that
acts of courtesy are not necessarily hypocritical and affected.
Good manners come naturally to the adolescent, since this is the period
of display of the person. When once the novelty can be forgotten there
is a warm response in courteous forms of behavior. Hence, the cautious
teacher does not hold up a pupil to scorn or shame, but deals gently
with him on the assumption that he knows no better.
Imitation is the best agency for teaching courtesy. An administrator
should watch every teacher to ascertain if he treats the pupils
courteously. In bringing visitors into the school, one can select models
of courtesy and immeasurably stimulate student interest in good manners.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Dramatizing]
Arthur Scudder left Vernon College with all the polish that four years
in a coeducational school could furnish him. He was tall, finely
proportioned, perfectly groomed, easily poised, and fitted to win the
attention of any one who came to know him. Withal, he was quite
unassuming and wore his good manners with a gracious innocence.
After a week at Wellington, he said to himself:
“Something is to be done here. These young bloods and lassies need a
little training in good manners. I believe I’ll try to connect it up
with several other matters and make no separate item of it.”
Accordingly he brought together the English teacher and the teacher of
history for consultation. “I want,” said the principal, “a play that
will exhibit a modern situation, involving Americans, in considerable
numbers, on foreign soil. The plot must involve a political issue and
the characters must exhibit very conspicuously faultless observance of a
large number of the rules of courtesy. Can we find such a thing?”
It took a month to answer the question. Finally, “Ethel Proctor’s Peace”
was found, examined and accepted. The cast required forty-one
characters; no one of them was burdened with a very heavy part. It
suited Mr. Scudder’s purpose entirely. The scene was at The Hague and
the plot interwove fragments of the great European conflicts, diplomacy
and love. It took two months to prepare it, owing to the chorus practice
that was a necessary feature.
Was the principal disappointed in his scheme? By no means. He coached
his pupils with rare enthusiasm and drilled them into characters they
had never assumed before. He refused to fix the cast finally, until he
had made several shifts; thus he put certain individuals through some
very much needed practice.
The effect was marvelous. In fact the entire school was profoundly
molded by the work done in preparing and giving this splendid play.
Children’s eyes follow their interests. Their attention is absorbed in
that which makes the strongest sense impression. A room full of children
can be managed only by teaching them self-control.
CASE 75 (SECOND GRADE)
[Sidenote: Staring at Visitors]
The Mapleton primary room was in the hands of a genius for the first
time in years. Miss Tenney was in her first year of teaching, but had
put into it an uncommon amount of vim and sense. She sifted out the best
things from new methods and put them through with tact.
As a consequence, early in the year, visitors began to drop in and
observe her work. They were looking for her weak spot and found it: the
boys and girls could not stick to their work when visitors were present.
For example, Miss Tenney was reported to have said in Mrs. Wm. Van
Kirk’s presence:
“Walter and Clarence, go on with your work now.” “Eleanor and Pearl,
don’t look that way. Look at your book.” “You must go right on with your
school work.”
It was such a delicate matter to handle that no one dared speak to her
about it, so the unfortunate and unnecessary situation is prevalent to
this day.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Give instructions on how to behave when visitors are present at a time
when no stranger is in the room.
Lay the stress on showing some good work to the friends of the school.
Repeat some of the words of praise that have been spoken regarding “our
work,” and promise a good many more visitors before long.
Name the children beavers or bees and tell them how well they have
worked and what they may hope to accomplish if every child will work
hard.
Apply the principles of suggestion and approval. Some morning, say
tomorrow morning, when all the pupils before you are fresh and in a good
mood to have suggestions lodged, rise from your chair, walk around in
front of your desk, smiling, and say something like this: “I want to
tell you how _proud_ I am this morning.” Pause at this point, allowing
your pupils to wonder what you are going to say next. Then continue: “A
visitor came in to one of my classes a few days ago and I noticed a good
number of my pupils kept right on with their work—their heads straight
forward, instead of turning around and bending their necks out of joint
trying to see the visitors, as they do in some schools. Now, a visitor
always notices this. I went into a school once where everyone twisted
his neck so much that I wondered if there wasn’t something wrong with
all of them. Then I have visited other schools where the pupils kept
right on with their work and it looked just fine. The teacher seemed to
be proud because the pupils showed such good manners. I tell you I’m
going to watch from now on and when I see everyone in the room
continuing his work when visitors come, I’ll feel like going to my desk
and raising every one of the grades a notch or two because it’s a good
trait in any school.”
The next time a visitor comes, a greater number of pupils will pay
attention to their work than before, so on the following morning, again
approve your pupils for their good manners in the presence of
yesterday’s visitor, bringing out the point that you noticed several
more yesterday than you ever did before.
One of the most important points about this method is that those who
stare are practically ignored. They are not approved nor even talked
about. In order for them to be included in that class which is
_noticed_, they must fall into line.
It is important that you spend the smallest amount of time possible with
the visitor when he comes. Simply show him a good seat and then go about
your work as if he were not present. Many teachers are responsible for
their pupils paying so much attention to the visitor because they are
continually going back and talking with the visitor, explaining various
things to him during a class recitation. In other words, the direction
of the teacher’s attention largely determines the direction of the
pupil’s attention.
COMMENTS
Too much attention can easily be devoted to a small matter of this sort.
Miss Tenney, by a little manipulation, could have placed this staring at
visitors where it belonged—in a subordinate relation to the remainder of
her work. Her own absorption prevented her from properly instructing her
pupils when guests were absent. A small neglect of this sort may nearly
undo a very fine piece of work; surely this will be the case if the
children discover that they have free rein under certain circumstances.
ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Greeting the Visitor]
Rose Holden had charge of the Pines Hill district school for the summer
term. Having taught in the same district in another settlement, she was
well known before her school opened. Visitors came in somewhat
frequently, and provision for courteous treatment of them was necessary,
but such as would not disturb the school.
“I wish to make the following announcements about visitors,” she said
one day. “When visitors knock I will meet them at the door. Since there
is no space for them to sit in the back of the room, I shall bring them
to the front and shall introduce them to the school. You will stand and
say together: ‘We are glad to see you, Mrs. ——.’ After that you and the
visitors will take seats and you are to go on with your work. This means
that you are to forget that any stranger is in the room. I shall repeat
these instructions now and then so that all may understand.”
Miss Holden’s pupils all happened to be small children. With an older
class of pupils she would not have requested the formality of rising.
With the little ones, however, the act afforded a brief rest for the
pupils, satisfied their desire to share in greeting the visitors and
made them more willing to return quietly to their study.
CASE 76 (FOURTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Gazing at Visitors]
Miss Olney had heard that her new room in Virden was not a very good
one, but she had no idea how awkward and ill-bred children could be
until she saw their actions on the first day, when two mothers and one
father came with new pupils to the school. Visitors were evidently a new
experience for this third grade room, for the pupils stared constantly
at the trio seated on the platform, where they had been placed with much
politeness by Miss Olney.
“You’ll have to pardon the way those children stare at you,” she said to
the visitors. “They don’t seem to be used to company. Children, let’s
see every eye on the lessons, now. It isn’t polite to stare at company.”
The children opened their books, and gazed at them unseeingly. Miss
Olney turned to Mr. Turner, whose little daughter was a new pupil, and
explained to him the course she would take. “We don’t have history in
this room, I’m sorry to say. Perhaps we can put it in later. Harvey, do
you have your problems? Then why don’t you go to work? Our guests are
not visiting you; they are visiting the room, and they want to see the
room at work.”
Presently she turned to Mrs. Albright, another of the trio, and began to
explain her ideas of teaching. But in the midst of her explanations she
saw Mary Hill and Sara Bly watching her and her guest.
“Mary and Sara, this is time to get lessons. Dear me, Mrs. Albright, I
do hope you’ll come to see us later, when we have learned to be better
behaved. These children certainly do need some training, and I intend to
give it to them. Look at those little Johnsons; they are fairly staring
a hole through you, Mrs. Young.”
Mrs. Young laughed with her at the staring little Swedes, who quickly
looked at their books in confusion at the evident discussion of them,
and flushed very red. Feeling that they were interfering with the
program of the school, the three visitors soon left, and then Miss Olney
was freer to give her attention to her pupils.
“Now see here,” she began, “there is one thing we might as well
understand first as last. When company comes, I want you to go right on
with your regular work, and _I’ll_ entertain the visitors. Above all
else, don’t stare at them. You get your lessons, or else you’ll fail
right before company, and then think how ashamed you’ll be. I know you
all want to show off before company, don’t you? And instead of showing
off, you all look as countrified and awkward as a lot of little
geese,—just as though you never had company at home.”
Miss Olney did not have much company during the year, but when she did
she went through about this program each time. Her pupils did not
improve in manners; at the end of the year they were as awkward,
self-conscious and ill-bred as in the beginning. She had utterly failed
because she did not know that good manners are largely taught through
imitation.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Usher guests quietly into the room, and place chairs, or allow pupils to
place chairs for them in some part of the room where their presence will
not interfere with school activities. Talk to them, if at all, so
quietly that pupils will not be disturbed in their work. Go on with
school work as though guests were not present; they want to see the
school routine. Your own quiet acceptance of the presence of guests will
help the pupils to regard the visit as less of an event. If the children
stare at guests, attract their attention by some exercise or talk to
them about their work, or let them do some favorite task that appeals to
them strongly. Then, when the company has gone, talk to them frankly
about the matter of staring, and show them how much more courteous it is
not to look at people intently. Never talk about your pupils to
visitors, unless you can say something pleasant of them; and even
compliments should be paid with caution, as the sweet grace of
unconsciousness is easily spoiled in little people. By your own easy,
matter-of-fact politeness to guests, set the pupils a good example to
imitate.
COMMENTS
Miss Olney made several mistakes. First of all, she made her pupils very
conscious of the visitors by putting them upon the platform and spending
her time during lesson-hours talking to them. Company should never be
put upon a platform unless they are to be looked at; for any child feels
that an unusual object, placed directly before him, must be meant to be
seen. Miss Olney had no business asking her pupils to do what she did
not herself do; she spent her time with the visitors, neglecting her
regular program, but asked her pupils to attend to their lessons. She
should have known that voluntary attention is weak in early childhood,
and needs every help to growth. She made Harvey, Sara, Mary and the
little Johnsons very self-conscious by correcting them before guests,
then reproved them for not going on with their work in complete
unconsciousness of anything unusual. In short, she ignored the value of
example in every way.
Dramatic exercises are a most effective means of reaching small
children, since they offer the elements of vividness and repetition.
ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL)
“Hey, there, teacher!” called out Johnny Scott to Miss Strong, whom he
spied across the road. “Say, you didn’t lick me today, did you? Pa said
you would, but I told him where he got off at.”
[Sidenote: Loud Manners]
The men lounging before the postoffice laughed good-naturedly as Johnny
yelled this greeting to his teacher. She was embarrassed, but not angry,
for she knew Johnny and fine manners had never had a fair chance to
become acquainted. She dreaded going to the postoffice for her letters,
but as she could not have them without making the trip, she finally
mustered up courage and ran the gauntlet of staring idlers. One of them,
Ike Masters, spoke to her as she came out.
“Well, the first day’s done, ain’t it?” he asked with kindly interest.
“An’ you ain’t sorry, now, I’ll bet. If my boy gives you any trouble
just lick the stuffing out of him, an’ I’ll do it again when he gits
home if I’ve hearn about it.” His friends nodded and guffawed their
approval, and Miss Strong escaped with a murmur and a smile. The smile
came because she realized that these mountain people were kindly
disposed toward her and her work, and that their crudeness was that of
ignorance and not that of viciousness.
“We are going to play a game,” she announced the next day, when regular
lessons were done and the happy play-hour had come. “We’re going to play
we are going along the street, and meet each other. We’ll practice the
right way to greet our friends.” She told a little story of a boy who
started out one morning and met various people,—a lady, whom he greeted
with lifted hat; an old man, whose basket he carried; a stranger, whom
he directed; and a lost baby, whom he took home to his mother. She
illustrated graphically the various stages in this small paragon’s
progress, and then asked who wanted to play that he was Ben Blossom (the
name of the model boy). Two hands went up; really all wanted to play,
but games were a new thing and the children were shy. So these two boys
were allowed to put on their hats and play the little drama of good
manners. She herself took the part of the woman, and greeted the boy who
lifted his hat with sweet courtesy. She hobbled along like an old man,
with her satchel for a basket, and she selected the smallest girl to be
the lost baby. They were all so excited about the play that they forgot
to stop at four o’clock; and Miss Strong promised that they might play
it again.
When they played it the second time, Bob Everly took the part of Ben,
and Dicey Snively was the lady. “Good morning, Miss Snively,” Bob called
out cheerily as soon as he entered the room. “How d’ you do?”
“Aw, that ain’t the way to do it,” Bud Hawkins complained.
“’Tis too,” returned Bob, hotly. “Ain’t it, Miss Strong?”
“Let’s talk about that,” said Miss Strong. “Bob, do you think Ben
Blossom shouted at the lady as soon as he saw her, or did he wait until
he was near her and then spoke in a rather low voice?”
“He waited!” Bud Hawkins put in virtuously.
“I don’t know,” said Bob. “What _did_ he do?”
“He waited until he had almost reached her, and then he lifted his hat
with the hand that was on the other side of her. See if you can show Bud
just how it was done.”
Bob did it beautifully. “Now,” said Miss Strong, “I want to see if you
can bow and lift your hats to me, next time you pass me on the road, as
nicely as Ben Blossom did to that lady he knew. And you’ll wait until
you are near me before you begin to tell me things, won’t you? I like
that so much better than calling out to me.”
“My pop don’t lift his hat,” said Bud. “He says it’s stuck-up.”
“I think it’s stuck-up _not_ to lift your hat,” said the new teacher.
“If you don’t lift your hats, I might think you didn’t like me.”
By means of such little plays Miss Strong taught her mountain boys and
girls the more obvious points of good manners. Gradually they learned
not to shout to her across the road, to address her by name instead of
by the title “Teacher,” and to raise their caps punctiliously when she
passed. A few of the fathers, as eager as their children to learn the
ways of the world, also learned to salute her courteously; but most of
them merely tolerated this innovation as a harmless fancy of the new
teacher’s.
COMMENTS
The use of the dramatic method in dealing with faults based on the
exercise of imitative faculties has these recommendations:
1. It presents the new ideal for imitation vividly; it brings it
before the children in action, with words and gestures.
2. It overcomes the physical inertia of unusedness through practice.
Any one can remember cases in his own childhood in which he
resolved to do a certain thing, but failed when the chance came
through sheer lack of practice; the unschooled muscles refused to
do a new, strange thing. Teachers should be careful to practice
the game several times before suggesting that the action be made
a part of daily life.
3. It gives a pleasant association to the new idea; the association of
play is far more pleasant than that of didactic instruction.
Games and plays can be made very interesting and little children
love them.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (THIRD GRADE)
[Sidenote: Slouching]
Another example of the effectiveness of the teacher’s own influence in
correcting bad habits formed through imitation, is the experience of a
teacher in a primary room in Ohio. She noticed the bad posture of her
little people on the first day, but was not surprised, as she had known
her predecessor to be a woman of slouchy appearance and stooped
shoulders, although an excellent teacher in other respects. She said
nothing about posture for two weeks, although she took especial pains to
stand and sit correctly herself. She hoped that her silent example would
effect a change.
Silent example does sometimes effect a change, without the need of any
word. This is when the imitators are either startled into attention
through the spectacular nature of the model offered, or are sensitive to
differences in models. In this case the children did not even notice
that their new teacher stood differently from their former one, for they
were not at all sensitive to the difference between good and bad
postures. So Miss Sturdevant began to make her example effective by
making it vivid.
“I want you to look at me a moment,” she said one morning, as she seated
herself before her pupils with her profile turned to them. “Please
notice my shoulders. Do you see anything wrong with them?” She was badly
round-shouldered at that moment. But the children were so completely
unconscious of the problem to be dealt with that they saw nothing wrong.
So Miss Sturdevant straightened her shoulders quickly.
“Do you like to see my shoulders this way, or as they were before?”
“We like you this way,” one little boy volunteered.
Miss Sturdevant again rounded her shoulders, straightened them, and
showed them how much better she looked with her chest well out and her
shoulders back, than when humped over. When the children had become
sensitive to the difference in her appearance, she called their
attention to their own round shoulders and crowded chests. There
followed a great straightening up, of course. The teacher drew two
pictures upon the blackboard, one showing chest and shoulders in a good
position, and the other showing a boy badly humped over his desk. Under
the first she wrote: “This boy will have a good figure when he grows
up.” Under the second she wrote: “What kind of a figure will this boy
have?” When all this had been done, the children began to notice Miss
Sturdevant’s erect posture, and to straighten up when she threw her
chest out or held her shoulders back suggestively.
When the first matter of correct sitting posture had been made clear by
repeated example and explanation, good standing posture was taken up,
then position when lying in bed, sitting in an ordinary chair and so
forth. In every case, example was clarified by explanation and reasons
were given. As Miss Sturdevant was a sweet and attractive woman and
loved by her pupils, they eagerly followed her example and directions,
and the bad effects of the former imitation were practically eliminated
by the end of the year.
Sometimes imitation and instruction can be effectively reinforced by
suggestion and approval. For example, some morning when the pupils are
fresh and in a good frame of mind to accept suggestion, the teacher
might say: “I want to tell you how proud I am this morning” (pausing,
allowing the pupils to wonder what will come next), then continue: “A
visitor came into one of my classes a few days ago and I noticed a good
number of my pupils sitting up just as straight as could be, with their
shoulders back like this.” (Here she should put her shoulders back
decidedly.) “Now, a visitor always notices this. I have visited some
schools where the pupils didn’t seem to have good postures at all, while
in other schools where I have visited, the pupils were all healthy
looking, robust, with big, broad shoulders kept well back. They made a
fine appearance. I’m going to watch from now on and just see how many I
can count who keep their shoulders back. It’s mighty fine to see
everyone in the room sitting up straight. I like to see a straight
physique and I am going to tell you tomorrow morning how many I count
today.”
The next morning the teacher should again approve the pupils regarding
how straight they sat the day before, bringing out the fact that she
noticed several more yesterday than ever before.
The skillful use of imitation is a particularly good means of bettering
conditions in schools in which there is no real badness, but in which
quietness and order are absent. It is not enough that children mean
well; they must also learn to work economically and efficiently, or they
are not being educated truly. One reason for the noisy school-room is
that quietness has not been held before American children as a universal
need. There have been teachers enough who have insisted on a death-like
solemnity in school-room routine, but few that have seen that training
in quietness must have a bigger end in view than mere school-room order.
Young people, having strong nerves and stronger motor impulses, are not
naturally quiet; therefore, the advantage of quietness must be shown
them conclusively, and ways of being quiet, of doing things without
unnecessary noise, must be made concrete by illustration. With the
desirability for quiet and the definite ways of attaining it both made
clear to them, imitation of quiet ways of accomplishing their ends will
follow.
CASE 77 (SIXTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Quiet Manners]
After three weeks’ work following the holidays, Miss Herbert found
school-room conditions in Farmerstown gradually declining. A series of
annoyances was instituted; certain troubles seemed to become the
fashion, then die and give place to new ones, none very serious but all
disconcerting. Awaking finally to the situation, she decided to watch
for the next outbreak and deal with it severely.
“Louis Fischer, you dropped your pencil on purpose, I just believe!” and
before she was done with the sentence another and another went
clattering on the floor.
Her eye fell next on Arthur Boyd. “Now, Arthur, I’ve stood this just as
long as I can. You two can just as well begin behaving properly at once.
Get up, both of you! Stand on your seats until I give you permission to
get down.”
With open-mouthed wonder, the two mounted their seats as ordered and
watched with glee the complete absorption of the other pupils in this
novel sight. Some pretence of work was maintained for fifteen minutes
until the two were ordered down from their seats.
The results were not satisfactory. The children felt somewhat insulted
at this form of punishment, at the same time some of them wanted to star
as the object of general attention.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
The best remedies for noises of this sort are intense drive on
interesting work, and indifference to the noise, if there is an apparent
concerted movement to annoy the teacher.
In case you find it needful to speak privately to any pupil, assume that
his motives are good all the way through and that he would like to lay
his pencil down properly. Perhaps the following words will be
appropriate:
“I see you have some difficulty in keeping your pencil. My own desk has
a slant and sometimes gives me trouble on that account. If we will lay
our pencils down carefully in the groove, they will surely stay where
they belong.”
COMMENTS
For these minor noises it seems safe to recommend for children in any
grade the methods just outlined. Nothing is surer to provoke disrespect
for a teacher than excessive attention to small annoyances. On the other
hand the best remedy for these trifling troubles is plenty of hard work.
In nearly every instance the noisy pupil is not a vicious child, but an
active child. Let us recall how eagerly children produce interminable
noises of all sorts when left to their own devices—banging, whistling,
drumming, screeching noises. In school hours the noise-hunger takes
secondary place. The pleasure of creating a sensation is the chief cause
of the annoyance.
ILLUSTRATION (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Experiments]
Miss Miller came into a very noisy fifth grade room, where the pupils
were good-natured and docile, but unused to orderly methods and
untrained in self-control. She won their liking at the outset by her
courtesy and her real mastery of her teaching subjects; therefore she
found herself in a good position, after the first fortnight of
establishing her authority, to attack her great problem of reducing the
school-room routine to quietness and economy of nerve-force.
“I want you to help me make an experiment,” she said one day. “Yesterday
was a rainy day, and we had more than the usual amount of noise, I
think. You spent the whole of your twenty minutes in studying your
mental arithmetic, and yet you made eighty-two mistakes out of a total
of one hundred thirty questions; I kept count carefully. That was too
many by far, wasn’t it? I tried to think how we could bring up our bad
record, and I decided that we make too much noise in study hour. So I
thought we would experiment, and see if we can get our arithmetic better
when we are quiet. I’m going to select ten pupils today, and let them go
off by themselves in quiet places to study by themselves. Who wants to
go? And the rest of us here will be as quiet as we can be, and we’ll see
what the effect will be on our lessons.”
The children were eager for the novelty of an “experiment,” and of
course it proved to them, as Miss Miller planned it should, that
quietness brings better lessons and that they are learned in less time.
“I wonder if we can reduce the time spent on our arithmetic lesson to
fifteen minutes, and thus have five minutes more for our music, or for
the story hour?” she said. “Of course, we shall need to have the room
very quiet, to do that. Who can suggest ways in which we can control the
noise during study hours?”
Many suggestions came from the children. “We can remember not to move
our feet around after we have placed them on the floor.” “At home, when
baby is asleep, mother has us walk on tiptoe if we have to cross the
room.” “We can have it quiet if everybody makes up his mind not to
whisper once.” “I keep dropping my pencil on the floor, and I’ve thought
of a way to stop that. I’m going to have a string on it and fasten it to
my buttonhole, and then if it does drop it can’t reach the floor and
make a clatter.”
Miss Miller suggested other ways, and they made a list of them on the
blackboard, so as to keep them all in mind. Under the teacher’s
sympathetic leadership, there ensued a campaign to eliminate noise from
study hours. Without mentioning it, Miss Miller enlarged the scope of
their efforts to include quieter ways of passing materials, walking
about the room, and putting away books. Mutual imitation strengthened
the movement; just as these pupils had before imitated the thoughtless,
careless, noisy way of doing things, now they imitated a thoughtful,
controlled method of accomplishing results. What mischievous noise there
had been disappeared automatically through the force of public opinion;
for when the room as a whole saw the results of a quiet regime, saw that
it brought them more time for the recreational part of the school
program, a prejudice against unnecessary noise developed which rendered
the maker thereof unpopular.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Do not treat noise as a crime. Consider it a disease, or rather a lack
of development, a failure to acquire a desirable skill. Follow this
plan:
1. Show that quiet is really a desirable thing for the pupils
themselves—too often they have an idea that it is merely a cranky
demand of the teacher’s, with which, of course, being healthy
young animals, they have little sympathy.
2. In a spirit of coöperation, devise and clarify means of securing
quiet habits. Show the pupils how to lift their feet in walking,
do not simply command them to walk quietly. If pencils fall, have
them tied. Teach pupils how to handle books, pencils, tablets (in
really up-to-date schools the dirty, noisy slates are no longer
used) and erasers, so as to minimize the chances of their falling
on the floor. If pupils fall noisily into their seats, show them
how well-bred men and women sit. They will never learn anything
more valuable than these lessons in good manners, even if an
occasional spelling lesson has to be sacrificed for them.
Not infrequently it happens that what, on the face of it, appears to be
bad manners or impatience, is really due to pathological nervousness. In
such a case the teacher has a further duty than the mere teaching of
good manners.
The impatient child is but a nervous child. Nervous children often spill
and drop things and are easily excited. What will tend to control and
quiet one condition will control and quiet the other. Firmness will be
needed in either case.
Find out the cause of the pupil’s nervousness if possible and seek to
remove that cause. You may need to speak to the parent. Approach him or
her in a kind spirit which the parent can not possibly mistake. Suggest
that you noticed some point about the child’s behavior at school which
perhaps the parent had not as yet observed. Be very careful not to
exaggerate any statement—instead be very conservative. For example,
after commenting on some good point about Mary, say something like this:
“I have noticed that Mary is beginning to show just a little nervousness
at times and I thought you would appreciate it if I would tell you. I
wondered if she might have eaten too much candy or too many rich things,
or whether she might have failed to get enough sleep.”
This method will bring about the coöperation of the mother, who will do
all in her power to help you with the child. You can, in the course of
your conversation with the mother, incidentally remark that you have
always found that a daily warm bath, plenty of rest, some exercise, and
plenty of fresh air will generally make a pupil feel like himself or
herself again. Avoid the suggestion that the nervousness is at all
serious with this child; assume, rather, that this is just a little time
in which the pupil is not feeling as well as usual.
At school, see to it that the nervous child gets plenty of exercise on
the playground and plenty of fresh air in the school-room. It is also
very important that you say pleasing things to the nervous child, words
which have a soothing effect. Even strain a point to approve the work
which the pupil does. Faultfinding will unnerve a child more quickly
than almost anything else. So be very patient and encourage the pupil
even more than you would an ordinary child. The impatient child tends to
get through with his work before other children do. The teacher should
always have at hand some pictures, picture books, boxes of curios,
colored pencils, stencils, colored blocks, building blocks and many
other things that interest children in primary grades. But whatever the
grade of the nervous child, avoid so far as possible all sources of
irritation; never lose a chance to commend effort; let your attitude
toward him be one of sympathy.
(9) _Cleanly habits and care of school-room._ Every first grade teacher
knows what it is to have one or more pupils who are disposed to be
uncleanly. This condition can not be termed a misdemeanor. It is more.
It is both annoying and unsanitary. What is still worse is that the
situation is not one of the child’s own choice, but it is due to
circumstances in the home; and too often, any measure that is taken to
reform the child gives offense to the parents. If parents do not know
what cleanliness really is, how can they teach it to their children?
Appeal to personal pride. This can be done without the pupils knowing
that the teacher is making an effort in that direction. The teacher may
give a talk about a clean school-room and incidentally say:
“Cleanly _pupils_ live in cleanly school-rooms. I am proud of all my
boys and girls when they keep their clothes and themselves clean.”
She can give some little talk about cleanliness each day for several
weeks and in a casual manner make the application to the pupils. By thus
appealing to their pride most cases of uncleanness will be remedied.
In very stubborn cases the teacher can have a private talk with the
pupil. Should there be more than one such pupil, the teacher must not
make the mistake of talking to both at one time; that would humiliate
each, and hurt the pride of both.
To the little boy who is in the habit of keeping his face and hands
soiled, the teacher may say:
“You have such red cheeks, Harold! What silky hair and what lovely
little hands you have! I like to see hair like yours combed this way!”
and then she can comb the little boy’s hair in an attractive way.
“How I do like to see red cheeks like yours, round and clean!” Then the
teacher can kindly wash the child’s face and hands and comment on how
fine they look. With a little straightening of the boy’s collar she may
say, “Oh, Harold, how sweet you look!” If she has a small mirror she may
let the boy see himself. Finally, she may propose that he do this each
morning before he comes to school. To please the boy she may say:
“Now, I am going to walk home with you because you look so fine.”
On the way home she should talk about the things they see. When she
comes to the home, she may bid the boy a cheery “Good night, Harold.”
Should she see flowers in the yard she may say:
“Harold, when you come to school tomorrow, I wish you would bring me one
of those flowers to wear on my waist.” Harold will bring the flower, and
the teacher should wear it with great pride. A teacher who will do this
can win any dirty little urchin to her and often induce him to make
every effort to keep clean. Several such private lessons may be
necessary.
As a last resort, but not wholly advisable, because it irritates and
offends the parents often, is the method of having a talk with parents
and explaining to them that they are expected to keep their children
clean. One teacher who had a few stubborn cases of uncleanliness,
purchased a wash basin, some soap, and several towels. Whenever the
pupils that were habitually uncleanly came in she had them wash their
faces and hands and comb their hair. She had little trouble, but not
every teacher could do this.
CASE 78 (SECOND GRADE)
[Sidenote: Soiled Face]
Miss Gebhard had been teaching in the Lowell School for a week. Every
one of the five days little Hazel Jordan had been a blemish to the group
of beautiful children with whom she associated. Hazel was ugly of face,
ungainly in movements, dull of intellect and unaccustomed to the regular
use of soap and water. This was Miss Gebhard’s first year of teaching.
She had read that teachers must see to it that their pupils have clean
hands and faces. During her first week she was so busy with organizing
her school that she felt unable to cope with lesser problems. As she
reviewed her week’s work and recalled the characteristics of her various
pupils, she said to herself, “That little Jordan girl must be made
cleaner next week.”
Accordingly, on Monday morning when Hazel entered with dirty hands, face
and clothing, Miss Gebhard said, “Hazel Jordan, go home and wash your
hands and face and come back here clean.”
Perfect stillness reigned over the school-room for a moment after this
command was given, and Hazel, eyeing Miss Gebhard as she went, passed
out of the room and ran breathlessly home.
Now, Hazel’s mother was a widow who washed so much for other people that
she had neither time nor strength to care for her own children; besides,
Hazel had few dresses, and on this Monday morning all of them were
soiled. When the child reached home and told Mrs. Jordan what Miss
Gebhard had said, her mother wept in self-pity.
“Nobody cares how hard I work,” she wailed; “all the notice I get is to
be insulted. You just stay home from school and I’ll go and see Tom
Ellis and ask him if a widow has got to dress her children up fine
before she can send them to public school.”
As soon as the washing she was then doing was “on the line,” she went to
see Mr. Ellis, a member of the school board, and told him that Hazel had
been sent home from school because she wasn’t dressed up to suit the
teacher.
Miss Gebhard was a little alarmed because Hazel did not return, and was
agitated when she saw Mr. Ellis, the most influential member of the
school board, standing in the doorway of her school-room. All of the
pupils stared while Mr. Ellis catechized Miss Gebhard as to why she sent
Hazel Jordan home. In vain she explained that she said nothing about her
clothes. She could see that Mr. Ellis thought she had acted unwisely, as
he reiterated, “Her mother’s a hard-working widow, you know, and her
feelings are hurt.”
It seemed clear to Miss Gebhard that she had blundered. She called upon
Mrs. Jordan, who wept at her own poverty and seemed unlikely to be able
to distinguish between cleanliness and richness of dress.
Miss Gebhard decided that the matter of cleanliness was too difficult
for her to handle and made no further recommendations on the subject
during the year.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Examine the hands and faces of several other children before inspecting
Hazel. If more than one needs to wash his hands, send all to the
lavatory, or to the pump, and ask them to return to the school-room
clean.
COMMENTS
If children are spoken to kindly about the condition of their hands and
several are sent at once to wash, they will take less offense. It will
seem then a matter of school-room practice rather than a personal
affront.
Drills or plays are often used to bring about habits of cleanliness.
ILLUSTRATION (FIRST GRADE)
[Sidenote: “Sanitary Brigade”]
Miss Barry organized her first grade room into a “Sanitary Brigade.”
Every one’s own ten fingers were the private soldiers over which each
one’s face was the captain. One child in each row, appointed by the
teacher each Monday morning, was the Lieutenant General of his row, and
Miss Barry was the Major General of them all.
Each captain inspected his ten soldiers and demanded that each one—right
and left Thumbkin, right and left Pointer, right and left Longman,
Ringman and Littleman—be perfectly clean. Then the Colonel inspected the
captains and finally the General had a grand review of all the troops.
The captains and colonels made daily inspections. If they failed to do
their work well they were sent to the ranks and new officers appointed
in their places. In other words, if one did not keep his own hands
clean, some one else was appointed to be inspector and reporter of his
hands. If any one was found with unclean hands or face, a new colonel
was appointed for the row in which that child was found.
Inspection was made every morning and any reported disorder was remedied
in the lavatory. When there was no further need of scrutiny as to clean
hands and faces and when therefore the game had lost in interest, a
similar game was instituted that required clean teeth, brushed hair, and
clean shoes.
CASE 79 (THIRD GRADE)
[Sidenote: Use of Handkerchief]
Miss Burr, the third grade teacher, sighed as Elma Colders passed her
handkerchief to her twin sister Zelma. This was a daily, almost hourly,
occurrence. The handkerchief wasn’t absolutely clean. These twins seemed
to take turns having colds, and Miss Burr believed the common
handkerchief was largely to blame for the transferred infection, but she
dared to say nothing about it.
Near to her desk sat Asa Kramer, who sniffed momentarily for want of a
handkerchief, while Fannie Black had a habit of often wiping her nose
with an upward stroke that was fast causing her nose to have a decided
skyward slant at the end.
One day she saw Morris Millspaugh repeat his habit of wiping his nose on
his coat sleeve and the following quotation popped into her head, “Ye
gods! Must I endure all this?” As if in answer to her question, Annie
Daily, in the back row, lowered her head and used the under side of the
bottom of her dress for a handkerchief.
“My query is answered,” groaned she. “Annie’s action says, ‘All this?
Ay, more!’”
Miss Burr said to a teacher friend, “If I were the family doctor of
these children, I’d be free to give their mothers a lecture on
sanitation, but since I’m not, I must keep within my prescribed field.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Correct these disgusting habits of your pupils. This can be done by
asking each child to bring a clean handkerchief every morning. A certain
teacher each morning asked all who received a grade of one hundred in
spelling or arithmetic the day before to stand and walk to the front of
the room. She then asked the other children _who had clean
handkerchiefs_ to give them the Chautauqua salute, and the children in
front were asked to return this salute. The children enjoyed this
immensely and demanded from their mothers clean handkerchiefs every
morning in order that they might be allowed to take part in this
exercise.
COMMENTS
Miss Burr was wrong to conclude that it was not her business to protect
the health of her pupils.
There were several beneficial results accompanying the Chautauqua salute
program described above. Those who did good work were rewarded and those
who cheered them were given drill in the hard task of praising their
fellows who had succeeded where they themselves had failed.
This salute was given in the morning, so that all handkerchiefs would be
clean for it.
[Sidenote: Enlist the Mothers]
Teachers can do no better than tactfully to enlist the aid of mothers in
matters of cleanliness.
ILLUSTRATION (FOURTH GRADE)
Miss Shaw, who taught the fourth grade in a very poor district in New
York City, organized a mothers’ meeting to convene alternate Fridays
after school hours. At one of these meetings she asked a trained nurse
to talk about cleanliness especially.
After the nurse had clearly explained the danger of infection in the
care of the nose, a mother who was a good shopper was delegated to take
orders for handkerchiefs from all present who needed them for their
children, to buy by the dozen and to deliver to the mothers at cost.
By teaching and helping the mothers in this way, Miss Shaw bettered
conditions in her own room and established a wholesome community spirit
among her patrons.
CASE 80 (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Decaying Teeth]
Something was the matter with Dora Payne. Miss Hubbart, her teacher, was
astonished at her stupid answers and generally inattentive attitude.
Usually Dora was alert and smiling; today she was morose, even to
tearfulness. Miss Hubbart finally said, “What is the matter, Dora?”
“My tooth aches,” said Dora.
“Did it ever ache before?”
“Yes, it ached last week and mamma took me to the dentist.”
“Charlotte, you may go with Dora to the dentist to see if he can stop
her toothache,” said Miss Hubbart.
The girls were gone only about half an hour, for it was but a few blocks
to the office of the only dentist in the village. After they came back
Dora was relieved and went on with her school work as usual.
When Miss Hubbart returned to the schoolhouse for the afternoon session
that day, she was greeted by Mr. Payne, Dora’s father, who said:
“Dora says you sent her to Dr. Hammond’s office today.”
“Yes, she was suffering with toothache.”
“What I want to know is, who is going to pay the bill?”
“Surely you wouldn’t want Dora to suffer with toothache.”
“That tooth has troubled Dora before and my wife took her to Dr. Hammond
and he said that she’d lose this tooth in a year or so, and we concluded
not to have it worked on. When she gets her last set of teeth it will
not be money thrown away to have them filled.”
“But you wouldn’t want Dora to suffer for a year, surely.”
“Maybe we know how to take care of our own child without the help of a
stranger. I’ll thank you to keep on your own ground after this.” And Mr.
Payne stalked away with anger showing even in his walk.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
When you feel assured that, from a health standpoint, a child is unfit
to do school work, send him home and as soon as possible thereafter
consult with his mother as to his health, giving advice only when you
see that his parents are ignorant or neglectful.
In the matter of the care of the mouth and teeth, give instruction as to
the age a child should be when the several kinds of permanent teeth
appear. Name the causes of decay of teeth and show children how to use
their tooth brushes to the best advantage.
COMMENTS
[Sidenote: Rhythmic Drills]
Teachers should never send children to a doctor without the consent of
their parents. A teacher’s help can be rendered in instituting
preventive measures better than in administering or advising curative
remedies. The harm done to the teeth by allowing them to decay through
the use of improper food, also the proper use of the tooth brush, and
the value of a sterilizing mouth wash can easily be taught and come
within the teacher’s legitimate province. In many towns she may also
secure the coöperation of the school nurse.
ILLUSTRATION (FIFTH GRADE)
Miss Stow, who taught the fifth grade at Deadwood, made up this motion
song which the children sang occasionally, suiting the proper motions to
each verse:
This is the way we brush our teeth
At morning, noon and night,
Keeping them free from food and germs,
Making them clean and white.
This is the way we brush our hair,
Making it smooth and clean,
Keeping it free from kinks and dust
And beautiful to be seen.
This is the way we brush our shoes,
Making them fairly shine,
Then we ever shun dirt and mud
And keep them looking fine.
When they sang the first verse she let them hold lead pencils in front
of their mouths for tooth brushes and had them make the up and down
motion that dentists recommend.
She noticed a marked improvement in the personal habits of her children
after they had learned this song, and they very much enjoyed singing it.
CASE 81 (FOURTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Scattering Paper]
Merrill MacFarland was elected to a position as teacher of the fourth
grade after three years of experience in the country schools. He had
found the circumstances in his former situation very unsatisfactory, and
resolved that since he was entering upon work in a graded school, he
would have some things different. Looking over the room after he had
wrestled his way through the first week, and recalling the events of the
past five days, he was strongly reminded of his former school
experience, since there was really a disgraceful amount of waste paper
all over the floor. The janitor had been complaining about the matter,
but MacFarland had been too busy with other matters to give attention to
it.
Monday morning, after the opening exercises, he made this announcement:
“Now, I want every one of you boys and girls just the moment you have a
piece of waste paper in your hand to go to the wastebasket and throw it
in. Last Friday our room was a perfect disgrace. On every desk there
were slips of torn-up paper and some whole sheets. We can’t get along
this way. George, you just this moment dropped a piece of paper in the
aisle there at your left. Pick it up at once and put it in the
wastebasket as I just told you.” George noisily moved his slow frame
according to the order, hardly imagining what would be the case if the
teacher’s idea were literally carried out and no more waste papers were
thrown upon the floor.
As soon as he had reached the basket, Mr. MacFarland discovered that
there were several pieces of paper on the floor in different parts of
the room, and said, “Each one look about his desk now and see if there
is any rubbish on the floor that should be taken away. If so, pick it up
at once and throw it into the basket as I told you. This is the thing to
do at any time when you want to throw something away.”
It need hardly be said that, with a great bustle, each one made the
desired search, and about nine pupils soon were on their way to the
basket with something or almost nothing that needed to be thrown away.
However unsatisfactory the noisy method had proved, it did bring about
the condition desired, for at the end of the day there was really
nothing that needed to be complained of regarding the cleanliness of the
room, so far as waste paper was concerned.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
A wise teacher does not make so much ado about one aspect of school-room
management. Mr. MacFarland could easily have foreseen that he was
introducing another evil along with his reform. Reverse the process.
Arrange that the wastebasket be passed around mid-way between
intermissions according to a definite schedule. Let the passing of the
basket be a privilege that is handed down from one pupil to another
according as they are seated, beginning with the pupil who sits to the
extreme right of the teacher’s desk. One pupil each day is appointed as
guardian of waste. The privilege and honor will be appreciated, and with
a word of caution, the service can be performed with the very slightest
interruption.
The following instructions might be properly given to the children when
the new system is established:
“We are going to save time as much as possible. Four times every day we
shall pass the wastebasket and you may put into it whatever you have on
hand to be thrown away. Nothing is to be said to the person who carries
the basket. He will go quietly, promptly, passing down the aisles, doing
a favor to everyone in the room by his careful attention to this
matter.”
COMMENTS
It is of the utmost importance that the necessary organization of
school-room conduct be established according to principles and policies
that are useful to the child at home and in other situations outside of
school life. He must be taught how to economize his own time, and the
attention of his fellows, how to do necessary things in a way that shall
be both effective and unobtrusive.
While the handling of waste is a small affair for one room in a school,
taken on a larger scale for home, state and nation, the problem of waste
is big enough to command the attention of every citizen; therefore, to
dispose of the matter properly in school is a valuable lesson in civics
and economics.
ILLUSTRATION (FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADES)
Supt. Kennelworth suffered the inconvenience of moving from an old
building into the new one near the middle of a school year.
[Sidenote: Bags for Paper]
In the final plans for the proper use of the new plant, it had been
agreed that each pupil must bring with him a small waste-paper bag to be
attached to each desk. There were no very definite rules as to its size,
but the warning was given that it must not be too large for the
convenience of all concerned.
The matter was brought up only once, each teacher making the
announcement in his own room according to the superintendent’s
instructions.
Wallace Jackson made his announcement for the fifth and sixth grades as
follows: “Each one of you is to bring a small, neatly made waste-paper
bag, barely large enough to hold what you think is the waste paper that
gathers at your desk every day. Are there any questions about this?” A
hand went up and the question was asked, “Who is going to empty these
bags?”
“Well,” said Mr. Jackson, “you will empty them yourselves. Just before
the close of school each day the wastebasket will be passed; your bags
will be laid down upon your desk, and in just a very few minutes every
bag will be emptied and placed in your desk. Any more questions?”
Another hand and another question, “How are we going to decide who will
carry the basket?”
This was answered by the statement: “I shall appoint some pupil to this
task every day. The method of selection will be announced to you later.
The only matter I want now to tell you about is the making of the bags.
Further details will be given to you when we actually begin our work
next Thursday in the new building.” Owing to the fact that some success
in keeping a neat room had been attained already in the old building,
Mr. Jackson’s announcement was received without surprise or anxiety.
(10) _Imitation of wrong social standard._ There is an imitation of mere
precedent which is a sort of social instinct, that can best be handled
socially. This is because the responsibility can be fixed on no one
individual, and as all the members of the group are equally guilty, all
should share in the needed lesson.
CASE 82 (RURAL SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Dropping Shot]
George Marston went into the country as teacher in a school in which
there had been much bad order. The directors were in earnest; they
wanted a good school, but for the salary they offered they had not been
able to secure a man who could handle the big boys who made the trouble.
They were not especially bad boys; but the tradition of mischief in the
school was so persistent that no teacher had been able to overcome it.
During the fall term there was no trouble, for then only meek little
girls and small boys attended. But on the first Monday after
Thanksgiving, corn-shucking being over, the older pupils came in an
avalanche of good-natured noise. The room, before so sparsely populated
by a few pupils, seemed to overflow with their energy. Trouble was not
long in coming, and it took the shape of a shower of fine shot, which
pattered down from the ceiling during the spelling lesson. George knew
that the hour of trial had come, and he called out bravely:
“Who did that?”
There was no response. The little girls were peeping timidly from their
books, but the big boys and girls frankly relished the coming fun.
“We may as well settle it now,” said George Marston. “We can’t have a
school without good order. Of course I want to be just, and first of all
I want to know who threw that shot. Will you tell me?”
No one spoke. Then the teacher went around the room, asking each one in
turn if he had done it. Every one denied it. There was clearly an
understanding among the pupils that gave the teacher no chance.
So Marston gave it up for the time being, and lessons were taken up
again. But at four o’clock he asked four of the leading boys, those he
suspected most, to stay after school. When the rest had gone, he
conducted an exhaustive examination, trying to find who was responsible
for the disturbance. The evidence was flippant, contradictory, mockingly
frank; but he found out nothing. Still with his idea of locating the
offense in one person, George held another trial the next night, with
the same result. Then he took the matter to the board.
“One or two persons must have thrown that shot,” he said to the board
members, “and if I can find the person who did it, and make an example
of him, then I know I can manage the school without trouble. But so far
I can’t find the offender. There doesn’t seem to be a ringleader; they
all hang together so.”
“Why can’t you find the offender?” asked one member.
“Because they all lie about it—at least there’s one person who is lying.
If only I could find that one person!”
“Why not lick them all, since they’re all mixed up in it?” This director
was a coarsely practical man.
“Because one person did the deed, and he ought to bear the punishment,”
George replied. “If I keep my eyes open and wait, in time I’ll be sure
to catch the boy that threw that shot.”
So he waited and kept his eyes open, but he never discovered the
shot-thrower. There was much more misbehavior during the days that
followed, and the struggle to keep even a semblance of order made the
term a nightmare to the harassed teacher. Little real work was
accomplished. The board, anxious to have a good school, but ignorant of
principles and methods, saw its desire come to nothing. Marston’s ideas
of discipline seemed to be centered on “making an example” of some one
offender, and the school took a mischievous satisfaction in shielding
each offender from discovery.
[Sidenote: Explosion]
The crisis came late in January. Marston had just put a full scuttle of
coal on the blazing fire in the big stove, when a sharp noise and a
great puff of smoke and flame burst from it. The explosion broke apart
the sections of the stove, and a serious fire was averted with some
difficulty. When they had made things safe and could look at each other
with smoke-grimed faces, teacher and pupils knew that a reckoning was at
hand.
“John Coffey, you brought in that coal. Did you put the gunpowder in
it?” John was fairly cool, and the reckless boys had been cowed and
sobered by the extent of the mischief that had been done.
“No, sir, I didn’t,” replied John; and his denial rang true.
“Did you, Carl?”
“No, sir.”
Marston went around the circle, as he had many times before; and all
denied their guilt. Finally Marston turned to the school.
“You may all go home now. We can’t have school until this mess is
cleaned up, of course. I shall see the board at once.”
The board decided, at a called meeting, that it would best get a new
teacher, and Marston resigned with infinite relief. The board sent to a
state normal school, explained the situation, and asked for a strong
man.
ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL)
The president of the normal school sent them Isidor Thomberg, a man of
experience and high scholarship. He came with the understanding that the
board was to support whatever he did, and he agreed to reduce the school
to order. He was confident, fearless, and told no one of his plans. But
he did meet the board on the night of his arrival, and heard their full
account of the troubles.
The next morning school opened as usual, with the new teacher and the
new stove dividing the honors of attention. Mr. Thomberg made just one
reference to the situation:
“Of course you know why I’m here,” he said. “I want to say one thing. I
shall never waste a moment’s time trying to find out who does anything
bad. We have to make up for a great deal of lost time this winter;
you’ll have to work hard from now until spring. We shall have no school
but a good one. Now we’ll go to work.”
Under the stimulus of his quiet confidence, the order was excellent that
first day. The school needed organization, and much time was spent in
showing the pupils economical ways of doing things. While the novelty
lasted there was no tendency to disorder, and when things settled down
into a regular routine the lessons proved so interesting under Mr.
Thomberg’s teaching that the boys forgot for a time to have fun in the
old way. A fancy skating club had been organized; a new era seemed to
have dawned, when one day, quite unexpectedly, the old problem popped up
again.
A row of pupils, coming quietly forward to the recitation bench, found
themselves stepping on a number of match-heads which had been scattered
in the aisle. At the same moment Mr. Thomberg himself, who had stepped
to a window to adjust a shade, exploded two of these little
trouble-makers. Every one looked up in surprise, for bad order had been
almost forgotten.
The teacher went to his desk. Very quietly he sent the class back to
their seats. Then he told the pupils to put away all books, and they
obeyed in a dazed way, afraid of they knew not what.
“I told you when I came,” said Mr. Thomberg, “that we couldn’t have
anything but a good school. The reason that we can’t afford to have bad
order is that we have too much serious work to do. I had begun to like
you all so much that I’m sorry some one has had to spoil our pleasant
beginning. But I meant what I said. So this school is closed, now,
indefinitely. You are all, without exception, suspended from school
until further notice. You will pass out as you always do.”
There was a breathless silence. Such a thing as suspending a whole
school had never been heard of before. Mr. Thomberg gave the usual
signals, and the boys and girls passed into the hall as though they had
been at a funeral. Mr. Thomberg went to the nearest house and called the
directors by telephone for a conference, which was scarcely begun when
parents began to inquire indignantly why their children, guiltless of
dropping match-heads, had been suspended from school. Mr. Thomberg
dictated the answer:
“Tell them,” he said, “that I have no time to ferret out the doers of
silly little tricks in my school. When the school gives me the assurance
that there’ll be no more trouble, then we’ll go back to work. Whoever
dropped those match-heads thought the school liked that sort of thing,
and you must show him that he is mistaken. I am a teacher, not a
policeman.”
The parents really wanted their children in school, and guided by the
suggestion, skillfully made by the teacher, they took steps to secure
the concerted action which Mr. Thomberg knew was the remedy for the
evil. He was reading the daily paper in the living room of his boarding
house that evening, when the response for which he had planned came.
There were seventeen of his twenty-six pupils in the party which called
on him. One of the older boys, Felix Curry, was spokesman.
“We came to ask you if you’d have us in school again,” he said. “All our
fathers and mothers want us to go back, and we’ll be good if you’ll let
us. The boy that threw the match-heads will tell you about it himself.
He told us he would.”
“There is no need of that, although he may do so privately tomorrow if
he wants to. But I should rather not know who did it, if you’ll all be
responsible for its not happening again. You see, I like you all so much
that I’d hate to know who did so foolish and wrong a thing. And if you
will agree that it is to be a good school, in which everyone works
together in the right spirit, I’ll agree to stay until the end of the
year. Otherwise I pack my trunk tonight.”
The pupils gave ample promises, which were not broken. Mr. Thomberg
stayed through that year and the next one also, and had the best school
in the county.
COMMENTS
This is an extraordinarily difficult situation. Mr. Thomberg’s success
in dealing with this unusual case depended first of all on the fact that
his knowledge of pedagogy enabled him to analyze the situation truly. He
saw that the bad order was not caused by any one pupil, but was the
result of a social tradition for which many persons, in and out of the
school, were responsible. All the pupils upheld the disorder; therefore
all the pupils were dealt with in a group.
In the second place he was independent, as a really first-class teacher
can be. He set the standard of behavior, and required his students to
come up to it or give up school altogether. Had the school declined to
take the social responsibility he asked of them, he would really have
packed his trunk and left. He was well prepared for his work, and was
greatly in earnest about it, nor did he propose to do what he considered
an undignified thing in probing for evil.
His personality was strong enough to set up a new standard for
imitation, and to supplant the old one of inefficiency and mischief. The
problem of order was for a time swallowed up in the greater one of
securing real mental development in his pupils, and when it did show
itself he treated it as a matter to be dealt with socially by the
pupils. This seemed to put upon them a responsibility they had been used
to having the teacher assume unaided, and they rose to the new honors
imposed upon them. Mr. Thomberg utilized imitation in setting up a new
regime, by requiring united action of his pupils. In this way he met a
psychological situation with psychological weapons.
(11) _Snobbishness._ Snobbishness is a very hard thing to meet wisely,
and a sin which is too easily learned by imitation.
CASE 83 (HIGH SCHOOL)
Joseph Lescinszky was a tailor in a small Middle West city, who lived in
five small rooms over his shop, with his wife and seven children. He had
plenty of patronage, for he was a good tailor, but he was unhappy, for
one of the dreams long associated with his American citizenship had
failed to materialize. His eldest son, Joseph Junior, was in the high
school—a homely, awkward boy with great wistful eyes and an incurable
shyness. He was a good student, but suffered constantly under the
heartless, matter-of-fact ridicule of his American schoolmates.
[Sidenote: Race Prejudice]
This ridicule was but the echo of the attitude of the whole community
toward the Polish family. They were the only foreigners in the place,
and their appearance, habits and speech afforded unlimited amusement to
everyone. Men who had had their suits made by the skillful, little,
Polish tailor told funny stories in which his broken English figured as
the chief point, and their sons and daughters in turn laughed at the shy
and awkward children whom they met at school.
No one realized how this ridicule embittered the life of the tailor
until Miss Swainson came to Hovey to teach in the high school. She took
her old cape to the tailor one day, thriftily planning to have it made
into a coat for school wear; and over the making of the coat, tailor and
teacher began to discuss Joseph and his school life. No teacher had ever
talked to him about Joseph before, and the little Pole voiced his
feelings tremblingly.
“My Joseph does not like the school,” he confided. “He goes because I
command him that he shall, but he has not his heart in it.”
“He does very good work,” comforted Miss Swainson. “His lessons are
always excellent.”
“Ah, the lessons he gets with no trouble. But the boys, they like him
not. They all time make fun on him, and my poor Joseph is not happy. He
is Polack, they say. It is not true—we are Americans now; there is the
paper,” and he pointed proudly to the naturalization paper, framed upon
the wall.
“We’ll see if we can’t make Joseph happy at school,” Miss Swainson
promised. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Now, Miss Swainson was one of the upright, downright people who go at
things directly and openly. She began a campaign for the kinder
treatment of Joseph Lescinszky, Junior. She had no doubt of her success.
An opportunity for beginning her kindly efforts in Joseph’s behalf came
soon. Joseph was always the butt for practical jokes, and Charlie Owen
was his particular tormentor. Therefore, when Joseph was tripped, going
to the dictionary, by Charlie’s projecting toes, she kept Charlie after
school and had a serious talk with him.
“Don’t you see what a contemptible thing it is for you to tease this
bright boy just because he is of Polish blood?” she inquired warmly of
smiling Charlie Owen.
“Why, Miss Swainson, he don’t mind. Everybody always laughs at those
Lescinszkies, and they don’t care. If they ever showed fight like
Americans I guess we’d let them alone, but they don’t. They’re not like
us.”
“That’s just why you should treat them better. They haven’t learned that
a boy has to fight in order to be decently treated,” Miss Swainson
returned with fine scorn.
“No, ma’am. If they could only learn that, they’d be all right.” Fine
scorn was wasted on Charlie.
All Miss Swainson’s efforts ended in this way. Secure in their feeling
that traditional American means for securing respect were the only ones,
smug with the provincialism of the small town, the school children
continued to express to the alien boy the contempt they had imbibed from
their elders. They merely smiled at Miss Swainson’s indignant efforts to
win justice and kindness for their Polish schoolmate.
Toward the end of the year the young teacher thought she detected a
shade of difference in the treatment given Joseph. This was due partly
to her constant shaming of the thoughtless cruelty of their conduct, and
partly to the respect he himself won by his good work in the classroom.
But although this small degree of success comforted her somewhat, she
felt still the defeat of her efforts keenly, not realizing that a change
of conduct based on imitation must come through a change of example
followed.
COMMENTS
Miss Swainson’s method did not go deep enough. Mere protest will
occasionally effect a change, but not often. If she could have gotten
behind Charlie Owen’s attitude, and found its roots, which were probably
in the attitude of some member of his family or a powerful older friend,
she might have truly converted Charlie to her way of thinking. His
statement that “everybody always laughs at those Lescinszkies,” might
have given her a clue, but she did not realize that she was only working
on the surface.
ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL)
Sallie Lou Pinkston came from Mobile, Alabama, to the small, northern
town of Cade Mills, when she was ten years old. She was the only girl in
an adoring family of brothers—a lovely, sunny-haired child, with the
confidence in her right to rule her world which her happy family life
had given her. She entered the fifth grade that fall, and scored an
immediate success with the whole room, teacher included. Her southern
accent was a continual source of delight; her matter-of-course
assumption that everyone wanted to do the entertaining things she
planned kept the whole room, with two exceptions, tied to her dainty
apron-strings.
The two exceptions were Laurastine and Enameline Flack. Laurastine and
Enameline belonged to the one colored family in town, and they had
always attended the public school and had always been well treated by
the other children. But when Sallie Lou cast her golden charm over the
room, things changed. Sallie Lou didn’t understand why they should be
there at all, and she surely didn’t intend to tolerate them as her
social equals. Led by the irresistible charm of Sallie Lou, vying with
each other to stand in her graces, the other children began to ignore
the two little colored girls, or openly to laugh at them and pointedly
to leave them out of their games.
Miss Stone, the teacher, being a northern woman and a believer in
literal democracy, thought this a very bad state of things indeed. The
two little girls were well behaved, wistful, little creatures, whose
tears at the new turn of things went straight to Miss Stone’s big heart.
She knew that the remedy must come in some way through Sallie Lou, who
had caused the havoc; for there was no possible way to supplant her
dominant influence, nor was such a thing desirable except for this one
cause. Sallie Lou had wakened the room to a new interest in many things,
and in everything except the treatment of the little “niggers” she was
sweetness and docility itself.
Could Sallie Lou be converted? Miss Stone tried it, with doubt in her
heart; she knew what prejudice is. She invited Sallie Lou to her house
for supper one Friday night, and after supper they sat by the fire and
had a long talk about it. Miss Stone presented the pathetic cases of
Laurastine and Enameline as touchingly as she could, but Sallie Lou
merely smiled divinely and told her, most sweetly, that of course she
wanted to do what was right, but that it wasn’t right for “niggers” to
mix socially with white people, and that the town should provide a
separate school for them. She was firmly entrenched behind the prejudice
of her rearing in a community which solved the problem this way.
Miss Stone reluctantly retreated from the attack, but she did not give
up. She went behind the prejudice to its support, behind the example to
its example. She cultivated Sallie Lou’s mother, her father, her four
charming brothers. The parents, finding few cultured people in the
little town, welcomed the well-read teacher and were very cordial to
her. When she had won their respect and liking, Miss Stone asked for a
frank talk with them about the conditions in her room, and told them
just how the irresistible Sallie Lou was leading all the other children
in the fifth grade to snub the two little Flacks.
At first the Pinkstons were amused, then they were indignant. They too
felt that the two colored children had no business in a school for white
children. But when Miss Stone had shown them that a separate school was
impracticable in a town that had but one colored family, that conditions
were very different from those of a southern city, and that a change in
Sallie Lou’s attitude would avert a personal tragedy for two innocent
little girls, the parents came finally to see the matter from her point
of view. They promised to talk to Sallie Lou and to persuade her to
change her tactics. Miss Stone thanked them, and changed the subject
quickly and brightly to something else.
Sallie Lou, at first with formal and awkward condescension, but later
with the same frank charm that won everyone to her, asked the two little
outcasts back into the fold of fifth grade fun. The rest fell easily
into their old democratic way of sharing things. Miss Stone had solved
the problem of race prejudice by changing the example.
2. Play—A Second Form of the Adaptive Instincts
The child never reveals his whole nature as he does when playing. His
physical, mental and moral powers are all called then into vigorous
exercise. On the playground the boy begins to learn how to struggle
with his fellow men in the great battle of life. His strength and his
weakness both manifest themselves there, so that it pays to study him.
—_Hughes._
Much school trouble is caused by the purely sportive impulses of
childhood, impulses which are in themselves entirely innocent and
wholesome. One of the most valuable parts of a child’s training is the
acquiring of a set of notions as to appropriateness—the knowledge of
when he may, and when he may not, rightly give rein to his wish to play.
Some children acquire these ideas of propriety readily, and adapt
themselves seemingly without effort to the customs of their environment;
but most children stumble through the period of adaptation with many
backslidings, for the instinct of play is stronger than the instinct of
adaptation to requirement.
But let it be remembered meanwhile that this same play instinct is one
of the strongest allies of the teacher in securing such adaptation, if
the instinct is properly directed. What lesson of politeness, neatness,
unselfishness, protection of the weak, promptness, responsibility, care
of pets, coöperation, chivalry—yes, even of duty and religion—may not be
taught through play! Draining off the play impulses into these
legitimate channels will relieve many a wearisome, perplexing day for
both teacher and pupils, and at the same time speed on the child toward
conscious self-control.
Perhaps the greatest single help in teaching children the voluntary
limitation of their play impulses, is the knowledge that play is only
postponed, not forbidden. Most children have so strong a love of
approbation that they like to do things in the proper way if the
sacrifice be not too great. They are willing to put off their fun, but
not to put it off forever. The teacher who says, “If you’ll wait until
recess, I’ll show you how to play a new game with marbles,” will secure
willing obedience, when she who takes the marbles away has only sullen
submission for her reward. Here the teacher utilizes the instinctive
love of novelty in teaching control of play impulses. During the period,
when conduct is so largely a matter of instinct, wise teachers play off
one instinct against another to the child’s gain, knowing that some
impulses need encouragement and others need to be inhibited.
[Sidenote: First Grade]
(1) “_Just mischief._” One of the most frequent ways in which the play
instinct expresses itself in the first and even in higher grades is in
the little annoyances which teachers group together under the general
term, mischief. An energetic child, if he is not constantly employed,
naturally vents his energy either in play or in trying to satisfy his
curiosity.
The principle of suggestion alone will often be sufficient to control
the child. The principle of substitution will work equally well.
Coöperation can be correlated with either of these, and expectation that
the child will do what the teacher desires should be used in whatever
method the teacher may adopt.
The mischievous boy will be quiet so long as he is reciting, but while
others are reciting he will immediately hunt for something else to do.
He will drag his shoe on the floor, reach over and touch his neighbor,
pull out a pocketful of string or help himself to his neighbor’s pencil.
It is not a case for punishment, but a time to apply one or more of the
fundamental principles. The teacher, without even a word or look, may
reach over and draw him to her side, asking him to look on her book, or
better still she may look on his book (suggesting that he attend to his
lesson). She may send him on some little errand—to bring a book or a
piece of crayon—and by the time she whispers, “Thank you, you did that
like a little gentleman,” he will have forgotten all about his mischief
(substitution and approval).
When the class is dismissed, however, the teacher must see that the
mischievous boy is kept busy and his work changed once or twice within
the half hour. She must not fail to show an interest in his work. The
comment, “That is so good, my boy, that I want you to put it on my desk
where we can look at it,” will so elate the child that he will work
industriously to do his best, and doing his best will keep him busy a
long time. When on the playground or in the gymnasium the teacher must
see that he gets plenty of “full-of-fun” play. It will use up some of
his restless energy.
The teacher must have an abundance of busy work ready for the next
restless period that comes, sorting blocks or marbles, straws or papers,
cutting or coloring pictures, putting books on the shelf, and anything
that will keep him innocently busy. Stencil cards, cutting out words or
letters, the distributing of materials for the class to use, games for
the recess and noon periods, frequent story periods during school hours,
interesting lessons, vigorous exercise, generous approval of every
effort to please the teacher—all these will gradually win the
mischievous boy to habits of self-control and industry. All children
like stories, and during the telling of the story, if it is at all worth
while, the children will be quiet and attentive. The teacher may,
however, call the restless child to herself, saying to him, “I like to
have somebody stand by me.” Better still, she may gather all the pupils
around her and say to the mischievous boy, “Robert, I am going to tell
you a story. The other boys and girls may listen.” This will captivate
the child, and when she has finished she may ask him to tell the story.
By this time the reader will sigh and ask, “Must all this be done to
keep one mischievous boy at work?” Yes, but it is far easier to interest
him than to be worried by his pranks. Then, too, by keeping him
interested, the teacher is administering to his development, while to
let him loll in his mischief would only tend to create in him habits of
inattention and idleness. At the close of the day the boy will go home
happy and the benediction of a happy teacher will follow him. Nothing
adds more to a teacher’s usefulness and happiness than the thought of
work well done.
In the above procedure the teacher has practiced suggestive control. She
has led the mischievous boy into activities that interest him, that
appeal and fascinate as well as satisfy that active mind, and that will
mature into right action. It is far easier to deal with a child full of
life, than to deal with a dullard. Direct properly the impulse that
causes this mischief, and it will become a force for real good in the
child’s life. The discreet teacher will look ahead and avoid
difficulties, and nowhere will she get more valuable clues to a method
of control than on the playground.
Watch the child in his play at recess to see what activity interests him
most. Suggest to him some point about that activity which he has
overlooked and commend him on his skill. Every child has a hobby. If you
can find this boy’s hobby and tell him something about it which he does
not know, you will make a warm place in his heart for yourself. Then
utilize the knowledge thus gained, and his increased confidence in you,
in order to add to his school work just the element that will make it so
interesting for the child that he will find the work more delightfully
fascinating than the mischief.
The first grade teacher needs to be in her room but a few days before
she will see some little child making grimaces at his neighbor and not
infrequently he may make a grimace at the teacher, especially if he
feels that the teacher has not dealt fairly with him. This is not a
serious annoyance and should give the prudent teacher no worry. It can
not be repeated too often that many of the small offenses that harass a
school day are doubly intensified by the attention that is paid them.
Often when a pupil does some petty misdemeanor, he would soon forget it
were it not that the teacher notices it and pounces upon the offender
with some brand of punishment and thereby the child learns that this
certain offense is a thing that the teacher dislikes. In the future,
whenever that child’s feelings are ruffled, he will resort to this
certain offense to annoy the teacher. The discreet teacher will train
her pupils in such a way that they will not settle upon any specific
type of annoyance.
In cases where a child resorts to the practice too frequently, the
teacher will find it well to devise some means by which she can
substitute one activity for another; that is, substitute a more
interesting activity for the making of grimaces. The teacher may use the
following method and conversation:
“Children, we are planning to have a little play party once a month.
This is to be on the last Friday afternoon of each month. Each one of
you is to bring either a cooky, an apple, an orange, or a banana, and I
will bring some candy. We will play all kinds of games and just before
school dismisses we will eat our dainties. Won’t that be fine? But,
children, I have just thought that any one who makes grimaces or ugly
faces during the month ought not to be invited. We do not want our party
spoiled. What do you say?”
Of course all, or nearly all of the children will say that any one who
is guilty of making faces shall not come. The teacher who has not tried
anything like this will think it is absurd and impracticable, but it
will greatly assist in removing grimacing and many other evils that
troop through a teacher’s school experiences.
The means of discipline need not necessarily be a party. It can be some
other affair or activity that children like. If the teacher chooses a
party, she must have a goodly number of games ready and keep her
children intensely interested.
The luncheon is an important feature of the party and must be well
managed by the teacher. All the sweetmeats must be divided into small
parts and so mixed that a child does not get the dainty he contributed.
A cooky can be cut into four pieces, a banana into four or five pieces,
and the same with other sweetmeats. Children like little things. Then,
too, the teacher may suggest that they play at having a luncheon.
CASE 84 (SECOND GRADE)
[Sidenote: Making Faces For Fun]
Adams White knew a large number of systems by which to rearrange his
features so as to produce laughter. When the book-agent sat at the side
of the room, Adams took occasion to entertain him with the horrible
figure made by drawing down his lower eyelids until a large part of the
eyeball was exposed to view. The boy did this, or a similar prank, every
once in a while, and his teacher, young Benjamin Danner, scarcely knew
what penalty would do the boy the most good.
Unfortunately for Adams, he was caught in the act. “Go to the
blackboard, Adams. Put your hands behind your back and lean forward till
your head touches the wall. Did you understand me?”
“Well,” thought the agent, “this is interesting. I can hardly believe
that such methods are in use today. But here is the proof right before
my eyes.” He watched Adams move in a clumsy, resistant manner, and
assume the position prescribed.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Instead of such a punishment as the one described above, we propose that
Mr. Danner pay no attention to the deed until school is out for the day.
Find some favor that Adams can do for you and put him at it immediately.
When he has completed the task, or at least made good headway, call him
to one side, look him straight in the eye, as he is seated in front of
you, and say:
“Adams, you need to be careful how you look at visitors who call at our
school. The gentleman was surprised at your action today. I felt sorry
for him. I want to know if you can keep at your work in an orderly way
on similar occasions hereafter.”
If the answer is more or less satisfactory, accept it and say:
[Sidenote: A Firm Injunction]
“I am going to depend on you for this. I want to see no more expressions
of shame on the face of a visitor because of your conduct. I want every
pupil to work straight on no matter who may come in.”
COMMENTS
This boy needs no publicity as a reward for his misdemeanor; he will
sooner or later take advantage of his unexpected predicament to make
more trouble for his teacher. The penalty had no logical connection with
the prank, and only aggravated the boy’s antipathy toward school rules.
Mr. Danner advertised his lack of good discipline by resorting to this
barbarous penalty, especially when a stranger was present.
If the conduct of Adams is to be permanently improved, this one act must
be viewed in its relation to his conduct generally. As soon as Adams
feels vitally his part in making the school a success, his behavior will
improve. No pupil is so obstreperous that one need despair of winning
him by some kind of means, at least until one has exhausted his
resources.
The plan recommended above, or some adaptation of it, can be used
profitably for a pupil of any grade.
ILLUSTRATION (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Making a Man]
Jim was ten years old when he was transferred from Webster Street School
in the East End of the city to Central School on Main Street. This
transfer was the culmination of a long series of misdemeanors on his
part and many untactful methods employed by his teachers. No species of
juvenile mischief remained untried by him.
He went into each room with a scarred record from his former teacher,
and was not allowed to forget the fact that he always did the wrong
thing. He was scolded daily, sent into the hall to stay for hours and
gaze benignly upon the works of art that decorated the walls, which of
course he didn’t do, not being deeply engrossed in art study. More
naturally he spent the time in mischievous pranks. He was whipped,
threatened, and denied the advantages of less energetic and less
talented pupils.
But with the transfer came a change in the boy’s nature. When he entered
Central School, Miss Burns grasped his hand and said, “Well, Jim, I’m
glad you’re going to be in our school. I know we’re going to get along
finely.” She treated him as if he intended to do the right thing, and
before long he actually thought he did so intend.
She had him go on errands for her when she saw he was getting restless,
or erase the blackboard for her after an exercise, which he did with
great dispatch, and before the end of the first day she had completely
won his respect and gratitude.
One morning on his way to school Jim heard his classmates planning
Christmas presents for their teacher. Immediately he began to contrive
ways and means for securing a beautiful necklace he had seen in the
jeweler’s shop—a necklace of gold and pearls. This was the only gift
that his active little brain could conceive of as being worth giving to
Miss Burns.
Only, he hadn’t the money to buy the necklace. His parents were
far-seeing in a financial way, and did not believe in bestowing
unlimited amounts of coin upon their children. So it was that Jim found
need to do something unusual in order to secure the coveted present. He
was not long in working up a paper route. He would rise early in the
morning and spend long hours delivering his papers.
In connection with this work he took orders for Christmas wreaths, then
secured a large quantity of holly from a wholesale man on market; his
little sister, Ruth, bought a supply of fluffy, flaming ribbon at the
Ten-Cent Store. Together they made the wreaths, Jim paying Ruth for her
artistic advice and time. In this way the wreaths cost less than the
ready-made wreaths, and Jim was able to secure a better price for them.
Thus Jim saved enough money to buy the necklace and also some lovely
presents for those at home.
You can imagine Miss Burn’s surprise when, among other gifts, she found
Jim’s necklace on her desk the morning before Christmas. Realizing the
value of the gift and Jim’s true devotion to her, she won from him the
story of his sacrifice. She said, “Oh, Jim, you don’t know how this
makes me feel,” and Jim went home at the end of the day with a beaming
face.
Jim’s sacrifice reacted upon himself, for this taste of his powers led
him into many fair means of earning money, and so launched him well on
what turned out to be a successful business career.
“Making faces” is essentially a little child’s offense, although
sometimes it persists in upper grades or even in the high school.
CASE 85 (FOURTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: “Making Faces” for Spite]
In a small village there existed bad feeling between the pastor of the
church and several of his leading members. Some parishioners took sides
with the pastor, and in the school the children of these two church
factions carried on the quarrel of their elders. The teacher kept peace
on the playground through active personal supervision, but in school he
encountered the face-making problem in a degree only less ridiculous
than it was annoying.
There existed an active emulation in the ugliness of the facial
contortions produced, and when a member of one faction had made a
particularly horrid grimace, he looked for and received the silent
applause of his sympathizers.
Charles Briggs was the teacher. He knew that the feeling of alliance in
the members of the factions was the cause of the face-making epidemic,
but he could not at first think of a logical way of meeting the
situation. He tried, first, the use of his absolute authority. He
forbade the making of faces, and punished the children when he caught
them at it. Whereupon face-making became a more exciting sport than
ever, since the zest of escaping notice was added to the pleasure of
presenting an ugly front to the enemy.
Mr. Briggs said, “How funny you would all look if your faces should stay
twisted into those grotesque shapes.” Nevertheless the children spent
their recesses, when kept in, in inventing new twists and contortions;
they stood in corners and drew the attention of the whole room to fresh
triumphs in grotesqueness. The evil grew, because the cause was not
touched. One boy even set a looking-glass up in front of his book, into
which he made faces for the benefit of the girl who sat behind him,
keeping his head lowered meanwhile as if using his handkerchief to wipe
his tearful eyes.
Then Mr. Briggs began to think of underlying causes and intrinsic
remedies. As a consequence, he made up a fairy story about a land where
people’s thoughts molded their features with instant magic into the
semblance of ugly animals or noble men and beautiful women. He
introduced a princess of evil disposition whose face was that of a
cross, snapping dog, but whom a magician changed into a being of
loveliness and grace by his persuasions to self-sacrifice and kindness.
He told this story as vividly as he could, with emphasis upon the
dislike people feel for an ugly face. Then he waited a day or two for
the story to take effect. He heard the children laughingly allude to it
once or twice, but the evil went on.
Then he talked to his school about face-making. He explained that such
contortions really do affect the faces and characters of those who make
them, not of those who see them. He led his boys and girls to see that
face-making made them contemptible, and that every time it was done it
published the inferiority of the doer. Then, having condemned the old
ideal, he tried to build up a new habit by showing that the strongest
man is the one who is most self-controlled, and ended by a little
skillful ridicule of the babyish method they had been taking to show a
silly spite.
“Suppose,” he proposed at last, “that we put the babies who make faces
over here with the primary pupils, where they’ll feel more at home?
Bright people don’t like to be associated with such children. But we’ll
not try it unless we have to. I shall watch you during the next few
days, and I’m going to see how many can show their friends and their
enemies, if they have any, that they are worth respecting, and that
their souls don’t look like twisted turnips.”
No magical change came over the school, but gradually the sentiment for,
and practice of, face-making died out. The children unconsciously copied
the teacher’s contempt for it. By stories and references he built up an
ideal of beauty and dignity in personal appearance and behavior.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Mr. Briggs did well to search for underlying causes and effective
remedies, because the use of authority in such a case is a mistake, as
he found. Make no attempt to suppress the practice, but proceed at once
to the constructive plan of building up a good sentiment.
Whatever you do, do not assume that the pupil is disrespectful to you.
If the pupils have shown such disrespect in the past, simply set about
gaining their confidence.
Face-making is largely an outgrowth of the play impulse, no matter what
its motive. Substitute a better form of play. Dramatizing a story that
emphasizes the opposite of the undesirable characteristics, is one of
the best ways of overcoming the fault. Read “The Little Knight of
Kentucky” during the twenty-minute periods just before school closes.
Dramatize parts of it. When the children are imbued with the chivalrous
spirit of the story, suggest the incongruities of face-making and other
spiteful acts, by saying to the boy whom you “catch”: “Harold, the
little knights of Kentucky did not make faces at each other. Would we be
as proud of them as we are, had they done so? Then, let’s not have any
one who makes faces play that story today.”
COMMENTS
When the motive is the approbation of fellow-pupils, these fellow-pupils
must be made to change their attitude of admiration for muscular
grotesqueness for one of appreciation of facial repose, beauty and
dignity. It is a matter of inculcating ideals. Beautiful pictures of
ideal faces, such as those of Hoffman’s _Boy Christ_ and Raphael’s
_Madonna of the Chair_, may be used to illustrate the ideal of fine,
controlled faces that express beautiful and kind thoughts. Sometimes
offhand contempt of a babyish practice helps, especially with a vain and
self-conscious type of pupil.
ILLUSTRATION (THIRD GRADE)
[Sidenote: Cure for Bad Manners]
Miss Grasome stood aghast at the rude manners and selfishness of her
third grade pupils. She had tried many plans for improving the
situation, but with little success, for the children had the constant
example before them of rude manners in their homes. As the Christmas
season drew near she thought to herself, “I’ll try once more. We will
dramatize ‘The Birds’ Christmas Carol.’ Perhaps that beautiful story
will teach the children the lesson that I seem to have failed thus far
in clinching. I’ll use the rudest and most selfish girl I have for the
sick child’s part. She won’t play as well as some of the others, but if
she’ll only catch the lesson I want her to get, I won’t mind the
blunders.”
The proposition to have a play instead of a Christmas tree delighted the
children. The story interested them so much that when, toward the latter
part of their study, Miss Grasome proposed that they follow out the
thought of the story and make some needy or unfortunate person the
recipient of their gifts this year instead of making them to each other,
the children were quite ready for the sacrifice.
Of course committees must be appointed, and much coöperative work done
before all details could be arranged. But every child had a share in the
planning, and not many weeks had passed before a gentler and more
considerate spirit began to dominate the school-room. Miss Grasome
smiled and said to herself: “Coöperation works better than prohibiting
or forcing, even in such matters as the training of manners, it seems.”
CASE 86 (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Paper Wads]
Algie B. knew all the fun there is in throwing paper wads, particularly
when he could run the greatest risks of detection and yet escape
discovery. Said he to himself one busy morning:
“I believe I’ll take a shot at Redtop. The teacher’s got him scared into
looking at his book; he’s got to be waked up.”
A good-sized wad soon sped across space, struck Redtop plump on the side
of the head, fell and rolled back toward Algie.
“Better yet, I’ll just get that wad and have it for another shot. It’s a
lucky boy I am, if I can do that.”
Stooping, he made four stealthy steps forward, regained his wad and slid
back into his seat. When Miss Stone looked about, the next moment
Algie’s eyes fell to his book and all was quiet and peaceful as a day in
spring.
This fine example of bravery and success was not lost on other restless
spirits. By the next day an observing onlooker counted up ten instances
in which sly wad-throwers had reproduced Algie’s feat.
On the third day over-boldness brought the climax. Miss Stone had been
too much absorbed to note the minor noises that were provoked. But when
Amy Lane, nervous, uncontrolled, uttered a yell of terror as a cold wad
struck her in the back of her neck and slipped down, ten pupils broke
loose in a chorus of laughter.
Miss Stone roused up and, strange to say, succeeded in getting a story
of the recent happenings. She threatened the last culprit, who in
self-defense said,
“Why must I suffer when all the other boys do the same thing?” and he
named nearly every boy in school, ending up with Algie.
Her threats of punishment of course were vain in the presence of so many
offenders. With a sharp talk she dropped the discussion.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Miss Stone has one simple task: to rouse from absorption in one duty and
wisely distribute her attention to several matters.
Promises must not be taken as fulfillment; assurances of any sort must
not be taken for more than they are worth. Find a safe medium between
espionage and disastrous indifference.
COMMENTS
School-room behavior will never take care of itself under any system of
management. A teacher who thinks he has solved all of his disciplinary
problems is resting in a deceitful security. A sweet trustfulness that
keeps every pupil in his most delightful mood and never sees the wild
emotions and boisterous conduct that arises from them is the rock of
destruction for a teacher’s influence.
ILLUSTRATION (SIXTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Painting Face]
Roland was an unkempt, dirty, red-headed little fellow in the sixth
grade of a small town school. He came from an unlettered, hard-working,
shiftless family in the country and, like Topsy, had just growed up. He
was bright enough, but his reasoning power and sense of right and wrong
were undeveloped because he had never been taught rightly. He had been
whipped when naughty without fully understanding that what he had done
was wrong.
One day, in the new school, he daubed his nose, cheeks and chin with ink
when Miss Downer, the teacher, was not looking, and convulsed with
laughter everyone who looked at him.
It was almost recess time, and Miss Downer quietly bade him wash his
face. When the rest were dismissed she said, “Roland, I want to speak to
you a minute.”
“Going to get a licking!” whispered the boy behind him, and Roland
grinned scornfully, for whippings really did not matter much to him any
more, though Miss Downer was new and untried and she looked as though
she might be pretty strong.
When the rest had gone Miss Downer sat down in front of Roland and spoke
to him kindly, “Roland, why do you do such things in school?”
Roland shifted uneasily and said, “Dunno.”
“Have you your language lesson?” at which he shook his head.
“Didn’t you think that besides foolishly wasting your own time you were
wasting the other children’s time by making them laugh at you?”
This was an entirely new thought to him and he looked at her in
incomprehension.
“You come to school to learn, don’t you, Roland? And the more you can
learn the better off you will be. Some day when you get to be a man
you’ll be glad you know more than somebody else, and sorry that you
don’t know as much as some other person. Why, you were just telling me
yesterday that your father didn’t have a chance to go to school beyond
the fourth grade! And here you are wasting this precious, precious time
of yours!”
Roland looked intently at a dirty finger-nail and Miss Downer could not
tell whether she had made an impression on him or not. She gave him a
story from a supplementary reader, telling of Lincoln’s struggles to get
an education, to read during the rest of recess.
A week later Roland became really interested in the history lesson. This
teacher’s questions weren’t the kind you could answer, parrot-like, by
memorizing the words of the textbook. You had to stop and think about
it. He asked, “I’d like to know about this yere Civil War, anyway. Some
says they fit about slavery and the book says because they seceded, and
I’d like to know which is right.”
Miss Downer devoted the rest of the class period to satisfying Roland’s
query, and counted the time well spent because she had laid the first
stone in the foundation of Roland’s education—she had aroused
intellectual curiosity, satisfied it, and given him food for more
questions.
Every time he misbehaved after that she kept him in and talked to him
seriously. Not once did she threaten or scold. And at other times she
tried to draw him out by being interested in him and his affairs—the
baby brother at home, a new dog he had, and what “my paw” said and did.
At length Roland began to realize that this teacher was not a vindictive
creature, wreaking her spite upon him for harmlessly amusing himself and
other people, but one who was interested in him, Roland Smith, and
really cared what he did and thought. And, though she had queer ways of
looking at things, he really hated to disappoint her and she could make
him feel most awfully uncomfortable and ashamed of himself.
[Sidenote: Paper Wads]
Miss Downer’s final test came when Roland was discovered throwing paper
wads at a boy across the room. Miss Downer felt very much inclined to
thrash him soundly, for this was a case of wanton naughtiness. But she
did not.
Instead she merely talked to him as she had talked before, bringing in a
little more of the personal element.
“Roland, what if your brother kicked you every time you were almost
asleep at night, or joggled your elbow every time you started to take a
mouthful at the table, or pulled the chair out from under you when you
started to sit down? It would be funny at first, wouldn’t it, but how
long do you suppose you and your brother could keep on playing together
as good friends if he kept it up?”
Roland shook his head, mystified.
“That’s just what you’re doing to me. You told me you wanted to learn
and get on in the world, and the rest of these children do, too—they
don’t want to be stupid when they’re grown up. But we can’t learn very
fast with some one hindering us all the time, and I was counting on your
help.”
Miss Downer spoke very kindly and earnestly, and looked directly at
Roland.
“I wasn’t goin’ to throw them paper wads, honest I wasn’t, Miss Downer.
But before I knowed it, they was thrown,” and Roland did look truly
sorry.
Miss Downer’s impulse was to punish him, not to forgive him again, but
if he really were sorry and trying to do better, a whipping would spoil
all the good work she had accomplished so far.
“Are you sorry, Roland?” her voice was low and serious.
There was a long pause, during which Roland fingered a scrap of paper
nervously, not looking up. Then his lip began to quiver and he nodded
violently, breaking into sobs.
“I—I d-didn’t mean to and I won’t do it no more, honest.” Roland, whose
boast was that “nary whipping” had ever made him cry, was penitent
because he had disappointed her who had been kind to him.
CASE 87 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Laughing at Nothing]
Hen. Rutgers couldn’t help having plenty of fun. If no one made it for
him he took a turn and produced it himself. He could have plenty and not
laugh. Then he could laugh like the falling water on a cataract when
there was very little fun in sight.
Hen. laughed. He laughed out loud. Miss Gresham went speedily to his
desk, looked him straight in the face, and said:
“Henry, why did you laugh just now?”
Hen. lifted his head slowly and just as slowly rolled his eyes over
until he looked her squarely in the eyes. With their glances mutually
fixed Henry said very deliberately:
“I—don’t—know,” without a smile.
“Henry, you surely know what caused you to laugh. What was it?” Then
glibly but without a smile came Henry’s reply.
“O yes, I remember. I was just thinking what would happen if Mr. Finley
(superintendent, weighing two hundred and fifty pounds) should back off
the platform there sometime when he’s walking around so fast.”
“You should be at work, Henry,” was all that Miss Gresham could utter at
the time. The chief reason for her weak response was she had drawn the
attention of half the pupils and a general titter arose at Henry’s reply
chiefly because of his absolute composure of countenance.
Henry did not care so much for mischief for its own sake. His chief
sport was attracting the attention of other pupils and getting the
teacher into a mild predicament by setting a sort of disciplinary trap
for her.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Avoid asking such questions as, What made you laugh? Why did you do it?
etc., except privately. Even then unless you are reasonably sure of a
satisfactory answer to these questions you may complicate your case by
so doing instead of helping it toward a solution.
Pass over details of causes which pupils most often allude to and lay
hold of the prime provocation for bad order. Use your power of analysis
and apply an effective remedy. Henry needs an abundance of heavy but
interesting work. Bear down so deep into his interest in geology that he
cannot menace your loyalty to him by trifling with you in respect to
discipline. Treat him so squarely, frankly, generously that his respect
for you will be an unremitting check on small misdemeanors.
COMMENTS
Pupils may not know what to answer when asked, “Why did you do so and
so?” The truth is the causes are numerous. The last cause may have been
the stumbling of one pupil over another one’s foot. But another cause
lies behind this—disrespect for the teacher; behind this, fondness for
another teacher. Why does a pupil act in a certain fashion? He is
underfed, improperly clothed, irritated from insufficient sleep—these
are all proper answers to the question, “Why?” Hence, every time the
query is put a teacher runs the risk of provoking a worse situation and
yet of gaining nothing from the inquisition.
ILLUSTRATION
Superintendent Finley called Henry in after his little one-act play in
the assembly room and the following interview occurred.
[Sidenote: Gymnasium]
“I have some facts about your affairs in the study period, Henry, that
need to be cleared up. Yesterday you are said to have denied making
faces when the fact was you had been guilty.”
[Sidenote: Remedy]
“Well, I’ll tell you just how it was. I was at my desk. Miss Gresham
thought something was off-color and came down to see me. I told her I
didn’t know and then I recalled and answered her. The pupils looked on
and laughed. Miss Gresham was nettled, I suppose. She walked down the
aisle, stopped at Ellen’s desk, her back to me, and said to Ellen,
“‘Look over to Henry’s desk and see what he is doing.’
“Ellen caught sight of me and must have told that I was making a face,
for Miss Gresham came to me and said: ‘What were you doing just now?’ I
said, ‘Nothing.’ She said, ‘You were making a face.’ I said, ‘I was
not.’ Then she sent me home.”
“Why did you deny making a face?”
“Because I hadn’t done it. I scowled but that was all. I didn’t do
anything that need excite Miss Gresham. She’s got it in for me.”
“Now that will do on that. You are not properly occupied some way in
your periods in the study room. I credit you with having intellect
enough to know how to play the gentleman. It’s a question of whether you
are always going to take advantage of opportunities to make sport at the
expense of pupils’ and teachers’ time, or whether you are going to help
make school work a success. I know pretty well what you think on these
matters, but I’d like to hear you express yourself on this point.”
Henry did discuss the matter; there were a few weak spots in his view of
school life. His evident restlessness during long school hours was a
predisposing cause of several troubles. For this and other reasons, Mr.
Finley decided to revise his schedule for use of the gymnasium during
school hours and to provide suitable interruptions of mental labor by
physical exercise of various sorts. This new program gratified the
pupils as well as relieved physical necessities.
The interview ended fortunately for both teacher and pupil and
eventually brought relief to several unfavorable conditions in the
school as a whole.
(2) _Teasing tricks._ Sometimes a pupil can cause no end of annoyance by
teasing others. This fault may have been trained into the child at home.
CASE 88 (SEVENTH GRADE)
A bright lad and into all sorts of mischief, George had gradually
acquired the reputation among the teachers of being “a bad boy”; and the
new superintendent was informed to this effect when he came to the
school.
[Sidenote: Snake in School-room]
One day there was a great commotion in his grade; an innocent garter
snake had been let loose in the school-room. George was accused, and as
the disturbance had begun in his corner of the room, and as he was known
to have a great fondness for all sorts of animals, insects, snakes,
etc., the evidence seemed decidedly against him.
“No, sir!” he replied to the superintendent, when sent for to go to the
office. “No, sir! I didn’t do it!”
“I’m afraid that you are not telling me the truth, George. You have a
bad reputation. I think that I shall punish you by sending you into the
next lower grade, until you can learn to become more of a man.”
“It’s such a disgrace, mother! No, I can’t go back. The boys will all
make fun of me. Besides, I didn’t do it!”
Finally, however, his mother made him see that the manly thing would be
to take his punishment, even if he wasn’t to blame. So, on the following
morning, he reported himself to the teacher of the next lower grade, and
told her that he was to study there.
Later in the day the superintendent made his rounds, and exclaimed
surprisedly, when he saw George,
“Why, you here? I didn’t expect to ever see you again!”
Needless to say that was the last appearance of George at school, and a
life that might have been helped was spoiled by an unjust punishment and
a careless remark. Even superintendents may make mistakes!
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Say to the mischief-loving boy, “George, we can not have these animals
loose in the school-room; it disturbs our work entirely too much. But
there is a way that we can have them here, some of them at least, and
everybody enjoy them. How would you like to help me make a fresh water
aquarium for the school?” “You would like it? Very well. We shall need
one more to help us. Tell the boy who brought in the snake to come to me
with you this afternoon and together we will plan how to make the
aquarium. We’ll get it all ready and give the other children a surprise.
I’ll help you until it is ready for the animals. You and he can get the
specimens, and after that I would like to have you two take care of
them. Meanwhile, we’ll get from the library all the books we can find
about the animals you two select, and talk about them in the nature
study period.” The aquarium, referred to above, need not be an expensive
apparatus. In fact, most any kind of a vessel or a very large bottle
would serve the purpose very well. Do not furnish this yourself but let
one of the boys bring it.
COMMENTS
The fact that George was fond of animals, insects, snakes, etc., was the
clew for the teacher to work upon in gaining the good will and
coöperation of the troublesome boy. Knowing one strong interest that he
had, the teacher should start with that and work out from it to other
and broader fields of action.
Unless the teacher had actual proof to the contrary, she should have
accepted the boy’s statement that he did not bring in the snake. It is
far better that a guilty boy go unpunished, than that an innocent person
be punished. Take the initiative in coöperation with the troublesome
pupil and the troubles will soon disappear.
ILLUSTRATION 1 (THIRD GRADE)
[Sidenote: The Pet Dog]
Henry Gould was very fond of his collie and insisted upon having his
company every day at school. His teacher, Miss Greenway, probably would
have made no objection to this had it not been for a fact that the dog
was inclined to snap at any child except his master and thus endanger
the safety of the other children. How to forbid the presence of the dog
without arousing the antagonism of his owner was the problem. She
resolved to try approval and initiative in coöperation. So she called
Henry to her at noon time and said:
“Henry, I noticed the collie snapping at one of the little girls today,
and I think we shall have to ask him to stay at home after this. But he
is such a bright little fellow we shall miss him. Don’t you think it
would be fine for the children to take his picture before he goes? How
would you like to get him into a good position when the drawing period
comes and let the children use him for a model?”
Henry was proud to have his pet honored, stood by him patiently while
the children drew, and made no further insistence that he should come to
school.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: A Live Mouse]
A practical joke loses all of its point when nobody is annoyed or made
ridiculous by it. A teacher who tactfully makes himself seem one of a
group who is deriving benefit from an experiment, wins the respect of
his students. Such a teacher was the high school instructor in science,
whose attention was directed to a mischievous pupil, by a girl’s
seemingly nervous fear of this fun-loving boy. Cautious investigation
revealed the fact that a living mouse was in the wide-mouthed bottle
which protruded from the joker’s pocket.
This principal told the boy that it would be instructive fun to let the
mouse loose in the building and see what the timid little thing would
do, but that such a course of action would endanger the future safety of
books, lunches, etc., left in the building. He, therefore, advised that,
at the coming recess, all who did not fear the mouse, form a large
circle in the school yard and that the mouse be let loose in the center
of the circle. And that all observe closely just what the little animal
did.
At recess, the principal himself joined the circle, asking the boys to
notice carefully whether or not the mouse would change his course to
avoid a shouting student.
After the mouse was experimented upon and killed the mischief-maker
began to wonder why it was that he was glad that he had not annoyed the
principal with the mouse, as he had intended to do.
CASE 89 (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Teasing Rhymes]
“Hey Diddle Diddle!
Parts his hair in the middle!”
This was the couplet that greeted John Fraser as he entered his eighth
grade room one September noon. Above the couplet was a portrait of
himself, the style of his hair indicated very clearly. He erased the
decorations hastily, but said nothing about it. He was very young,
however, and the thoughtless disrespect shown him hurt sadly.
A day or two passed, during which he noticed the covert amusement at his
faultlessly pressed clothes, his punctilious manners, his careful
grooming, all new and strange to the crude little town in the Southwest
in which he taught. Then, one noon, he entered the room from the
playground to find a rough cartoon on the board, labeled, “Mr. Fraser
pressing his pants to make creases at 2 a.m.” The pupils were vastly
entertained by it.
“Who made this picture?” John demanded, very angry and feeling that his
dignity demanded that the offender be punished. Every head turned
instantly toward Cleaver Trotter, who seemed much pleased to be singled
out for attention.
“Cleaver, you may remain in at recess. I want to see you.”
“Just as you say, Mr. Fraser!” sang out Cleaver, jauntily. There was a
half-suppressed titter of admiration, and Mr. Fraser felt that he had
come out second best.
At recess he ascertained that Cleaver had really drawn the picture, and
forbade him sternly to repeat the offense. The interview took place in
the otherwise empty school-room, and when Cleaver was allowed to go he
joined a group of gaping admirers on the playground.
“What did he do to you?” they demanded to a man.
“Oh, he asked me why I did it, and I told him I couldn’t help it; I just
knew it took him all night to press his pants that way.”
“And what did he say then?”
“Well, he smelled of the smelling-salts and said that’d be all for
today, so I came on out.”
None of this account was true, but Cleaver won by it the thing his
boyish vanity wanted, the admiration of his crowd. They approved the
ridicule because it furnished them with fun, and Cleaver was shrewd
enough to know that his leadership depended upon their approbation of
his attitude. He annoyed John Fraser constantly throughout the school
year, not because he disliked him or wanted to be troublesome, but
because the teacher could not perceive that Cleaver had a mania for
approbation which needed to be guided into better channels.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
The pupil who does evil for approbation will do good for the same cause,
if approbation for good can be secured. In this case, Mr. Fraser might
have turned Cleaver’s talent for making cartoons and doggerel into less
personal use, utilizing the admiration of his classmates as a spur to
accomplishment. If he had asked Cleaver, for instance, to illustrate
some event in current history with an original cartoon, to accompany a
talk to be given in opening exercises, even Cleaver’s vanity would have
been satisfied at the flattery of having his talent taken so seriously.
At the same time the narrow personal nature of Cleaver’s interests would
have been broadened by a knowledge of affairs outside his immediate
world.
COMMENTS
Wise teachers do not allow the rudeness, crudeness and childishness of
their pupils to disturb their serenity. They know that good manners and
consideration are the result of training, and with “a fine disregard of
personalities” they set about giving this training. The great art in
such cases is to substitute a good activity for the bad one which has
heretofore gained the approbation sought.
ILLUSTRATION 1 (RURAL SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Red Hair]
Mary Costello had fiery red hair, which swirled around her freckled face
in a way that would have delighted Titian, but which her pupils in
District 27 found only surpassingly funny. She unburdened herself one
night to her mother, who was just a generation more Irish than herself.
“That Thad Burrows thinks he’s so funny,” she stormed. “Today he said to
me, ‘Say, Miss Costello, do you wear a hat in winter?’ and I said of
course I did, and why shouldn’t I? And he said he should think it would
have to be lined with asbestos. Then they all bellowed, and if he ever
mentions it again I’ll lambast him for it,” and Mary’s eyes snapped with
indignation.
“There now, Mary, don’t be after letting a fool kid upset ye so,” her
wise old mother advised. “That Thad Burrows is a bright boy, and if it
was someone else’s thatch he said it about ye’d be laughing with him
altogether. I’ll bet that if you’ll win the heart of him, he’ll lick
anyone that dares to think of a white horse when you’re around.”
Mary pondered this advise and took it. She showed no resentment toward
Thaddeus, but rather sought ways of being especially kind to him. She
discovered that he was eager to earn money, and helped him find work in
town on Saturdays; she lent him books and deferred to his opinion in
matters of stove-tending and mouse-catching. He came to connect his
leadership with the teacher, who found so many little ways of giving him
the prominence his soul craved. The red hair ceased to be a joke, and by
the term’s end the prophecy of Mary’s mother had come to pass.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (SIXTH GRADE)
Raymond Smith had just taken up boxing. He was accustomed to hang around
a gang of street idlers and would-be sports and when any of the number
ventured to put on the gloves he was fully alive to every move they
made.
Not having funds to purchase a pair of gloves he began pummelling
smaller boys, getting some little skill in certain movements imitated
from his larger associates. There was a great deal of bluff and bluster
in his actions and not a small amount of teasing.
[Sidenote: Shaking Fist]
Ellen Moore, teacher, knew boy nature fairly well. She was strict in
conduct but rarely was caught firing her guns at a mere decoy. Raymond
broke over bounds in a harmless fashion in that as she was passing his
desk one afternoon, he doubled up his fist and shoved it in her
direction—an excellent opportunity for rigid discipline. But this is
what happened:
“My, what a large, solid fist you have,” she said in a quiet voice,
quickly moving on to her next duty.
The hand fell. The boy had no clear motive and yet was in a mood where
belligerency would be easily aroused and deeply relished.
No reference was again made to this incident by either, although Miss
Moore took occasion in a few other matters to draw the lines closely on
Raymond that he might clearly sense the limitations that school life
laid upon him.
CASE 90 (THIRD AND FOURTH GRADES)
[Sidenote: Toy Mouse]
(3) _Practical jokes—a more serious kind of teasing._ Imogene and
Charles Rogers were two orphans, living with elderly relatives who
wanted to bring them up wisely, but did not know how. They were full to
overflowing of animal spirits, bubbling with fun, restlessly eager to
fill every moment with good times. Miss Spires, their teacher, was
somewhat short-sighted, and that is why, when a little mechanical mouse
ran from the second row of chairs right up to her feet, she thought it a
live one and jumped and screamed.
Imogene and Charles, who had bought the mouse at the ten-cent store,
were delighted past all bounds, and all the children laughed. Miss
Spires thought she had been insulted, and without much ceremony put the
two children behind the piano. They were not at all resentful, for here
they had a good chance to plan more mischief, and made a conspiracy to
secure a repetition of the entertaining panic of the morning by putting
two of their pet rabbits into Miss Spires’ desk at noon. This great joke
worked as well as the first—even better. Miss Spires sent the “dreadful
children” to the principal for correction, with a message which made the
principal look at the young scapegraces gravely. But she was a wise
principal. She said:
“What did Miss Spires do when you made the mouse run up to her feet?”
“She just screeched!” gurgled Imogene in reminiscent delight.
“She jumped as high as my head!” Charles had a good imagination.
“Did she screech when you put the rabbits into her desk?”
“She hopped all around like a chicken, and asked who did that.”
“What did you say?”
“I said we did, and she didn’t think it a good joke, but she said we
were bad children and sent us to you.”
“Do you think you are bad? What is it, to be bad?”
“Swearing.”
“Biffing people that ain’t as big as you are.”
“And telling lies. That’s ’specially bad.”
“Yes, that’s all true. But do you know, good things are sometimes bad,
when they are put in the wrong places, and done at the wrong times.” The
principal had a long talk with the children, in which she discovered
that their attitude toward control was very good, but that their ideas
of appropriateness were very primitive. This was because their elders
had tried to repress them instead of guiding them, and being made of
irrepressible stuff they had simply overrun boundaries.
“Why don’t you try to guide those play instincts that are so strong in
Imogene and Charles?” she asked Miss Spires later. Miss Spires’ reply
shows just why she failed as a teacher:
“It’s not my business to study their ‘instincts.’ I’m here to teach them
to read and write and cipher.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Laugh with the children at your own silliness. At their age it would
have seemed as funny to you as it now does to them.
Pick up the mouse, examine it with interest, and say, “He is a funny
little fellow, isn’t he! (Approval.) But he hasn’t very good manners to
interrupt us so in school time. Let’s put him up here on the teacher’s
desk, where he can learn to be more polite.” (Suggestion—that the act
was rude.)
“Charles, you may read next. Imogene, see if he reads just right.”
(Substitution.)
COMMENTS
A teacher who is so infantile as to scream at a tiny, frightened mouse,
even though it were a live one, should not blame the pupils for
indulging in less marked exhibitions of arrest of development.
Teachers meet pupils sanely on the play question when they sympathize
with their desire to play, but see clearly why and how these impulses
must be controlled for the child’s future good. Play is a good servant
but a poor master; no human being is more pitiful than the amusement
drunkard. Play in its right place is a wonderful renovator of health and
spirits; play in the wrong place stunts character and makes for
selfishness and littleness. The ideal teacher wants his pupils to play,
helps them to realize the great values that lie in play, but shows them
clearly that play must be indulged in at right times and places, and
rigidly excluded from work hours, except where it can be made to help on
the work. In short, he leads his pupils as they grow older to play with
reason and to plan play intelligently, rather than blindly to follow
impulses.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Play in Study Hour]
In a certain large high school the teachers had had much trouble with
the students in the assembly room. A spirit of uncontrolled play seemed
to take possession of the room a few minutes after the hour had begun.
Instead of settling down to work, the boys and girls wrote notes, played
little tricks on each other, whispered and made endless meaningless
trips to dictionary and bookcase. They seemed to think the hour was
given to them for social purposes.
Many teachers had failed to remedy this condition, before Miss Stansbury
was relieved of two classes that she might take hold of the assembly
room.
“Do you give me permission to do whatever I think is wise?” she asked
the harassed principal.
“Go ahead,” said he. So she did.
She had been in the room about five minutes, and was busily marking
papers, when a hard lemon came rolling up the aisle toward her desk. She
went to it, picked it up, and saw that two boys, the only two who could
have thrown it up that aisle, were looking at her under lowered lids.
Very quietly, so as not to be overheard except by those hard by, she
asked who had thrown the lemon, and the doer acknowledged at once—lying
was not a fault in this school.
“You don’t seem to know what a study period is for. You may take your
books and go home, and study your lessons there. I shall call up your
mother on the telephone and tell her why you are coming home.”
“But I have a class this next hour, and I live clear across the city!”
exclaimed the student, in dismay. “I can’t go home!”
“But you can’t stay here, since you don’t know how to use a common study
hall. Please go at once, and I’ll report to your teacher why you are
gone. I have work to do, and can’t spend my time policing the room.”
The puzzled boy rose slowly and left the room. Miss Stansbury went to
the high school office, called up his mother, and told her that her son
would be home shortly, as he had been playing in the assembly room and
would therefore have to do his studying at home that day.
“But he can’t study at home. We live a mile and a half across the city.
What was he doing? Was it anything dreadful?”
“Not at all. He merely rolled a lemon up the aisle, a very innocent
performance at any other time—but this happened to be study hour.”
“Well, you may be very sure he won’t do it again!” and the indignant
mother hung up her receiver with a snap.
When Miss Stansbury reached the assembly room again she saw a group
standing around a boy near the center of the room. They were giggling
and peering over his shoulder at something on the desk—which, when she
reached them, Miss Stansbury discovered to be the last copy of _Life_.
“Don’t go to your seats yet. I want to talk to you a moment, and I don’t
want to disturb those who are studying by talking very loud. You six
people also seem not to have learned what a study hour is for. Play and
fun and _Life_ belong to other times and places. I shall write your
names on slips, and send them to the teachers of your various classes,
so that if you are absent or tardy they may know why. And now you six
may take whatever study books you need and go home. You can not stay
here unless you study, for this is a study period. I shall call up your
homes and tell your parents why you are coming home.”
“Will you give us an excuse for absence from physics next hour?” one boy
asked.
“Why, no. You have excuses only for necessary absences.”
“But then we’ll get a zero for the recitation!”
“Yes, I suppose so. But a high school boy is supposed to know enough to
study during study hours.” Miss Stansbury was smiling and implacable.
The six passed out, grumbling and almost rebellious. Miss Stansbury went
again to the telephone, and told five mothers (the sixth one being out)
why their children were coming home.
“Why don’t you _make_ him study?” said one mother.
“I am doing so,” was the reply.
When she returned to the assembly room all was quiet. Not one of the
students who were left cared to play, or write notes, or roll lemons.
Here was a teacher who meant business. Miss Stansbury did not reform the
students altogether, for they often slid back into their old habits when
the younger and weaker teachers had charge of the room. But when she was
in charge, there was quiet and industry, and no attempt at ill-timed
fun.
By the time they have reached the high school, pupils know what is
expected of them during school hours in a general way; but they also
know that teachers vary greatly in their standards. Some tolerate play
during work time, some do not. Those who will tolerate it usually have
to. Miss Stansbury simply and quietly defined her stand, which was one
of absolute adherence to a work-while-you-work program. Neither did she
fall into the error of a certain high school teacher who dallied around
a note writer, neither asking what he was doing nor demanding that he
work. She reasoned that if a study period is for study, there is no
sense in having it spoiled by interpolated fun. She did not scold, she
did not lecture, she did not entreat, she did not moralize; she just
eliminated the disturbers, and after two examples of her method everyone
understood her and did as she demanded. She assumed differentiation
between working and play hours. If she had used this method with
untrained, little children in the lower grades it would have been a
stupid and harmful mistake, for such children have not yet learned to
control their play impulses. High school students know how; they will do
it if held up to a standard of action.
CASE 91 (HIGH SCHOOL)
The sophomore class in a high school decided to do something to call
public attention to the valor and general high qualities to be found in
its members. As students their record was good. As to conduct no member
had suffered any extreme penalties, although the superintendent’s son
had often skirted the boundaries of the unendurable.
[Sidenote: Buildings Disfigured]
The class played the following pranks: during the night the school bell
was rendered useless by removal of the rope and clapper; a donkey was
taken up the steps into the assembly room and left there until morning;
class emblems were painted in class colors in a score of forbidden
places.
This second offense aroused the ire of the superintendent. In a few days
the class was called to meet him and another member of the faculty. Mr.
Webster, the superintendent, at once asked the following questions:
“I would like to know what members of this class took part in the
disfigurement of the buildings and grounds.” His manner was not
offensive, yet his firmness was very evident and a degree of anxiety was
betrayed in his voice.
No answer was given. The superintendent then questioned each member of
the class as follows: “Were you on the school grounds the night of the
14th? Did you assist in disfiguring the property? Do you know who did
the work?” All but two members of the class declared they were under
obligations not to give any answers that would reveal who was guilty;
the two others answered these questions truthfully; but as they knew no
pertinent facts about the incident, nothing was gained.
The superintendent’s next step was to say: “Do you know any reason why
the members of this class, except these two, should not be suspended
until the desired information is given?” A few protests were heard, but
they all affirmed the right of a pupil to maintain silence when asked to
incriminate a fellow pupil. The superintendent then announced the
suspension to take effect at once.
At the end of two weeks a compromise was brought about and a majority of
the class returned to school. The rebellious members had declared they
would not open negotiations with the superintendent. He had declared
that they must inform him who were guilty of the offenses. Both of these
demands were laid aside. The superintendent was known to have changed
his decision and the offenders were publicly taunted with backing down
on the boast.
Some of these boys never re-entered the school; others found their
places soon, in another high school. The memory of the incident is a sad
one for all concerned.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Release the donkey from his “embarrassing situation,” but leave other
details of the mischief for a day or two. Some inkling of who the
perpetrators are will probably leak out in that time.
Meanwhile, have the damages appraised by the school board.
Next have a private talk with the president and other officers of the
class, stating to them the amount of the damages, the fact that you will
present the bill to the class and that you will then turn it over to
them for collection; also that you will expect their hearty coöperation
in seeing that all damages are repaired and paid for.
Finally, address the class as a whole. Say to the class, “I appreciate
the funny side of your pranks the other evening, but there are some
damages that some one has to pay. Two or three members of the board, in
whom all of us have confidence, have appraised them at ten dollars. You
have made a good record as a class. I shall expect you to live up to
your reputation by doing the fair and square thing in this instance
also. That means that you will authorize your president or some other
member of the class to see that damages are repaired and expenses paid.
You had lots of fun, but if the fun is ‘worth the candle,’ why, now, the
only manly course to pursue is to ‘pay for the candle.’
“I think it will not be necessary for me to speak of this episode again.
I leave the matter in your hands. I will ask your class president to
report to me when the work is completed.”
COMMENTS
The superintendent lost ground with the school in assuming a belligerent
attitude, in trying to force a confession, and in punishing innocent
pupils because they were unwilling to incriminate their classmates. The
weakness of his position is shown in the fact that in the end he was
obliged to compromise.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Carbon Bisulphide]
The room was full of pupils. A representative of one of the numerous
book companies was present. Everything was moving smoothly and in order,
when suddenly the room began to fill with the disagreeable odor of
carbon bisulphide. It grew worse and worse. Pupils were holding their
noses to keep out the smell, and some were covering their mouths to keep
in the laughter.
The situation was trying for the teacher. He was embarrassed by the
presence of the visitor, under such odoriferous circumstances. What was
to be done? It would be useless to hold a public inquiry. It was a time
both for thought and tact. Finally the teacher evolved his plan.
Going on with the work, just as if nothing had happened, the teacher
conducted the remaining recitations of the day, as usual. Meantime he
kept his eyes open. The odor gradually grew less offensive and most of
the pupils quietly resumed their customary work.
The vigilance of the schoolmaster was finally rewarded. One of the boys
seemed to be enjoying the situation to a greater degree than the rest.
He was unable to entirely conceal his enjoyment and this was the
teacher’s clue. He kept his eye innocently on this boy.
Just as school was about to close for the day, the teacher said: “Frank,
I’d like to see you a few moments after dismissal.”
Frank remained. His countenance paled slightly and he no longer had
difficulty in suppressing his enjoyment.
“Frank,” began the principal, “where did that preparation that made such
a disagreeable odor here this afternoon come from?”
Frank looked guilty.
“I didn’t have it here in the room,” he replied.
“Yes, Frank, but that’s not answering my question,” responded the
inquisitor severely.
“Well, I had some bisulphide down on the playground, but I didn’t bring
it into the school-room,” Frank finally admitted.
“What did you do with it?”
“I gave it to Harry.”
“What did he do with it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Very well, you are excused for the present, till we can see Harry.”
The next night Frank and Harry were both asked to remain. The
superintendent was present. Two pale boys appeared before the teachers.
“Harry, what did you do with the bottle of bisulphide you got from Frank
yesterday?” inquired the superintendent.
“I kept it down on the playground awhile and then threw it here in the
wastebasket,” was Harry’s candid response.
“Didn’t you know what was in the bottle?” resumed the teacher.
“No, sir, I didn’t.”
“Didn’t Frank tell you?”
“No, sir, he didn’t.”
“Is that right, Frank?”
“I guess that’s right,” said Frank seriously.
Evidently Harry was innocent for the most part. After sound admonition
by the superintendent the boys were dismissed. Frank was very careful
thereafter and Harry was always an exemplary pupil. No further
disturbances of this nature occurred during the year.
A little tact and patience on the part of the teacher will often be
highly rewarded in the school-room.
(4) _Teaching children how to play rightly._ All playgrounds, while in
use, should be supervised by one or more responsible teachers.
CASE 92 (SEVENTH GRADE)
A big snow had fallen, but the weather had soon turned warmer and the
snow had softened just enough to make snowballing good.
[Sidenote: Snowball Contest]
“You may snowball all you want to as long as you keep above the row of
trees,” said the superintendent to the boys.
A fierce battle was going on within the prescribed bounds. The contest
increased in fury and finally one side was driven back.
“Remember the limits!” cautioned one of the pupils.
Most of the boys either forgot to stop or kept running in the excitement
of the game, and rushed far beyond the limits. Then several more were
crowded beyond the limits, and unfairly engaged in the contest from
their new position.
“You’d better quit now or get over with the rest all of you!” shouted
the head of the schools.
Charles stopped for a short time, but in a few moments threw again from
outside of the limits.
“Charles, you go upstairs at once!” were the decisive words of the
superintendent, hurled at the offending boy in a way not to be mistaken.
Charles mounted the stairs without delay and entered the office. The
superintendent soon appeared.
“What did you mean by throwing after I cautioned you, Charles?” asked he
sternly.
“Well—I don’t know. I got lost in the game and didn’t notice what you
said, I guess.”
“Well, what do you think, now?”
“I think we should obey the regulation.”
“Will it be necessary to speak to you more than once the next time?”
“No, it won’t!” said Charles decisively.
“Then you may go.”
Charles left the office, glad to get off as easily as he did. Thereafter
the superintendent watched this boy, but Charles was careful to obey
whatever the teacher told him if the superintendent was within reach.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Some one must attend these children when at play on the school grounds.
Organize the game, mark the boundaries carefully and coach the children
just as in athletics. Have a comrade to attend them when they are
running bases. Call the group together before the game opens; explain
the chief points in the rules. Show what comes of neglecting the
rules—confusion and several other bad things. Prove that just as much
pleasure can be had by following some sort of system as if one goes at
play in a helter-skelter fashion.
COMMENTS
All children must be taught how to play despite the fact that they have
an insatiable appetite to engage in it. Scattering hints will often
suffice and save not only injuries but open infractions of school
regulations.
Self-control is acquired only gradually, hence the orderly play that is
so delightful for pupils in the teens is preceded by a period of
learning.
Most first grade children are afraid to snowball, but in the second
grade boys begin to want to do brave things and in consequence can do
some damage by snowballing. Snowballing should not be considered an
offense. Every teacher knows how he has enjoyed the sport. It is only
the carelessness that may creep into the play that may cause a window to
be broken or some child to be hurt in the eyes, ears, or about the face
or body. It is really necessary that a teacher should teach the pupils
how to snowball, when there is snow on the ground. She should go with
them and enjoy the sport.
ILLUSTRATION (SECOND GRADE)
[Sidenote: Limitations in Play]
“One, two, three,” and all the boys and girls passed out of the room,
Miss O’Gorman following. “Remember now, Phil, no hard snowballs, as I
told you in the school-room.” “Now wait until we get out of reach of the
windows before you begin.” “Are we divided up evenly, just the same
number on both sides? Let’s count and see. Yes, just fifteen on each
side.” “Now, ready, everybody.”
Miss O’Gorman let her ball fly along with the others, as she was to play
a few minutes on each side. She kept a keen eye for illegal conduct and
spurred all of them on in the fine fun.
This had been prearranged with parents’ consent to occur just at the
close of school so that the children could go home and dry up their
clothes at once if it became necessary.
By the end of twenty minutes one side gave away and yielded the honors
to the others and the game ended. On her way home Miss O’Gorman
remarked:
“I like to have the snow come because then I can snowball, but children,
I never make hard balls or throw at a building. I never throw at
anyone’s head. It would make me feel very sad to hurt someone or break a
window.”
Directing the sport of snowballing is far better and wiser than
prohibiting it. The discreet teacher will not even try to suppress it,
but will use every occasion to get into the snow with the boys and girls
and have fun and frolic.
CASE 93 (SIXTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Quarrelsome Play]
“Come on, Mr. Frank, first batter!” “Pitcher!” “Catcher!” “First base!”
Soon every position was filled as the boys and the teacher of the eighth
grade streamed out of the schoolhouse.
“Come on, Mr. Frank, play with us.”
“No, not today, boys. I have something else to do now, I can’t.”
This was the third and last time for the season that the boys of Mount
Holly School urged this young man to enter into his privilege in play.
He stood off and for a few moments closely observed the outcome. The
game started after some parleying, but was soon interrupted by
dissension.
“He’s out.” “You’re out.” “Throw him out.” “I won’t do it,” and scores
of chopped-off utterances filled the air. Ten minutes were lost in hot
argument out of which no one gained the least value. Big boys squeezed
smaller ones out of their turn and these, lacking any opportunity for
play, stood about occupied with gloomy thoughts.
“They don’t get on well together—I wonder what the matter is with these
fellows,” Mr. Frank remarked.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Accept the invitation to play. As a player, take only a player’s part.
No pedagogical authority need be used; but as a private person exercise
a control that will give tone to the whole performance. See that
something like justice is done to all and that the foolish delays are
eliminated.
COMMENTS
Boys little by little acquire a sense of order and often become deeply
offended at the unruly procedure of their comrades. They welcome the
presence of an older hand that steadies affairs and prevents one or two
reckless boys or girls from spoiling the fun of all the rest.
An occasional participation may be all that is needed to institute a
noticeable improvement. Such aid should be given heartily as it is due
to the children in every school.
ILLUSTRATION (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Boy’s Letter]
How a child looks upon this matter is seen in the following extract
taken from a boy’s letter:
“We’re having a bully time at school. At recess time teacher plays with
us and after school, too, sometimes.
“We play baseball, and he says we can have a match game if we practice
hard. I’m second baseman. Teacher made the boys let in the little
fellows if they can keep up.
“I hain’t going to miss school nary a day if I can help it. Play’s lots
of fun. We don’t play much in school because we have work to do.
“Hope you’re all well.
SAM.”
CASE 94 (SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADES)
The Cloverdale Grammar School gave much attention to athletics and
especially tried to encourage the baseball team which had been organized
from the seventh and eighth grades. Mr. Tilden, the principal, was
sincere in his desire that his pupils should engage in the sport, but
having given his verbal encouragement and assistance, it did not occur
to him that his personal presence on the playground was in any degree
necessary to the welfare of the school. He interpolated but on
restriction into the fun: “In order to safeguard our school buildings,”
he said to the boys, “I am going to make one ruling, namely, that you
must not send the balls toward the school building. Any boy who does
that, accidentally or otherwise, must drop out of the game.”
All went well for a few days. The less aggressive among the boys adhered
to the rule strictly. But one day one of the leading boys, Reginald
Coleman, happened to hit the stone foundation of the school building. In
this particular instance the stone foundation was surmounted by brick
walls up to about one-third or one-half the height of the building, then
finished off for the remainder of the distance with wood.
Reginald argued with much boyish eloquence that “the foundation was not
a part of the building, no possible harm would result from hitting it
with the ball, hence it could not be that Mr. Tilden intended to include
that in his prohibition.”
So much in earnest was Reginald in pleading his case that the other boys
were soon won to his way of thinking, and he was allowed to continue in
the game.
For the next few days Reginald’s modification of Mr. Tilden’s rule was
the law of the playground. Then came another issue. Carl Story lost his
balance slightly just as he raised his bat to strike, the result being
that the ball glanced sidewise, striking the brick wall of the school
building. It was now Carl’s turn to present a plea for leniency in the
application of the law.
“Aw, ’tain’t fair to throw that out! It don’t do no more harm to hit the
brick than it does ter hit the stone. That brick’s a part of the
foundation. Didn’t you fellers say the other day that we could hit the
foundation? It’s _all_ foundation up to the top of brick.”
Now Carl happened to be playing in the same nine as Reginald, and
Reginald naturally espoused his cause.
“That’s right, kids,” he joined in, “Carl didn’t hit the building; he
only hit the brick foundation. Let him play on! We don’t want to lose
this game. Go on, Carl”—and Carl finished the game notwithstanding the
protests of the opposing nine.
Thus the modifications of the rules went on from day to day, always in
favor of the larger and stronger and more aggressive boys and always to
the disadvantage of the younger and smaller ones of the opposite side.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Be on the ground when a new game is launched. Study the possibilities
for unfair playing (silently, of course), and make every effort to
establish rules that will be just to all.
Do not stop at this point, however. Play with the children frequently
enough to learn at first hand whether strict rules of honor are being
observed or whether the leaders are taking unfair advantage wherever
opportunity offers.
Say to Reginald and Carl, “If one of the boys on the other side had made
that play would you have wished to count it?”
If the boys can not be converted to a desire for strictly honest play,
then see to it that the ringleader gets no advantage from his
trickiness. Say, “We’ll have to throw out this whole game because it
wasn’t played quite fairly. Tomorrow we’ll have another game to take the
place of this one.”
COMMENTS
Boys are not unlike adults in that they are quick to make rulings
favorable to themselves or their party and unfavorable to others. The
surest way to make men honest is to make dishonesty unprofitable. A
state inspector of weights and measures, remarking recently upon the
fact that a certain town in Michigan had “fewer cases of short weights
and measures than any other town visited,” accounted for the fact by
saying, “It is an inland town with a settled population. The grocers
depend year after year upon the same group of persons for customers.
Under such conditions any habitual shortage would certainly be
discovered and in the end would work harm to the business. Hence all the
grocers are honest there. It doesn’t pay to be dishonest.”
The “paying” side of honesty may not seem a very high motive to hold
before children; but with the _habit_ of honesty once formed, the
altruistic ideal will be much surer of lodgment when the children are
old enough to appreciate it. On the other hand the high ideal without
the habit is simply another expression for hypocrisy.
Much is said today regarding play as a means of training for the higher
duties of life. It may indeed be so, but on the other hand play may be
the most effective training possible for trickery, selfishness, and
every anti-social instinct. The remedy is _supervision_ of play and
participation in it by leaders who know how to suppress the evil
impulses which there find opportunity for expression, while stimulating
the good. Such a leader will study individually the pupils under his
supervision and be quick to adapt his regulations to changes, not only
in place and time, but also to the personnel of his group.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Modify Rules]
From scraps of conversations floating in through the open window near
which Mr. Tilden was accustomed to sit correcting papers, as well as
from sundry complaints coming to him from the defeated “nine,” Mr.
Tilden got an inkling after a while that all was not as it should be on
the ball ground.
“I’ll come down and play with you after school this afternoon,” he
replied one day to a seventh grade boy, who had come in to tell him that
he wanted to give up his place in the baseball nine.
“We can’t win no games, Mr. Tilden,” said he, “coz the other team ain’t
square. They kid us all the time.”
Mr. Tilden, true to his word, joined hands in the game, purposely taking
a place in the losing team. Next to the ball ground was a tennis court.
Between the two fields was a high wire fence. Presently over the fence
went a ball, sent thither by a batter of the opposing nine. Of course
there was vexatious delay while one of the boys went to hunt it up and
bring it back. Before the game had proceeded very far another ball flew
over the high wire fence, and later another.
“Oho! I believe I can see through that game,” thought Mr. Tilden. “The
boys on the other team are heckling these boys, wasting their time and
strength and confusing them more or less by sending the balls over the
fence in order to place these fellows at a disadvantage. That needs a
bit of attention.”
The game over, he called all the boys to him. “Well, boys, we had a fine
game and I’m glad I came in if my side did get beaten. But there’s just
one rule I’d like to change a little. Some of you fellows need to
practice striking so as to hit squarer than you did today. It’s a great
nuisance to have the balls go over that fence. We’ll have it the rule
hereafter that whoever can’t do better than send his ball over there
will choose someone else to take his place while he drops out for the
remainder of the game. Probably he needs to rest his arms a little.
Anyhow we can’t have the fun spoiled just for a few boys who haven’t
practiced enough.”
This arrangement solved the immediate problem, but Mr. Tilden found that
new ones successively presented themselves as one side or the other
worked out new devices for outwitting the opposite side. He did not make
the mistake again, however, of leaving the boys to themselves entirely,
but kept in touch with the players and readjusted the rules as occasion
required.
CASE 95 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Half-hearted Coöperation]
Mr. Renaldo managed to keep on the good side of most of his pupils, but
he fell from his pinnacle of power when he made the following
announcement:
“Now, if any of you want to go to Delevan to attend the baseball meet
I’ve nothing to say. I don’t believe our team is going to do much, but
we’ll see.
“If the people outside hadn’t butted in and tried to run our sports we
would have come out all right.
“I know you want to win the state championship. We came so near it last
year that we should have a good chance for it under favorable
circumstances. But we haven’t much of a team. I could have picked a
winning team, I believe; but town folks wanted to run the thing, so
we’ll see what comes of it.”
After this vent of pique a big buzz of criticism arose. However, when
the contest came off at Delevan the superintendent made the trip and
shouted as loud as anyone. Through some strange characteristic quality
he was able to throw cold water one day and build up fires of enthusiasm
the next.
Later in the spring came this announcement:
“We’ll not have any more baseball games with out-of-town teams this
season. Our athletics are absorbing too much attention; too many people
are trying to run things up here.”
Of course the crack pitcher went to the board of education and got
consent of the board to continue the series of games as had previously
been the custom. Later the superintendent said, “Well, now, let me see
who wants to play.... All right, then, if these are your players, go
ahead.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
One simple rule applies here: develop a consistent policy and cling to
it. If grades are low, get behind the team in every way and you can
usually swing the backward students into line on their studies, even
when there is no danger of losing place because of lame lessons. Move
the players around and use substitutes frequently so that no one will
fasten on a given post as personal property.
A strong man can organize the town folks so that their support will be
always helpful. In any case the appearance of a milk and water policy
must be avoided.
COMMENTS
Athletics is as difficult to manage as a church choir. A light-fingered
touch is dangerous, as schoolboy passions are not sensibly controlled
many times. A disciplinarian may lose his influence and position merely
through carelessness at this point. The appearance of an autocratic
control of games by the superintendent is highly undesirable. The whole
affair should be just as democratic as possible.
Pupils know pretty well what is necessary for the good of the school and
if their good judgment is appealed to by a respected and trustworthy
superintendent or principal, the best policies can usually be carried
out.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
In the Bellevue High School a wise principal had assisted in organizing
some six entertainment companies for appearance in the auditorium at
stated intervals during the season. Their programs were made up of
dramatic, musical or literary numbers, as the members of each company
decided. The Schwartz-Ensign Concert Company made its appearance on
November 10, and won the plaudits of a large house. Friends in
neighboring towns, relatives of some of the performers, requested a
reproduction of the entertainment. After consultation with her
colleagues, Velma Schwartz gave a favorable answer to two invitations.
[Sidenote: Meeting Half Way]
Loretta met Velma afterwards and said, “Velma, did we make a mistake in
saying nothing to Miss Pringle about these out-of-town trips? What will
she say?”
“Why should she say anything? Our folks at home are willing and I don’t
see that we are getting in her way. It makes no difference one way or
the other what she says.”
Naturally, the news finally reached Miss Pringle, high school principal
and general overseer of the entertainment programs. Two currents of
thought passed through her mind.
“I don’t see why, after all my care, they have taken up their
out-of-town trips without saying anything to me. I’ll just nip this in
the bud and tell them they can’t go.” But a different notion drove out
the earlier one. “They have done no real wrong. It’s a compliment to my
training for them to receive these invitations. I don’t see what harm
can come from it.” But a fragment of the former line of argument would
persist:
“Yes, Velma is the girl who did it. She starred the night of the
program. Her friends are determined to show her off elsewhere. No doubt
she wanted to add to her glory by keeping her scheme out of my fingers.
I have a notion to say to her that she might better have talked the
matter over with me.”
Then good sense ruled her and what she actually said was: “Why, Velma, I
heard just lately that some of your friends are planning to have you out
at Beecham Springs to give a program of music. What a fine thing that
is! It comes Friday night, I believe; that makes it safe for your
studies, so it’s going to turn out well. Your father and mother are
going with you, I suppose? Well, then, that will be fine.”
CASE 96 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Bluffing on Scholarship]
“I just want to say in closing that there is some doubt about two of the
boys getting to play on the football team next week—their grades are
very low, and in fact as matters stand now they would be shut
out.”—(Superintendent’s announcement in the assembly room.)
“He’s bluffing. If our team doesn’t win he’ll be cut up as bad as any of
us.”—(First pupil.)
“His voice was weak when he made that speech. He won’t carry out his
threat.”—(Second pupil.)
“If, after all our team has done, he pulls Tom and the Giant off the
team, he’s a goner and he knows it. He might as well save all this
talk.”—(Third pupil.)
“Just lie low, my boy. We’ve got him fixed. He’ll jump a hundred feet in
the air, if he falls into our trap. Every man of us is out if one drops
out, no more games this year. No, he doesn’t know. But it’ll get to
him.”—(Member of the football team.)
“I thought I’d best tell you so you could be prepared for it. The boys
have it all made up that they’ll strike and call all the games off if
you keep any one or more of them from playing. They may be bluffin’ you;
but I rather think not, for they don’t believe they can beat Upper
Kensington unless they can have the boys they want to play on the team.
Do as you think best.”—(Citizen.)
“Seems as though things are going a little crooked some way. I wonder
where I blundered. I didn’t expect to set them going this way. Why don’t
they get to their books; they might know I’m going to do the square
thing by them. Probably I’ll have to ease up their minds some
way.”—(Worried superintendent.)
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Quit the bluff game; it’s playing with fire. Call in the boys who are
behind in their work and settle up the matter of studies without any
reference to playing. Talk very little about what you are going to do in
checking up deficiencies. Do a few of these things and let the talk come
the other way. Hold out natural inducements to good work and spare the
threats for rare occasions. “Barking dogs seldom bite,” is an old saying
that applies to those fearsome teachers who forecast a terrible
punishment and then let the matter pass without further attention. Each
occurrence of a situation such as this is a loosened spoke in your wheel
of fortune. Don’t put yourself in the hands of a conspiracy by playing a
loose game in discipline.
COMMENTS
Shrewd pupils can catch a rash superintendent and trip him into a heavy
fall.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
Miss McCord, of the Benton High School, was very unpopular one winter
because she had failed two star basketball performers, and thus kept
them from remaining on the team. These players were in her advanced
algebra class, with about twenty other students, all ardent basketball
enthusiasts. One day she said to Coith Burgess, who was not one of the
players, but who had been especially indignant at her firmness, “I
should like to see you for a moment, Coith, after class.”
[Sidenote: Sacrificing Scholarship]
“Oh, _would_ you?” Coith shaped the words with his mouth, but uttered no
sound, and Miss McCord did not see the disrespectful response. When the
class was dismissed he started to go with the rest. Miss McCord, seeing
him go and thinking he had forgotten her request, said to him, “Don’t
forget, Coith,” and went on with her conversation with another pupil.
When she had finished it, Coith was nowhere in sight. He had gone on to
the assembly room, where he was explaining to all the disaffected his
reasons for not doing as “the old crank” had asked him.
Miss McCord had no mind to pass over the matter lightly. She talked at
once to the principal, and the two arranged a plan of treatment. Nothing
was said to Coith, but he was not asked to recite the next day, nor did
Miss McCord appear to hear him when he volunteered. The next day the
same thing happened; Miss McCord did not seem to hear or see him at all.
That afternoon, Coith met Mr. Stacey, the principal, in the hall. “How’s
this, Burgess?” he inquired, “You’re reported absent two days in
succession in advanced algebra.”
“Absent? Not a bit of it. I’ve been there all right, but Miss McCord
hasn’t asked me to recite. She doesn’t give a fellow a chance.”
“Were you there?... All right.” Mr. Stacey was looking gravely at Coith.
“What reason could Miss McCord have had for not paying any attention to
you?”
Coith began to flush and stammer. Finally, he told the story of his
disobedience, rather sullenly but frankly.
“Why did you do it?”
“I don’t know. Just natural meanness, I guess.”
“I’ll tell you why you did it, Coith. You thought it would make a little
hero of you with all the basketball crowd to be rude and insubordinate
to Miss McCord, just now when they all dislike her, because she had the
courage to stand by her guns in that affair. It was a case of posing,
and the thing has happened to you that does happen sometimes to the
poseur—she took you at your word. If you chose to put an end to your
relations as teacher and student, she agreed to accept the situation. As
I see it, you are out of the class and your own fault it is, too.”
Of course in the end Coith came back into the class, after making all
due apologies. He had learned the lesson of coöperation; he had learned,
too, to subject his love of approbation to a standard of fairness and
reciprocity.
The instinct for self-gratification often takes the form of a
pathological fondness for prominence and the approval of others. In
Coith’s case his sense of fairness, courtesy, and submission to rightful
authority had all become subordinate to promptings of his vanity and
resentment. The course of Mr. Stacey and Miss McCord restored in him the
proper sense of the relative importance of the admiration of his fellows
and a sound working relation with his teacher.
CASE 97 (RURAL SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Preparing for Picnic]
Miss Jackman of the Ellensburg rural school and her pupils were having a
picnic in the woods.
She said: “Who would like to carry my basket?”
“I want to.”
“I can.”
“Let me,” came the response from various pupils.
“You may carry it, Tom,” said the teacher.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
After getting the pupils thoroughly interested in the project you are
planning, name at once those who are to assist you. Distribute the work
so that as many as possible may have a share in the responsibility.
COMMENTS
Those who had offered their services were hurt at not being chosen. Had
the teacher said: “Will you please carry my basket, Tom?” there would
have been a less poignant feeling among the others that favoritism had
been shown by the teacher.
ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Organize Carefully]
Mr. Merryman was the jolliest teacher the children of the Concord rural
school ever had had. No other teacher gave the children so many
“outings”; no other ever placed so much responsibility upon the pupils
on such vacations, and never before had responsibility seemed so
delightful as since Mr. Merryman came to the school. “He’s just like his
name,” declared the children.
One reason why Mr. Merryman had such success in organizing little
excursions which to other teachers were most unwelcome bugbears, was
that he announced them long enough beforehand to give himself and the
children ample time to prepare for details.
“One week from today,” said Mr. Merryman one Friday afternoon, “we will
all go on an excursion to get materials for our aquarium. I will appoint
Joseph and Henry to look up, sometime between now and Wednesday, the
best route for the school to take down to the creek. Remember, we want a
dry path, for the children must not get wet feet. Lucy and Ellen, James
and William may arrange for drag nets. Perhaps we shall have to make
some of them. You may find out whether we can borrow them or not, and
how much the material will cost if we need to make them ourselves.
Henrietta and Edward may be sure that there are suitable dishes for
bringing home our trophies. Find out just what we need.
“Some of the little children won’t want to go so far as the creek, where
they have to be so still, so I will appoint the sixth grade girls to
form an entertainment committee to find a pleasant place at some little
distance from the creek where the little ones can play. You will have a
stock of games ready to entertain them while some of us are busy at the
creek and when we have enough things, animals, plants, etc., for our
aquarium, we will all come to the same place and there we will have our
lunches together. Doris, Frieda and May of the girls, and Thomas,
Fayette and Wilbur of the seventh and eighth grade boys may be the
refreshment committee. The different committees may get together next
Monday and talk over their plans. Make up your minds between now and
then just what you need to talk about. Have everything planned and ready
before the day of our excursion. Meanwhile all of us, in the nature
class, will study about the aquarium and the animals that live in it.
Our first lesson will be on Monday, about ‘How to make the aquarium.’
That is all for this afternoon.”
It is needless to add that for a week the excursion and the studies and
talks connected with it furnished many an hour of innocent and
instructive diversion for the eager children. When the day came every
detail had been thought out and prepared for so carefully that the event
was entirely successful. Looking forward in expectation to the pleasure,
filled the children’s minds too full to leave much room for mischief,
and “discipline” in the sense of punishments sank into its legitimate
place, far into the background.
Conferences with the teacher about matters which were puzzling to the
children brought teacher and pupils into a close and delightful
relationship which made unkindly feeling toward the teacher or
insubordination almost out of the question. Once or twice earlier in the
year, when planning the excursion, Mr. Merryman had been obliged to say,
“But only those will be invited whose work and conduct in school have
been satisfactory.” But even this precaution was now unnecessary; he
simply took the precaution to place the more troublesome of the pupils
on whatever committee would have to consult most frequently with
himself. In this way the feeling of coöperation between himself and them
grew stronger with each succeeding school “event.”
(5) _Play and truancy._ There is no better preventive of truancy than
just such outings as that above described, especially if the teacher is
wise enough and tactful enough to utilize some part of the day’s
experiences in the regular school work, nature study, geography,
history, etc. This is by no means difficult to do. Such a course would
have prevented entirely the unfortunate situation of the following case.
CASE 98 (SEVENTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Play and Truancy]
Darrow King deliberately planned the truancy of his classmates one
bright May day, although he did not actually suggest it to them. He had
been good a long time, nothing exciting had happened since cold weather,
and he wanted to get out-of-doors and away from the stuffy school-room.
There was no fun in playing truant alone, or he might have done that; he
had no grudge against Miss Haynes except as she represented an irksome
educational system of which he did not approve. When he grew eloquent of
fishing lines and a warm sunny swimming hole out by Pike’s Mill, every
boy within sound of his voice felt the primal impulse to take to the
fields. So they did, leaving seventeen girls and three righteous
quitters to take care of Miss Haynes and Grade Seven.
“This is Darrow King’s work,” said Miss Haynes to herself. “If I don’t
conquer that boy he’ll be running the school before long. I’m fearing
he’s on the downward path.” So Darrow King was called before the bar and
arraigned. It was a private session after school.
“Darrow, I believe you planned that truancy, and I want you to tell me
the truth about it. Didn’t you tell the other boys to skip school last
Friday afternoon?”
“No, ma’am, I didn’t. I just said there was a good place to fish out
there, and that Mr. Pike would let us swim below the dam, and all the
fellows said they wanted to go. I didn’t say they should, they just
wanted to.”
“Perhaps that’s true, but it was you who planned it, wasn’t it?”
“No’m, I didn’t plan it. I just remarked how nice it would be for us all
to go together if it wasn’t a school day, and Bob Darcy he said let’s go
anyway, and I guess they all wanted to, for they did—except the two
Jones boys and the Righter kid.”
“Nevertheless it was you that started it, wasn’t it? Tell the truth,
Darrow.”
“Well, yes, I s’pose I started it. I guess it was me, all right.”
“Oh, Darrow, don’t you realize what an influence you have over the other
boys? There is nothing so great as the power of influence. I remember I
wrote my graduating theme upon The Power of Influence, and I’ve noticed
it ever since. You knew that playing truant is one of the worst things
you can do, and yet you led those boys into temptation. What do you
think will be the end of a boy who enters into such sin? You know that
when we begin to sin we go from bad to worse, and I hate to think of
your going on the downward path, Darrow.”
By this time Miss Haynes had reduced herself to tears at the image she
was conjuring up of Darrow sliding down the moral toboggan. Darrow,
catching his cue from her, began to look contrite and sorrowful.
“Darrow, think of the power for good you might be, if only you’d use
your influence rightly. Instead of teaching the boys to do wicked
things, why not become a great uplift in their lives? Had you ever
thought of that?”
“No, ma’am. But I’ll try to do better, Miss Haynes.”
This rapid conversion to righteous resolutions completely melted Miss
Haynes. “I’m sure you will, Darrow. That is all—I won’t punish you this
time, for I expect you to use your personal influence to bring these
thoughtless and perverse boys into better ways of thinking and doing.
Only think of the power for good that you have!”
Darrow left the room with a step that fairly sang of a chastened soul
resolved to bring all its erring kind into the fold of holy endeavor. He
kept this up until he was well away from the schoolhouse, when he broke
into a mad run and was soon with the other boys in Farrell’s pasture,
where they were playing ball. Here he recounted his interview with Miss
Haynes, not omitting the pathetic passages, amid shouts of laughter.
Needless to say, his “great influence over the boys” was not exerted in
the interests of good order that year. The boys continued to do what
they had done before, and Darrow led them as of old.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Talk with two or three of the leading boys, including Darrow, and ask
them about the fishing trip. Show them that you understand “the call of
the wild” that comes with May sunshine. But “put it up to them” if
playing truant is the square thing to do, either to the school or to
their parents. Why should one attend school regularly? Is it honorable
to sneak off without permission? What is to be done about it? Assume
that of course the boys will do something about it. Who can suggest a
fair way of making this wrong right? Probably some one will suggest that
the time be made up, or that the lessons missed be written out and
handed in. Arrange with this small group what is to be suggested to the
larger group. As to Darrow, without telling him that he is the leader,
enlist him in some project that will identify him with school interests.
Perhaps he can plan an outdoor gymnasium, lay out a tennis court, or
superintend the putting up of bird-houses. By this means get him
gradually to work with you until you and he have formed a solid
friendship. Identify him with your own leadership; form a partnership
with him. Truancy will disappear under such conditions, for real
friendship will develop between teacher and pupils.
Some pupil leaders are useful allies, others are worthy enemies who may
outgeneral the ranking officer. A wise teacher sets himself first of all
to win to his loyal support the natural leaders of the pupils. This is
done by first winning their admiration and respect, then by stressing
some interest which the teacher and student leaders have in common, thus
making common cause with them until sympathetic relations are
established. Study your leading pupils; find out their hobbies, their
friends, their ambitions.
COMMENTS
Children instantly detect the mawkish note in a teacher’s dealings with
them, and appreciate it keenly if they have any sense of humor. The most
of them have. Miss Haynes was over-emotional, and made the blunder of
appealing to feelings which Darrow did not possess. Never talk to a
child leader about his leadership. To do so either makes him vain, or
robs him of his ability through the development of self-consciousness.
Miss Haynes did not appeal to a boy’s interests. A boy does not usually
care to lead his companions to moral heights. He does not like “Sunday
language.” He does not think he is slipping into perdition when he plays
truant; and many grown people think he is right. Miss Haynes failed
because she did not know enough about boy nature to make a real appeal
to a boy. She had so little sympathy with the play spirit that she did
not even sympathize with the boys’ response to the call of a swimming
hole. Because she could not appeal to the leader, his leadership
continued to be against her authority and against the best interests of
the school.
ILLUSTRATION 1
[Sidenote: Indulge the Hobby]
A teacher in an orphan asylum won the friendship and support of a boy
who had caused much trouble, by discovering that he was very fond of
animals, and that he had a tame opossum and several trained dogs. The
teacher could not afford to buy and give him books, but he brought him,
each Monday, from the public library, a new book about animals. Through
a discussion of Cy de Vry and his methods, the teacher convinced the boy
that he had a real interest in dumb creatures, and after that there was
no more trouble with the group who were under this boy’s influence.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Camera Club]
Mr. Claud Jakeway of the Williamstown rural high school was much annoyed
by the frequent absences of two or three members of the Freshman class.
The excuses given him were: “Didn’t feel well enough to study,” “Had to
help father,” etc. A little private investigation convinced Mr. Jakeway,
however, that the real cause in each case was truancy, generally, for
the purpose of either hunting or fishing. Mr. Jakeway studied over his
problem for some days, then one morning made the following announcement.
“I noticed a few days ago in one of my periodicals that certain
magazines devoted to country life and its interests are advertising for
original photographs of wild animals taken in their native habitat. I am
greatly interested in this myself, for I am exceedingly fond of wild
life, and immensely enjoy a day in the woods now and then. I wonder if
some of you older boys wouldn’t like to join with me to form a Camera
Club. We’ll go out on Saturdays and take our lunches. Only a few can
associate together effectively in work which must be done so quietly, so
I shall limit the membership to four besides myself. Hunting wild
animals with a camera is sport enough for anybody, but we’ll take our
fish poles along in case we don’t happen to strike ‘game.’ By the end of
the month the birds will be here and the hibernating animals will be out
of their winter’s sleep. Please think this matter over and see how many
of you would like to spend your Saturdays in the way I have indicated.
Beside the limitation in numbers, I shall place only one restriction
upon the membership of the club, that is, that we can accept in it only
those whose attendance in school has been regular. I realize of course
that those who have lost time in school will need their Saturdays in
order to make up back work, so please keep that also in mind between
this and the end of the month. Then we will decide who is eligible for
membership.”
Mr. Jakeway’s plan was effective. Initiative in coöperation and
substitution accomplished the needed reform.
3. Curiosity, Legitimate, and Otherwise
Curiosity is the beginning of all knowledge.
—_Plato._
Curiosity is the intellectualized form of the adaptive instinct.
Children who lack it are subnormal; and yet some teachers seem to think
that curiosity is a sin and should be inhibited. Like all other
instincts, it must be controlled; and part of every child’s education is
the acquiring of ability to control his curiosity, to know when to give
it free rein and when to curb it. It must not be indulged at the expense
of the right of others to quiet, or to the undisturbed possession of
their property, or to the opportunity of doing their work; in short, the
legitimate satisfaction of curiosity stops where the rights of other
people begin.
Curiosity is not, then, a vice to be conquered, but a fundamentally
healthful, natural, and progress-bringing instinct. The greater part of
the curiosity of children is about matters which they need to know, and
it can be utilized in motivating work; a fact which, once understood,
changes an annoyance into an asset.
But sometimes children are inquisitive about things which should not
concern them; their curiosity conflicts with good taste and a true sense
of propriety, or with the rights of others. Moreover, unrestrained
curiosity often interferes with the fulfillment of duty, or it develops
unwholesome appetites and precocious sophistication. Children are also
often curious about many things which can not properly be explained to
them until a fuller knowledge gives them an interpretative basis; and
for this curiosity the wisest treatment is postponed satisfaction, with
a clear explanation for the reason. Such an answer to questions which
can not well be answered at once is far better than the evasive or lying
replies with which too many parents and some teachers put off children.
Boys and girls will usually accept a postponement of the answer, if they
are convinced that if given they could not understand it, and they will
set themselves to the mastery of the prerequisites. But they easily and
soon discover lies in the answers given them (usually these lies are too
clumsy to deceive a bright child very long), and then, knowing they can
not depend upon the lawful and natural source of information, they set
about finding answers by whatever means offers. Questions of religion
and sex especially, should be answered with a definite promise of
satisfaction when the time comes, rather than with a misleading or
evasive reply.
Teachers should analyze the nature of the curiosity of their pupils.
They will find that it will fit one of these four cases:
1. Legitimate curiosity, which should be satisfied at once, and in
such a way as to stimulate further interest in the things
concerned.
2. Legitimate curiosity, which can not wisely be satisfied at once,
but which should be put off with a frank statement that when the
child is older and can understand the knowledge sought for, it
will be given.
3. Curiosity which is pathological or idle, or the satisfaction of
which interferes with the rights of others.
4. Curiosity not harmful in itself, but which interferes with the
child’s own wholesome development.
(1) _Curiosity stimulated by novelty or by spirit of investigation._
This is the form of curiosity which Plato so much admired, yet most
parents and teachers dub it just plain “meddling.” Perhaps they have not
realized the possibilities for growth in it that Plato saw.
CASE 99 (SECOND GRADE)
[Sidenote: Meddling]
Louis Gannin came into his first year of school life with a surplus of
interest in whatever struck his senses. His movements were very rapid,
his attention was fluctuating and his hand deft in opening boxes and
other receptacles for articles of any sort.
“Louis, is that you?” said his teacher one morning. He was visible only
as a mass of child’s garments, for he stood doubled up over a pile of
rubbish in a hall closet.
And so it was on many occasions, until Miss Vanderlip broke down in
despair:
“Louis, I think you must have looked at everything there is in this
whole school building by this time. I have told you not to get into
things and still you do it. What shall I do with you, anyway?”
Louis looked down at his shoes in undisturbed innocence.
“I know what I’ll do with you. I’ll just tie your hands together for a
long time, so as to teach you not to get into things. How’ll you like
that? Then you’ll be like a prisoner with handcuffs.”
Louis did not know very much about handcuffs or prisoners, nor could he
help but wonder how it would feel to have his hands tied together. He
meekly let the matter rest because teacher was apparently not in a very
good mood.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
We advise Miss Vanderlip to substitute permissible investigations for
forbidden ones; provide something every day which will absorb attention
and if possible exhaust the inquiring impulses of this boy. Give him
privileges, not punishment. Get an old clock, bring flowers, an old
book, a skeleton of a small animal or bird. Bring out one at a time.
Watch his reactions, after receiving them; note what appeals to him
most. Connect these extras with his lessons as far as possible so that
he may see no dividing line between work and play. Avoid scolding but
drive hard on the search for facts. Saturate him with discoveries, so
that he will not have time to pry into forbidden things.
COMMENTS
Louis had no more need of punishment than a fledgling when first he
tries to fly. Boys’ hands were made to open up things, not to be
handcuffed. He has an appetite; the way to satisfy it is to feed, not
disappoint it.
He is subject to direction. If let alone he will go far wrong; if
coerced he will go wrong the sooner; if helped he may become a famous
scholar.
ILLUSTRATION (THIRD GRADE)
[Sidenote: Busy Work]
Miss Frederick never let her wits fail when it came to providing
interesting material for children. Stories—she could tell them by the
hour and make her children laugh or cry as she would. Something to do,
delightful little tasks that were play, not work, an unlimited
assortment of these she had always at hand.
For some of the most eager ones she kept on hand a supply of busy work
which was brought out as a special reward for diligence.
For Janie and Rhoda, the two irrepressibles, she had a small collection
of Chinese paper dolls, no two alike, or some needle-work, or a specimen
from the woods. At times she sent Janie out to bring natural objects.
“See how many different things you can bring in to me from that maple
tree, and Rhoda, bring as many different kinds of parts from the
rose-bush as you can find. They must be tiny and no two alike.”
At another time she called for different kinds of soil, stone, cloth,
pictures, and when the list seemed exhausted, she repeated items on it
without any loss of interest because some new characteristic concerning
them was brought to the attention of the curious, wondering, little
investigators.
The child that pays too much attention to what other pupils are doing
needs only to be interested in his own work. He should not be punished.
The teacher should discover what in his schoolmate’s work interests him
and then give him the same kind of work. Such a pupil should cause a
teacher no trouble. It is a matter of keeping him interested and busy,
and that is not a difficult task for the skillful teacher.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Listening to Other Recitations]
Mildred Trott spent all her time listening to the recitations of other
classes, which caused her to fail in her own. Her teacher, Miss Ware,
had often talked to her about this, and Mildred had often resolved to do
better; but when the fascinating recitations began in front of her, she
listened to them in spite of good resolutions.
Finally, one day, Miss Ware saw her watching the class at the front of
the room, while her own small geography lay closed on her desk.
She smiled, stood up, and said in a clear voice:
“Mildred Trott, Mildred Trott,
Hears that which concerns her not!”
The other children laughed a little, Mildred opened her book hastily,
and the incident passed. But at recess Miss Ware heard Mildred’s
playmates repeat the bit of doggerel, and Mildred did not seem to like
it. The next day Mildred held her book open, but she still slyly
listened to the recitation instead of studying. Miss Ware again stood
up, and repeated clearly—
“Open book availeth not;
You must _study_, Mildred Trott.”
This time the children laughed more, and two or three put down the
couplet before they forgot it, in the flyleaves of their books. Again
they teased Mildred at recess, and Mildred began to see that she must
overcome her curiosity or endure continual teasing. The next day and the
next she studied assiduously, and had good lessons. On the next day,
feeling very sure of herself, she fell from grace. When Miss Ware saw
her leaning forward eagerly to hear the advanced spelling lesson, she
stopped long enough to chant—
“Mildred’s class is not in session;
Mildred, work upon your lesson!”
This was the last bit of doggerel that was needed.
COMMENTS
The illustration given above was sent to the president of the
International Academy of Discipline with the following comment, which
was intended to justify the method employed:
The correction came in a friendly way, but its form enlisted the whole
school (for children love rhymes and will repeat them in and out of
season) in the corrective process. The need for well-prepared lessons
had not been an incentive strong enough to induce Mildred to overcome
her instinctive curiosity, but the ridicule of her schoolmates gave
enough additional incentive to stir her will to action.
In spite of the fact that the method is supposed to have been effective
in dealing with “Mildred Trott,” we can not believe that the method is
good enough to recommend. On the contrary, we believe that, in most
instances, any such attempt on the part of the teacher to bring ridicule
to bear on one pupil is sure to rouse resentment. Hostility between
pupil and teacher is likely to cause more trouble to the teacher and be
more harmful to the pupil than the habit of listening to others recite.
If the teacher finds it necessary to speak to the child at all about the
habit of listening to others recite, after she has already made the
attempt to interest the child in his own work, she should take the
matter up with the child, individually. An effective way to apply the
principle of initiative in coöperation is to approach the child with a
smile on your face, when he is alone, and in the same breath that you
speak of his habit of listening to others, mention the fact that you
used to have trouble, too, keeping your mind concentrated. Do not say
this unless it is true. But it is true of most of us, and to tell this
to the child gets results in most cases. Suggest that he try to
concentrate daily. Approve him now and then upon his progress.
In dealing with curiosity, the general truth that ideals clearly defined
help immensely in gaining control of natural tendencies, holds. Fine and
high ideals of the rights of others, of what is appropriate and just,
must constantly be kept before young people to help them in directing
and mastering their instincts.
CASE 100 (FOURTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: “Trying on” Clothing]
The children in Valley Grove School had an insatiable curiosity
concerning unfamiliar things, which annoyed Miss Freeman, their teacher,
exceedingly. She was a city woman, with no idea of the restricted lives
her pupils lived. They were crudely inquisitive, coming from homes which
were morally wholesome, but uncultured or even boorish in manners. Miss
Freeman was anxious to help them, but was very young and not well
prepared. She went home every week-end, and every day the carrier left a
letter for her at the schoolhouse.
She wore pretty clothes, which the little girls admired greatly. One day
Maggie Linton touched the silken sweater which they all liked so much,
and then Erna wondered how it felt to wear such a garment; and the
result was that Ollie Bain put on sweater, hat and gloves, and was
turning around in a small circle of admiring femininity when Miss
Freeman came into the hall.
“Why, you naughty girls!” she exclaimed. “You mustn’t touch other
people’s things. Take them off, Ollie. You may look at them, but you
mustn’t handle them; hasn’t your mother taught you that? Look how dirty
your hands are, Ollie. I’ll have to have my gloves cleaned.”
She was not angry, for she liked the children and had a good
disposition. But she failed to _use_ the girls’ curiosity, and she
failed to generalize the principles that teach children when curiosity
may be satisfied and when it must be controlled.
“Teacher, why do you get a letter every day, and who writes it?”
Carl Voegling asked the question one rainy recess, while all the other
children stood at ecstatic attention to hear what the answer would be.
“Carl, that’s not any of your business, and you are not to ask me
personal questions,” Miss Freeman answered. The children saw her cheeks
grow pink, and, having been brought up to think it legitimate fun to
tease people, they continued slyly to refer to the letters throughout
the year.
[Sidenote: Watching Mail]
One day, the teacher came into the hall to find George Funk examining
the envelope of the letter that had come that morning. She was very
angry this time, and told George, a boy of twelve, to stay in at recess
for a week. She thought she had come just in time to prevent his opening
and reading the letter, and told him that after this she would keep her
mail in the desk, since she could not trust her pupils out of her sight.
George had not really meant to read the letter, and feeling that her
remarks were unjust, became very sullen.
When the week was almost up, Miss Freeman herself had an impulse of
curiosity. “Why did you want to read my letter, George?” she asked.
“I didn’t want to read your letter,” he answered. “I just wanted to see
the postmark.”
“But what good would that do you?”
“Well, I wanted to know where it was from.”
“But why? You know I like you, George,” in a sudden rush of compunction
at the hurt, sullen look on George’s face; “do tell me, why did you want
to know where it was from?”
George hesitated a moment, then his story came out in a rush. “Well, at
home they all were talking about your letters, and my brother Curt said
that he bet they were from that fellow in Carlinville that he saw you
with one day. And he dared me to look at the envelope and see what the
postmark was. He said he’d let me drive the bay colt if I would.”
“Well, you tell your brother Curt that he ought to be ashamed of himself
to set you at such tricks. You needn’t stay in this afternoon, George.
But next time, remember, keep your hands off what doesn’t belong to
you.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Let each manifestation of curiosity be the means of leading pupils to a
broader life. When she found Ollie garbed in the sweater, Miss Freeman
might have said: “Would you like me to tell you where this sweater came
from, and what I saw when I wore it last summer in Estes Park? There are
so many stories connected with it—just as there are about Ollie’s silk
hair-ribbon. Let us hang it over this chair while we’re talking about
it; I’m always very careful never to handle it unless my hands are
clean, and always to keep it on a hanger lest it lose its shape.”
In this way the children’s healthy curiosity about strange and pretty
things is satisfied, their knowledge increased, and some ideas on the
proper care of clothing inculcated. The lesson about silk-worms and
spinning and weaving processes is twice as vivid, therefore twice as
well learned, when it bears on the pretty silk sweater before them, as
it would be when read in the course from a book.
The curiosity about the letter was of a kind which needs to be
inhibited, but Miss Freeman should have inquired into his motives
before, not after punishing George. Even then, perhaps, he deserved a
punishment of some sort, but it would have been given with the knowledge
that the fault was really his brother’s. The incident gave the teacher a
splendid chance to teach a lesson in the ethics of property-treatment.
COMMENTS
In this case the elder brother’s curiosity was the outgrowth of a
healthy love of life and romance which his too narrow life was starving
into a desire to feed upon the personal affairs of the teacher. Village
gossip grows from just this condition—natural interest in the
picturesque elements of life, which the too restricted life of a small
community bound by many prejudices and traditions forces into
unwholesome channels. Miss Freeman’s pupils shared the interest of their
elders in the attractive teacher’s clothes, movements, and half-revealed
romance, besides having their own healthy curiosity in one whose life
was so much broader and richer than their own. This curiosity gave the
teacher a thousand chances to teach manners, facts, and self-control to
her boys and girls, but she did not know how to utilize them.
ILLUSTRATION 1 (THIRD GRADE)
When Miss Murray came to the third grade she found bad conditions as to
attention. A street car line went by the school and every time a car
passed the children all looked up from their books until it had gone out
of sight.
[Sidenote: Watching Street cars]
Miss Murray at once put up sash-curtains, thick enough effectively to
shut out the sight of the street cars. She found the upper sashes nailed
shut, as the former teacher had opened the lower sashes only. She had
these unnailed, and the shades hung at the window sill instead of from
the top of the window. This enabled her to shut out the sight and sound
of the street cars pretty effectively. After several months, the
children forgot to look out of the window even when they could see the
cars; the habit of attention to work had been fixed through the
elimination of the lures to curiosity.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Visiting Exhibit]
Mr. Babbitt, the leading citizen of Hoopeston, had just returned from a
long trip to the Orient. As he was wealthy, he had brought back a great
many curios and art treasures; and as he was public-spirited, he
arranged to exhibit these in the large assembly room of the high school
building, and to lecture about them to any who cared to come. While the
exhibits were being arranged, the high school students did not use the
assembly hall, as Mr. Babbitt, aided by several assistants, was busy
unpacking and putting things into place. However, the students came to
Mr. Tower, the principal, to ask that they be allowed to go into the
assembly room at noon to look at things.
“I hardly know what to do about this,” said Mr. Tower, in chapel, “but I
feel that young people of your age and training should be able to go to
see these things, enjoy them, and not injure or even handle them at all.
Therefore, I asked Mr. Babbitt if you might go in at noon, after giving
a pledge that you would not touch or handle anything. He said he would
trust you if I could, and so we have decided that you may go into the
room at noon, by giving a signed promise to this effect to the servant
whom Mr. Babbitt leaves there at the door.”
This plan worked excellently. Practically the whole school spent the
greater part of their noon hours for several days looking at the quaint
and lovely things Mr. Babbitt had brought. Not one thing was hurt or
even touched, although a small vase was broken by accident when some
boys, examining the contents of a temporary shelf, fell over each other
in their eagerness. But the boys volunteered to pay for this loss, and
Mr. Babbitt was entirely satisfied.
Mr. Tower could not have trusted his students so fully had not he and
many other teachers and parents taught ideals of self-control and honor
for a long time preceding this test. The principal’s talk and the
written pledge were means of bringing and keeping before the students’
minds the ideal of controlled curiosity, of a desire to touch inhibited
by the will.
This ideal of a fine sense of honor controlling the instinct to touch,
take apart, roll, toss or otherwise experiment with anything that
arouses interest, should be taught very early in school life. Little
children want to handle everything, including work material, playthings,
ornaments, books, curios, pictures; older ones want to handle
instruments and apparatus used in their laboratories. “Mine and thine”
must early be differentiated, and the satisfaction of curiosity by
handling limited to one’s own possessions. If this be taught in the home
and the primary grades, older children will be found as reliable as Mr.
Tower’s students when a serious test comes.
(2) _Curiosity stimulated by destructive-constructive impulses._ Even
very young children take pleasure in pulling things to pieces—not so
much because of a wish to destroy as because of the pleasure of
producing effects. Destroying is easier than constructing, so naturally
destructiveness develops before constructiveness. But the latter
characteristic becomes relatively stronger as ability to do difficult
things increases. With boys from twelve to fifteen years of age the
instinct sometimes becomes almost a mania. Then is the time that the
wise parent or teacher will find a means for harmless ways of indulging
an inclination that may develop later into genius, and in any case will
bring much first-hand information.
CASE 101 (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Dismembering Piano]
Bert Slocum came from a miner’s home where the comforts of life were so
few as to mar sadly the development of growing children. Bert said to
himself one day:
“I know how I can have a good time. Some Saturday night I’m going to
borrow a dark lantern, take along some lunch and I’ll go to the
schoolhouse and stay all night. I’ll take enough to eat to last me over
Sunday. I’ll stay up there all day Sunday and take the piano to pieces
and put it together again. I can do it.”
The program was actually carried out. What a glorious time he had. No
one came to interrupt, no one called him to dinner and nothing marred
the luxury of those sweet hours.
His parents knew nothing of his whereabouts, but that did not disturb
him, for every so often he was absent anyway and no one was much
concerned.
Unfortunately he had to finish his work in the nightfall, as his supply
of oil was exhausted the night preceding. He had taken out nearly every
bolt and screw until he came to the sounding board and its strings. When
darkness furnished a shelter from inquisitive eyes he emerged from the
building, called on a friend, and finally reached home without giving an
alarm.
On Monday the janitor found traces of Bert’s adventure. For one thing
the piano was not all put back together, for the pedals lay in a heap at
one side.
The teachers were notified and inquiry began. The superintendent decided
it was not a little boy and looked to the eighth grade to furnish the
culprit.
After a great deal of noisy inquiry, Bert held up his hand and said to
the teacher: “I know something about that piano.”
“What do you know, Bert?” said his teacher.
“I’ll tell, but I want to know what you all will do with the kid, after
I talk about him.”
“We can’t say about that. Bert, if you know, it’s time for you to speak
out and have it over.”
“I don’t want to, now; I’ll tell some time,” was Bert’s final remark.
Later he went to the superintendent and said:
“Mr. Knowles, is your pianner hurt some? I hear some un’s been tinkering
with it.”
“I don’t know that it’s hurt much. But somebody has been doing a trick
we simply can’t stand. Just think of it. You can see the whole thing has
been in pieces. I’ll have to suspend the boy that did this thing, if I
find him. I simply can’t stand it.”
Nothing came immediately of this interview, but Bert went home, turned
the matter over carefully in his mind, and in the morning came to school
with a grim determination to act, and perish if need be. On the way he
said to himself:
“I’d eat fire, before I’d hurt the pianner. If I have hurt it, as they
think, I’ll just take my medicine like a man.” And he did. He said very
briefly:
“I tore up your pianner, Mr. Knowles.”
The superintendent replied very shortly: “I’m sorry, Bert, I’ll have to
suspend you for a month for that, so as to keep other boys from doing
the same thing, or something worse.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Give Bert an opportunity to talk out all of his thought about the piano.
Wait until he has told all, and you have planned a substitute for
piano-wrecking before informing him of the gravity of his misconduct.
Possibly that item can be passed over lightly.
Get answers to these questions: “Are you particularly interested in
pianos or do you take an interest in all kinds of mechanisms? What are
you planning to do for a living? What would you do if I found you a
place in a piano store, or in a machine shop, for spare time work? Would
you stiffen up your studies? Would your parents be willing for me to
make an arrangement of this sort? How will you pay for having a piano
man go over our instrument and see that everything is in order?”
COMMENTS
This boy has broken out of the usual beat of pupil activities. The great
question is, will his teachers be equal to their opportunity? Curiosity
is hunger for experience; it lives at the basis of all knowledge. It is
a capital stock for educators; it can not be wasted without
impoverishing both the pupil and society.
In dealing with Bert, motive counts for nearly everything. He must not
be made to suffer for his mistake of judgment in such a way as to
imperil his future interest in school or in his favorite inquiries.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
Lavia Smiley came into the eighth grade with a consuming passion for
color sensations. She had made collection after collection of colors in
all sorts of substances—cloth, paper, stone, soil, metals of various
sorts. She could give the names of all of them and could imitate them in
pigment mixtures with remarkable exactness, for a girl of her age and
very limited experience.
[Sidenote: Breaking Necklace]
One day, in the nature study class, Lavia’s teacher, Miss Westfeldt, had
given a lesson on shells, and among other interesting things had shown
the class a necklace of iridescent shells which her missionary brother
had sent her from Micronesia. The lovely bluish-whitish-greenish-pinkish
shimmer of the shells riveted Lavia’s attention like a magnet.
“O, please, Miss Westfeldt, let me take them,” said Lavia.
“No, Lavia,” answered Miss Westfeldt, “they are too delicate to handle,
but I’ll hold them here in the sunlight where you can see them well.
Aren’t they beautiful!”
“O, I never saw any thing so pretty!” was the reply.
The lesson ended, the necklace was laid back in the cotton in which it
had taken its long journey over sea and land. Miss Westfeldt placed the
box on the desk, intending to take it home with her when she went to
lunch, but just as the morning session was closing, a telegram was
handed her requiring an immediate answer. In her haste to attend to this
intrusive matter, and yet not forfeit her lunch, the box with its
precious necklace was forgotten.
The first bell was ringing when Miss Westfeldt returned.
She made haste to be in her place, as the children entered the room, and
not until they were seated did she think of the shell-necklace. She
opened the box. Ten were broken.
“O, what has happened to my beautiful shells!” she cried out, in dismay.
“How were they broken?”
No one answered, but Lavia was crying. Miss Westfeldt immediately
suspected that she was the guilty party, but she only said:
“I am very, very sorry that this has happened, but never mind about it
just now. I am sure the one who broke them will come and tell me about
it.”
Lavia continued to weep and after the other children were busy with
their study Miss Westfeldt stepped quietly up to her and, bending over
her and speaking in a tone so low the other children could not hear,
said:
“Lavia, dear, what is the matter?”
“O, Miss Westfeldt, I broke your shells,” whispered Lavia, and then
burst into another freshet of tears.
“I am so sorry,” was the low reply. “After school tonight come and tell
me all about it.”
School closed. Lavia remained; and when all the other children had gone,
Miss Westfeldt sat down beside her, put her arm around the child, her
hand resting lightly on Lavia’s shoulder, and said, still in a low tone:
“Now, Lavia, tell me how it all happened.”
“O, Miss Westfeldt,” began Lavia; “I wanted so bad to see if I could
paint the shells. I just ate a little bit of lunch and hurried back
quick before the children got here, and made this little painting of the
shells. Then I started to put them back in the box carefully; and I
heard somebody open the entry door as if they were coming in, and I
jumped and dropped the shells, and when I picked them up they were all
broken. I am awfully sorry, Miss Westfeldt. I’ll give you my painting,”
and the lips quivered again.
Miss Westfeldt looked at the painting. It confirmed Lavia’s story. The
different colors were crude, but remarkably good for a thirteen-year-old
girl. They indicated artistic promise. The teacher sat for a moment with
an absorbed expression on her face, then said:
“Lavia, you have grieved me very much today by breaking these shells;
now, will you do something to make me happy again? I did not know this
morning why you wanted to take the shells. If I place the box on your
desk where you can study the color effects and try to paint them, will
you promise me that you will try never again to meddle with things that
you have no right to touch?”
“O, yes, Miss Westfeldt, I will, indeed I will! And can I really have
them on my desk?”
“Yes, Lavia, and I will keep your painting as a pledge of your promise.
If you will ask me, after your lessons are learned, I have some other
beautiful things also, that you may paint. I am pleased that you told me
all the truth.”
Lavia kept her promise. The spirit of initiative in coöperation won.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (SIXTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Dissecting Typewriter]
Carl Lampey and George Coffman were two sixth grade boys who found an
old typewriter in a small store-room opening off the principal’s office.
They went to their teacher to ask her if they might have this old
machine.
“Whose is it?” she asked.
“We don’t know. Mr. Shorey (the janitor) said he thought it used to
belong to Mr. Taney. Mr. Taney’s been gone three years, and never has
sent for it. We want to take it apart to see how it’s made.”
“That’s a good idea,” Miss Moore replied. “But I can’t give you
permission to do it until we find that Mr. Taney really doesn’t want
it.”
“But, Miss Moore, if he did want it, don’t you suppose he’d have sent
for it by this time? It’s too old to be of any use, or he’d have sold it
second-hand. And we want to see how a typewriter’s constructed. Please,
Miss Moore.”
“The fact remains that it is not our property, and we have no right to
take it. I’ll tell you what to do, though. Write to Mr. Taney and ask
him. If he says he’s done with it, take it with my blessing.”
“But we don’t know Mr. Taney’s address.”
“Then hunt it up; you can. I think he knew the Wallaces very well, and
doubtless they have it.”
So Carl and George went to the Wallace home, secured Mr. Taney’s
address, and wrote to him. Mr. Taney was a busy principal in a large
town, who laid the letter aside and forgot to answer it for weeks. Carl
and George teased Miss Moore to let them take the old machine, saying
that Mr. Taney’s silence gave consent. Miss Moore told them they must
wait until the owner gave up his property definitely. Finally, a letter
came from Mr. Taney, saying he had forgotten all about the machine and
that they were welcome to it; and two happy boys, who had learned a
valuable lesson in self-restraint and honor, began to satisfy their
healthy curiosity as to the construction of a typewriter.
(3) _Curiosity stimulated by fear of not “passing.”_ Curiosity may be
stimulated by almost any interest that seizes a child’s mind. The
disciplinarian is often so offended with the expression of curiosity
that the underlying interest is lost sight of.
CASE 102 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Examining Record Book]
The morning after the report cards were given out in the Bridgewater
High School, Miss Penfield held a series of conferences concerning
marks; among them one proved tragic.
“I don’t understand why I got only 65 in English this month, Miss
Penfield.”
“That is what your daily recitations and test work averaged.”
“You gave Harriet 82 and she admits that she didn’t recite as many times
as I did, and you gave Elizabeth 75, and she never studies. I don’t see
why I got such a low mark when Elizabeth had as many zeros as I did.”
“How do you know how many zeros you had?”
“I looked at your record book when you were out of the room.”
“Rhoda Kilborne! Do you mean to say you would do such a thing as that?
That notebook is my personal property. I wonder how many more pupils
have had access to it. Well! we shall see!”
At the beginning of the recitation period, Miss Penfield asked: “How
many persons in this room have ever looked at my record book?” There was
no response to her question. Every one sat motionless, wondering what
was going to happen next.
“Well, Rhoda, I guess you are the only culprit this time.
“I want you all to know that looking at a teacher’s record book is no
less than opening her pocket-book and taking some money.
“You may report to me at the close of school, Rhoda.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Open your record book so that the pupil can see how her average was
obtained. Say to her, “Suppose you put the marks for your daily
recitations on the board and find out the average. Now average this with
your test work.
“Don’t you see, now why your mark was—?”
At the beginning of the recitation period, pass your book around the
class, saying: “There may be some who would like to know on what basis
their average was obtained. I work on the scale of —. Let us figure out
a few of the marks. Then, taking a good mark as an example, show the
pupils exactly how it was obtained.
Occasionally ask members of the class to exchange papers and mark each
other’s papers. Go over them again yourself, giving your own mark. Ask
those who marked tests to compare their marks with yours.
A teacher’s record book should not be regarded as her private property.
Play so fair with your pupils that they will not want to look in your
book without permission. Have an understanding with them that they are
always privileged to ask to look at their marks. There is little doubt,
then they will show no undue curiosity.
COMMENTS
Miss Penfield made a mistake in punishing Rhoda for curiosity which was
incited by her own method of dealing with the children.
ILLUSTRATION 1 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Enlisting Coöperation]
Mr. Middleton, instructor in physics in the Rensselaer Academy, had the
freest, man-to-man attitude toward his pupils of any teacher in the
school.
“How do you do it, Middleton?” one instructor asked.
“I don’t do it. They do it.”
Here is the explanation. When Mr. Middleton entered the laboratory one
morning he found that the little steam engine which he had taken such
pains to fix up had been taken entirely to pieces.
“Well, the fellow who couldn’t see how that engine worked without
pulling it to pieces was pretty dumb. I worked a good long time in
getting the materials collected for it, and I expect to see it together
when I enter the room tomorrow morning.” This remark was made in the
presence of a number of his pupils. He made no further allusion to the
subject, depending on the morale of his department to work out the
desired result. He was not disappointed.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: A Rush to Windows]
When the fire engines rushed by the Shields High School, as by common
consent the pupils rose in their seats and rushed to the east windows,
Frederick Hersey, keeper of the study hour, gasped in amazement relieved
only by the fact that he noticed that some of his pupils seemed a little
hesitant to take advantage of the excitement.
As soon as the interest waned he said, “You may now take your seats.”
Further than this no comment was made.
At the first opportunity, he asked Laura Blank how it came about that
the pupils of the school rushed to the windows without permission. After
fencing a short time, she said:
“Last year our teachers let us watch the engines and big auto trucks go
by and so we just ran to the windows.”
[Sidenote: Utilize Class Officers]
In order to handle the matter speedily and effectively, after being
informed of the facts, the principal summoned the four class presidents,
and gave them an opportunity to coöperate with him about breaking up
school work out of foolish curiosity.
“The school acted like four-year-old children. If for no other reason
than for the sake of discipline in case of accident, we must try some
way to correct this custom. I want to ask you class presidents if you
will mention the matter at your next meeting and get the pupils to agree
that we shall have no such breaking away from good order for any
reason.”
After some parleying back and forth the idea was adopted by the classes
and later put into effect. No public mention was ever made of the
principal’s decision and attitude on the matter, nor was there need of
any such announcement.
DIVISION VI
All good things perverted to evil purposes are worse than those which
are naturally bad.—_Dickens._
CASES ARISING OUT OF THE EXPRESSIVE INSTINCTS
Deeply ingrained is the impulse to exchange ideas with other persons. So
strong is it that even when not removed from human associations we often
personify animals and inanimate objects and address the artificial
persons in words expressive of ideas.
The expressive instinct has produced a large number of meaningful human
attitudes, actions and sounds—silence, gesture, signalling, facial
expression, singing, whistling, handclapping and other noises made by
hands and feet. All of these facts have direct bearing on school
discipline. If thoroughly understood they can be so dealt with as to
relieve a teacher of much anxiety. Otherwise the torments of pandemonium
await the teacher and failure marks attempts at school work proper.
The most comprehensive desire that lies behind actions of this sort is
to gain recognition from other persons. We shall study the evidence for
this conclusion through a number of instances.
1. Oral Expression
Whisper not in the company of others.
—_George Washington._
[Sidenote: In General]
(1) _Whispering._ A few students of the subject of school management may
need to be reminded that a child who whispers is attempting to conform
to a good school policy and at the same time to satisfy a powerful
instinct. He foregoes the use of the ordinary conversational tone in
deference to the custom or rule that outlaws the unrestricted use of the
same for pupils in the school-room.
It is a powerful instinct that impels one to communicate with his
fellows. No one has failed to experience the impulsion to talk, or in
some way, express himself to another person.
The child ordinarily speaks freely and in a normal tone of voice when
addressing another individual. Whispering is an unusual and emergency
measure, adopted when circumstances render the customary mode of
communication inappropriate, imprudent or impossible. The interchange of
ideas brings a pleasant glow of good fellowship.
Whispering, also, is a relief from the weariness of work. If there is
any daring in a pupil he will try out the teacher on whispering. There
are always enough reasons why occasional communication is necessary, to
afford an excuse for asking permission to whisper, and next, to whisper
without permission.
No teacher ever attempts to secure absolute silence. Minor infractions
of a whispering rule are always tolerated. Such must ever be the case.
These concessions to human necessity lodge the idea that more whispering
may pass unnoticed. In a word the conditions that favor whispering are
numerous and very stimulating.
The impulse to whispering can never be eradicated from a pupil. It may
be suppressed or directed. A wise teacher has no wish to remold human
nature to the extent that a person ceases to care for the opportunity of
talking to another person.
We are confronted with the problem of how to control an impulse that we
desire to preserve without injury and yet without waste of time and
effort.
Whispering has always been a menace to the best school order. Everywhere
and in all grades it threatens to retard or make impossible the highest
type of school work. Not only is the noise of whispering a nuisance in
itself, but it stimulates unnecessary noise from other sources. When
whispering ceases many other sounds of doors, rustling leaves, etc.,
will be either markedly subdued or entirely eliminated.
Furthermore, whispering is a well recognized cause of inattention to the
subject in hand. The pupil who whispers, and the one to whom he
whispers, both have their attention withdrawn from the work of the
moment.
Whispering is not a wrong in itself, like dishonesty or theft. Again,
while all agree that better order can be maintained without whispering,
few have a tested method to suggest for reducing it to a minimum.
The most useful principle of discipline for the control of whispering
seems to be that of substitution. Given a room full of children with no
work to do, whispering will spring up instantly. Given a room where
every pupil has urgent work on hand, the amount of whispering will be
greatly reduced.
If work can be substituted for communication, as an object of interest
and effort, a large gain will have been made.
Careful attention must be given to the age of the offender. In younger
pupils the joys of talking with one’s fellows are still very enchanting.
Usually offenders are not vicious in intention, rather they are quite
without self-control.
To require that whispering shall be reduced to a minimum can not be
looked upon as an injustice; at most it is only an inconvenience. At
church and theater and in the parlor or dining-room, whispering is
tabooed. The teacher, then, is merely requiring what good manners
prescribe in this respect for other assemblages of people.
The whispering problem can never be allowed to solve itself. The
offenders will wax worse and worse until intolerable conditions will
compel a reform. On the other hand a method of suppressing whispering,
that only interrupts school work the more, is not to be adopted.
The most favored procedure is to adopt, first of all, a general policy
regarding quiet, one that is patiently urged and unceasingly enforced.
Sudden, explosive, distracting attempts at suppression are to be
avoided.
Every teacher, from the first grade to the last year in the high school,
will admit that whispering is one of the most general annoyances. Some
teachers succeed in holding it in check while others aggravate the
difficulty until it becomes a misdemeanor.
There are educators who recommend that as long as whispering is carried
on about lessons and school work, it should not be prohibited. There are
others who say it should be prohibited, but fail to give prohibitive
measures. The former fail to note that whispering about lessons and
school tasks is really a temptation to whisper about almost anything
that comes into the child’s mind.
[Sidenote: First Grade]
In the first grade, whispering about lessons and school work is unusual.
Their interests are play interests and their activities are the
activities of child life; about these they talk. It is only natural that
they should do so. While it does not seem fair to the child to
transplant him from his outside world of freedom to the school-room
where the privilege of free expression is denied, still the first grade
teacher must bear in mind that if she allows whispering to become a
habit in the first grade, it will become very annoying in the higher
grades. There is no argument in favor of whispering, and, therefore, the
first grade teacher should train her pupils not to whisper during the
school sessions.
In rural schools the matter of preventing whispering is more difficult
than in the city school, for what is busy work for one grade cannot be
used in another. What will interest one grade will not interest another,
hence study periods and periods of busy work must be most carefully
planned, especially in the first three grades. Too much time must not be
given to study, for that means opportunity for play and mischief and, of
course, for whispering.
Even with the best planning, an occasional child will whisper. Such a
child should not be reproved in a faultfinding way. The teacher may
preface her request to refrain from whispering by approval of something
that has been well done, then say, “My dear, we do not whisper here at
all.” Following her request, the teacher may do some kindness for the
child that will gain his love and affection and make him willing to try
to obey the teacher.
If the child repeats the offense the teacher must use the same methods
again. Say, “Oh, no. Do not do that, we must not whisper.” The teacher
should use an even, smooth tone of voice, devoid of the least inflection
that might indicate impatience or unkindness. She should follow this
second command by expectancy. She should feel that the child will not do
otherwise than obey her. The child may repeat the offense, but the
teacher must use the same method again and again, until the child
responds and does not whisper. Second and third offenses usually make
teachers impatient, and, instead of kindness and indulgence toward the
child, they manifest impatience. By all means such a course should be
avoided, even though the offenses be many.
Teachers are often heard to complain that pupils recite before called
upon, or talk without permission. Such teachers confess to faulty
methods on their own part. Early in the year they failed to curb such
tendencies, thereby allowing them to become habits. In the very first
lesson require each pupil to wait for his turn in the recitation, to
secure permission to speak when he has something to say. If the teacher
will closely supervise her class work in this manner for the first
month, she will have no further trouble on this point. To begin right is
half the battle in school-room discipline. Those petty offenses that a
teacher dislikes must be prevented the first day, the second, and so on,
until they no longer recur.
In the first and second years it is highly important that the pupils
form correct school-room habits in all respects. Whispering is easier to
control here than in any subsequent grade.
CASE 103 (SECOND GRADE)
[Sidenote: Whispering Habit]
Carrie, a little girl six years old, was nervous and talkative. She had
a habit of turning her face half around toward Mabel, who sat just
behind her, and, half covering her mouth with her hand, she would
whisper to Mabel almost constantly.
While the teacher, Miss Bond, was giving general instructions she was
constantly reiterating, “Carrie, stop talking!” Carrie had a semblance
of obedience in this direction simply because her speeches were never
long.
Evidently Miss Bond had no other expectation than that the offense would
be repeated. The work of both Carrie and Mabel was below par.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Change Carrie’s seat in order to give her new surroundings. Give her and
her classmates something that is easy to do, and expect them to do it.
Use the principle of substitution by changing the work often. If Carrie
whispers in her new location, talk to her privately about it. Show her
your friendship for her in many ways. Never give up the idea that she
will soon stop whispering. Instead of calling out to her so that all
hear you, go to her privately and without faultfinding ask her to stop
whispering. Whenever you observe that she is diligent and has refrained
from talking for a little while, commend her warmly. As soon as she
realizes that you are her friend, and that you really expect her to stop
whispering she will do so.
COMMENTS
Habit breaking is possible only when a new habit is being formed in
place of the old one. A child will say, “I just can’t keep from
whispering,” telling thus both a truth and a falsehood. The truth is
that when the external conditions and the inner set of the mind are both
favorable, the habitual act is certain to occur. The falsehood is that
the child “cannot control the habit.”
Whispers need oftentimes a decisive shock in order to shake them loose
from an ingrained habit. This shaking up may be largely
self-administered if a tactful teacher knows how to make a pupil measure
himself and pass judgment on his own behavior.
Changing the seat breaks up the complex circumstances in which
whispering has hitherto been practiced. The removal to a new location
creates a mental shock, yet offers no insult to one’s personal feelings.
There is valuable aid in hurrying the mind of a pupil on from one point
to another while establishing a new set of ideas in the mind. Keeping a
pupil busy following your program by the presentation of new tasks,
duties, recreations, helps to save him from falling back into the moods
that have been the fruitful source of improper conduct.
When dealing with a disciplinary case, a wise administrator attempts,
just as far as possible, to keep a sharp eye on the train of events that
transpires in that pupil’s life. Any serious interruption of the
sequence of ideas and moods that are favorable to the reform,
necessarily postpones the fixation of the new trait, habit or
resolution.
Pupils will quickly learn that a firm disciplinary policy, a helpful
watchfulness, can be maintained without carrying with them an
aggravating scrutiny of conduct. Friendship and good fellowship can be
revealed through teamwork in the building of a character as well as in
the coaching of a football team.
Some of the best chums are those who occupy the relation of player and
coach. When on the athletic field the coach exercises rigid mandatory
control. The onlooker may suppose that he is something of a tyrant, but
the boys on the team know better; they sense his genuine good fellowship
underneath the harsh exterior. By common consent the future victory is
willingly bought with the price of undergoing these strenuous activities
under an apparently despotic supervision.
In like manner the school teacher must learn to exercise a positive
control over the activities of a pupil, which shall not abolish, but
covertly disclose, rather, a fine sense of the comradeship that binds a
good teacher to a responsive pupil.
Sometimes out of a spirit of helpfulness a child is led to whisper when,
in reality, the one to whom he whispers is most at fault, as in the
following instance taken from an experience in the Fourth Grade.
CASE 104 (FOURTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: “Helping” by Whispering]
Lawrence seemed given to constant whispering. The most trying thing
about it was that he seemed to whisper more constantly while class
instruction was going on than at other times. Miss Blair was the more
puzzled over this because Lawrence was an exceptionally bright pupil,
and very courteous. This matter of whispering was the only case in which
he failed to obey Miss Blair.
When she spoke to him about it he listened respectfully with flushed
face and downcast eyes. He certainly did not seem indifferent to her
wishes, yet the very next time she began to pronounce words in spelling
he seemed to divide his attention between writing the words and
whispering to Freddie, who sat just behind him.
When she stood near Lawrence, he did not whisper; furthermore he always
seemed to whisper to Freddie only.
She consulted Freddie about changing his seat, but found him anxious to
retain his place behind Lawrence. She decided that the best plan was to
punish Lawrence as well as others for whispering. So she announced that
five minutes would be deducted from the recess period of a pupil for
every time he whispered.
She was surprised to find that this seemed to place no restraint upon
Lawrence. He whispered as much as ever and lost every recess like a
little soldier.
When this had been going on for two weeks, one day Sarah, who sat just
behind Freddie, hung around Miss Blair’s desk plainly trying to get up
courage to say something. Finally, Miss Blair said, “What is it, Sarah?”
Sarah replied, “Freddie makes Lawrence whisper.” Miss Blair said in
astonishment, “How can that be?”
“Why,” said Sarah, “Freddie can’t tell just what you want, or he can’t
spell the words and he punches Lawrence in the back and Lawrence tells
him what to do or how to spell the words.”
Here, then, was the key to the situation, which Freddie had been too
selfish and Lawrence too manly to disclose.
Freddie was given a seat near Miss Blair’s desk where she could help
him, and Lawrence ceased to whisper. The sadness which had shown in his
face at every recess was replaced by happy relaxation.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Find out by tactful questioning, changing seats during one period, etc.,
just why a certain child persists in whispering. Ascertain whether the
one to whom he whispers gets or gives information and arrange for the
dependent one to get direct help from you, or from some fellow pupil,
after instructions have been given.
Never keep a child in at recess time for any other reason than that he
has already had recreation.
Test Freddie’s hearing. It may be that some defect in that respect has
made it impossible for him to catch some of the explanations given by
the teacher.
If hearing is found to be normal, test his vision. Possibly he can not
see all the lessons that are placed on the board. Perhaps, also, the
light may shine on the board in such a way that he can not see the
writing.
COMMENTS
The Bavaria system has revealed the great need of individual
instruction. This question of getting help on the difficult parts of a
lesson is not, in itself, wrong. The evil comes from the confusion of
haphazard whispering. The whispered help which one pupil gives another,
without the teacher’s consent, is attended by more than one evil. The
attention of two pupils is shifted from the central interest. The
teacher is deceived as to the real knowledge which the helped one has of
the subject and he can not therefore correctly estimate his work.
Yet the physical well-being of a child demands that he have his recess
period of relaxation. The teacher who does her duty in the matter of
supervised play will abandon “keeping children in” as a punishment for
misdemeanors.
ILLUSTRATION (FOURTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Rewarding with Stars]
Miss Green tried the following method in her room. She wrote the pupils’
names on the blackboard in a conspicuous place. She told the children
that whenever she saw a child whisper during the week just beginning she
would erase his name.
At the beginning of the second week a star was placed after each name
remaining on the board. Those who had whispered the week before were
given another chance by again writing their names on the blackboard.
Each succeeding week a new star was given to those who had not yet
whispered and each week those who failed were given a new trial. When
any one had received six stars they were given a book.
Little was said about those who failed, but every week a story was told,
when the stars were given, showing the value of self-control, or the
disaster which followed lack of self-control. This plan practically
eliminated whispering.
CASE 105 (FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADES)
[Sidenote: Outdoing the Teacher]
Miss Peterson taught the fifth and sixth grades in a central Illinois
town. She had a loud, scolding voice. The children whispered almost
incessantly, apparently to drown her harsh tones. They nearly always
succeeded in part, but occasionally when the noise of whispering seemed
worse, Miss Peterson’s voice actually arose above the din and in
threatening tones she said to them, “Stop whispering!”
Her evident reason for this was to get only a temporary, partial
silence, for this was all she accomplished. Her outbreak against noise
occurred two or three times daily. The children even blew whistles very
softly at times and actually disliked Miss Peterson the more because she
seemed to believe them when they told her the sound was made by the wind
whistling through the cracks around the ill-fitted windows.
One day when the noise seemed worse than usual, she announced that
whoever whispered next would have to “stand on the floor.” There was a
moment’s silence and then one of the girls whispered a comment upon her
remark. Instantly Miss Peterson called her to stand up in the front of
the room. The girl to whom she whispered immediately talked for the
obvious purpose of joining her friend in disgrace. When Miss Peterson
asked the second girl to join the first, a smile was exchanged between
them. This was seen by others who decided to join in the fun. One after
another, almost as fast as named, joyfully joined the group of those
standing, and what is more, whispered to each other on the floor. When
almost half of the pupils had been called out, poor Miss Peterson gave
them a very angry lecture, and threatened them with the loss of recess.
A partial silence ensued after the lecture, but that session of the
school was worse than lost.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Take time to see yourself at work in the school-room. Test out your own
influence as a noise maker by adopting some very quiet methods of doing
your own work; see if the children do not imitate you also in
maintaining better order.
Abandon the haphazard method of curbing whispering. Think the whole
situation over; measure each pupil in respect to the whispering
nuisance; classify the room as a whole in respect to the matter.
Probably you will adopt two or three methods simultaneously for
different types of pupils.
Apply these methods unobtrusively. By working with individuals have the
rumor pass around that you are becoming stern about whispering. This can
be done without provoking enmity.
Use a number of stories on self-control, neighborliness, etc., but do
not connect them with your campaign against whispering. If some story
makes a great hit, allude to its leading character when dealing with
certain individual offenders.
COMMENTS
A harsh voice or a loud tone tends very strongly to provoke school-room
noise. It sets an example; it shows the teacher’s disregard of the
customary rule relative to quiet in the room; it provokes a similar
noisiness for the sake of self-defense.
The well modulated voice not only pleases sensitive ears and gentle
spirits, but it suggests strongly to the pupils what their own voices
may be like. Such a voice says not only, “Do this,” but also “Do it
quietly.”
The voices of most persons are untrained. Teachers usually give little
professional attention to their voices, yet no aspect of their
personality needs greater attention.
The voice is usually a good indicator of character. Miss Peterson
doubtless is no exception. We doubt if any person enjoys her friendship
as much as if she used a sweeter, gentler, lower-pitched voice.
The adoption of some method of voice culture will react on the
character.
Either singing or dramatics will soften the voice and warm up the heart.
If nothing else is available, the reading of well selected poetry with
an attempt at faithful expression has a lasting effect if maintained for
a considerable period.
Public announcement of a mode of punishment for a certain offense often
leads a group to try together the experiment of breaking the rule laid
down. A public talk about a general misdemeanor must be well thought out
and given at an opportune time, with no hint of anger on the part of the
teacher. The pupils will not reason that an angry person’s judgment is
warped, but they will nevertheless, resent a lecture given in any other
than a seriously helpful attitude of mind.
The novice and the failing teacher use direct methods hoping to secure
immediate and adequate results. One teacher says, “I want to use a
method that will bring whispering to a stop at once.”
Human nature rarely consents to such radical methods. Indirect methods
and a little lapse of time are usually necessary to give the human
nervous organism opportunity for readjustment. Such a reorganization of
habits is not closely under the control of the will; rather the lower
nerve centers must actually effect the desired reforms. Intelligent
choice merely supplies the inner stimulus which directs the course of
the rebuilding of habit that is so earnestly longed for.
“The perpetual ill-behavior of many children is itself the consequence
of that chronic irritation in which they are kept by bad management....
That harsh treatment which children of the same family inflict on each
other is often, in great measure, reflex of the harsh treatment they
receive from adults.” (Spencer, Education.)
ILLUSTRATION (FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADES)
Mrs. Steward taught a room of pupils in the fifth and sixth grades. Near
the end of the second week she felt that she had the confidence of her
pupils and could count upon their coöperation.
[Sidenote: Taking a Vote]
On Friday morning just before recess she said, “How many of you would
like to try to have no whispering at all between now and recess time? It
is only ten minutes.” A majority of the children voted that the trial be
made. The silence was really restful. Just before dismissing for recess
she asked how many liked the silence. Again a majority of them held up
their hands. About twenty minutes before noon she again allowed them to
vote as to whether or not all should refrain from whispering until noon.
This time more even than before voted for silence. Half an hour before
school closed they again decided against whispering for the rest of the
day.
On Monday one or two sessions were voted upon with success. Before the
end of the third week the children from choice had voted whispering out
of the school for the rest of the term because they liked complete
silence better.
They followed the teacher who used the method of leading suggestion.
Thereafter when someone forgot and whispered, they were reminded,
kindly, that they were not following the wish of their fellow-pupils. On
this subject of majority rule, stories were told of its value in human
history.
Many teachers make use of the honor system in determining deportment
grades, especially asking for self-reporting on whispering and similar
offenses.
CASE 106 (RURAL SCHOOL)
Mr. Boling taught in a rural school in Central Illinois. He used the
following system as a check upon whispering.
[Sidenote: When All Whisper]
Every evening just before school closed he called the roll. Those who
had not whispered during the day were to answer “ten.” If they had
whispered once “nine.” For every time they whispered during the day they
were to deduct one from their daily grade in deportment.
With some children this acted as an effective check. One little girl,
Jennie, had truthfully answered “ten” every day since the introduction
of the system. She sat with her sister in a double seat. One day a
friend asked permission to “speak” and came to the sister’s desk to
borrow a book. Jennie not being able to find the book said to her
sister, “Look on your side!” Then she slapped her hand on her mouth and
her little heart sank. She had broken her record. She had whispered
without permission! Many notes passed between the sisters as to whether
or not Jennie had really whispered without permission. It was grimly
decided that she had. They reasoned that whereas the friend’s permission
to “speak” allowed each of them to speak to her, still that gave the
sisters no right to speak to each other. Jennie suffered all the rest of
that day. How like a real culprit she felt when she answered “nine” at
roll call. The memory of the disgrace lingers with her through the
years.
But Mr. Boling had other pupils of far different home training and
natural disposition from Jennie.
Katie Mender and Annie Kuhn were examples of this class. They whispered
almost incessantly. Jennie knew it and she believed Mr. Boling himself
knew it and yet they answered “eight,” “nine” or “ten” every evening.
A few there were who not only whispered incessantly but who shamelessly
answered “zero” every evening.
Clifton with a good-natured grin answered “zero” daily and looked around
the room with a complacency that seemed to say, “What a smart boy am I!”
And even Jennie often wondered if his care-free life was not enviable.
Nothing was ever said or done by Mr. Boling to show that Jennie was more
to be commended than Clifton.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Commend Jennie for her conscientious reports. Talk privately to Katie
and Annie about their false statements. Make them see the value of truth
in business and social life.
This may be done publicly at roll call by some such statement as this:
“Every day that Jennie makes a true report of perfect control of her
desire to whisper, she has grown stronger in character as surely as the
oak is stronger after battling with a wind storm.”
A reference to the growth of flowers would please Jennie but would not
impress the boys. Give them some such instruction as this: “Notice
carefully every thing you say during one play period. Stop to think what
would have happened if you had been untruthful every time you spoke.
When you have thought of a good reason why people should speak the truth
come and tell me what your reason is.”
Have a further check upon Clifton, one that he will respect. His is a
case of ignoring wholly the rights of others. You may say, “Clifton,
what would you do if a new boy should come to school and wish to play
ball. Then when playing he wouldn’t heed a single rule of the game.
Suppose he insisted upon striking as long as he pleased, tripped those
on his side when they ran, and never helped to get his opponents out. If
the boys were sure he knew just what to do, how would they proceed?”
Clifton will tell you that they wouldn’t let him play. “Would they like
him?” “Why?”
Take another case. Say, “Suppose a twelve-year-old boy came to school
who talked out loud continually and so spoiled the game of studying and
reciting lessons. What ought I to do?” He will doubtless suggest a
course to stop the boy’s talking. “Now supposing a boy whispers all the
time and so hinders others as well as himself from scoring a point in
their favor in arithmetic or spelling, what should be done?” “But in all
these cases it would be better to hold on to the boy, don’t you think?”
Lead him thus to see the case in its true light. If Clifton does not
weigh matters when you talk them over with him, separate him from the
mass of the pupils. This can be done without inflicting an intentional
penalty. See this method as developed in the illustration just below.
COMMENTS
If Jennie is not commended, she will have no reason to believe that her
honesty and restraint are really valued.
It is a shameful neglect on the part of a teacher to allow children to
lie habitually and do nothing to make them truthful. Mr. Boling, to
lessen a minor wrong, tolerated a gross misdeed.
Clifton was daily learning anarchy, and demonstrating to the school that
lawlessness is regarded as “smart” by some. This idea should be speedily
corrected.
In place of the honor system which invariably has the three classes of
dispositions above described to deal with, a better plan is isolation.
ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Seats Near the Front]
Miss Taylor of Allenton used this method to reduce the amount of
whispering. She arranged a seat on each side of the room near the front
for the use of those who needed special help in the matter of
self-control necessary to prevent whispering. Since every desk was
occupied she placed a sewing table against the wall on either side in
front for desks, and used camp chairs for seats. At these tables she
allowed children to sit who needed an environmental help in securing
self-control. She made it very clear that this was not punishment; it
was simply help to enable the child to do what he himself wanted to
accomplish. Her whole attitude was that of solicitude for the best
welfare of the two who had the additional help of isolation to teach
them self-control. Those who occupied these seats were aided by giving
them helpful surroundings in place of those fraught with temptation.
When pupils have reached the high school age, if former training has
failed to give them enough self-control to make them refrain from
whispering at least they will be able to see the reasonableness of
silence in both the study and recitation rooms.
Here special honors and privileges may well be granted to those who are
silent if only the teacher makes it clear that a reward for the exercise
of self-control is just as legitimate as a diploma for courses in study
completed. Indeed a badge of honor won through self-imposed restriction
in this matter is an index of real merit, and the tactful teacher can
easily show the pupil that this is the case.
Much of the trouble about whispering here, as in the grades, arises from
pure thoughtlessness, selfishness or self-esteem.
(2) _Talking aloud; talking too much; talking without permission._
CASE 107 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Displaying Wit]
In the Elkton High School many factors contributed to make Charles
Drover a favorite. He was an athletic star, he was from a popular
family, but above all he was a wit of considerable merit. His witticisms
always secured a hearing. His temptation to whisper was very great.
Remarks of general import, no matter how serious, usually ended by
giving those around Charles much to do to refrain from laughing aloud.
Mr. Hodge, the high school Principal, was annoyed past endurance. One
morning after a brief talk on a coming lecture, Laura, a neighbor to
Charles, smiled broadly. Mr. Hodge said, “Laura, pass into my office.”
She went at once. After the classes had passed, Mr. Hodge went to his
office and frowningly explained to Laura how much her constant levity
annoyed him and demanded that she bring in extra school work as
punishment, and further said that if she still persisted in treating all
remarks made from the platform with so much unconcern he would see to it
that no position of trust be given her in high school affairs.
The week passed and the day of the lecture arrived. Laura was to be one
of the ushers that night. Mr. Hodge was giving some final directions
concerning the arrangements for the evening when Laura giggled.
Instantly Mr. Hodge announced that some one else must be appointed in
Laura’s place as usher and that she bring in the translation of twenty
extra lines of Caesar the following day. This was the beginning of a
strong opposition to Mr. Hodge which culminated in his being asked to
resign at the end of the year.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Deal with the cause of the disturbance. Suppression of either the
laughter of the girl or the humorous trait in the boy is entirely out of
the question. Pass over the girl’s misdemeanor until the boy has been
disposed of.
Cultivate the humor in Charles. The primary task will be to teach him
how to make good use of his talent. Wide reading under your direction
will acquaint him with many types of humor and enable him to choose with
discrimination. Show him the appropriate uses of humor, the occasions
when humor can best be indulged in, the injuries wrought by unregulated
fun. Have him take charge of the humorous column in the high school
weekly. If he has a gift in drawing, develop humor and art together.
You may learn a great deal from Charles; if you do, let him know the
fact and so link him to you the closer. Hold many private chats with him
informally about his work and enter into it with genuine interest.
COMMENTS
Nine times out of ten the one who laughs in school is not the real
culprit. A person scarcely ever regards himself as “funny” or
ridiculous. A pupil laughs at another’s error, blunder or joke.
If the sense of humor is enkindled, laughter is the only natural
outcome; the control of one’s impulse to laugh must of course be taught,
yet for school-room purposes it is far more important to be master of
the conditions that provoke laughter.
The treatment recommended for Charles will help to make a man of him,
and other pupils will respect the teacher all the more if he prizes a
talent which wins the applause of all the school.
A teacher who is unable to laugh or to share in that which is positively
humorous is an unlovely person.
“’Twas the saying of an ancient sage that humor was the only test of
gravity, and gravity of humor. For a subject that would not bear
raillery was suspicious; and a jest which would not bear a serious
examination was certainly false wit.”
—_Shaftsbury._
The best teachers occasionally have a whole room of pupils roaring in
peal after peal of laughter. They lose nothing by the experience; rather
they gain immensely, for laughing together makes hearts warm up towards
each other.
The weak teacher dares not risk himself to laugh when the class or room
is seized by a fit of fun. For the pupils it is highly interesting to
watch the struggles of the teacher to avoid doing that which they know
he likely wants to do. In refusing to participate in their mood he
repels them. He puts himself out of their group; he takes a position as
a critic and as an alien.
If one leads pupils to make proper use of their talents, he fulfills his
truest function as an educator. Developing, restraining from excesses,
guiding in the profitable use of the natural endowments of the
child—these are the necessary duties of every high-minded instructor.
We must learn that the impartation of school facts is but one means of
equipping a child for taking his place as a prepared member of society.
Whatever natural gifts a child has must be dealt with in school life.
Those that are dormant must be drawn out; those that are already
functioning must be directed.
When a boy or girl fully realizes that the teacher’s primary thought is
helpfulness, many difficulties will disappear.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
Jennie Leavitt was a high-strung, irrepressible, well-meaning girl far
on in her teens. It was her custom to announce firm adherence to good
moral standards when such matters were up for discussion. Her motives,
moreover, were seldom open to question.
[Sidenote: Isolating Whisperers]
She entered class at the opening of the term with an established
whispering habit. Her classmates, one by one, were moved from her
vicinity so that, finally, only one was left with whom she could chat.
Her breaches of good order were so innocent that any suggestion of
coercion seemed inappropriate; the removal of her companions reduced the
problem to small dimensions.
The teacher had but one short step to take: to give her remaining
companion another seat in some unobtrusive way and to make enough
assignments of written work to afford a means of expression for the
active mind of the school girl. This could easily be done because of the
excellent mutual understanding between the whisperer and her teacher.
A school should offer conditions and surroundings that are as conducive
as possible to study, to concentration of the pupil’s effort. Too many
teachers put plenty of emphasis on the physical factors in their pupils’
surroundings—ventilation, posture, light, etc.—but allow their rooms to
degenerate into a perfect hubbub of noisy confusion in which study is
impossible.
CASE 108 (FOURTH GRADE)
Joseph Levy and Sadie Higgins, two pupils in the fourth grade of the
Pittsburgh Avenue School, Minneapolis, were talking without permission,
when Miss Bowen, who was conducting an arithmetic lesson on the other
side of the room, saw them.
[Sidenote: Talking Without Permission]
“Joseph and Sadie! Did anyone give you permission to talk?” she
inquired. “I want you all to know (she rose from her seat and addressed
the whole room) that hereafter there is to be no talking without
permission. If it is absolutely necessary that you speak to someone,
hold up your hand.”
The next day Sadie “forgot.” Miss Bowen was busy helping another pupil.
She waited until she had finished. In the meantime, several minutes had
passed. Sadie had found out what she wanted and was working on her
arithmetic lesson, when Miss Bowen went over to Sadie’s desk, pulled her
out of the seat by her arm, and said so the whole room could hear,
“Sadie Higgins, I’m not going to tell you more than once that you have
to ask permission when you want to speak. Do you hear me?... Well, sit
down and see that the next time you wish to speak, you ask my consent
before doing so.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Discuss matters of conduct with offenders, not with non-offenders.
Because Sadie had spoken without permission, it is not therefore
necessary to tell Joseph that he may not speak without permission.
Address yourself to the one who needs the prohibition. Treat each case
by itself. Wait until you have finished your immediate work, whether it
is holding a recitation or writing on the blackboard. When the period is
ended, quietly speak to Sadie in private, telling her she must ask
permission when she wants to speak as you may be able to answer her
question without bothering another pupil.
“Just hold up your hand and if I think it is necessary, I shall nod my
head, meaning ‘Yes’; this will not disturb the rest of the room.”
COMMENTS
Miss Bowen disturbed the whole room much more than any talking between
Sadie and Joseph did when she called the attention of the other pupils
to the fact that Joseph and Sadie were talking without permission.
Every teacher should remember that children need constantly to be
reminded of what they should do until the act becomes a habit. Miss
Bowen did Sadie an injustice, since the child had not been accustomed to
ask permission when she wished to speak.
It was very well for Miss Bowen to wait until she had finished the work
at hand before speaking to Sadie, but she should have remembered that
the child had had time to forget that she had spoken. To pull her out of
her seat and publicly scold her was entirely out of place.
ILLUSTRATION (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Breaking An Old Habit]
When Miss Lucas took charge of the fifth grade room in the Henry Clay
Grammar School, Lexington, Kentucky, she was informed on the first day
that the children were accustomed to speak to one another without
permission. As this was often annoying, especially when three or four
spoke at once, she decided that this must not be.
When, the following morning, she saw Lola Mossman, a girl of exquisite
manner, walk over to the desk of Bernice Bryant, evidently to ask her
about a lesson, Miss Lucas waited until the close of the period, when
she spoke to Lola in private.
“Is it the custom in this school, Lola, for the pupils to speak to one
another during a study period without permission?”
“Yes, Miss Lucas.”
“I am sure the whole room will be less disturbed if we form the habit of
asking permission before we speak.
“If you need to find out something about a lesson, you should have
permission to speak. I will willingly grant it; but do not ask to speak
when you see someone else talking. It is disturbing to the other pupils
to have two persons speaking at a time.”
Through Lola Mossman and one or two other pupils as a medium, the
children soon discovered that Miss Lucas expected them to ask permission
before speaking.
CASE 109 (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Monopolizing Time]
Mamie Eggleston was a devoted pupil in the fifth grade of a school in
Paterson, New Jersey. She never missed an opportunity to talk with Miss
Olmstead, her teacher, before or after school.
“May I come in?” Mamie would say if she saw Miss Olmstead seated at her
desk before school began.
“Yes, indeed.”
Then for fifteen minutes Mamie would talk just for the sake of saying
something to someone who would listen.
“I like Miss Forsyth’s new waist, don’t you?”
“Are those little black bands on your wrists tied or fastened on? That
waist is awfully becoming to you. I have a pink waist. My mother made it
for me. But she won’t let me wear it to school,” etc., etc.
“There’s the bell,” Miss Olmstead would say as she thought, “Well,
there’s another fifteen minutes lost and I intended to put the
arithmetic problems on the board before school began.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Do not over-indulge a talkative child. In a kind but firm way tell her
that you have some important work to do or that you must see Miss
Belmont before school begins. If she persists in talking with you after
school, answer her questions politely but hurriedly, while you put on
your wraps and say as you go out of the room, “I have to leave now. Are
you ready to go home?”
COMMENTS
Miss Olmstead did an injustice to both the child and herself. Valuable
time was wasted by allowing the child to talk on at length, without any
motive other than the pleasure of talking.
It is not necessary to cut off entirely a child’s talking with you
outside of school hours. Such pleasant associations between teacher and
pupil are to be encouraged. We are concerned in this case with the child
who likes to talk just to keep herself in the foreground.
By heeding only those questions which have weight, by listening to the
child’s talk only long enough to be polite, you will help her to control
a desire which, unrestrained, will, in the future, make her presence
unbearable.
ILLUSTRATION (SIXTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Reforming Habits]
When Miss Carleton first came to teach in the sixth grade in East
Orange, New Jersey, she was warned that certain little girls in her room
had the habit of talking to the teacher whenever they could get an
opportunity. They enjoyed loitering around the teacher whose place Miss
Carleton had taken, because they thought it was her duty to listen to
everything they had to say. As a consequence, they literally ruled the
room.
“Miss Kimball says ...” and “Miss Kimball says ...” they would remark as
if they were the appointed interpreters of Miss Kimball.
Miss Carleton made an immediate decision that she would show the
children by her actions that she did not intend to waste valuable time
listening to their empty talk.
As usually happens with a new teacher, she was surrounded by a group of
girl leaders at the close of the first session.
“Do you bring your lunch, Miss Carleton?”
“Did you know our room is going to give a set of books to the library
this year?”
“That will be lovely,” Miss Carleton politely replied to the last
question, as the first one had been immediately superseded by the
second.
She then stood to arrange her desk in a businesslike manner, implying
that the present moment offered no opportunity for further discussion.
Immediately she went to her wardrobe, saying as she did so, “I take it
for granted you all brought your lunches. I hope you will enjoy them.
You might move the waste basket a little nearer your desks so that it
will be convenient for your papers and fruit skins.
“When I come back from lunch I shall expect to see each one of you out
in the school yard. It is a beautiful day for a game of Hop Scotch.
“Good-bye.”
So Miss Carleton tactfully mastered the situation of the first day.
CASE 110 (SIXTH GRADE)
Miss Atkinson was an intelligent, quick, good-natured little woman whom
the children really liked. She never got angry, and her discipline was
good so far as the big misdemeanors were concerned.
The A division was reciting its arithmetic lesson while the B division
studied. Miss Atkinson sent half of her class to the board and started
to give out an example.
[Sidenote: Talking During Recitation]
“May I find out the lesson from Tom?” A boy who had been absent the day
before was speaking, without pausing to raise his hand for permission.
Miss Atkinson nodded and read the example over again.
“We had that example yesterday,” came from one of the pupils in the
class.
“No, we didn’t. It was something like it but it wasn’t the same,”
replied another.
Before the dispute was settled and the children at work, five minutes of
the recitation period had been wasted. Ten minutes later, Alice, of the
B division, asked if she might open a window. Then Grace wanted to
borrow a pencil. While Miss Atkinson was showing Joe how to point off,
Henry called out, “How many places must we carry it out?” By the time
the various queries were answered, Joe’s attention had wandered and in
order to make his difficulty clear to him, the teacher had to go back
over the ground already covered.
Thus every class period was frittered away. Questions were continually
being fired at the teacher like shots out of a gun. One bold pupil was
constantly making remarks intended to be funny or to delay the progress
of lessons. Miss Atkinson could not see the harm in answering the
seemingly legitimate inquiries, and her efforts to curb the general
habit of talking aloud were altogether too mild.
Fully one-half of both the children’s and the teacher’s time was wasted
by such interruptions. Serious, concentrated effort was impossible and
the duller pupils were confused and distracted by this endless breaking
into their train of thought.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Insist that the work in hand shall not be interrupted. If for one day
the teacher will persistently refuse to recognize questions spoken aloud
without permission, a long step will have been taken in the direction of
correcting the bad habit.
Allow two or three minutes between classes, if necessary, for answering
the questions of the division which has been studying.
Henry should be led to raise his hand if he needs help, and his
difficulty should be settled in turn—after Joe’s has been explained. The
bold pupil would lose some of his smartness if he were fully occupied
with work. Keeping the pupils constantly busy in the arithmetic class,
by dictating rapidly and putting a premium upon getting through quickly,
prevents discussions upon unessential parts of the work, such as whether
or not the same example had been given out before; the children do not
have time to consider the matter.
COMMENTS
It is not difficult to make children see that the rights of others are
infringed by interruptions such as speaking aloud without permission.
Once this is understood, the teacher must stick to her refusal to
recognize such interruptions. When the children understand that they are
expected to keep silent, they form the habit of waiting for permission
before asking questions. Unless the teacher shows respect for the lesson
in hand—not allowing her attention to be distracted from it—she can not
expect the pupils to do so.
Some teachers are afraid to refuse to answer questions at the time they
arise in the child’s mind, fearing to bring the child to a standstill in
his work and that he will be idle unless his difficulty is settled. It
is a part of a child’s education to learn to be independent, to solve
his own difficulties. Too much dependence on “Teacher” unfits the pupil
for progress in his lessons or in anything else.
ILLUSTRATION (SIXTH GRADE)
The habit of talking aloud is easily cured.
Miss Ellis was called upon to substitute in the place of a teacher who
had been lax in her discipline. The pupils talked aloud almost as freely
as if they had been in their own homes. Miss Ellis knew her position as
substitute would be a hard one, and made up her mind that she would
spend the first day, if necessary, doing nothing but enforcing order.
[Sidenote: Making Up Time]
The first time a child talked out loud without permission, she said,
quietly, “Now, John, you know we can’t get very far with this lesson if
we are to be interrupted. And we don’t want to have to take it over
again tomorrow. Suppose you try to settle the matter yourself, or wait
until after this class to ask me.” And she did not answer John’s
question.
It was only a few minutes until Isabel remarked that she couldn’t see
what was written on the blackboard from where she sat. Miss Ellis told
Isabel that by standing up she could read what was written there very
plainly, and that it was unfair to the rest of the school for her to
take up their time by speaking aloud.
At the third interruption Miss Ellis said, again very quietly, “At this
rate we shall all have to stay after school today to finish our work. I
will not answer any more questions until this class is over. Then I will
give you three minutes to do all the speaking, borrowing, and so forth
that is necessary for the rest of the morning. And any talking aloud
will put us just five minutes behind with our work, so we’ll have to
make up that five minutes after school.”
No one went home that afternoon until an hour and a half after the
regular time for dismissal, but the talking aloud habit was broken, once
and for all, during Miss Ellis’ regime.
One big element in a teacher’s control of a school is a phase of
stick-to-it-iveness, namely, her ability not only to prescribe a given
line of action but to stick to it herself and hold her pupils to it day
after day. Too many teachers are spasmodic in their control. They are
very strict for a few days, then grow negligently lax in their
discipline, only to pull their pupils up to the previous standard again
with a jerk. It is just as easy to form good habits as bad ones, but a
teacher can never hope to train a school in good habits if she punishes
today what she leaves unnoticed tomorrow, as Miss Rand, a seventh grade
teacher, did.
CASE 111 (SEVENTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Useless Talking]
It was Friday afternoon and both teacher and pupils were weary of the
school-room and of work; all were a little cross and nervous, and
impatient for the dismissal bell to ring.
“Make John quit tying my hair-ribbon to the inkwell,” spoke up a girl
from the back of the room.
Before John’s case was quite settled, “May I erase the boards after
school?” “Does our geography lesson begin on page 268 or 267?” “Do we
have to write our compositions in ink?” and so forth—an endless string
of useless questions, confusing to those who were trying to study and
nerve-racking to the teacher. And besides the talking aloud there was a
constant and needless passing to and fro.
“Now see here, children, this has got to stop. Monday morning we’re
going to turn over a new leaf and put a stop to this talking aloud.
Remember that! The first one who talks or leaves his seat without
permission will be punished.”
Monday morning, true to her word, Miss Rand punished every child who
talked aloud without permission. Tuesday and Wednesday the school was a
model of quiet and order. But Thursday Miss Rand had a headache and did
not feel quite equal to having it out with Theodore when he asked,
without permission, “Is this the 22nd of the month?” for it was a
perfectly legitimate inquiry, inspired by the exercise in letter-writing
which was his language lesson.
A half hour later Margaret called Miss Rand’s attention to the fact that
the clock had stopped, then looked scared as she realized she had broken
the rule. Miss Rand argued to herself that the child meant well, so she
let the talking aloud pass uncommented upon.
And so it went, the children falling rapidly back into their old habit
of talking whenever they pleased. By the middle of the next week
pandemonium was again the order of the day and Miss Rand again “cleaned
house,” saying, “Tomorrow morning I’m going to begin making everyone of
you who talks aloud stay in at recess. There is no reason why you can’t
do your work quietly, and tend to your business without asking so many
questions,” and for a few days she was most energetic in enforcing quiet
and order.
But in two weeks the school-room was again a place of noisy confusion.
And so it went.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Instead of announcing, each time, that there would be a change in her
way of running the school, Miss Rand should have said, “Don’t talk aloud
without permission, Theodore,” the first time and then, without saying
any more about it, she should have quietly signified by a gesture or a
look that speaking aloud was forbidden, refusing to answer queries put
in this fashion. If she had done this _every_ time a pupil spoke aloud
and had never let a single opportunity to correct this bad habit go by,
the school would always have run as smoothly and as well as it did for
the few days after one of her periodic upheavals of enforcing order.
Have backbone enough to stick to the course of action which you know to
be the best, in spite of the fact that you are tired and that four
o’clock is almost at hand. All you need to do is to raise your hand in a
gesture enforcing silence, but do it every time talking aloud occurs.
The effect of quiet insistence upon the no-talking rule is much better
than a hundred spells of violent housecleaning, with periods of laxness
in between.
COMMENTS
A school can not run smoothly and be governed well if the authority of
the teacher has to be constantly brought into view. It is the unseen
authority which counts for the most.
A teacher who is consistent, and who makes her pupils understand that
she means what she says _always_—not just temporarily—gains their
respect and confidence. She can govern them then without the prop of
punishment or rewards, because they feel her strength and continuity of
purpose—her ability to govern.
ILLUSTRATION
[Sidenote: Work Steadily]
A certain young man who owned a fine colt undertook to break him
himself, although he had had no experience in training horses. The colt
was high-spirited and difficult to control, the young man impatient and
nervous. When the colt did not do as he was expected to _immediately_,
the young man was apt to lose his temper and use the lash pretty
roughly.
One day an experienced horseman watched such a performance from across
the street. The young man gave the colt several beatings in succession,
the horse becoming more and more difficult to handle all the while.
After the horseman had watched a long time in silence, he called to the
colt’s owner, “Put up your whip, young man, and hold the lines tight and
steady and you will find that your colt will act differently.” The young
man acted upon the suggestion and found that he could claim immediate
success.
CASE 112 (SEVENTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Too Great Absorption]
Miss Bersley was a teacher in the fourth grade of a school in Brockton,
Maine. She was an enthusiastic young woman, but there was one great
drawback to her teaching. She became so interested in what she was
saying, that she gave the backward pupils in her room no chance to
recite. They were too slow. She was always sure of a quick reply from
such children as Spencer Thorpe. He was ever ready to speak on every
subject, even though he was not always informed. Miss Bersley would not
have openly admitted this to be the situation, but her recitations
disclosed her attitude.
“Name the principal manufacturing towns in New England.”
Up went Spencer’s hand.
Miss Bersley hesitated.
Spencer flung his arm around until she said, “All right! Spencer, since
you are so anxious to recite, you may tell us.”
Once on his feet, he named one town after another, as fast as they came
into his mind, regardless of whether they were manufacturing towns or
whether they were located in New England.
“What natural advantages does New England have for manufacturing?”
As usual, Spencer raised his hand.
“Very well, Spencer.”
So, through over thirty minutes recitation, out of a class of
thirty-five, Spencer Thorpe was called upon five times, while many less
forward pupils were given no opportunity for self-expression.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
At the beginning of the geography recitation say, “I am going to try a
new plan in the lesson today. Let us see if I can tell who knows his
lessons by the way he looks instead of by the raising of his hand.”
Be sure to give as many of the children an opportunity to recite as you
can—all if possible.
At the beginning of the next recitation say, “The plan we tried
yesterday worked so well, I believe we will try it for the whole day.”
COMMENTS
By calling on all or nearly all of the pupils, you will accustom the boy
who wants to speak all the time, to the idea that he must take his turn
with the others.
By substituting an intelligent interest in the recitation for the
raising of hands and the mere pleasure of being the central figure in
the class, you will raise the class standard to a higher level. By
assuming an attitude of attention, the pupils will unconsciously become
interested in each other’s recitations.
The teacher may not hope entirely to do away in a day with the excessive
raising of hands, or of speaking without waiting to be called upon, but
the fact that she has secured her point during one recitation makes it
easier the next time to suppress the excessive desire, on the part of
one or two pupils, to monopolize the time and attention of the class to
the exclusion and detriment of others.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
At the beginning of the class in United States history in the Deerfield
rural school, Miss Deaton decided she was going to do away with the
privilege which four of the pupils seemed to claim of talking all the
time.
[Sidenote: Refuse Answers]
“We have so many points to cover in the recitation today, we shall have
no time to stop for the raising of hands. I shall call on you
individually without waiting for that. Every one be ready to answer
promptly.”
Miss Deaton smiled. Her attitude was one of complete confidence. The
class responded accordingly.
Just once during the recitation did George Mills, the class “speaker,”
forget. Miss Deaton had only to raise her eyebrows to remind him that
this was not the form to be followed that day.
Laxness on the part of the teacher, even in a seemingly trifling matter,
sometimes destroys the order in a school-room for all time. To get the
best results and to make the most progress in school work, there must be
no leaks in the efficiency tank. The experience of a certain eighth
grade teacher proves this to be true.
CASE 113 (EIGHTH GRADE)
Miss James was a strict teacher who kept her word and was both feared
and respected by her pupils. Technically she was a good teacher, too;
that is, she knew how to present a subject to the child mind, to
organize and emphasize the vital points in a lesson. There was
apparently no reason why the children of the eighth grade room should
not accomplish as much as the individual ability of each child would
permit.
[Sidenote: Interrupting the Studious]
But they were not doing it. Mildred, who had gotten averages of 90 in
most subjects throughout the seventh grade, was hovering just above the
passing mark. The same was true to a lesser degree of others, and there
was a continuous effort on the part of Miss James, the teacher, to
suppress small naughtinesses in children who had good records for
previous years.
The children never finished tasks in the time assigned and the work done
was mediocre in quality. Miss James did not realize how badly things
were going until Mildred’s mother presented the case to her.
It was just after the monthly issue of report cards. Mildred’s card
showed some unusually low marks—one that was far below passing grade.
Mildred was a conscientious girl and could not herself understand why
she failed to do as good work as she had done the year before. She knew
she worked hard but she never seemed to accomplish results. Things
always managed to happen just so that she had to skip over the last few
paragraphs of her history lesson in a hurry, and look up all her reading
words at recess because she had no other time to spend on them.
When she showed her card to her mother, bitter tears of hurt pride were
in her eyes, for in the past there had never been anything but
commendation at home when she brought home her month’s record. Her
mother, being a wise woman, drew her little daughter to her and asked:
“What’s the matter, dear? Father and I know you don’t waste your time at
school. There must be a reason for these low marks. Is it that Miss
James is unfair? Doesn’t she give you what you deserve to get?”
“No,” sobbed Mildred. “It isn’t that. She marks higher than Miss Johnson
did last year. I really don’t deserve to get any more than this. I do
well enough on tests when I can study up, but I don’t do good work every
day.”
And Mildred cried out her trouble in her mother’s arms. That lady
resolved to visit Miss James the next day and have a serious talk with
her.
Miss James had seen that the eighth grade was doing uncommonly poor work
and had cast about in her mind for the reason. She had shortened lessons
until she was in danger of not complying with the schedule, and she had
watched with an eagle eye for inattention and laziness. When Mildred’s
mother pointed out the contrast between this year’s and last year’s work
she was forced to admit that Mildred was always busy and was by no means
a dull pupil.
What was the trouble?
She decided to watch more closely than before the events in her
school-room.
The next morning after opening exercises were over, her glance over the
room showed her every head bent over a book. The room was so quiet that
Robert Woods’ wheezy breathing (he had a very bad cold) was distinctly
audible.
Then the stillness was broken by John. He saw Miss James looking at him
and asked a question about the lesson. Most of the children looked up
from their work, shifted their positions, or gave some other evidence of
having noticed the break. In a few minutes someone else asked permission
to leave the room. And so on through the period.
Not until she had watched for several periods did Miss James realize the
stir each one of these speeches aloud made, and how frequent they were.
Then she saw that the speaking aloud disease had reached an advanced
stage in her school-room and that it, and it alone, was responsible for
the seemingly causeless deterioration in her pupils’ work.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Do not sit still in the front of the room during a study period and let
children ask questions whenever they please. Require them to raise their
hands and then go to them and settle the difficulty quietly without
disturbing the rest of the school.
Develop the social consciousness in the child as early as possible. Make
him realize that, for the general welfare of the whole school, it is
worth his while to forego satisfying his need immediately.
COMMENTS
In this case the teacher was a good one and a good disciplinarian, but
one minor weakness in her fabric of control had undermined all the rest
of her good work.
Work, no matter how earnest it may be, can not be constantly interrupted
without suffering the consequences. The inspiration is gone and interest
flags.
The fullest and best work of which children are capable can never be
finished on time if it is accomplished under the stress of interruptions
and distracted attention. A steady noise, even a clatter or roar, does
not disturb a worker after he becomes accustomed to it. It is the
occasional outburst, the sudden breaking in upon a silence, that
confuses the mind.
ILLUSTRATION
[Sidenote: Exhausted Nerves]
A young engineer who was accustomed to working in a downtown office in a
big city was transferred to a branch office in a small town. In the city
he had been surrounded by the continuous clatter of typewriters and
adding-machines, the noise of the traffic in the street below and the
boom of elevated trains just outside the window. Because these sounds
were steady and relatively constant, the man did not notice them. He
paid no heed, though his work required intense concentration and
uninterrupted thought.
In the small town branch office he was the sole occupant of a little
room looking out upon an uncleared field. Shortly after the engineer’s
arrival the owner of the adjacent land began to clear it. He used
dynamite to blast out the stumps. The explosions of the blasts would
have been lost in the din to which this man had been accustomed in the
city, but breaking in upon a dead silence as they did, they annoyed the
engineer so much that he lost much time trying to pick up the broken
threads of his work every day.
Then, these noisy explosions began to get on his nerves, for he was a
high-strung man. At the end of two weeks he had a nervous breakdown
which was caused by nothing but these periodic disturbances that set his
nerves on edge and shattered his self-control. Fortunately, by the time
he had recovered from his illness, the blasting was finished and he went
on with his work undisturbed.
CASE 114 (HIGH SCHOOL)
When Miss Barton had charge of the high school assembly room in Geneva,
Illinois, it was always a time for unlimited privilege on the part of
the pupils.
“Miss Barton, may I speak to Elsie?” Susan Emmons asked, without raising
her hand.
Two blonde heads were soon together talking over what they were going to
wear to Jeannette’s party.
Two minutes later: “Please, may I speak?” This was from a demure-looking
girl who was never known to ask this privilege from any other teacher.
Several minutes passed without a reply from Miss Barton. She was
enjoying some peace in reading her home newspaper when again, “Miss
Barton, may I speak to Susan?”
“Yes” (said without thinking).
Then, when Elsie was on her way to speak to Susan, she recalled, “Didn’t
I just give you permission?”
“No, you gave Susan permission to speak to me.”
[Sidenote: Too Frequent Speaking]
“All right.” Miss Barton sighed as she turned her attention to another
part of the room, where two boys were amusing themselves looking out of
the window.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Refuse, without discussion, a request to speak, when you know it is not
necessary.
It is often wise to ask, when such a request is made, “Is it necessary?”
Look into the child’s eyes as you say this, letting him see by your
attitude that you do not intend to give the permission unless it is
necessary.
One cautious teacher asks, “Is it something about your lessons?”
Refuse all requests that have nothing to do with the pupil’s work. Limit
the time for speaking. Do not allow more than one person to speak at a
time.
Much speaking can be avoided frequently by quietly stepping forward to
the person who asks the permission and saying, “Can I help you? We won’t
disturb Susan if we can help it.” The implied suggestion is itself a
reminder to be more careful about asking such favors.
If you make it clear when you first take charge of a study room that you
expect little or no whispering, the pupils will soon find out that such
“speaking” is quite unnecessary.
COMMENTS
In the case of Miss Barton, the pupils misused a privilege which should
have been reserved for special circumstances only.
The study period is not a time for idleness or recreation on the part of
the teacher. If she makes it so, she can not blame the pupils for
following her example.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
Miss Herrick had charge of the study hall in the Pittsfield High School
the last period of every day. Her presence meant “Study.” There was no
time for foolishness when she came into the room. She treated requests
to speak in such a chary manner that a pupil would think twice before
asking the privilege.
“May I speak?”
[Sidenote: Learn the Reason]
Miss Herrick would not say a word, but would beckon the pupil to her
desk.
“What would you like to learn, Jessie?”
“I wanted to ask Mary how to do an algebra problem.”
“Bring your book up to the desk; perhaps I can help you.”
So time after time a request to speak to a fellow pupil was turned aside
for something more helpful.
(3) _Studying aloud._ Probably few teachers realize the difficulty a
child meets in learning to suppress tone and muscular movement of mouth
and lips while reading. Indeed, the adult can assure himself that in
silent reading, even he does not suppress all movement of tongue and
vocal cords.
CASE 115 (THIRD GRADE)
When Miss Smedley took charge of the third grade in the Russell Sage
School, she had to meet several new situations, one of which was most
annoying. Almon Metcalf insisted on studying aloud. Most of the pupils
in the room were accustomed to this, as he had been in the same room
with them for years.
[Sidenote: Studying Aloud]
Miss Smedley was conducting a class in arithmetic in the upper division,
when she heard a monotonous mumbling on the other side of the room.
Almon Metcalf was studying his reading lesson.
“Almon, I wish you would study silently. Don’t you know you are
interrupting our arithmetic lesson?”
All the children then turned around to look at Almon.
Again she started to take up the lesson, but the children’s attention
was all on Almon. Miss Smedley’s patience was taxed to the utmost. It
was hard enough to pound two times two into the minds of children when
they were interested, but to have their attention distracted by a boy
who insisted upon studying out loud—this was too much.
“Almon Metcalf, come here!”
The scared little boy hesitantly walked up to the front of the room.
“Aren’t you ashamed to take up my time this way?” Miss Smedley shook him
while the rest of the room looked on the scene with greatest interest.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Give the boy an isolated seat for the time being. When with him alone
apply a test whereby you can find out the cause of his studying out
loud. Take a second grade reader and pick out a simple paragraph:
“Almon, read this paragraph to yourself.”
If you discover he can not tell you what he has read when he has
finished the paragraph, teach him how to read silently. This matter of
_teaching_ silent reading is a point neglected by a great number of
teachers.
Take one short sentence from the second reader. Read it to yourself,
first, so that he can watch you. Then ask him to read the sentence the
same way.
“What did you read?”
If he answers correctly, say, “That’s right. Now read two sentences.” If
he can not tell you what he has read, give him a simpler sentence. Do
not give up the test until he is able to read _something_, no matter how
easy the sentence may have to be.
On the following day give the whole class the same test. Select a
somewhat more difficult sentence. Let the one who can first give the
words orally, raise his hand. Make a game of silent reading and its
difficulties will soon disappear.
With third grade children, the teacher should show her class how to
study each lesson. It is not enough to give an assignment. The method of
study should be outlined.
For the preparation of the reading lesson, for instance (for that is the
subject in which a child is more likely to study aloud), put a list of
the most difficult words on the board and mark them for pronunciation.
Ask the class to examine the words. Then say, “Are there any words you
can not pronounce?” Give special attention to the boy who studies aloud,
asking him to pronounce the words which you have written on the board.
For the fourth and upper grades, place a list of the more difficult
words on the board, the meaning of which the children should be asked to
look up in their small dictionaries; and do not forget that children
have to be taught how to use the dictionary. Have play drills in this as
in all other difficulties of a mechanical sort.
COMMENTS
Miss Smedley did not stop to figure out why Almon Metcalf studied aloud.
If she had, she would have taken into consideration the fact that he had
been two years in school without being taught how to study. She would
have realized that calling the attention of the whole room to his
deficiency would not help him to break the habit.
The boy was not the only one who was to blame for distracting the
attention of the class in arithmetic. Miss Smedley’s own remarks were
instrumental here.
Almon Metcalf needed Miss Smedley’s special guidance in learning how to
study.
ILLUSTRATION (FIFTH GRADE)
When Rosa Bentley entered the fifth grade of the Lowell school, Miss
Sieger recognized her at once as an inveterate talker. This was
especially manifest in the study periods where Rosa had formed the habit
of studying aloud.
[Sidenote: Teach Silent Study]
“Well, there must be some cause for the child’s doing this,” thought
Miss Sieger. “She is another one of those untrained pupils.” Miss Sieger
was aware of the deficiencies in our school system.
“I’m going to teach Rosa how to study.”
That afternoon she worked alone with the child for fifteen minutes,
patiently helping her, sentence by sentence, to comprehend what she was
reading without pronouncing the words aloud. This was only the beginning
of a series of special lessons in how to study.
When Rosa had gained some headway, Miss Sieger held her up as an example
to an occasional delinquent.
“Rosa has learned how to study, now can’t you?”
CASE 116 (SEVENTH GRADE)
In Miss Algernon’s seventh grade room there were three pupils who
insisted on studying aloud.
[Sidenote: Studying Aloud]
“I should think that by the time you reached the seventh grade, John
Leavitt, you would know how to study. Only babies in the second and
third grades have to study aloud. I don’t know what our schools are
coming to when they allow pupils to be promoted to the seventh grade who
have never learned how to study. I can not see that there is much use of
your being here.
“Suppose you go down into Miss Kreisler’s room this morning and learn
how to study. Her little third grade pupils know more about studying
than you do.”
At the same time, Miss Kreisler was telling her children, “Miss Algernon
is going to send three of her seventh grade pupils down here this
morning, because they have been disturbing her whole room by studying
aloud. I want you to show them that you can study silently.”
She had no more than finished her statement, when three children, John,
and Farry Lawrence and Ellery Comstock, came into the room with all the
assurance that such a conspicuous position could give them.
“You may take those three vacant seats,” said Miss Kreisler, as she
mustered all the self-control she had to keep from laughing. The
situation was so incongruous.
The little children caught the spirit and a general giggle rose in the
room.
It did not take Miss Kreisler many minutes to see the futility of such a
corrective measure. She sent word to Miss Algernon: “The plan didn’t
work. You’ll have to try something better.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Give a sample lesson of the situation as it would be if everyone in the
room studied aloud.
“Let’s try it. Take your geographies. Don’t be afraid. Read aloud,
everyone.
“That will do.
“How did it seem? Do you think we can afford to study that way? We
couldn’t get much done, could we?
“All right; let us remember to have consideration for others in the room
when we are studying.
“I think that list of questions on the board will help you in preparing
your geography lesson for today. You will find the answers on pages
fourteen to seventeen.”
COMMENTS
It did not help the children who had never learned how to study, to be
held up in ridicule before a third grade room, nor to be cited as the
product of a poor school system. Miss Algernon gave the children the
impression they were the ones at fault and, what was even less
excusable, that there was little hope for them in school. This would
hardly inspire them with courage for greater effort.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
Miss Griffin, a teacher in the eighth grade of the Waller Avenue School,
decided to cure two boys in her room who had the idea they could not
study in school unless they spoke aloud.
During a study period in which she was at leisure she went quietly to
each boy’s desk and privately asked:
“Are you a Chinese boy, Leonard?” The boy laughed and shook his head.
[Sidenote: Chinese Method]
“I thought not. Well, do you know, Leonard, that Chinese boys study out
loud? A Chinese boy learns his lessons by shouting aloud until he has
committed the passage to memory. Then he hands his book to the teacher,
turns his back and recites the lesson as fast as he can.
“Now, you are not a Chinese, Leonard, neither are we advertising the old
Chinese method of education. Let me see you study like an American boy
hereafter.”
(4) _Tattling._ The tale-bearer usually acts to satisfy some secret
desire either for fame or for revenge. Tale-bearing grows directly out
of the taproot of selfishness.
Fortunately, public opinion, both in school and out is sufficient to
suppress the majority of pupils in their leanings in this direction.
Nevertheless, a few individuals now and then taste the sweets of
tale-bearing. These are apt to be in the lower grades, where the force
of community ideas has less weight.
For the sake of both teacher and pupil it is necessary to mark a clear
distinction between the legitimate report of a misdeed that is a menace
to good order and the petty, selfish carrying of stories of other
pupils’ misdemeanors.
The difference is marked by the character of the motive and the
frequency of the reporting.
Some supervisors and administrators take the unwarranted position that
all reporting of misbehavior by pupils is wrong. They do not expect nor
desire information of misbehavior to come to them from pupil sources.
They highly commend all pupils who refuse to answer questions on the
misconduct of their schoolmates. They deny that the best of motives can
warrant a revelation of student wrongs to the school authorities.
This position is extreme. It seems due to an attempt to adopt a pupil’s
point of view. It positively contradicts the duty laid down by public
sentiment and the fundamental law of the land, to the effect that all
good citizens must aid in the discovery and repression of crime.
A pupil stands in a double position. He owes good will both to his
comrades as individuals and to the school as an institution. His duty to
neither must be overlooked. The rule of right in the case seems to be
somewhat as follows: to his schoolmates he owes a generous silence when
their misdeeds are not a serious menace to the school and a kindly
sympathy when he must report their wrong actions. To the school he owes
a loyalty that requires only a reporting of that which if left untold
will be a serious injury to both the wrong-doer and to the school.
These broad statements need careful application in particular instances.
For example, to answer the questions of an administrator should never be
construed as tattling. To relate daily that Charley has been dropping
hints of his intention to give Robert a sound thrashing should not be
approved under the head of school loyalty; it stands on the level of
gossip.
Teachers will do well to weigh carefully the attitudes of the
conscientious and the over-conscientious pupils of their schools. The
sense of duty to their schoolmates and to their teachers sometimes leads
them into embarrassing dilemmas. A rough and ready rudeness with them
will mark the dull and hardened teacher, who may foster a strained
abhorrence of tale-bearing.
In the daily experience of the school-room it will be found that
tattling usually arises from a distinctly selfish impulse. Perhaps
jealousy is the most usual inciting cause. At times there is a standing
antagonism between two pupils; the hope of revenge is here the leading
impulse to tale-bearing. In other instances mere acquaintance, with
neither friendship or antipathy, is to be observed; the eagerness for a
sensation such as seeing a boy or girl whipped may lead to reporting
minor or major wrongs.
[Sidenote: First Grade]
The little child who comes to school and tells the teacher and his
playmates all the happenings of the home is as annoying as the pupil
that is constantly coming to the teacher to tell that a certain pupil
did this or that, or, in common school language, tattles. While a few
teachers cultivate this practice in pupils, it is right to brand it as
one of the most ignoble of habits. Teacher and pupils can be no better
off for knowing all that goes on in a certain home. The teacher should
tactfully talk of something else—something so interesting as to divert
him from his talk about home matters.
The habit of tattling or “telling on” other pupils is more annoying and
usually gets the pupil who indulges in the habit into ill-repute with
the other pupils. It must be admitted that the teacher sometimes needs
information from a pupil or pupils to ferret out some misdemeanor. But
this should be given only when the teacher asks for it. In the first
grade it is almost an exception if the teacher needs to ask pupils to
give information to explain some misdemeanor. If the teacher pays no
attention to tattling, it will soon stop. The spirit of tattling can be
effectively cured, if, when the child tells on a certain pupil, the
teacher will turn to the child and ask him if he does not admire some
particular trait in the other child.
Often the motive for tattling is envy. By asking something about the
other child’s good traits, envy will be eradicated, and it will be the
exception if the offense is repeated.
CASE 117 (SECOND GRADE)
Daisy was a talkative child. Her eyes went everywhere and her ears
picked up all the news that passed her way.
[Sidenote: “Telling on” the Pupils]
“Teacher, Tommy’s whispering”—“Jennie lost her book”—“Philip said some
bad words”—“Annie’s papa’s dead, and she says she don’t care.” After a
few interruptions of this sort, her teacher broke out with:
“If you don’t shut up, I shall go crazy. Why don’t you go to work and
leave other people’s affairs alone?”
Such a rebuke closed up the torrent of tattling for only a very few
minutes.
The next string of remarks was cut off with, “Not another word from you
this morning. You’re a regular little tattle-tale.” When another remark
began it was blocked by:
“I can’t hear any more tales from you today.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Substitute some suitable form of expression for this excessive
tale-bearing. Even an eager interruption of the child, when you discern
the trend of her remarks, is entirely in order. In particular try to
find food for her mental hunger in the novel and sensational matters of
her daily school life. Make immediate offers of help in her school work,
in place of patient attention to tales. Polite ignoring of the child’s
chatter will ultimately induce her to cease; especially if you suggest
your disapproval of her unkind remarks by saying: “I like to hear good
things about people,” or “Haven’t you something pleasant to tell me
today?”
COMMENTS
No doubt the little tale-bearer often conveys useful information. If the
teacher discloses any satisfaction with these tales, she may aggravate
the very ill she should endeavor to cure. Any gains from tattling,
should be used with great caution.
The general attitude of indifference and unconcern is the best antidote
for tattling. When a story-teller loses his audience, all the impulses
to talk are quieted; he necessarily runs down. A dignified reserve and a
continuous distraction from the disagreeable habit will be a certain
remedy.
ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Ignore Remarks]
Miss Moffit, recently at the Endwood rural school, had the art of
drawing out her pupils’ confidence on a variety of topics. They
discussed school work, flower gardens, dress-making, electrical devices,
corn contests, and a wide range of topics. This freedom of intercourse
spurred the tattlers also into action. Hilliard came up at frequent
intervals with numerous, personal incidents, until he learned how to
control his tongue.
“Some of the boys are taking home chalk in their pockets.” At another
time, “Sallie’s eating in school time,” or “Minnie didn’t get her
problems.”
Miss Moffit sensed the drift of Hilliard’s mind. She decided to become
absolutely impervious to Hilliard’s tales. She took the lead in
conversations when he approached; she switched from one topic to another
so rapidly that he had no opportunity to make much of his fund of
anecdotes. She gratified his impulse to talk, by asking him questions on
themes in which he was interested.
Tattling to the teacher lost its charm for Miss Moffit’s pupils.
CASE 118 (THIRD GRADE)
Marvel Green was one of the innumerable throng of schoolboy
caricaturists. With periodic certainty he spread his drawings before
pupil eyes for his own glory.
[Sidenote: “Who Drew the Picture?”]
Miss Hatfield knew Earl Moss, another mischief-maker, so well that she
turned to him when she discovered a new “Green” on the blackboard and in
an official manner, asked:
“Did you draw that picture of me over there?”
“No I did not,” was Earl’s quick reply.
“Who did it then; I’m sure you know.”
“I won’t tell, Miss Hatfield.”
“You must tell me now. I’ll punish you if you don’t.”
Good sense came to her rescue and she postponed action until there was
time for reflection.
In the evening the boy’s father called and said:
“I understand that you are going to punish my boy if he does not tell
who drew the picture. Now I came to say that I can’t agree to that. I
don’t want my boy to do wrong, but I can’t allow him to be punished for
refusing to be a tattler. You must find some other way out of it.”
“Well,” thought Miss Hatfield, “he has a strange idea. I don’t want to
make a tattler out of his boy. He’s a queer one.”
She didn’t whip the boy, and she never learned who drew the picture.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Silently erase the picture, or better still, pay no attention to it, if
it is not a serious disturbance to school work. At all events make no
public attempt to find out the artist. Many teachers would refuse to
question one who did a given wrong, as it is almost certain to lead to
complications. If your hold on the school is strong, laugh off the
matter and say:
“I know where to find a good salary for a competent cartoonist. If any
of you are interested, let me know.”
COMMENTS
General opinion is divided on the matter of tattling on a schoolmate.
Blue law moralists demand that every child and every adult freely tell
all they know against a fellow pupil.
The majority of persons may be trusted to oppose breaking down clan
loyalty among pupils to the degree that any pupil shall be expected to
tell of another’s fault when requested to do so by a teacher.
The wise teacher manages to avoid raising this issue as he nearly always
loses in the contest. It is proper, of course, to ask a class to accept
responsibility for a known prank.
ILLUSTRATION (FIFTH GRADE)
Superintendent Alexander was loaded with the responsibility of bringing
an end to a series of petty thefts in a fifth grade room. The teacher
laid the matter before him, in a manner which showed her extreme
annoyance. He calmed her by saying:
“Leave it to me. I have long said there are no ‘bad boys’ and I believe
it yet.” Mr. Alexander continues his story:
[Sidenote: “Who Stole?”]
“The boys knew before this that I would play fair with them. The first
time I met two or three of the fifth grade boys individually, I let them
know that I was aware something was wrong in their room, but made no
charges nor inquiries. There was good reason to believe that several
boys were involved in the pranks. By falling in with the boys they began
giving me bits of stories about what had been stolen and when. In a few
days I was able to piece up accounts of three serious robberies. I
called together four boys who, I was morally certain, were guilty. I
said:
“‘I want you fellows to straighten up some little matters that need your
attention.’
“‘What matters?’ one of the boys inquired.
“‘You know as well as I,’ said I.
“I paused a moment and told the three stories quickly. I did not insist
on anything further but promptly dismissed them. Within three days full
confessions were made to me individually and restitution was
accomplished in two cases.”
Personal influence is a powerful and a dangerous force. Sometimes
children indulge in character-warping conduct in the hope of winning the
personal favor of a beloved teacher.
CASE 119 (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Desiring Approval]
Sigrid Holderson was a pale, timid, anæmic child, who never joined the
other children in their play, and one whom the other children seemed
instinctively to dislike. When she was in the fifth grade she conceived
a blind adoration for her teacher, Miss Field. She brought her votive
offerings of wilted flowers and specked apples, all her limited
resources afforded; and she watched for chances to prove her devotion by
running errands and cleaning erasers.
One noon she came in with flushed cheeks and handed Miss Field a
crumpled piece of paper containing a list of names.
“All those kids was sliding on the bank where you told them not to,” she
announced. “I took down every kid’s name that went down.”
Miss Field had the usual horror of “tattling.”
“Why, you little tattler, you!” she said. “Go right to your seat,
Sigrid, and don’t ever do such a thing again! You must never tattle
unless it is necessary.”
Sigrid’s humiliation was complete. Her adored teacher had rejected her
choicest offering, the paper whose writing had been done with stiff,
cold fingers to an accompaniment of jibes from the lawless sliders. Her
little mind could not quite fathom why Miss Field did not approve her
deed, but seemed instead to take sides with the disobedient pupils.
This rebuff cured Sigrid of tattling, but the cure was worse than the
disease. When Miss Field deserted her, Sigrid felt she had lost her last
friend. Her classmates heaped scorn upon her as a “tattle-cat”; she
withdrew more and more into herself, and became more and more abnormally
sensitive.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
When a child tells on his classmates, he is usually either
over-conscientious or out of sympathy with them. Miss Field might
quietly have accepted the paper, and thus have avoided increasing the
estrangement between Sigrid and her classmates. She should then have set
about finding the cause of Sigrid’s isolation, and devised ways of
making her one of the group. She should have known that Sigrid’s pitiful
paper was a bid for the approbation and love which her isolation denied
her; it was the blind feeling for common ground with another human
being, which Sigrid missed because her relations with the other children
were not healthful.
COMMENTS
It is usually the out-of-the-set child who tattles; when his relations
with the set are normal, he will not practice tale-bearing. Tattling
which grows out of pure love of mischief or pure malevolence is very
rare.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Visiting Poolroom]
Several boys from the London eighth grade were reported to be
frequenting the poolroom. The question was who planned and led the
fellows in breaking the school rules and the State laws.
The teacher easily ascertained that three particular boys were in the
company, but there were others and the chief offender was not yet named.
Superintendent McMadsen took hold of the situation. He met the three
boys and said:
“Now we are not planning any sort of punishment, even though the law
permits it. We want everybody to speak frankly and talk the matter over
freely. You boys are old enough to be summoned as witnesses and made to
tell who was with you in the poolroom. But that isn’t the best way.
“The proper thing to do is for you and me to come to an agreement as to
what we should do about this matter in the future. Then I want you to
tell the other boys also to come to me and talk the matter out.”
The matter lay for a week before the last boy appeared. The talks were
brief, but the moral victory of individual action on the issue was worth
the patient delay.
CASE 120 (EIGHTH GRADE)
Portia Armstrong attended the moving picture show one evening and said
to her teacher next day:
[Sidenote: Proposes Joy Rides]
“Ben Sawyer and some of the boys sat just behind us girls and said,
‘Say, girls, let’s steal out and take a joy ride like that some night.’”
“O, Portio, what did you let him talk to you for? Never repeat anything
such a boy says. I think it’s ridiculous the way girls and boys talk
nowadays. I simply don’t want to hear of any such foolish going-on.”
Portia took her teacher at her word. She told her nothing of what the
boys said to the girls after that.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
In your abhorrence of tattling, do not permit yourself to lose an
opportunity to safeguard an inexperienced girl. Say to Portia, “How did
the girls answer the question? Were any of them tempted to do such an
unwise thing?” Lead Portia on in the conversation until you discover her
own attitude toward the right or wrong of indulging herself in such
forbidden pleasures. Leave her finally with a strong suggestion in favor
of right conduct firmly lodged in her mind. You may say in closing, “You
will do all you can do, won’t you, to prevent any of the girls from
thoughtlessly entering into engagements which they may regret all their
lives? Can’t you girls plan some way to make the boys understand that
you have too much self-respect even to be amused at such proposals? It
will be a good lesson for the boys as well. Apparently they have not a
very high opinion of the girls.”
COMMENTS
Miss Anthony, by her own shortsightedness, robbed Portia of a teacher’s
wisdom and counsel, and herself of a chance to gain insight into the
social dangers of her pupils. Even if Portia does not specially need
counsel at the present moment, she is liable at any time to have her
scruples overruled by the stronger combined influence of the social
group of which she is a member. Besides, Portia’s good influence with
the group may be greater than your own. She reaches them directly, you
only indirectly.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
Miss Henderson in the same school made better use of her opportunities.
[Sidenote: Vile Notes]
Mary Macknet, who was in first year high school, told Miss Henderson of
a scandalous note that had been dropped on the desk of a loud, forward
girl by a daring boy.
Miss Henderson said, “I’m too disturbed by what you say to go on with my
work. Let’s sit down and talk about it. How shocking that such an insult
should happen to a girl! I’m glad that you told me about it because now
we can plan how to act in regard to it.
“You say you have hardly ever spoken to the girl? Well, make no change
in your treatment of her. Some foolish girls will encourage her through
ignorance and sympathy. Do not follow their example. Refuse to discuss
the note episode with any of the girls. If any of them begin to talk to
you about it, say, ‘It’s too disgraceful even to talk about. Is the next
algebra lesson hard?’”
CASE 121 (SEVENTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Broken Show-case]
Two boys in a wild chase dashed in at the front door, turned to the left
and crashed into a show-case belonging to a historical exhibit.
The ward school principal went to the seventh grade room and made
inquiries.
“Who smashed that show-case?” No one answered. Then roll call was
ordered and each pupil questioned, “Did you break the show-case?” This
brought no further light on the matter, so the principal tried a
broadside:
“Does anybody here know who broke the show-case?” Nellie Arbaugh’s hand
went up.
“What do you know?”
“All about it.”
“Tell me who it was.”
“I don’t want to get anyone into trouble,” was Nellie’s stammering
reply.
[Sidenote: Refusal to “Tell”]
“You’ll have to tell if I get hold of you,” was the menacing rejoinder.
“I don’t see how I can,” replied the perplexed girl.
The child related her experience at home in order to lighten the load of
her troubles.
“I didn’t tell because I didn’t want to be mean to the other pupils.”
“Would you report a murderer if you saw him when committing a crime?”
“Yes; but school is different. No boy or girl in school would tell
unless he wanted to be mean. The boys and girls who are naughty want to
be let alone. They’ll settle with the teacher their own way. If the
teachers want to ask some questions I suppose it’s all right. But they
shouldn’t compel answers. What shall I do, mother?”
“Don’t lie, child. If you don’t see that you ought to tell on another
pupil don’t do it. Prove your goodwill, but turn aside these troublesome
questions.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Instead of this farce the principal of this ward school could make this
announcement:
“It is customary in this school for pupils to make good the damage done
in a case like this. If the cost of repairs is too large for them they
may come to the office anyway and we will hit upon some plan of getting
around the difficulty.
“Now I know that seventh graders are responsible for this accident. I
have traced that down to a certainty. But I don’t want to know who
actually smashed the case. Please order Mr. Selfredge, the hardware man,
to make the repairs, and then you settle for the expense and that will
end the matter according to the standards of gentlemen.”
COMMENTS
A teacher has no right to put a child into the predicament of choosing
between two conflicting moral codes without explaining the situation and
giving due thought to the pupil’s viewpoint. Parents will rightly affirm
that a teacher is tactless and incompetent who runs his pupils up into a
corner on the matter of tattling.
On the other hand, how strong is the appreciation of the teacher or
principal who gives opportunity for a dignified moral choice! The appeal
to manhood or womanhood never fails to draw forth a response. In some
pupils the response is insufficient, but when a wise disciplinarian
makes such an appeal he almost invariably gets the desired results.
ILLUSTRATION (SEVENTH GRADE)
A drawing teacher appeared in a seventh grade room twice a week. It came
her turn to suffer from a school prank—pepper scattered on the floor
produced an uncontrollable epidemic of sneezing.
There was not the least clue to the offender, but the teacher was too
proud to thrust the matter into other hands, so she made this
announcement:
“You can see very well that this sort of thing is intolerable. We must
see that no one reports this. I want to ask the seventh grade to hold a
special class meeting and dispose of the trouble the best they know
how.”
The superintendent was notified of the plan, consented to it, and in
fact waited with interest to see who was made chairman of the meeting.
To his dismay the neatest scamp of the forty pupils was made chairman.
After the superintendent retired, the chairman with great dignity shut
and locked the door, and put the key in his pocket just in time to
prevent the departure of two timid souls.
For an hour and a half the conference continued with almost unflagging
interest. At the end the door opened and the valiant chairman met the
superintendent just emerging from a nearby position and reported:
“That’s all been fixed up. It ain’t goin’ to happen again.”
CASE 122 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Property Destroyed]
The celebration of the decision of the school board to erect a new
building caused the Culpeper High School principal no little anxiety.
The bonfire was built on the schoolgrounds, it was started without
permission and some property belonging to the neighbors was
destroyed—three serious offenses. Mr. Peters called in the senior class
and said to each member privately.
“Did you witness the bonfire? Did you help build it?” There was no
previous agreement, yet each pupil kept totally silent as to the
information desired. Their only reply was:
“Our class did it but I can’t say who.” As a consequence, hours of time
were wasted and strained relations existed between pupils and teachers.
Saddest of all there was no positive lesson in good discipline.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
A better method is to let the matter rest so far as the class as a whole
is concerned. In a casual way, say to the class president:
“The bonfire built by the senior class involved some little expense for
material. I have an itemized list of the articles destroyed and what
seems to be a just estimate of value. I’ll turn it over to you for
adjustment.
“I want to ask you to present this question to the class at your regular
meeting next Friday: ‘Shall we secure permission hereafter when we want
to have a bonfire?’ The answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ I want the answer, if
you please, at the close of your meeting. I say this because the board
of education insists that I bring word to them of your action.”
COMMENTS
The stories of student escapades of by-gone days have left a reputation
that later pupils must live down. In fact, the pranks of today are, on
the whole, not so serious as those of the past, although teachers many
times are over-anxious about student conduct.
It is safe to assume that there is no criminality in the ordinary public
school pupil. By treating the breach of decorum of school rules as, in a
way, accidental, the actual restraint of pupils from serious excesses is
much more certain.
The opportunity of passing upon the nature of a misdeed in school is a
most valuable one, in view of the larger need of private judgment of
community activities which is required of every citizen. Teachers are in
the wrong when they demand that every prominent act of disobedience
shall be referred to them for final action. The natural right of private
judgment is defended by the usual horror of tattling. Consequently, a
teacher who sees all these facts will guard against infringement of
pupils’ rights at this point.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
Life in the Pemberton High School seemed stale to Charles Rembrandt. He
secured two faithful aids and planned an event that would add some “pep”
to life.
[Sidenote: High School Tricks]
Si Jones milked at 4:30 a.m. and was off to work by 5:30. The three boys
procured two pairs of old pants and an old blanket and stealthily
slipped into Si’s barn after Si’s disappearance and before daylight. In
twenty minutes’ time the cow was “dressed.” The rope seemed to be
securely tied, so the boys quickly departed one by one, not leaving any
clue to their identity.
Old Blossom labored with her togs with some moderation for an hour or
two, but when they began to come to pieces her desperation rose to
excitement and violence.
When the children were gathering for school, the climax was reached, for
Blossom tore away from her stall, broke out of the barn and yard and
went dashing down toward town. Her flight was a triumph of sensation, as
you may well believe.
Si Jones returned late in the afternoon, hunted up his cow and kept
silence. The next morning he met one of the high school teachers.
“Did you know what the boys did to my cow yesterday?”
“Yes, and they are going to get a good hard penalty of some sort, just
as soon as we find out who they are.”
“Just see here,” said Jones in a confidential way. “I want you to leave
that matter in my hands.”
As Si was working on his fence, Tom Scanlan edged up toward him and
remarked:
“What tore your fence down, Mr. Jones?”
“Why, my Jersey broke out yesterday; didn’t you see her? Nearly
everybody else did. And she’s nearly ruined.”
Tom looked off a moment and said: “I told Charley not to do it.”
During the conversation several hints cropped out and Si knew enough to
start his campaign.
Several of the boys came around in groups, but Jones kept his own
counsel, gathering items all the while.
Days later he met Charles alone.
“I have been waiting for you to talk to me, Charles, about my Jersey
cow.”
“We didn’t mean to have your cow get away, Mr. Jones.”
“Well, I’m spending ten dollars on repairs. I’ve decided to tear this
old fence down and build a better one. I’ve got to do it out of working
hours. You say there were two others with you. If you fellows will give
me a lift on this job, I’ll be mighty glad to have it. If you’ll do
that, we’ll call it square.”
“We’ll do it, Mr. Jones. I’ll get the boys this afternoon and we’ll be
there when you come home.”
This saved the boys and protected Si Jones for years to come, and the
school teacher learned a lesson from a laboring man on how to avoid
raising the tattling issue.
[Sidenote: First Grade]
(5) _Swearing and vile language._ Swearing or the use of offensive and
vulgar language can be very troublesome among even small children. One
boy who swears or uses bad language can teach an entire school to do the
same. In homes where such language is employed, the children will use it
away from home, and unfortunately, in unguarded moments, will use it on
the school grounds or in play and other activities. At the outset the
teacher must learn that in such instances she cannot effect a cure. All
she can do is to prevent it on the school grounds and in school. There
is but one way to do that, namely, to supervise all activities at the
school.
On the other hand, a child that comes from a home where the use of
offensive language is prohibited, is easily controlled. Close
supervision will usually eliminate the practice at school. If the
teacher’s attitude coincides with that of the home, the difficulty is
easily overcome.
She can not hope to cure all children who indulge in swearing, but many
will heed her admonitions, and if she uses all her influence against
swearing and vulgar language and supervises her pupils in all their
activities, she has done her duty.
(6) _Obstructed expression—Stammering and stuttering._ Stuttering is not
a misdemeanor, neither are such characteristics of a child as
awkwardness, slowness, or some slight deformity. However, the other
pupils often are thoughtless and make fun of the child that stutters or
who in some other way is unlike his playmates, until he can do no work
satisfactorily and perhaps, finally, stops school. Thus, whatever is
done to help the child will lessen the necessity of disciplining other
pupils.
[Sidenote: First Grade]
Although stuttering is not an immoral act, it is a very trying
difficulty when it presents itself to the teacher in the first grade. It
is known that stuttering is due to an improper control of certain
muscles, and that anything which excites or draws attention to the
afflicted child will cause him to stutter more than usual. It is in the
first grade that the habit becomes exaggerated; that is, a child that
stutters very little when he enters school may have the difficulty
intensified during his first year in school. This is due to the large
amount of attention given to the child by the other pupils and by the
teacher.
The very first caution for the teacher is positively to pay no apparent
attention at all to a child’s stuttering. If a teacher can do this, it
will have a marked effect upon the other pupils in making them pay less
heed to it and in due time they will become accustomed to the
peculiarity and not notice it at all. If other children are inclined to
laugh or tease, the teacher should remain serious and the attention of
the children should immediately be directed to another pupil whom she
will call upon to recite.
A stuttering child must have plenty of exercise and fresh air. He should
not be required to sit too long in school. In the middle of the
sessions, the teacher, may ask him to get her something from
out-of-doors or have an arrangement with him that he may leave the room
at a certain time each day and return in so many minutes. The latter is
not so good a plan, and if used, must be used carefully.
The second requirement for a child that stutters is a good physical
condition: that means, he must have good food and clothing. This the
teacher cannot provide, but she can be the means by which the child may
secure the same. No parents surely are so thoughtless regarding the
welfare of their children that they will not join a teacher in effecting
a cure for stuttering. The teacher can explain the methods she intends
to use and then ask the parents to see that the child has good food and
clothing and is kept in a good physical condition. If a teacher can cure
the stuttering of a first grade child, she is accomplishing a good for
his entire life; one that will win life-long gratitude.
The teacher must guard the child against exciting situations, especially
those in which he must say something. Under such conditions he would
certainly stutter. He can be allowed to enter into exciting games
providing he will not need to talk. The teacher as much as possible
should cut short the conversation which is likely to cause stuttering.
It is quite necessary that the teacher should watch very closely to see
that the child gets no chance to indulge in lengthy conversations.
Whenever the teacher talks with him,—and the teacher should talk often
with a stuttering child,—she should conduct her part of the conversation
in such a way that it will require only short responses from the child.
Even then, if he should begin to stutter, the teacher should repeat the
response with him to the close of the sentence, and then drop the
conversation. A child that stutters will often succeed in speaking a
sentence if someone else repeats the sentence with him. The teacher can
do much effective work with the child by thus repeating with him the
replies he wishes to make.
For the sake of the teacher who may be confronted with a child that
stutters, definite directions are given regarding specific subjects,—so
definite that if carried out, the child will be materially aided and in
most cases cured.
The teacher must have the very best methods at hand and understand their
application in order to help a child that stutters. She must remember
that every method she uses will be of no avail if the child knows that
she is “using a method.” Therefore, in whatever she does there should be
no ostentation.
In the first grade there is little work that requires oral recitations
other than the first crude attempts at reading, numbers and language. In
busy work, drawing and writing, the child need say nothing.
[Sidenote: Learning to Read]
In the reading, the teacher must be careful not to have the child read
too long sentences by himself. The teacher should read with him; by so
doing she helps him along without the irritation of stuttering. She must
read in a firm, even tone of voice. A teacher who has a harsh voice will
often do more harm than good, if she doesn’t control her voice. One of
the very best things to do, during the first week of school, is to have
all the pupils memorize several easy songs and poems. When the teacher
first calls up the class, she may say, “Now, children, we will all say
our poem together.” The teacher must speak it with the pupils for the
first week or two. The stuttering child must be watched to be sure that
he repeats the poem with the others. Speaking it with the others carries
the child along and he can say in concert what he could not utter alone
without stuttering. Then the teacher may say to some other pupils, “Mary
you and I will speak the poem together.” The teacher should choose the
pupil who has memorized the poem best and who has a good voice. Next she
may repeat it with Mary and the stuttering child and finally alone with
the stuttering child. By this plan the afflicted child will not once
suspect that an effort is being made to help him personally. Such a
drill can be given at the beginning of every lesson and will materially
help the stutterer. The lesson following the drill should always be
simple. Care should be taken that any sentence he is asked to read or
repeat is not too long and that it is clearly understood.
Nothing is better for speech drill than number work. In counting, have
the child count slowly and plainly. Never require him to count farther
than he knows. If he can count to ten, have him count to ten, then say,
“Now, you and I will count together to twelve.” Then count with him to
and including twelve. Repeat the counting; then say to the child, “Now
you count to twelve by yourself.” As soon as he shows the least tendency
to stutter, count with him. The counting can be prolonged little by
little. Counting in concert will also be helpful.
In language work the greatest care must be exercised. It is difficult
for the best of pupils in the first grade to tell a story, much more so
for the stuttering child. Even though he may know the story, it would
not be helping him to have him tell it, for just as soon as he becomes
confused in thought, he will begin to stutter, and since the teacher
does not know just what the child wishes to say next, she can not help
him. The situation differs in this case from that of number work and
reading; for the teacher can repeat what the child wants to say in those
subjects knowing what comes next. However, the child must be taught
something in language; he dare not be neglected. He is too young to
write the story; hence it is necessary to give him special work. Special
work has its drawback because the child notices that he does not do what
the other children are doing and begins to feel that he is being singled
out for particular work, and that is especially to be avoided; hence the
teacher must use such work as can be employed for the other pupils.
The following plan has been used in the very best of primary schools,
and is, perhaps, one of the most effective methods for first grade
language work: a method that will secure correct and exact expression,
just the thing that should be emphasized in oral English.
[Sidenote: Pictures]
The teacher selects story pictures; not gaudy or highly colored ones,
but such as are simple and full of real life—“Can’t You Talk?” “Kiss
Me,” “Village Blacksmith,” “Feeding the Hens,” “Friends or Foes,”
“Lessons in Boat Building,” “Oversleeping,” “No Thoroughfare,” “Which Do
You Like,” “Family Cares,” “Saved,” and a well chosen Madonna or two.
These pictures can be obtained from the Perry Pictures Collection at one
cent each; they come in soft grays and browns. The teacher can ask,
“What do you see?” Have each child hold up his hand when he sees
something. Instruct the children to begin their statements with “I see,
etc.” Call first upon one of the best pupils. He will no doubt say, “I
see a little girl.” Then if the stuttering child has his hand up, call
upon him. He will say, “I see a dog.” He will utter this easily because
he has had time to think what he wishes to say. Then the teacher may ask
what the pupils think the little girl is saying. Give each pupil plenty
of time to think. As the hands go up, call upon the best pupil first.
Have the child begin the statement, “I think the little girl is
saying....” Allow each child to express himself, including the child
that stutters. Never call upon the stuttering child first. At this point
the teacher may tell the class to be seated while she relates the story
of the picture.
The teacher should avoid such pictures as “Washington Crossing the
Delaware,” “The Landing of the Pilgrims,” “The Signing of the
Declaration of Independence,” etc. They are full of action, to be sure,
but too difficult for the children to understand.
Whatever the subject taught, the general rule is this: When calling on
the child who stutters, let the teacher ask some question which can be
easily and quickly answered. As for instance in a geography lesson:
“Does Ohio lie east or west of Virginia?” Upon receiving the answer let
her approve if the right answer is given, and in either case,
immediately center attention upon some other pupil. You will find that
elation over your approval will help the stutterer to get into the habit
of reciting when you call upon him, especially if attention is
immediately centered upon some other pupil, so that he may lose
self-consciousness over his speech defect in reciting before the class.
It is asking much from a teacher to work so patiently each day of a
school year to cure a stuttering child. It is infringing upon the other
pupils’ time; but teacher and pupils should all be glad to sacrifice
enough to help one child for life over a defect that will make or mar
his success and happiness.
A few general rules must be remembered by the teacher who attempts to
remedy the defect of stuttering.
First, never call upon the child to recite suddenly. That tends to
excite him and will cause him to stutter.
Secondly, a pupil can not express what he does not fully have in mind.
Another child may be able to think while speaking, but the stutterer can
not. To try to think while he speaks will make him stutter. Always give
plenty of time to get into mind what is to be said, and then call upon
him to say it. The chances are that he will express himself without
stuttering. Even when the child holds up his hand, wait a few seconds so
he will be sure to know what he wants to say.
Thirdly, the stuttering child will learn slowly. He should not be
hurried. What he learns should all be so learned that he will have no
indefinite ideas. He can not express what he does not fully understand.
Lastly, a teacher must not lose patience with a child that stutters. If
he does not know the lesson, have him reproduce something from a past
lesson, something he knows well. Approve his effort and say nothing
about the lesson he did not know.
It may be added also that there is no better school exercise for a
stuttering child than singing. He can sing without stuttering what he
cannot express otherwise.
2. Written Expression
[Sidenote: First Grade]
(1) _Scribbling and drawing on books, sidewalks, etc._ As soon as
children can write so as to express the simplest ideas in writing, and
drawing, they begin to write and draw promiscuously in their books, on
their desks, on the pavement, on fences, on buildings and anywhere they
discover a surface upon which they can write. They frequently steal
crayon in order to satisfy their desire to write and draw. Their names
appear at odd places; in fact they have a mania for writing their names
upon all their school property. The tendency is not bad in itself, but
it often leads to bad results. Every pupil should know that his name is
his own appellation and he should regard it as sacred. It is brazen and
disrespectful to have one’s name promiscuously scattered about in
writing. But there are worse phases of this habit of writing and drawing
on anything within reach. A teacher may have been embarrassed to pass
over the pavement, along a building or by the fence and to see her name
in connection with that of some man whom the pupils believe to be her
sweetheart; she may even find the same in the pupils’ books. Still
another type and the worst one, is the writing of immoral phrases and
the drawing of obscene pictures. Often little children do not know the
full import of what they are doing.
It cannot be unpedagogical or a violation of any principle to teach
pupils not to write their names about carelessly, not to write others’
names and bad phrases or silly statements in their books, not to draw
any kind of picture in improper places, and not to deface their desks.
It has been stated so many times that direct teaching of good habits can
and must be done in all sincerity on the teacher’s part. There need not
be one harsh or unkind word said. The talk to pupils on these matters
must be given in a friendly and helpful spirit.
All parents desire that their children take good care of their school
books and accessories. Still many first grade pupils fall into the habit
of taking the poorest care of school property. Should there be pupils
who show a tendency to misuse their books by writing in them, the
teacher may tell the pupils that she is going to put the names of every
pupil on the board and then for each week that a pupil takes good care
of his books, she will put a star after that child’s name. When he gets
a certain number of stars, perhaps four, she may allow some special
privilege or it may not be amiss to give a pencil or a picture as a
reward. Little folk will exert great effort to secure a small favor.
Examples of the abuse of written expression have been used so copiously
in the elaboration of other cases that the subject is treated very
meagerly here. The following is, however, a typical case.
CASE 123 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Marking Books]
Something was wrong in the McLain High School; even Orpha Barbour, one
of the most decorous girls in school, was ineffectually trying to keep
from giggling. Mr. Coleman endeavored to locate the cause of the
disturbance and saw that a book was being surreptitiously passed about
and that whoever received it was vastly amused.
He demanded that the book be given to him. On the fly leaf he saw what
was named “Our museum.” Under this title were caricatures of some of the
students as follows: under the drawing of tall, slender Clayton Lynd was
written “Spider—C. L.” Heavy-jawed Barney McCormack was designated
“Bulldog—B. McC.” Then followed the monkey; the crawfish, a girl who was
always ready to recant; the queen bee, the leader among the girls; the
mule, a stubborn fellow; and the grasshopper, Mr. Coleman, who had made
a great leap to reach an unruly boy a day or two before.
“Who did this drawing?” asked Mr. Coleman, flushed with anger.
Nobody seemed to know.
Mr. Coleman turned to the front of the book—an algebra—and found it
belonged to Victor Tucker.
“Victor Tucker, did you draw these disgraceful pictures?”
“No, sir.”
“Do you know who did it?”
“I’d rather not answer,” said Victor.
“You are suspended, sir, until you do answer,” said Mr. Coleman. Then
turning to address all of the students, he said, “I shall keep a close
watch for marked-up books hereafter, and shall punish every pupil who
puts extraneous markings of any kind in any of his textbooks.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Mr. Coleman should have laughed at the caricatures and said, “These are
well done—now let us take up something else.” Do not lay down a law or
make a rule covering “all future cases.” He should utilize these
artistic gifts in the school routine and so make them educative instead
of obstructive to good school order.
COMMENTS
Rules are often a dare to pupils. The bold ones take pleasure in seeing
if they cannot break the rules without being caught, or sometimes even
openly disobey to see if the prescribed penalty will be administered.
Approval of good conduct is more efficacious than condemnation of bad
behavior.
An up-to-date teacher quickly discovers all of his pupils who have an
aptitude for drawing, whether it be crude or well trained. In every
subject in school there is not only opportunity but also urgent need for
the use of diagrams, sketches and detailed drawings to make clear many
obscure points in these subjects. If the teacher will direct into
approved channels these tendencies to decorate books and public places,
great relief will be gained and immense profit will accrue to the
pupils.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Approve the Clean Book]
Prof. Pierce of Lakeville High School has the habit of picking up books
from pupils’ desks and glancing through them occasionally while
recitations are going on. When he finds an exceptionally clean, well
kept book he says, “I like to see a neat book like this. It is a good
index to the kind of boy that owns it.” He has no trouble regarding
marked up textbooks.
[Sidenote: Lower Grade]
(2) _Learning to write neatly._ It is not an easy task to take the early
steps in writing which are so highly interesting for the first grade
child. Still less easy is the training in carefulness, neatness and
accuracy. Much of the difficulty is due, however, to the fact that the
teacher attempts too much at one time, is not sufficiently explicit in
giving directions, forgets that little children learn quickest through
imitation, and lastly that they constantly need the stimulus of approval
for effort, and coöperation in the mastery of new and difficult tasks.
As an initial step toward overcoming any neglect in these directions we
would suggest that whenever any task is assigned, you first tell the
child very definitely how you want the work done. Assume that the child
does not know as well as you just what you mean by the word “careful.”
Show concretely just what you do mean. Take a blank piece of paper and
write before him on his desk. Assign some simple, concrete thing for him
to write and say, “Now, this is the way to do it.” Or, “Here is
something I want you to write for me. Now I have found that a good way
to do it is like this:” (then show the child your plan on paper).
Take time enough at the child’s desk to say, “Do you see what I mean?”
“Do you understand how I want it done?” No matter what the child says,
repeat your plan briefly, so that he will be sure to remember. Leave his
desk smiling and say, “I’ll come back to your desk after you have
finished and see how well you did it.”
Do not give the pupil a hard task. In fact, make it very easy and
simple. Then go back to the pupil’s desk in ten or fifteen minutes, and
make up your mind before you go back that you will not say anything at
all to the pupil except to approve those parts of his work that are at
all good. For example, say, “There’s a very good letter ‘O’; I am not
sure that I could beat that myself, and there’s another good letter—and
there’s another. Well, I should say! That’s all right. I am going to
give you some more work like that tomorrow. I did not know you could do
so good work.” Leave the desk while the child is feeling elated over
what you have said.
Repeat the same procedure the next day. Vary the introduction somewhat,
like this: “I want you to do this just as you did yesterday, except that
I want this margin over here on the right side to be on a straight line.
Wait till I take this ruler and show you.” Lay the ruler lengthwise of
the sheet you want the pupil to write on, so that you can take your lead
pencil and make a line about an inch from the right side of the page.
“Now, when you have written out to this line here, then stop and begin
on the next line like this:” (show the child how you write a sentence
and begin on the next line). It would be well if the sentence which you
use as an example were to be one that would express some familiar
thought about the child’s immediate interests, such as his favorite
sport. Leave the child’s desk as you were advised to leave it the day
before and also return as before and approve that which the pupil does
well, either saying absolutely nothing about the careless parts or
suggest incidently that the pupil could help such and such a part by
doing this or that thing to it. Be sure to end your remarks by some such
expression as, “That’s good,” or “That’s fine.”
[Sidenote: Lower Grades]
(3) _Learning to Draw._ Not infrequently it happens that a pupil comes
into school who has never learned to draw and who, feeling his inability
to accomplish the task set for him in the drawing lesson, refuses to
make any attempt to do so. Especially is this true if the picture is to
be drawn from imagination. In such a case it is best to begin with
copying. When this art is learned, drawing from imagination will be a
comparatively easy step.
For example, choose a very simple picture for the child to reproduce on
another piece of paper. It is a good plan for a teacher to have at least
a dozen or more pictures in one drawer of his desk all the time, because
many pupils like to draw and copy pictures and it is an excellent way to
get them interested in other work. Present the picture of some ordinary
scene. Tell the pupil before he begins that you are going to make a
collection of pictures which your pupils draw. The picture need not have
much life in it to start with, but right here we make use of the child’s
imagination to wonderful advantage. Suppose the picture, which you have
in hand, shows a tree or two, a house, a couple of bushes or any kind of
natural objects whatsoever. Talk to the pupil in this fashion, pointing
to different parts of the picture with your pencil and have your face
near the picture, indicating interest and enthusiasm as you talk: “Now,
right behind this tree here, I want you to draw a boy, sticking his head
out from behind the tree. And right over here, where I make this little
cross mark, I want you to draw a little girl hiding behind this bush. We
will suppose they are playing ‘Hide and Seek.’ Right over here, between
this tree and the house, draw a boy’s hat. Maybe he has lost it while he
was running to hide. You know how to make a hat. Just like this:” (draw
a very simple hat, merely making a straight line and a semi-circle
connecting two points in it.) “Maybe you can draw a better one than
that. I’ll come back to your desk pretty soon and see what kind of a hat
you drew and also that little boy sticking his head out from behind the
tree. Is your pencil sharp enough?”
The child will say that his pencil is all right. Then leave him at once
and in ten or fifteen minutes return. Go back with this one thought in
mind, that you will say nothing at all except that which is
complimentary. For example, say, “Well, I should say you _can_ draw. I
believe you made a better hat than I did. Now this afternoon, I am going
to give you something else to draw. Maybe a pony with a boy on his back
and a girl riding in the pony cart. You are going to be good at drawing
things for me, I know. I want to keep all of your drawings after you
have finished them for me.”
In case the child should interrupt and ask to draw the pony right away
instead of waiting until afternoon, answer by saying, “I will have the
picture ready for you after dinner and then I will bring it to you.”
Of course, it is not necessary to use the exact words we have suggested,
or to use the same pictures or even to use pictures at all. The
important point is to offer something that is at once interesting in
order to get the pupil started in drawing. Do not insist much upon
regular lessons during the first day or two in which your chief problem
is to get the pupil’s confidence.
After the child has learned to like to do the things which you suggest
present more difficult, or even purely imaginative, subjects for
drawing.
Use the same method in getting the child to take an interest in other
subjects than drawing—that is, give him very small tasks, then approve
and compliment him on his ability. This will bring good results with any
pupil who is normal.
As a transition step between mere copying and drawing wholly from the
imagination, and also to give the timid child confidence enough to come
to the blackboard to draw in the presence of other children, the
following might be tried.
Having the confidence of the little pupil, go to his desk just before
school closes in the evening and say, “I would like for you to stay just
a moment after school. I want to tell you something.”
After most of the pupils have marched out, return to his desk, begin to
talk enthusiastically about a picture which you have. Tell him to follow
you and you will try to draw it. Then after reaching the blackboard and
picking up a piece of crayon, say, “Now, I am going to draw this man’s
face and I want you to draw his eyes.” Let it take you about a minute to
draw the outline of the man’s face, talking all the time about how well
you like to draw pictures, then say, “Now let’s see if you can draw his
eyes. Make a mark right there” (point to a spot). “Good! Now draw his
other eye. Good! Now his ear. Make a mark right here” (point to a spot).
“My, that’s fine. See, what a fine man you drew.” Start to leave the
blackboard and say, “I’m going to have you draw for me again.”
Repeat this process every day until you feel sure that the child will go
to the blackboard and work in the presence of yourself and the class.
DIVISION VII
Only through the gateway of personal experience does the child enter
into the larger understanding of the thought and achievement of
humanity.
CASES ARISING OUT OF THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS
1. The Unsocial Child
Every teacher knows of a first grade child that came moping when all the
other pupils were in high glee, that stood by himself when others were
enjoying a game, that preferred to come to school alone and to saunter
home alone, that took no part in any of the activities that always
interest other youngsters, that even seemed indifferent to the friendly
approaches of playmates and teacher. There may be no particular harm in
having such a child in school, but should he carry such traits into
adult life, they would prove a serious handicap; so it is important that
the teacher should attempt to help him to throw off his peculiarities.
This can be accomplished very easily. In attempting a cure she should
not make the child feel that she thinks him different from other pupils.
The best place to begin helping the child is on the playground. Talk to
him about the interesting features of the games. Though he may not at
first show interest, the teacher should keep this up for several days,
until he has learned to know the teacher as a friend. Then she can
invite him to join in the games. It is only an abnormal child that will
not enter into the sport after repeated invitations.
After the child has taken an active part in the games, the teacher may
begin to pay special attention to him in the school-room. To cause the
child to eliminate his peculiarities is entirely a matter of arousing
his devotion to those things which interest other children. The teacher
should appeal to his interests until she has won his complete
confidence. Then she should introduce him to a new activity. Little by
little she will displace the child’s peculiarities with abiding concern
in all those things that interest the other children.
The individual who reaches mature life still possessed of
characteristics that make him an exceptional person is likely to lead a
more or less isolated life unless his peculiarities are such as to make
him acceptable as a leader. Under ordinary conditions, “society tends to
penalize those who do not conform to its customs, its standards, its
attitudes.” This is true even of the unsocial, or non-social individual;
still more does it hold in respect to the anti-social member of the
group.
2. Anti-Social Tendencies—Selfishness, Jealousy, Cliques and
Snobbishness
(1) _Selfishness._ Selfishness is a trait of character that has always
elicited severe criticism from society. Its manifestations are so
conspicuous that they provoke men to despise and avoid the confirmed
egoist. It is an anti-social trait, hence deserving of the opprobrium
placed upon it, yet it is the basis of all the social virtues, hence the
place which is here given to it in the division on “Social Instincts.”
We may well believe that selfishness was a universal trait of the race
in its infancy. By this is meant that every individual instinctively
seeks to care for his own interests above those of anyone else. All
during the earlier months, and perhaps years, of one’s childhood, he
measures the world in terms of its service to his own comfort and
pleasure. As one who merges into later childhood and into adult life, he
normally narrows the play of this trait of character, and inhibits those
impulses which, if followed out, would make him a selfish person. Adults
who are justly accused of being selfish are persons who have never fully
profited from their contact with their fellows, nor have they learned
how to suppress adequately their own personal desires and demands.
Selfishness is a relative term. This is due to the fact that individuals
differ from each other widely in the matter of natural endowments. The
standard of measure used in judging selfishness in people is both
individual and social. Most frequently the charge of selfishness is
lodged because an individual is not as unselfish as the group in which
he most often appears, but in fairness he must also be judged with an
eye to the intensity of his native egoistic impulses. From this point of
view, what may be selfish in one person is not selfish in another.
The misunderstanding of children in interpreting their apparent
selfishness is very easy. The traditions of the home may have
accentuated the natural propensity to care for their own interests
beyond that which would have been the case had they had other
surroundings.
Furthermore, the known variation in natural endowments, and in the
responses to social influences, require one to be lenient in passing
judgment upon selfish people.
[Sidenote: Its Nature]
As commonly understood, the selfish individual is one who exhibits an
excessive concern for his own welfare, who tends to regard himself as a
little god, watching every opportunity to satisfy his desires, tastes,
impulses and pleasures. He measures every passing circumstance in terms
of its value to him. Even the occasional acts of kindness which he
renders to another are planned so as to bring him the largest returns
financially or socially.
We must not forget that selfishness is an indestructible instinct of
human nature. On this instinct is deeply engraved the law of
self-preservation. Experience in associating with ones’ fellows shows to
an ordinary person how far he must take precautions in order to maintain
his own welfare, but in the case of a few, as we believe, results of
experience have not given the wisdom which renders them unselfish.
We are never to forget that the will to live underlies and overtops all
other interests and desires in the life of the individual. No sane
method will attempt to suppress this impulse, for out of it spring all
the impulses that induce the individual to seek his fortune and win
success in life.
[Sidenote: Causes]
For the better understanding of selfishness in children, it is well to
survey some of the general causes that operate in prolonging selfishness
into later childhood and adult life.
First of all, we mention misconception of one’s actual need. By this we
mean that a child overestimates his need for some object that interests
him. He “wants” it very much, as we say. He is unable, by reason of his
immaturity, to estimate accurately his own necessities in the case.
Another specific cause of selfishness is a wrong estimate of the value
which belongs to the object of his eager desire. For these reasons he is
willing to pay too high a price to satisfy himself with that which, if
he were better informed, he could forego with little discomfort.
Again, the attainment of success after long and victorious effort may
beget in one a spirit of selfishness. Not infrequently a student who has
solved a difficult problem after painstaking toil, hesitates to pass on
the fruits of his labor to a classmate. He reasons that the expenditure
of energy which he has suffered is worth too much to be lightly
transferred to another person. Particularly will this be the case if the
sharing of his gain will reduce the lustre of his own glory.
Another particular cause of selfishness, both in adults and in children,
is the transition from poverty to plenty, from obscurity to prominence,
from disesteem to fame. If the father or mother has recently emerged
from some retired station in life, the contrast in the situation is very
sure to be reflected in the life of the younger members of the family.
If the change is from poverty to wealth, the parents are disposed to be
miserly in the expenditure of their money. This attitude of mind
reappears in the child in a refusal to share his pleasures and
privileges with his schoolmates. He carries with him a caution to see
that no one trespasses upon his newly achieved rights. In our western
civilization such extreme transitions are not infrequent, owing to the
freedom of opportunity for all.
Many times people who are not widely acquainted with the world are
selfish because they do not believe in the good will of others. This
state of mind is very often found in young children who have not yet
advanced beyond a sort of savagery in which they regard every man as a
possible enemy. They refuse to give up to their associates because they
do not believe any return will come to them. They fear that all of their
possessions will be ravaged and appropriated, and so exercise excessive
caution in lending them or in making presents to their friends.
It is not unusual that certain interests of some society, class, or
club, are so vividly conceived as to modify the attitude of the entire
group.
A fraternity or literary society or a senior class in a high school may
hold inflated ideas of their importance, and think necessarily that
school interests should rotate around their welfare. Individuals who
belong to the club or society become intoxicated with this notion, and
exhibit an almost barbaric class-selfishness.
With these and other incentives to selfishness, the situation facing a
conscientious teacher is by no means simple. Since selfishness is a very
intimate trait of character, the question might be raised why a teacher
could take interest in curing children of selfishness. The fault has
been generated very largely in the home, and the cure should, naturally,
be largely a matter of home concern.
[Sidenote: Cure]
Nevertheless the public school teacher has a large responsibility. He
must attempt to improve the character of the child in every way
possible. Obviously, the cure of selfishness can be had only by
associating with other people. It depends upon the teacher to manipulate
these associations in school so as to aid in reforming character at this
point.
Just as clearly, the more startling instances of selfishness necessitate
care that the rights of other pupils be preserved. This happens so
frequently as to demand no elaborate argument.
The teacher’s concern for the general improvement of the moral life of
the school requires that striking instances of selfishness should be
adequately dealt with.
Lastly, selfishness is a prolific source of other wrongs. If an
administrator can cure a selfish child, he has nipped in the bud a whole
harvest of undesirable actions and immoral deeds.
[Sidenote: First Grade]
No teacher would ever think of punishing a first grade child in any way
whatever for being selfish. The selfish child is usually an only child
or has been made selfish in his desires, by home training. The teacher
can do much to overcome selfishness. When a pupil enters the first
grade, for the first time, he comes in contact with other children and
into surroundings that are new. This is the teacher’s opportunity. The
chances are that the child will often display selfish tendencies. It is
necessary that the teacher have the child’s confidence, but by this time
it is assumed that the teacher has many avenues already mapped out by
which to get this needed confidence. Then the thing to do is to teach
the child unselfishness each time he displays selfish tendencies. It
will take but a few weeks to effect some change in the selfish child.
In extreme cases it may be well for the teacher to give the child
something for the express purpose of asking him to share it with his
playmates—candy, pictures or any little, inexpensive article that a
child enjoys.
For example, if the teacher has given candy, she may say, “Now, break it
in two pieces and give one piece to Mary.” When the child has done so
the teacher should approve the act. It will incline the child away from
selfishness for the teacher to say, “You are kind to give Mary some of
your candy.” “I like the way you divide with others,” or, “You like to
give things to others, don’t you?” This last statement of approval will
require the child to reply, “Yes.” This is a necessary positive reaction
of the child and a few trials like this may overcome his selfishness.
The trait of selfishness, while not very annoying in the first grade,
must be suppressed, for if left to develop, it becomes very annoying in
the upper grades. Nothing seems worse than a selfish pupil in the
grammar or high school. And no one needs an introduction to the
avaricious man of the world who got his first lessons in greed through
selfishness in childhood. For the sake of emphasis, then, may it be said
again that there is no more opportune time to overcome these undesirable
traits in a child, than when he first enters a new world of
acquaintances and experiences in the first school year.
CASE 124 (FIRST GRADE)
The spoiled child has two dominating characteristics—an intense
selfishness and an insatiable appetite for attention. The teacher’s
problem is therefore two-fold, first, to reduce his self-consciousness
by increasing his interest in the world about him, and, secondly, to
enlist his sympathies for others so as to increase his altruism and
supplant his selfishness with a wholesome socialization.
[Sidenote: Spoiled Child]
Karen Gompers was a very bright little girl whom adoring parents, aunts,
grandparents and enlisted friends had quite spoiled. She expected her
teacher to give her the constant attention she enjoyed at home, and
resented the fact that Miss Nelson seemed to think each of forty other
children as important as she was.
“I want to sit by you,” she announced as her class seated itself in the
circle of little chairs. “I like to be here.”
“You can’t sit by me today, Karen. It is Wilson’s and Eunice’s turn. You
may sit in that empty chair over there.”
“But I don’t want to! I want to sit here!” and she stood stoutly by the
coveted chair. All the other children were watching her, and she was
enjoying her prominence in the scene she was creating. Miss Nelson hated
a scene above all things, and prided herself on the perfect mechanics of
her teaching.
“Well, Wilson, suppose you let Karen sit here today—that’s a good boy.”
“But you promised me I could!” There were sudden tears in Wilson’s eyes.
“I’ll let you sit here another day, Wilson. Be a little gentleman, and
remember that gentlemen give up their chairs to girls.”
So Karen had her way because she had learned the despotism of the
selfish, who secure their ends by sheer insistence. Wilson lost his
faith in his teacher’s word, which did not tend to make him a gentleman,
and Miss Nelson proved herself a coward in consenting to sacrifice
Karen’s good to her own dislike of a conflict.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
There are occasions when a definite issue for the mastery occurs in the
school-room, and this was one of them. Miss Nelson had no right to break
her promise to a docile and obedient child, and reinforce the habitual
selfishness of a spoiled one. She should have insisted that Karen take
her turn with the rest, and if Karen had stormed it would have given her
a good opportunity to show her that her usual methods would not work in
school. The angry storming of a spoiled child is usually done with an
alert eye to the effect produced on the audience; therefore, if Karen
had wept and wailed, she should have been carried out into the hall,
where she might have been left in lonely state to recover her good
temper. Usually one or two such trials convince a spoiled child that he
has met his match, and if such children are followed by tactful
guidance, and especially if attention can be diverted away from
themselves, the worst-spoiled children can in time be thoroughly
socialized.
COMMENTS
In every case, the object of the teacher’s treatment is to show the
child that he must conform to the conditions of the social group he
belongs to, instead of fixing conditions to suit himself. She should
remember, however, that _real_ unselfishness has not been attained until
the child voluntarily surrenders some fancied good. Coercion may
sometimes be a stepping stone in leading a child toward the goal, but it
is only a stepping stone. True unselfishness requires that the child
himself deliberately make the choice that crowns another with the
happiness that he desired for himself.
ILLUSTRATION (KINDERGARTEN)
[Sidenote: Substitute Altruistic Ideal]
Elmer Bronson, an only child, had a difficult task in adjusting himself
to his social environment when, at the age of four, he entered the
public school kindergarten in Grand Rapids, Michigan. At home all
playthings had been his, with none to molest or take away. Moreover, as
the grown-ups in his home were very indulgent, practically all objects
that he desired to have were placed at his disposal.
But at school a new order seemed to prevail. Elmer not only was not
allowed to appropriate many interesting looking objects that lay about
on desks and tables, but at times he was not even permitted unrestricted
handling of his own things. The situation was perplexing. He couldn’t
make it out.
Miss Melbourne, Elmer’s teacher, comprehended the conditions of the
problem better than he did. She perceived that Elmer, as yet, had no
understanding of the meaning of ownership, nor had he received any
training whatever in the recognition of the rights of others. She must
begin at the foundation.
To that end she utilized all sorts of games, stories and dramatic plays
as a means for teaching these two lessons, but that part of the program
which seemed to captivate Elmer more than any other was the singing of
“The Soldier Boy.”
The delightful part of it was that as the song was sung the children
marched about the room wearing paper caps of red, white and blue, and
each, as he marched, was presented by his teacher with a flag to be
proudly borne over the right shoulder. Who could fail to be patriotic
and generous under such stimulating conditions!
One day Elmer spied a toy boat on the desk of one of his classmates,
Freddie Buzzell. Elmer immediately appropriated it.
“Don’t take my boat,” said Freddie.
“’Tain’t yours. It’s mine,” was the reply.
Naturally, Freddie sprang to the defense of his property rights. Elmer
insisted upon the principle of possession as proof of ownership. Thus
the battle was raging when Miss Melborne entered the room. Knowing
Elmer’s individualistic tendencies, she was not long in getting at the
cause of the quarrel.
“Come here, Elmer,” she called from the desk. Elmer came reluctantly,
still holding the toy boat. Miss Melborne picked up one of the red,
white, and blue caps on the table.
“Who are the boys these caps were made for, Elmer?”
“Sojer boys.”
“And what sort of boys are they?”
“Those ‘whose hearts are brave and twue.’”
“Now, Elmer, soldiers who are ‘brave and true’ have to fight sometimes
but do they fight in order to get something they want themselves, or do
they fight to take care of other people?” This was a pretty hard
question for Elmer to think out fully. He looked thoughtful but did not
answer. Miss Melborne tried a more concrete form of question.
“We would not like to have any one march with the ‘soldier boys’ this
afternoon who takes things away from other children, _would_ we?”
Elmer looked very sober, but he shook his head. Miss Melborne followed
up the advantage she had gained by adding, “What would a soldier boy
‘whose heart is brave and true’ do, if he had in his hands something
that belonged to another boy?”
Elmer looked hard at the toy boat for a full minute, then slowly walked
over to Freddie’s desk and carefully placed the boat on it.
“That’s my brave soldier boy!” said Miss Melborne, enthusiastically.
“That’s the kind of boy to wear the soldier cap!” and she placed it on
his head, adding, as she did so, “You may wear it, dear, till the school
bell rings.”
The idea of protection of the rights of others had been substituted for
that of selfish possession. Approval had crystallized the experience
into an attitude of mind. Many reminders of the soldier boy, “whose
heart was brave and true” and who lived for others instead of self, were
necessary before the most selfish child in the class became one of the
most unselfish, but each application on the teacher’s part of the
principles of substitution and approval made the meaning of the words
more explicit to Elmer and the habit of self-sacrifice more firmly
fixed.
CASE 125 (RURAL SCHOOL)
Not infrequently it happens that the selfish child has a continual
example of selfishness before him in his own parents.
[Sidenote: Parental Example]
Not far from the rural school house in District Number 10 was the fine
residence of Mr. Allen, one of the directors of the school. His rearing
of thoroughbred stock had made his name known throughout the state and
had added thousands to his bank account. When his little son, Homer,
started to school for the first time, he was oversupplied with pencils,
erasers, tablets of all varieties, penholders, stencils, paints, colored
crayons and every known aid to first grade work.
Attending the same school was a large family of very poor children named
Perkins. The Perkins’ children were poorly, but cleanly, clad in the
cheapest of clothing. They had only a few of the necessary textbooks and
half of a lead pencil was made to serve two of the family, the parents
reasoning that two of them wouldn’t surely need lead pencils at the same
time. Joseph and Clarence Perkins were in the first and second grades,
respectively. They had the third of a lead pencil to be used in common
and a piece of a broken slate (with a two-inch pencil) to be used
instead of a tablet.
Miss Shuttlesworth, a young teacher, felt truly sorry for these two
bright, little boys because they were thus handicapped in their work,
and she allowed them to borrow from other children during periods when
both should be writing at once.
She even fell into the habit of saying, “Joseph, borrow a pencil from
Homer and put your problems on this piece of paper.” Generous and kindly
herself it did not occur to her that Homer was reluctant to loan one of
his many pencils.
One day Laura Manning, a sixteen-year-old pupil who came past the Allen
farm on her way to school, said to Miss Shuttlesworth, “Mrs. Allen said
to tell you she would like to have you come and see her soon.” Miss
Shuttlesworth foresaw from Laura’s manner of delivering the message that
the errand would not be a pleasant one. She had evidently offended Mrs.
Allen in some way, but how she could not conceive. She had never been in
the Allen home nor had she ever seen Mrs. Allen.
As soon as school closed she made her way to the Allen residence and was
not surprised to have Mrs. Allen greet her coldly and haughtily, boldly
glaring at her and beginning a speech something like this: “I want you
to understand that Homer is not to lend anything of his to the Perkins’
children. We are able to buy anything he needs but we don’t intend to
buy for the whole school.” Having more than exhausted this subject Mrs.
Allen went on to state that Homer’s seat must be changed because his
desk was defective in some way. Miss Shuttlesworth had not noticed that
Homer’s desk was different from the others.
She was a young teacher and so was quite overawed by Mrs. Allen’s angry,
commanding tones. She changed Homer’s seat and supplied the Perkins’
boys with working material herself. She made no effort to change Homer’s
attitude of superiority toward the Perkins’ boys. His selfishness only
increased under his mother’s management.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
When children are not supplied with the necessary equipment for their
work and are too poor to buy for themselves make an appeal to the board
of education asking them to purchase the material needed, which material
should be considered the property of the school and left there from year
to year. Most states require that the school furnish books and equipment
for all who are unable to buy them.
Show by your own example that poor people are just as desirable for
companions as rich ones, other things being equal. See to it that the
children of poor parents be made to forget, while at school, that they
are different from others. See to it that democracy reigns on the
playground.
Supervise all play.
Do not foster the borrowing habit.
COMMENTS
If children are unable to buy books, allowing them to borrow daily is a
source of annoyance to both borrower and lender. Besides it daily
emphasizes the contrast in the financial condition between the richer
and the poorer. This is wrong. It fosters haughtiness in the one and
undue humiliation in the other. While you are supervising play you can
easily manage to have the neglected children drawn into play and even
chosen for the enviable parts in the games. It largely depends upon the
teacher’s influence whether the public school is a leveler of false
barriers or a hotbed where selfishness is cultivated.
The borrowing habit, if fostered even among children of equal rank,
teaches a disregard for the property rights of others. Americans are
especially lax in their thought and behavior relative to property
rights, and the public schools can do the nation a great service by
giving its children correct notions concerning appropriation without
ownership, and in selfishness as contrasted with altruism, in both rich
and poor. The rich often enjoy display and the poor retaliate by
vandalism. Both wrongs are the outgrowth of selfishness.
ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Invoking Fairies]
Margaret Blake lived not far from the Lone Star rural school. Her father
had bought much land years before which had so increased in value that
he was very rich. Many people in the Lone Star district were tenants on
his farms. Margaret’s mother taught her that she was better than other
children and must not “mix” with them more than absolutely necessary. As
soon as she was old enough she was to go to a “select” school of her own
“class” of people.
Miss Coleman saw the situation the first day of school. Margaret’s
selfishness was manifested by her selection of the best seat, the
display on her desk of numerous and costly aids for her work, her
haughty demeanor and her frequent references to what her mother said she
need not do. Whenever she spoke of her mother’s wishes she emphasized
the “I” in a way to show her difference from others.
Miss Coleman knew that the happiness of Margaret as well as of her other
pupils depended upon eradication of the rich child’s selfishness. She
made a special study of the effect of various attempts to accomplish
this end. She told a story of an unselfish child. This did not seem to
appeal to Margaret. She tried another story on the advantages of wealth
in terms of ability to serve others. This was nearer the mark. After
thus finding the correct avenue of approach Miss Coleman often said
something like this to Margaret: “How fortunate you are in having some
things which these other children cannot afford to have. How would you
like to play you are a fairy and get a new First Reader for little
Wilbur Tomlinson, who has no book, and just leave it on his desk with
his name in it, and not tell him who gave it to him. I’ll help you pay
for it, for I want to get fun out of it too.”
Or, again, “Let’s think what we might plan to do secretly for any child
in the room who really needs something we can give. We’ll be good
fairies again.”
Margaret took a new interest in other children. She soon began to like
to go to school. She enjoyed playing with the other pupils and loved and
honored Miss Coleman.
CASE 126 (FIFTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Displaying Fruit]
Florence Crane attended school in Michigan. She lived on a fine fruit
farm where during the fall one variety of peaches, grapes or pears
followed another and when these had all been sold choice apples followed
in season. So it happened that choice fruit was always a part of
Florence’s lunch. This fruit was displayed on her desk and tempted many
a child’s eyes away from school tasks. Miss Bush, the teacher, requested
all of the children to keep their lunches concealed and away from their
desks. Still at recess time Florence had a little group of children
around her watching her eat her luscious fruit. Miss Bush could scarcely
endure the sight of the hungry eyes devouring every bite with Florence.
One day she was especially tired and without forethought said,
“Florence, you shall not bring another piece of fruit to school unless
you bring enough for all of the girls.” Imagine Florence’s indignation
which was not much greater than that of her associates.
When the girls discussed this together on the playground a little later
Florence said, “I’ve a right to bring whatever I please t’ eat.”
Ethel Green, spokesman for the rest, declared, “Teacher’s crazy. We
don’t want anybody to bring us lunches. If we hain’t got enought to eat
we won’t ask her to give us anything.”
The girls had talked about the matter until the atmosphere of the
school-room was that of slumbering rebellion.
That night when Florence told her parents what Miss Bush said there was
much indignation and a long discussion which ended in a decision to have
Mrs. Crane visit Miss Bush at the schoolhouse next day. On her way there
Mrs. Crane stopped to discuss the situation with Mrs. Green, whom Ethel
had informed of the previous day’s talk. Mrs. Green was very angry and
offered to go with Mrs. Crane to the schoolhouse.
The situation was very awkward for Miss Bush. She was reluctant to say
in the presence of Mrs. Green that the other girls were always hanging
around Florence watching her eat her fruit and yet she had to justify
herself in some way. The mothers took advantage of Miss Bush’s
embarrassment, assuming that it showed guilt and even accusing her of
giving the command to Florence on the previous day in order that she
herself might be given fruit. The conference ended with the remark from
Mrs. Green, “If you’re hungry yourself, say so, but don’t beg vittles
for my children.”
Miss Bush’s joy in her work in that school was ended. The girls might
have forgotten the incident but the mothers whenever they met revived
the feeling of anger against Miss Bush.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Miss Bush was too superficial in her original treatment of this case.
She had had ample time to think out a workable plan that would have
caused no friction.
After having all food removed from the desks she might have asked the
pupils to find appropriate seats in which to eat their lunches. After
lunch time she should have led the way to the playground where all else
than play would be easily forgotten.
From time to time short talks on manners should be given to the whole
school.
COMMENTS
It is inexcusable for a teacher to give angry or even unpremeditated
treatment to a case that has been developing for some time. Miss Bush
touched upon a very serious question when she gave commands concerning
what the children had to eat in their lunches. In her talks on manners
the teacher can easily place special emphasis upon such phases of the
subject as are most nearly related to the habits of her pupils. These
general remarks can hurt the feelings of no one, since they are given to
the entire school.
The part that unselfishness plays in what is usually termed good manners
can thus be clearly brought out. Some teachers ask their pupils to learn
the following couplet in this connection:
“Politeness is to do and say
The kindest thing in the kindest way.”
ILLUSTRATION (SECOND GRADE)
[Sidenote: Eating Candy]
Tommy Holbroke’s father kept a small candy store in Brighton and Tommy
often carried candy to school with him. This he ate with a great show of
enjoyment in the presence of a group of onlookers. Miss Dean, his
teacher, noted the conditions and appreciated its inevitably baneful
effect upon Tommy’s disposition. Accordingly she visited his mother and
first told her of Tommy’s sunny temper and studious habits. Then she
tactfully led the subject to the boy’s health and food. In talking of
the candy she said, “Of course we must guard Tommy’s health and his
disposition too.” Then she explained that she greatly feared that his
bringing candy to school would make him selfish because of course it
enabled him to have and not share what he knew others wanted. She
suggested that Tommy be given his candy directly after his meals and at
no other time. The double appeal in behalf of the child’s health as well
as his character caused the mother to follow Miss Dean’s advice.
Occasionally, however, on “special days” or when the children had a
“birthday party,” Tommy’s mother gave him a bag of candy to take to his
teacher with the words, “Tell Miss Dean to please give it to all the
children.” So Tommy learned, in time, the joy of sharing with others.
CASE 127 (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Selfish Play]
The grade schools in the suburbs of one of our largest cities give
special attention to outdoor play. They even require that the children
stay on the school grounds at least fifteen minutes after the school
proper is closed, and play games there. They encourage the playing of
ball by the girls and are anxious to have them interested in the game.
In one of these schools the principal, Mr. Warren, went to the eighth
grade rooms and gave the girls a talk on baseball. He advocated that the
girls in each eighth grade room elect by ballot a baseball team and that
these teams practice ball with the earnest expectation of being able
eventually to conquer any other eighth grade team in the suburb. After
school a ballot was taken and those receiving the highest number of
votes were considered elected on the team.
Those who failed to be elected felt, of course, various degrees of
disappointment and envy. Some proposed forming a scrub team of the
left-overs. Others were afraid that this would show the “team” that they
were jealous of them; whereas, they had been putting on a brave front by
saying to their classmates that they would not have accepted a position
on the team even if they had been elected.
The entire school grounds occupied about half a city block. This space
had to be shared with the boys and girls in all the other grades. It
naturally followed that there was little space to be used by each room.
Miss Darnell’s eighth grade ball team girls were anxious to bring fame
to themselves as champion players. Mr. Warren’s thrilling speech still
rang in their ears. His slogan, “We’ll beat ’em!” was passed from lip to
lip. As a result of this enthusiasm, this special team wished to play
ball at every intermission and before and after school. When they
played, the rest of the girls in Miss Darnell’s room were obliged to
keep off the ground allotted to that room. The girls who rebelled
against being nothing but “fans” were called “disloyal to their own
team” or “green with jealousy.” The play periods were no longer enjoyed
by all, but distinct factions arose, consisting of team and “fans,” and
as the team grew more and more determined to use the grounds at every
available minute the “fans” became less and less enthusiastic in their
support.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Mr. Warren did wrong to deprive any pupil of a right use of the
playground or gymnasium.
When teams are formed, limit the time they may use the field and
apparatus so as to accommodate those who are not on the teams at some
time during the day.
COMMENTS
Mr. Warren’s prime motive in asking to have ball teams elected was to
have the girls take delight in vigorous, outdoor sport. In that respect
his plan was ideal, but he failed to take into account in any way
whatsoever those children who were not on the team. Children are quick
to feel an injustice. Their usual mode of reaction is either to resent
the teacher’s action or to be jealous of the favored ones. No plan
should be advocated or even tolerated that does not give reasonable
consideration to the rights and welfare of all the pupils.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Sharing Dances]
A new gymnasium had just been erected at Horton and the principal, Mr.
Bergen, was anxious to have all get the benefit of it. The eighth grade
girls under Miss Vance were especially pleased with this fine play room.
One of their number, Stella Day, had been taking lessons in dancing and
promised to teach her special friends the new steps. It so turned out
that Miss Vance herself was interested in these new dances and enjoyed
watching the lessons. But the majority of the girls in her room cared
nothing about dancing and indeed if they had cared the “lessons” were
not at all open to them, since only eight of the twenty-one girls were
invited to take any part in this exercise.
Mr. Bergen had carefully arranged the gymnasium program so that each
room might use it every day. The first time he watched Miss Vance’s
pupils at “gym” work he was surprised to find so few taking the
exercises and furthermore to see that the onlookers were not even
enjoying the watching of the dancers. This led him to surmise that they
did not take turns in their exercises, otherwise the dejected look would
not have been seen on the faces of the observers.
Mr. Bergen made a mental note of those who were dancing and returned the
next day to see if the same girls were occupying the whole of the
teacher’s attention. Finding that such was the case he explained to Miss
Vance that all of her pupils must be really interested in watching or
actually engaged in every game during the exercise period. Following his
advice, Miss Vance changed the exercise to games in which all could take
part, thus making a legitimate use of the gymnasium period.
CASE 128 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Taking the Best]
Elizabeth Dyer seemed to be naturally selfish. When the classes were
sent to do blackboard work she invariably chose the place where the
light was the best. When the crayons were passed she took the unused
one. One of the new erasers was always in her hand. When the class was
called she always took the recitation bench nearest the teacher, etc.,
etc.
Little Susan Dillman said to a group of girls on the way home from
school one evening,
“Girls, I’m going to tell Bess Dyer what I think of her.”
“Oh, no, you don’t dare,” said the other girls.
“You’ll see,” said Susan.
That night Susan thought out her plan. She invited three of her closest
friends to her home the next evening and disclosed her plan. She had
composed this bit of rhyme:
“Just guess if you can
What girl in our class
Appropriates always the best,
Be it crayon or book,
By hook or by crook
She’ll beat to it all of the rest.”
“Now girls, here in the library is Sam’s typewriter. Let’s each write a
part of this so we can all say we didn’t write it and lay it on
Elizabeth’s desk tomorrow.” All were agreed, so one after another took a
turn at writing. After many copies were spoiled they finally wrote one
that pleased them. Each took a turn at addressing the envelope. When it
was sealed they said, “E-ne me-ne mi-ne mo,” etc., to find out who was
to place this on Elizabeth’s desk. The lot fell to Lulu Miller, but she
would do it only on condition that Sue go with her and help her place
it. The next morning the girls went to school as soon as the doors were
opened. They found nobody in the assembly room, so they opened
Elizabeth’s geometry text at that day’s lesson. Each took hold of one
corner of the envelope and placed it in the book. Then they returned the
book to the desk and went into the history room where they diligently
studied the maps until school opened.
After opening exercises the four guilty girls watched from a corner of
their eyes to see Elizabeth get her missive. Susan saw her take out the
letter, open it and blush scarlet, while she wiped away tears of
vexation. Soon Elizabeth with letter in hand walked up to Mr. Davidson’s
desk and talked to him a few minutes. When she came away again she
didn’t have the letter.
The girls had not counted upon this turn of affairs.
Before school closed Mr. Davidson asked who put the note in Elizabeth’s
geometry. Nobody answered. He then questioned everybody one at a time
and each answered “No” to the question. “Did you put it there?” Susan
and Lulu tried to think they told the truth because they neither of them
did it alone.
Mr. Davidson said, “All right, we’ll stay right here till we find out
the guilty party.” Some laughed, others pouted and a few who drove to
school from the country looked worried. Mr. Davidson said, “Somebody in
this room knows who did that. I’m sorry to think anybody is mean enough
to keep all of his schoolmates in because he will not tell the truth.”
Still nobody confessed. Mr. Davidson waited and scolded by turns until
dusk, all to no purpose. The girls’ fear of exposure, to say nothing of
confession, grew greater with every speech he made. He finally dismissed
the school, after saying that he would find the culprit and suspend him.
Daily Mr. Davidson referred publicly to the note and made threats as to
what he would do with the guilty one. These frequent references to the
affair helped Elizabeth to remember her fault and practically cured her
of it. But the guilty ones were never found out and Mr. Davidson had
four pupils whose joy and efficiency in school work were greatly
diminished.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
When you see that a pupil is truly selfish begin at once to treat him.
First find out, if possible, how this trait was developed and then begin
to correct the false notions. Say to the selfish one, “I want you to
study the pupils of this room this week, and tell me of all the
unselfish deeds done that you can make note of, and why you think them
unselfish.” Of course, other pupils will be given similar topics and the
reports, as well as the original requests, will be made in public. These
character studies may be connected with literature in place of the
fictitious personalities which are often studied.
When wishing to find the writer of a note go to work at it privately.
Having once made a threat do not lightly disregard it. Do not give over
to your pupils matters of discipline which you should attend to
yourself.
COMMENTS
Mr. Davidson doubtless knew that Elizabeth was selfish, but took no
measures to correct the fault. Some teachers say they are not employed
as character builders but only as instructors in secular matters. The
truth is, however, that they cannot escape instructing in morals.
Elizabeth was growing more selfish. The question as to whether character
grows during school life is settled. Pupils do change in character. The
teacher has no choice. He either confirms or breaks up bad habits. The
principle of substitution enables the selfish pupil to grow less selfish
by the study and admiration of unselfish pupils and adults. It is in
order to call forth this admiration that the student is asked to tell
why he names certain acts unselfish.
Teachers make mistakes often by publicly announcing a misdemeanor about
which there would otherwise be little known. Cases where immediate
danger does not threaten should not be made public. Private inquiry is
always much more fruitful of good results. Public confession is
especially hard. Furthermore, the sidetracking of legitimate school
interests by much discussion of misdemeanors can be minimized by letting
as few persons as possible know about the wrong deed.
Threats that are not carried out weaken the teacher’s control.
Patient study and planning will show the teacher a way to cure
selfishness. By judicious observation a teacher can discover attitudes
taken toward a pupil by his schoolmates and these will be of great value
to him in any attempt at corrective measures.
It is doubtless true that the schoolmates often develop a wise and
effective cure for some wrong trait or attitude. In such cases they may
be permitted to carry out their program, without the connivance of the
teacher. But a close examination of the conditions is needful, so that
neglect of unformed characters may not be appropriately charged against
a teacher.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
Earl Foley was fifteen years old when he entered high school and came
under the control of its principal, Mr. Mullendore.
Earl was large, with a round face, thick lips, a big mouth and a too
ready smile. He was very active and learned easily, but was unmannerly
and above all, selfish. He invariably selected the best for himself,
stood between others and the teacher, gave his views unsought, and in
many little ways annoyed his teachers and companions.
[Sidenote: Selfish Manners]
Mr. Mullendore discovered that the boy simply needed teaching, so he
decided that in his private talks with Earl he would use illustrations
easily understood. He asked Earl one day what famous person he admired
above all others. Finding the man to be Lincoln, Mr. Mullendore talked
of Lincoln’s unselfishness and humility and even asked Earl what kind of
pencil he thought Lincoln would have taken if passed a box containing
one good pencil, and the others second grade, Lincoln knowing,
meanwhile, that all would be used by his classmates. Mr. Mullendore
talked of Earl’s work on the farm and asked him to recall the practice
of pigs, cattle and fowls in getting their share of food. He asked Earl
to study out the cause for the development of unselfishness in the human
race.
All this was said without a single reference to Earl’s own traits. It
seemed a part of the study of Lincoln. Earl was not slow to apply the
suggestions of the lesson, however, and before many months had passed he
was one of the most unselfish pupils in the high school.
(2) _Jealousy._ Some one has truly said, “In jealousy there is more
self-love than love.” It is an attitude which develops early, however.
Even very young children will sometimes destroy an object rather than
have it fall into the hands of another. As a rule the smaller the number
of individuals in competition and the narrower the range of their
interests the more intense will be the jealousy between them.
The teacher’s problems are complicated by jealousies in two ways: (1) by
a spirit of unkindly rivalry among patrons of the school, a feeling
which is sure to be reflected in the attitudes of the pupils toward each
other, and (2) by a spirit of jealousy arising among and limited to the
pupils themselves.
The first type has been treated incidentally in other parts of Practical
School Discipline and need not be further dealt with here. The second
type, fortunately, is not a very common cause of trouble in the well
ordered school-room, but it is a fault so harmful to the child himself
and in adult life, so harmful to all who come within its blighting
influence, that it can not be too carefully watched and checked in its
early development.
During adolescence and afterwards, jealous attitudes arise mainly out of
sports and out of competition for sex recognition and appreciation.
Jealousy breeds an angry resentment toward a person who holds or seems
likely to acquire one’s property or personal privilege. It embraces a
feeling of fear and a sense of helplessness in the face of the
aggressor. It develops an enlarged appreciation of the treasures
involved and a disposition to care for them by violence, or if defence
is useless, to destroy them.
Jealousy, envy, rivalry and covetousness are only varying forms of the
same anti-social attitude of selfishness. Tact and patience on the part
of parent and teacher and the judicious application of the Five
Fundamental Principles will uproot them all in time.
CASE 129 (THIRD GRADE)
Julia Jenkins was a beautiful child with a sunny disposition and an
inclination toward sociability. Her voice was well modulated for a
child, and her manners were charming. She loved everybody. Her dresses
were fashionable, dainty and immaculate, her curls always becomingly
arranged. Altogether she was such a child as one delights to see, one
who brought a smile to the faces of almost all whom she met, strangers
as well as friends. As she entered the third grade school-room for the
first time, Miss Elliot, the teacher, exclaimed, “What a darling!”
Among other pupils in the room was Caroline Hillis, a timid little girl
with a solemn, little old-looking face. Her language was crude, her
manner unpolished and her dresses ill-fitting, coarse and faded. She was
the eldest of four children and long before she reached the third grade
was considered by her mother too big to be kissed and petted.
[Sidenote: Jealous of Playmate]
How Caroline watched Julia! at first with admiration only. But as the
days went by her attitude gradually changed to jealousy. Julia always
knew her lessons. Julia’s language was always correct. Julia never
slammed doors or walked noisily, and oh, most enviable privilege of all,
Julia often stood near Miss Elliot as she sat at her desk and put her
arm around the teacher’s neck. At such times Miss Elliot smiled at Julia
in an intimate way. How much Caroline would give to be able to stand
there thus and show her love for Miss Elliot in the same way but she
simply could not. Little did Miss Elliot think that Caroline had planned
to do just that very thing. As Caroline lay in bed before she went to
sleep she thought, “Now, tomorrow I’ll ask Miss Elliot how to work a
problem and I’ll stand by her and put my arm around her neck, just as
Julia does and Miss Elliot will look at me just as she does at Julia.”
But alas! just as Caroline tremblingly approached Miss Elliot, thinking
to carry out her plan, the teacher arose to discover the location of a
mild disturbance in the back of the room and Caroline in confusion told
her errand and went back to her seat where she shyly brushed aside a few
stray tears. With heroic courage she decided to try it again and this
time she found Miss Elliot seated, but before Caroline reached her she
said hurriedly, “What is it, Caroline?” with no smile and in such a
matter-of-fact voice that Caroline stammered her question before she
really reached Miss Elliot’s side. It was of no use. She didn’t believe
Miss Elliot liked her as well as she did Julia. Whereas Miss Elliot
soliloquized, “What an awkward, timid, unlovable child Caroline is
today, she seemed afraid of me. I know the rest of the children like me.
I can’t pet her in order to win her confidence. I’ve got to treat them
all alike.” Because Caroline regarded her teacher with such sad eyes,
the idea grew in Miss Elliot’s mind that Caroline disliked her.
In Caroline’s mind the thought persisted that Julia was favored by
everybody. She began to think of Julia’s faults. As she sought them
earnestly she found them: Julia always talked too much, she liked too
well to speak of her brother Eugene who was in college, she talked of
Miss Elliot as if she owned her.
One day a little girl spoke of her doll, another of a doll’s party and
soon Julia said, “Oh, girls, let’s all bring a doll tomorrow and have a
dolls’ party at recess! Wouldn’t that be fun?” All agreed but Caroline,
who was on the edge of the group. Her downcast face was unnoticed. The
truth is that Caroline’s only doll was badly soiled and somewhat
dismembered.
Julia easily gained the encouragement of Miss Elliot in her plan for the
next day. Some of the girls went early with their dolls. Julia’s was a
cunning little character doll. Caroline brought none. She imagined that
she could hear Miss Elliot say, “How cunning!” as she looked at Julia’s
doll, and then Julia and the teacher would exchange that intimate smile;
Caroline would be the only one who had no doll. She never could have
Miss Elliot’s approval.
While Caroline was feeling rather than thinking all this Julia said,
“Let’s lay all our dolls on Miss Elliot’s desk and then when she comes
have her guess which one belongs to which girl.”
“That will be fun,” said the others, so it was quickly done. Caroline
stood at a little distance feeling left out of the fun.
“Let’s go and meet Miss Elliot,” said Julia, “and tell her about it.
Soon all the girls but Caroline were out of the room and starting down
the street.
Caroline presently said to herself, “I’ll hide her doll and then I guess
Miss Elliot can’t brag about it.”
She cast her eyes about the room for a hiding place. There stood the
piano! Mrs. Fitzhugh had said yesterday that she kept her ring in the
piano. Hastily grabbing up Julia’s doll Caroline stood upon the piano
bench and lifting the lid of the upright piano, laid the doll inside
upon the hammers, closed the lid and jumped down to the floor just in
time to gain a place by the window before the girls and Miss Elliot came
in.
They led Miss Elliot to her desk, having already told her what they
wanted her to do. Almost immediately they noticed that Julia’s doll was
gone. Caroline, now remorseful and silent, was questioned. She said she
knew nothing about it. The girls sought everywhere for the doll until
school time, Caroline helping them look into desks and on closet
shelves.
Caroline, growing more and more remorseful as one girl after another
pitied Julia, resolved to return to the room at noon time, when
everybody was out of the room, and put the doll on Julia’s desk.
Imagine Caroline’s dismay when the piano was found out of order by Miss
Elliot as soon as she started to play the opening song.
Miss Elliot opened the piano lid and gave a little start. There was the
lost doll! Julia rushed for it and cuddled it. Molly said aloud, “How
did it get there?” Caroline hung her head and Miss Elliot looked very
grave.
“Caroline, come here,” she said. “Why did you put Julia’s doll into the
piano?”
“I don’t know,” said Caroline, with a degree of truth.
“It is a marvel that it isn’t broken. I’ll have to whip you for that.”
Taking a strap kept for the purpose Miss Elliot explained to Caroline
that she had lied as well as concealed the doll with a probable hope of
stealing it later. She then gave the child a severe whipping. Caroline
dumbly felt that she was misjudged and yet could not explain why, even
to herself.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Miss Elliot should have satisfied herself fully as to the motive
underlying Caroline’s action before punishing her. Always delay a
punishment until you have found the real cause of the misdemeanor.
When a child shows a tendency to withdraw from group activities take
special pains to draw him into the play circle. Take the timid child by
the hand rather than the one who rushes to you. Say to the child who
shrinks back into her corner, “We need one more little girl here.” Hold
out your hand toward her as you speak. The gesture will reinforce the
words, and be to the child a suggestion of welcome into the group.
COMMENTS
There is no more faulty method of discipline than that of severely
punishing a child for some outbreak against moral or school law before a
hearing has been given him; not merely giving a chance to confess his
wrong, but going to the bottom of the matter and finding, if possible,
the underlying motive or instinct which led up to the outbreak. Skillful
questioning ought to bring this out.
Very often the slow and timid child is longing for your friendship but
does not know how to show his desire. Whether or not he is conscious of
needing your aid, he, nevertheless, does need it.
ILLUSTRATION (SIXTH GRADE)
June Dacey was a frail city girl whose health was such that her parents
feared to send her to the public schools in New York. One September
morning June’s father said to her: “June, how would you like to spend a
year in the country and attend school with your cousins?”
June thought it would be, “Just fine!” and Mr. Dacey was not long in
arranging with his brother in Massachusetts to receive June into his
home and to see her well started in the country school.
All went well until June’s cousin Carrie Dacey began to show signs of
jealousy toward June. The two girls were just of an age, but Carrie was
an unusually vigorous, strong, healthy girl with double the amount of
endurance possessed by June. As a consequence the two girls received
very different treatment by their elders and even in a half unconscious
way by the other children who were, indeed, somewhat overawed by June’s
pretty clothes and refined manners.
“O, yes! of course June can have everything and I can’t have anything,”
said Carrie one day in a fit of petulance. “She has all the nice clothes
and I have to wear this old thing. She can ride to the picnic while I
have to walk. The teacher is always doing things for her and nobody ever
does anything for me. At home it’s just the same way, June gets all the
attention.”
Miss Scott, the teacher, happened to overhear the remark, although it
was not intended for her, and was thereby made conscious of the ill-will
that was springing up between the two girls. She had had no desire to
show partiality in any way toward June but only to protect the frail
girl from too fatiguing sport. Now she said to herself, “This won’t do!
We shall have a tragedy here soon! I must think out some plan to
overcome this feeling between the two cousins.”
It so happened that the children had for their reading lesson “The Story
of the Twins.” The story was full of activity and fun and mischief and
the children liked it. Miss Scott had promised the class that when they
could read it very well they might dramatize it some day.
“You two girls who are just of an age must be our twins,” said Miss
Scott, “the other children may take the other parts. Mary and Jane, come
help me make this crepe paper into costumes for ‘the twins.’ They must
dress just alike.”
The children caught the idea, and, just as Miss Scott intended they
should do, immediately nicknamed the two girls “The Twins.” Miss Scott
strengthened the tendency still further by saying occasionally, in a
playful way, “Will the twins pass the paint boxes for us?” “Will the
twins collect the pencils?”
Carrie was soon quite cured of her jealous complainings. Through
suggestion, the feeling of coöperation and comradeship had been
substituted for the selfish emotion of jealousy, and in thus being
linked together in school duties and sports, in a way, too, that
emphasized the relation of equality, the two children soon became firm
friends.
CASE 130 (EIGHTH GRADE)
Wendell Smith was a son of Dr. Smith, one of the most influential men in
the village. He was handsome, well-dressed, well-mannered and very
intelligent. He had delightful books, mechanical and constructive toys,
a bicycle, a watch, and now a few days after he entered the fourth grade
his father gave him a pony and carriage for a birthday present.
[Sidenote: Jealous of “Rich Boy”]
Mark Hazard was in the same grade at school. Their teacher was Miss
Hosiner. Mark was a wide-awake boy who was often in mischief. He was
coarse in his speech and manners. He criticized adversely every one of
Wendell’s possessions and was always glad when for any reason Wendell
failed to recite well. When the boys played, Mark would say: “Don’t ask
Wendell to come, he might get his clothes dirty.” When Wendell missed
the word “giraffe” Mark whispered sibilantly, “He can spell ‘pony’;
that’s all the animal he knows.”
Miss Hosiner knew that Mark disliked Wendell and felt sure that jealousy
was at the bottom of his sneers and coarse remarks, but she didn’t know
how to bring about a change.
There was a pool of muddy water near the back door after every rain.
This was spanned by a plank over which the children walked to the
playground.
One day Mark and Wendell were both on the plank when Mark deftly tripped
Wendell, who fell splash into the muddy water. Had Mark used common
courtesy Wendell would doubtless have laughed at his own plight, but
when he looked up to see Mark’s sneer as he said sarcastically, “Now
you’re some dolled up ain’t you?” he said, “Mark Hazard, you’ve got to
smart for this.”
Miss Hosiner had seen it all from the window and understood the
situation perfectly. She went to the door and said, “Wendell, you may go
home and change your clothes; Mark, you may go in and take your seat and
you may have all of your intermissions alone for a week. As soon as you
come in the morning, and at noon, you may take your seat at once. I will
allow you a separate time for your recess from that of pupils who know
how to behave toward each other. Since you can’t act decently toward
other boys, you may play by yourself.”
As the group separated Mark shook his fist at Miss Hosiner’s retreating
back and openly made an ugly face at Wendell.
Not only during the week of his punishment but throughout the year he
showed insolence toward Miss Hosiner and distinct dislike for Wendell.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Go privately to the boy of whom one or more of the pupils are jealous
and tell him how to treat the jealous ones. In the above instance say to
Wendell as soon as you first observe that Mark is jealous of him, “I
have observed that Mark is not friendly with you. I know you would be
much happier to have his friendship. He is not sure that you want to be
friends and since you have more to give him by becoming friends than he
can give you I can’t blame him much for wanting you to make the start.
“If one man had $1,000 to put into business and another $10,000, you
couldn’t expect the man with the $1,000 to have audacity enough to ask
the $10,000 man to go into partnership with him, but how glad he’d be if
the richer man should invite him to become a partner in his business.
“Now, that’s just the way it is with you and Mark. You’ll have to make
him see that you really want to be friends before he can believe that it
is so. I heard one of the boys say that you are going to give them all a
ride in turn in your new pony carriage. If I were you I would ask Mark
to be the first one. I’d ask him first to share all of my good things,
because he suffers most for the things that you have. That’s what makes
him feel out of sorts because he can’t have them.
“It takes more skill to be a gracious receiver than to be a gracious
giver, so don’t feel offended if Mark doesn’t know how to act at first.
Keep on trying to show him that you like him until you succeed.”
COMMENTS
The question of inequality so pitifully and constantly understood by
many sensitive children is often the cause of jealousy that grows until
it becomes a menace to peace in a school. This feeling should be checked
as soon as it appears. Punishing the one who is jealous only makes him
entertain a feeling of resentment toward both the teacher and the one
who is envied by him. The right interchange of feeling can be secured
only by assisting the more favored pupil to show genuine friendship for
the one who is jealous.
ILLUSTRATION (FOURTH GRADE)
Emeline Carlisle was a little girl who talked about the maid, the cook
and the nurse at their house, of the company they had, the vacations
they spent and the clerks in “father’s store.”
Jessie Dodge was a child of a poor but refined widow who, with extreme
difficulty, was able to provide sufficient clothing and food for her.
[Sidenote: Jealous of “Rich Girl”]
Miss Dunlap, the teacher in the fourth grade, saw that Jessie was
destined to become jealous of Emeline. So she pointed out to Emeline
from time to time the superior gifts and traits of Jessie. She would
say:
“Jessie Dodge is such a refined girl. She knows how to reply whenever
she is spoken to. I think the girls who are her special friends are
fortunate.”
She appointed these two girls to do tasks together, saying, “Jessie and
Emeline may work together on the fifth problem, Emeline writes well and
Jesse thinks well. They will make good companions for this work.”
By such handling of the situation, Emeline and Jessie became good
friends.
CASE 131 (HIGH SCHOOL)
A western college gave a high school tournament every spring.
Surrounding high schools were invited to assemble with their competing
candidates for athletic contests in the afternoon, followed by reading
and oratorical contests that night. Prizes were given to the winners
either by the college or individuals in the college town.
[Sidenote: Jealousy Between Schools]
This tournament was one of the big events of the year for the high
schools. They trained for it from September till May. The victors were
lionized in the typically enthusiastic high school manner, while the
citizens of the towns in which the schools were located talked of the
event for weeks and knew and honored not only the schools but the
individuals who had won the prizes.
For two years Eastman pupils had won in athletics, and now (1915) they
were reputed to have an excellent reader who was going up to the
oratorical contest. The slogan in more than one school had been “Beat
Eastman.”
The meet occurred on Friday. On Thursday evening Principal MacKenzie of
Dwight said to his contestants, “I believe we’ll win tomorrow. I believe
we have the kind of muscles and brains that will ‘Beat Eastman.’”
“Hurra-a-a!” sang out the boys—all but one, John Nealy.
An inscrutable look had come into his eyes when Mr. MacKenzie uttered
the words, “Beat Eastman,” and he had been too intently following up
some idea to join in the shout.
On the way to the college town the next morning he said to his
colleagues, “Boys, I’ve thought of a way to beat Eastman.”
“How?” they said, eagerly.
“We’ll take the boys to a ‘feed’ at noon. We’ll order everything eatable
for their runner and jumper and we’ll get them so filled up that they
can’t make good.”
“But will they go with us?”
“Sure, they’ll go. Their runner, Fernald, is a good friend of mine.”
“We won’t dare overeat.”
“Can’t we just pretend we’re eating everything?”
The details were arranged.
Now, Harmon Walsh, one of the Dwight boys, had a fine, upright character
and he could not be party to this foolish scheme of John’s. He finally
decided to tell Mr. MacKenzie about it.
The latter, astonished, took the Dwight boys under his special care,
forbade their inviting anybody to lunch with them, and never left them
until they were on the athletic field.
That year Eastman came out second and Dwight third.
When they returned to Dwight, Mr. MacKenzie called John into his office
and inquired why he had proposed his “lunch scheme” on the way to the
meet.
“I’m sick and tired of hearing Eastman’s praises,” said John. “I’d do
anything to beat them.”
Thereupon Prof. MacKenzie talked so harshly to John on the subject of
jealousy that he quit school, as he had begged to do before. So he
missed getting his high school education because his teacher was not
able to cultivate in him a spirit of competition without jealousy and
unfortunately was unable to handle properly a case of jealousy when it
appeared.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
In dealing with inter-high school competitive programs talk much about
the good qualities of your school’s opponents. Secure personal favorable
items of interest concerning opposing debaters and ball team members.
After a game or debate, talk of the good qualities or traits of
character exhibited by the opponents. Talk on such themes as, “I’d
rather be right than be president.”
COMMENTS
The dividing line between legitimate ambition to win for one’s school
and jealousy of a winning opponent is hard to fix ofttimes. High school
students should be drilled against personal antagonism and mean
advantage by the principal, who should always laud the clean, fair, open
game.
ILLUSTRATION 1 (HIGH SCHOOL)
The big, final basket ball game between Danvers and Winfield high
schools would determine which was the best team in the state. Prof.
Beatty of Danvers wrote to Prof. Ryland of Winfield and said, among
other things:
[Sidenote: Appreciating Opponents]
“Kindly write me a few words about each boy on your team to read to our
boys. Are they country or town boys? What is the favorite study of each?
What does each expect to do when he gets out of high school? What do you
consider the finest trait of each?
When the answer to this letter came, the Danvers boys read it eagerly
and later met the Winfield boys as friends. Not a hint of jealousy was
shown by Danvers when Winfield won.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (HIGH SCHOOL)
Occasionally, a student overworks in the effort to secure the highest
place in the teacher’s appreciation. In a certain high school the
history teacher had two boys in her class in modern history who were
rivals for first place.
[Sidenote: Jealous of Scholarship]
One belonged to a wealthy family and had every help and encouragement;
the other was away from home and working his way through school. It was
the latter boy who worried his teacher. He was up early in the morning
and late at night attending to furnaces in winter, gardening and
cleaning in the spring; and after these exertions he read carefully all
the references given, lest Charles Schofield should do better work than
he. Of course this soon told on his health, but he kept doggedly at his
heavy tasks. When he grew so listless that he had to rouse himself with
a visible effort to recite, Miss Van Leer kept him one day after class
for a talk.
“You mustn’t think of trying to keep up with Charles Schofield,” she
said firmly. “Why, he has nothing to do but eat and sleep and take a
little exercise and study.”
“I know that. But you said last term that he did the best work in the
class, and I resolved that he shouldn’t do the best this term, just
because he has a big library at home and all the time in the world. You
know I want to show you what I can do, Miss Van Leer.”
“I want you now, Ben, to show me how much common sense you have. You are
simply allowing a foolish pride to run away with your good judgment.
Promise me you’ll merely read through the text assignment for a
fortnight.”
“And hear him rattle off reams from Adams and all the rest of them? Not
I! You would think me a piker, for all you say.”
“Will you do it for me—as a personal favor?” Miss Van Leer was forced
finally to put her wish on a personal basis. This succeeded where all
appeal to self-interest had failed.
(3) _Cliques and snobbishness._ One phase of this subject, that of the
ringleader, will be treated under the heading “Regulative Instincts.” At
the present time the gregarious aspect, or the tendency of young people
to join together in little bands, will be noticed chiefly. Such a
tendency is, of course, only indirectly harmful. It is both social and
anti-social—social because of the impulse toward companionship,
anti-social because of the selfishness that excludes from the social
group all except a few chosen favorites.
CASE 132 (SIXTH GRADE)
In the town of Fairfield Center, there was a little group of girls, four
in number, who considered themselves superior to the other girls in
school. Miss Baldwin was repeatedly annoyed by their aloofness, but the
other children in her room felt it most.
[Sidenote: Aping the High School]
At recess time, when a game of “I spy” was suggested, this little clique
would withdraw from the crowd and walk, instead. This habit became so
influential that many of the other girls stopped playing at recess.
Unwholesome gossip was the result. It remained for Miss Sayre, who took
charge of the room the next year, to break down the barriers. She, too,
failed, but for another reason.
Miss Sayre called these four girls to her one day after school, when
they were in a hurry to go home, and gave them some good advice.
“You girls seem to run off by yourselves and not to play with the
others. I want to know why.”
“O, we don’t like their games. They always play such silly games. The
girls in high school don’t do things like that.”
“But you aren’t high school girls—you are just little girls of the sixth
grade. Drop that nonsense. I want you to break up this cliquing and
moping around and act like girls. Now, do you understand?”
“Yes,” in a chorus. But nothing came of it.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Instead of a direct attack, draw these girls into activities that
require them to act in close coöperation with other girls. Try committee
work.
“Gladys is sick with pneumonia. She can’t come to school for two weeks
yet. I want to appoint a committee of two to call on her and take her
some flowers. I’m going to appoint Eva and Annette for this work.”
Be sure to make combinations that promise enough congeniality to provide
at least a temporary friendship. Repeat the process very frequently, yet
avoid disclosing a purpose to disrupt the friendship of chums, for that
will excite antagonism and so spoil the whole plan.
Children are very jealous of their friendship, and delicate handling is
needed in order that no real injustice may be done them. Close
friendship is usually of great value and the growth of attachments
between children of the same sex is to be fostered.
The danger is in settling into grooves of thought that cramp the mind
and improverish it for lack of wide association. It is very clear that
the more human beings a person knows, the broader will be his
personality and the richer his information. Hence, teachers are
everywhere duty bound to democratize the life of their charges.
ILLUSTRATION (FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADES)
Misses Phelps and Bender took a wise course in curing the fifth and
sixth graders under their charge, of snobbishness. They combined forces
and went into flower gardening on a small scale. A plot of ground was
procured and the children grouped by pairs according to an inflexible
rule adopted at the very start. There were several motives behind this
project, but we need consider only this one point.
[Sidenote: Gardening in Pairs]
To insure a genuinely democratic spirit, two pairs were assigned each
day for work in the flower garden. Boys were paired with boys and girls
with girls; there were usually four children at the garden, each day,
rain or shine, if not to work, at least to note conditions and report to
their teachers.
Some of the girls resented slightly the comrades selected for them, but
no real insult was perpetrated by the assignments made.
The teachers took turns in sharing the responsibility for management,
except when wishing advice on cutting and giving flowers, then all the
pupils went to Miss Phelps.
Fifty pupils took part in the venture. It solved several social school
problems and created a fine spirit of fraternalism among children of
varied social standings.
When young people reach the high school age, the period in which all the
changes of adolescence are most actively going on, they sometimes
develop a tendency to form clubs and secret societies which is often
disastrous to school discipline. When the clique evil is fully
developed, snobbishness and false standards run rife.
There must be democracy in the school if the best results are to be
obtained, and the clique spirit may work great havoc, especially in a
small high school where a well-defined group or clique is necessarily
very conspicuous.
CASE 133 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Sororities]
A high school of about 150 pupils in a prosperous little western town
became afflicted with the clique disease. Margaret Hancock, the daughter
of one of the town’s most prominent citizens and rather a spoiled child
at home, returned from a winter spent in a southern city, where she had
gone to a large high school and had been admitted to one of the numerous
sororities there. She came back thoroughly imbued with the ideals of the
southern high school, which was in the wealthy, aristocratic part of the
city and attended by girls who expected to become debutantes in a few
years and make “society” their career. This southern high school was a
large one and the clique spirit was not so harmful because there were
several such groups to offset each other and the pupils were, on the
whole, of the same social class.
Back in her home town again, Margaret succeeded in organizing a sorority
before the first month of the school year had passed. She included in
her secret society the girls whom she thought the “nicest” in the
school. These girls were the ones who most nearly approached the
prospective belles of the southern high school in type—the girls with
the most money and the prettiest clothes, the ones whose parents were
frequent visitors in Margaret’s home. This clique or sorority included
about twenty pupils in its membership and, needless to say, in a school
of that size was quite out of place.
It was not long before the boys followed the example set by the girls
and formed a secret club of limited membership, and then how the two
organizations did lord it over the rest of the school!
Boys who had come in from the country and worked for their board in
order to get a high school education were looked down upon and made to
feel ashamed of their rural origin and their manner of life. Girls whose
clothes were not so fine or so numerous as those of Margaret’s friends
were hurt to the quick by the sneers of their classmates and by being
left out when invitations to little dances and home parties were being
given out.
The two clubs soon managed things so that all the class officers were
from among their members and all school functions were under their
management. The school became not a democracy, but an aristocracy of the
narrowest variety.
There were so many club functions and good times that school work
suffered and these affairs had to be talked over so extensively, by
those who had and had not been present alike, that there was more
trouble than ever before about whispering and note-writing.
Several of the pupils who had been neglected and left entirely out of
the social whirl lost interest in school altogether and dropped out.
It was thus that the clique spirit upset the morale of the whole school
and lowered the quality of the work many degrees.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
The wise teacher will emphasize the school spirit, or even class spirit,
in dealing with situations involving the clique evil. Try to make the
snobbish ones forget their exclusiveness in their interest in athletics
or other contests in which the _best_ man or team wins and in which the
_whole_ school is the party to gain or lose by the outcome.
As a last resort, the parents of the ringleaders in the cliques should
be appealed to, to make their offspring see the folly and the falseness
of the standards they are setting up, for snobbish children have
generally been more or less encouraged in their snobbish tendencies at
home.
COMMENTS
Children of all grades do their best work when they have interest and
enthusiasm for the work and the school. School spirit can be carried to
extremes, but in moderation it should be encouraged. The clique evil
needs careful, tactful treatment, for the suppression of school
societies sometimes leads to the formation of secret organizations
imbued with all the mystery and solemnity of the adults’ lodge, which
are much harder to eradicate than the open, above-board kind, and seem
to be many times more attractive to the adolescent mind.
Adolescence is the sensitive age, the age when small slights cut deepest
and pride is most easily wounded, as well as the period when secrets and
mystery are most alluring. It is positively cruel for the young people
of a school to make their classmates suffer as they have the power to
do, by organizing good times and meetings from which the majority of the
school are excluded.
The clique evil is much more likely to develop into serious proportions
in a small school of a few hundred than in a large one of a thousand or
more.
Children, as well as adults, choose for friends persons of the same or
similar tastes, but in a small school the grouping of these kindred
spirits into an exclusive organization is particularly bad, because
there are usually not enough other pupils with the spirit and initiative
to form rival organizations; there is usually one clique only, which
excludes the majority of the school from its ranks, instead of several
which offset each other.
ILLUSTRATION
The clique spirit is met with in many other places besides the
school-room.
[Sidenote: Stocking Factory]
The manager of a stocking factory found one group of girls among his
operatives making the days and nights miserable for the others in his
employ. They made loud and unpleasant remarks about other girls in the
dressing-room, were rude at all times to those not of their group, and,
by intimidation, forced the foreman to give them the advantage when
there was one to be given.
Things finally came to such a pass that no girl whom the clique disliked
could be induced to work in the factory, so unpleasant did the clique
make it for her.
The manager studied the situation long and earnestly when he realized
how serious it was, and finally hit upon the scheme of providing a
gymnasium for his women operatives. He hired a trained social worker,
who was also a gymnasium teacher. She developed team work and the spirit
of good sportsmanship in the course of a year’s work in gymnastic
classes and athletics, but it was largely the influence of her own
personality and the soundness of her teaching and example that worked
the change.
The clique spirit vanished as the result of her efforts. The manager of
the factory had realized the loss he was suffering in the lessened
efficiency of his workers; this loss was remedied only after the company
had expended much money.
CASE 134 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: School Clubs]
Miss Reynolds, teacher of the senior year high school, had long foreseen
the trend of the social impulse in the Lewiston School. Such notices on
the blackboard of the assembly room as “Meeting of the Adelphian Society
this afternoon,” and “L. A. C. business meeting tonight,” stood as
evidence that the club idea was growing into prominence.
When the subject was brought up at faculty meeting, Miss Reynolds voiced
her opinion as follows:
“This club idea is only a natural one with children. They get their
incentives from the social organization at home. Mother belongs to the
Mothers’ club or literary society; Father belongs to the Manufacturers’
Association or Industrial League. It seems to me the only solution is to
provide as many opportunities as possible for outlets for this social
instinct. It is our place to encourage the formation of societies along
literary, social and athletic lines.”
Heated discussion followed. A vote was taken on the motion: “We will
encourage the formation of literary, social and athletic clubs,” with
the result that it was carried.
But it was soon markedly noticeable that the clubs drew finer social
distinctions until the whole atmosphere of the school was undermined by
a spirit of snobbishness, ill-feelings and entire lack of coöperation
between pupil and teacher.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Allow no organizations to be formed without the approval of the faculty.
When officially recognized, see that the society elects an advisory
board which shall consist of two teachers, two or more pupils, who shall
be the officers of the society, and the principal of the school, who
shall act as honorary member. This board is to act as a “court of
appeal” in the decision of questions which concern the activities of the
organization. It is in no sense to be a dictatorial power.
COMMENTS
Miss Reynolds had the right idea when she encouraged the formation of
school organizations, but she failed to realize that the activities of
such societies should be tactfully supervised by teacher and principal,
under the direction of leaders who have the interests of the society at
heart and who will lend their good judgment to its best development;
such an organization may be depended upon as a standard of conduct on
all questions which affect the name of the school. Unguided
organizations are the source of many of the evil tendencies in school
life.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Athletic Associations]
When Mr. McDaniels, the physical director of the Edgeville High School,
advised the boys that their games would be better organized and they
would be more certain of help from the faculty if they formed an
athletic association, they decided immediately to organize. Accordingly,
a meeting was called for the afternoon, of all the boys who were
interested in athletics. As might be imagined, there were very few
absent. Mr. McDaniels offered to help them conduct the meeting. After
the boys had elected president, vicepresident, secretary and treasurer,
inasmuch as Mr. Chadwick (the principal) was much interested in the
formation of athletic organizations, Mr. McDaniels proposed that he be
chosen as honorary member of the association. The boys rose to the
occasion and elected Mr. Chadwick to this position.
“Now it has been my experience that questions come up for decision which
call for mature judgment. I suggest that you elect an advisory board to
be made up of your officers, two members of the faculty and Mr.
Chadwick.”
Knowing that Mr. McDaniels had their interests in mind, the boys
immediately responded to his suggestion.
The result was that a coöperative body of pupils and teachers was
organized to the great advantage of all interests concerned.
3. Altruism
A man may be thoroughly acquainted with the highest moral laws and yet
have a very weak character.—Hughes.
If the above statement is true, and we believe it to be so, then the
futility of trying to make people good merely by teaching them
principles of goodness, is immediately apparent. Some more effective
means of training must be found and those means undoubtedly should be
experience and habit. Especially is this true of little children. To
them principles and laws are mere words; experience is everything. With
adults the precept is more effective, not because they are so different
from children, but because they already have had experiences by means of
which they are able to interpret and apply the principle, or proverb, or
law. Principles, proverbs, laws, are only deductions from experiences.
If real morality is the outgrowth of experience, it follows of
necessity, that the best and surest and indeed the only way to teach
anything more than the outward form, is to give to pupils opportunities
for performing moral acts. There must be self-guidance, there must be a
yielding of one’s own desires to the rights of others, there must be
coöperation, teamwork.
The kindergarten, better than any other branch of our school system, has
realized the necessity for this type of social training. There the aim
is to have children learn, through give-and-take relations with
associates, what sort of conduct will best promote the happiness of all.
Instead of exhortations about the obligations of children to parents,
the little ones dramatize those relations, thus gaining just those
experiences which enable them to comprehend the obligations. So with the
industries, the wild animals, the busy bees, the birds, even the flowers
and trees. One by one, the life of each is “tried on,” so to speak, in
play, and inner relations of man to man and of man to his environment
are thus discovered.
It goes without saying that these inner relations, upon an understanding
of which all true morality is based, cannot be discovered all at once.
Years of “trying on” of racial experiences and relations are necessary,
and even then the comprehension of obligation will be just as narrow as
experience has been. Meanwhile the inexperience of the child must be
supplemented by the larger knowledge of the adult. The right outward
form of action must be stimulated by approval, expectation, suggestion,
substitution of better forms for the child’s crude, impulsive act, and
coöperation on the teacher’s part in such activities as will lead toward
higher forms of altruistic action than the child is able yet to fully
comprehend. The teacher must never lose sight of the fact that moral
insight depends upon a process of growth; nor must he be discouraged if
the moral horizon of his pupils is extremely limited. It is as wide as
experience has been. The remedy for narrowness is to supply the
experience that will furnish the wider outlook.
[Sidenote: Appealing to Reason]
(1) _Infancy and early childhood._ Many parents and teachers make the
sad mistake of beginning the rational training of their children before
the period of rational thought has arrived. An amusing example of common
sense and the lack of it occurred one day in a family which consisted of
a mother, who had imbibed some ill-digested, sentimental ideas of
rational training, her eight-year-old son, and her three-year-old
daughter.
CASE 135
The child was playing with a cat upon the rug, and finding great delight
in its piteous meows when she pulled its tail. The mother remonstrated
at each outcry in about this fashion:
“Margy, _dear_, don’t pull poor kitty’s tail like that! Don’t you know
it hurts poor kitty? How would you like to have mamma pull your hair? I
wouldn’t do it now. Try to make kitty happy.”
“Why don’t you pull her hair, and show her what it’s like?” inquired
Donald, who was reading in the window-seat.
“I want her to learn to think such things out for herself,” the mother
replied with a wise air. “I want her to put herself in kitty’s place.”
“Huh—she’ll never do it unless you make her. Let me show her, will you?”
“No, indeed, Donald. I’m afraid your method wouldn’t be very gentle.”
“Well, I bet the cat doesn’t think she’s very gentle, either,” and
Donald went back to his story.
“Margy must learn to do her own thinking, of course. I remember when you
were a baby, Donald—Margy, child! Mercy, what a howl. Pussy! Margy,
can’t you see you hurt poor pussy? Hurt it, dear—just hear it cry! Makes
it feel all badly, as Margy does when she’s ill. Just hear poor kitty
cry!”
Margy was “hearing poor kitty cry” with new delight at each piteous
meow, which she took to be dear kitty’s means of entertaining her—having
never been taught to associate the sound with pain of any kind. Just
then the door bell rang, and the mother had to leave.
“Donald, dear, you look after Margy while I’m gone,” she said, as she
closed the door.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Before allowing a three-year-old child to handle a cat at all, give
explicit lessons on how to handle it properly. Teach the child the
meaning of the words “Don’t hurt” by inhibiting the movement of her
hands _before_ she has done the mischief. (See lesson on “Don’t Touch”
in “Easy Lessons for Teaching Obedience in the Home,” Book I, p.
46—Beery.)
Give an imitative lesson. Holding the cat yourself, gently stroke its
fur, showing Margy the proper way of handling the cat. Then take Margy’s
hand and gently pass it over the fur in the same way.
See to it that the child does not have the cat at all except when some
older person is there to control her action, until such time as she has
learned the meaning of the command, “Don’t hurt,” and will obey it. In
other words, do not allow the wrong habit to become established before
the right way is comprehended.
COMMENTS
Margy’s mother was assuming an understanding in matters concerning which
there had been no adequate experience on Margy’s part. Protected
continually from pain herself, how could she understand the meaning of
the word! To her the cat was just another musical instrument. Best of
all, it was one upon which she could play. Donald’s method, though not
recommended here for general acceptance, was at least effective.
ILLUSTRATION I
[Sidenote: Donald Takes a Hand]
Donald was an obedient child, and closed his book promptly. He also,
with some satisfaction in the duty assigned him, sat himself down on the
rug near his baby sister, and his attitude of watchful waiting might
have struck an observer as purposeful and determined.
Margy held pussy firmly by the loose fur at the back of the neck. She
stroked her until she was fairly quiet again, then quickly gave the long
tail another hard pull.
Quick as thought, Donald reached over and pulled his sister’s hair
vigorously. She howled lustily, and the cat ran away. Donald let her cry
for a little while, then gave her back the recaptured cat and sat again
near her. Before long the pulling occurred again, and again Donald
pulled as lustily at Margy’s curls.
“Do you see what it’s like? Do you like to have your hair pulled? Are
you going to quit it?” he inquired. Margy adored Donald, and it did not
occur to her to resent his means of enforcing his lesson.
“Want the cat back? You can have her if you won’t pull her tail. Will
you let her tail alone?” he asked again. Margy said she would, and
Donald again captured the cat and put it into her arms. This time Margy
did not pull its tail. She stroked it, still holding it tightly by the
fur; but she had learned that pulling a cat’s tail had sad consequences
when Donald was near. She never repeated the act when her brother was
within reach, although she did it when alone or with her mother.
Pulling hair is not a good form of punishment, but Donald’s method was
based on sound principles, of which of course he was utterly
unconscious. A baby should not be asked to make judgments, but he should
be taught that pleasant consequences follow some acts and painful ones
follow others. This is nature’s method of teaching human beings, and no
one can improve on it as a method of last resort for the young human
animal.
ILLUSTRATION 2
“Look what I’ve found,” Harry Jennings cried to his friend, Captain
Stanhope. The captain was sitting on a park bench reading his morning
paper, and Harry had been running races with Gyp up and down the gravel
walk. He came up to the bench, now, with a handful of souvenir post
cards in his hands.
[Sidenote: Applying “Golden Rule”]
“Some one has been addressing them here in the park, and then went off
and left them on the bench,” he continued. “See, they’re addressed to
people all over the country, and not a stamp on one of them!”
“I have seven cents in change,” said the captain, pulling out his worn
little purse. “That will send seven of them, but there are a dozen.”
Harry brought out a dime from his trousers pocket, and looked at it
thoughtfully. It would just pay his admission to the community ball game
that afternoon, and if he used half of it to send off a stranger’s
postcards, he must stay at home, for this was the last of his week’s
allowance. Still, there was the captain, the knight of a dozen
campaigns, looking at him. Harry knew that he allowed himself but one
cigar a week, for his pension was subject to heavy drains; and yet he
contributed his seven cents without hesitation. Surely, to share the
doing of a good turn with the captain would be worth staying home from
the ball game.
“Here’s a dime, and I’ll send the rest,” he told the captain. “Shall I
take them to the postoffice?”
The captain used the most subtly effective of all appeals to a child to
do right—he assumed a willingness to be generous on Harry’s part, and
offered him a comrade’s share in the deed. Not for worlds would Harry
have appeared stingy and selfish and little, before the captain. And
having set for himself a certain standard of generosity, it will not be
hard for Harry to be generous when his next opportunity comes, even if
there be no Captain Stanhope near to stimulate him.
CASE 136 (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Faithful Work]
“Here, you little rascal, finish up in that corner!” called out old John
Smith, the janitor, to Oldham, who was helping him sweep the basement.
Old John had rheumatism, and the school board allowed him to employ a
boy at twenty-five cents a night, to help him with the sweeping. Oldham
had secured the job, and hoped to earn a new suit before spring.
“I am finishing up in this corner,” he answered, indignantly. “I’m not
done yet, but I’m getting it clean.”
“See that you do, then,” and old John turned painfully to his own work.
His eyes were growing dim, and because he could not see he thought he
might insure thorough work by severity. Soon Oldham came to him for more
directions.
“Go into the furnace-room and sweep up in there,” old John told him.
Oldham saw that the furnace-room was very dark, indeed. “He’ll never
know whether I’ve done the corners in here or not,” he told himself. And
still smarting a little with resentment at old John’s undeserved
gruffness, he slighted his work and finished in short order.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Pursue a plan exactly the opposite of John Smith’s. First, approve the
boy’s willingness to coöperate with you. Expect the best work Oldham is
capable of doing, and show your appreciation of his assistance. Tell him
how glad you are to have the help of his young eyes and willing hands.
COMMENTS
This and the following incident show the play of social reaction upon
conduct. For the approbation of a friendly, trusting man, who showed
that he believed Oldham to be a boy of honor, Oldham cheerfully did his
task honestly and well; to old John, distrustful and discourteous,
Oldham responded with the trickery he invited. Oldham should have been
more deeply grounded in principles of honesty, of course; he should have
been indifferent to a childish, ill, old man’s acidity. But Oldham was
very human in the personality of his attitude; the world abounds in
people like him.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
As Oldham went through the outer room to put away his broom and dustpan,
Mr. Miller, the principal, entered.
[Sidenote: A Better Method]
“Hello!” he called out, cheerily. “So you’re the boy who’s helping out
in a pinch, are you? I know John Smith appreciates that, and so do I.
This floor looks as though you might have swept it—not a speck to be
seen. Did you?”
“Yes, sir.” Oldham’s checks flushed with pleasure.
“Good, sincere work. Every corner clean. Well, I must go on up. I came
down to see how John here was getting on, but since you’re helping him I
needn’t stay longer. Aren’t you about through, yourself?”
“In a few minutes, Mr. Miller,” Oldham replied. “I have to do the
furnace-room yet.” And he turned back to do a bad job over.
(2) _Adolescence._ In learning the great lesson of altruistic living it
is not strange if young persons sometimes fail to see their acts in
clear perspective. Only time and more experience can furnish that
perspective. The following incident illustrates an exaggerated ideal of
altruistic service on the part of a high school boy who sacrificed his
scholarship for athletics.
CASE 137 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Overdoing Altruism]
Oscar Colegrove was the most popular boy in the Vernon High School. His
kindness and courtesy won the girls, his unusual size and strength were
admired by the younger boys, and his manliness won the love and respect
of the older boys, but he was not studious enough to gain the approval
of his teachers. He was an especial trial to Mr. Watkins, teacher of
Caesar. He had never understood English grammar—the Latin forms meant
nothing to him. When he recited, everybody was glad when he got through.
But Oscar was a famous basketball player. Mr. Watkins had decided to
make him carry his Latin or drop out of athletics. He had revolved in
his mind the best method of making this fact known, but had come to no
definite conclusion, when fate seemed to take things in hand.
One morning Oscar was unusually stupid in Caesar. Mr. Watkins kept him
on his feet asking him question after question and growing more and more
angry with every wrong answer. He even asked him to translate the
beginning chapter about “All Gaul,” so well known to every student of
Latin. Oscar ludicrously stumbled over the easiest parts. Mr. Watkins
was the angrier because he had thought to cause Oscar to be ridiculed by
his classmates, who only seemed to suffer with the tortured boy.
Finally, in disgust, Mr. Watkins banged the textbook down on the table
and said, in angry tones, “Oscar Colegrove, you shall not play another
game of basketball until you can make a decent recitation in Latin.”
“You don’t mean that I can’t play tonight. (That night a game was to be
played at Vernon with a famous out-of-town team.)
“O, I know you want to show off tonight! You’re afraid somebody else
will get the honors due to you, if you drop out. You’re too selfish to
want to give up being a hero. This is your last game until this Latin is
learned.”
That night Oscar played on the team and the next day he was absent from
school.
When Mr. Watkins went to the recitation room to meet his class in
Caesar, he found not a student there. On his desk was an envelope
addressed to him; opening it mechanically, he found this note within,
signed by all but three of the class.
“The Caesar class will be adjourned until the most unselfish of its
members, Oscar Colegrove, is allowed to play basketball as well as to go
on with his studies.”
Mr. Watkins called a meeting of the school board that night and admitted
that he had not handled the case of the delinquent pupil wisely.
“I contemplated dropping him from the team and I wanted to show the
class that I was justified by letting them see how little he knew,” Mr.
Watkins said in self-defense.
In the private conference the next day, Oscar promised to study his
Latin more faithfully and the entire class reassembled. Oscar’s lessons
were better learned thereafter and Mr. Watkins seemed to have gained his
point, but he knew too well that he would not be able that year to
fulfill his earlier prophecies of being an ideal leader of his students.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Mr. Watkins should have delayed passing sentence until he had calmly
decided upon the best method of communicating his decision to Oscar. He
should have said to Oscar privately: “I know all of the pupils want you
to stay on the team and I do myself. I know also that you and I are
agreed that you must keep up your studies. For a week I will assign you
certain topics for review and hear you recite them here in the office or
at my home, whichever suits you better. With this extra effort and a
reasonable amount of time put on your daily lessons, you will be able to
please everyone including yourself, by both carrying your work and
playing for the school.”
COMMENTS
A really selfish boy is never a general favorite. Athletic boys are
often heroes of the entire school and are considered self-sacrificing by
all whom they represent. The question of athletics and grades should be
handled privately by the principal of the school.
ILLUSTRATION 1 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Keeping Balance]
M. Zigler said in confidence to Carl Worley, one of his athletic boys
who was “falling down” in grades. “It takes a self-sacrificing boy to
work valiantly for the good of his school. I know you will get good
mental and moral as well as physical training on the ball team, because,
of course, you play a clean game. But there is a school ruling that
forbids a boy who has fallen below grade in his studies to keep a place
on an athletic team. This rule was made for the good of the boys as you
can easily see. I am sure we agree with the people who made it. Now, we
can’t make the days longer for the team; I wish we could. The only thing
to do is to make the time we have count for the most possible.
“I propose that you and I make a daily program for your use outside of
school hours. Many college men find this a great help in getting much
done in a day. In it we will provide ample time for school studies. This
will do away with trouble for you and me as well as for the team, for if
you follow it you can make good grades and stay on the team, too.”
Together Mr. Zigler and Carl made a program which included practice with
the team as well as study periods and plenty of time for meals and
sleep. A careful following of this program showed that with the time
properly used, there was no need of cutting short either study or
recreation.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (HIGH SCHOOL)
“And I like Philip Lampey,” said Jeannette. “I don’t know him very well,
but he always has such excellent manners and he does get his lessons.
Don’t you think he’s awfully fine?”
[Sidenote: Helping a Comrade]
Miss Parsons and Jeannette White were discussing the high school seniors
in a very friendly and personal way. When Philip Lampey was mentioned
the teacher’s brow clouded.
“I’m beginning to be worried about Philip, Jeannette,” she said. “He’s
being taken up by that fast set, and he seems to like it. He’s losing
his frank way, and beginning to swagger just a little, and to be oily
instead of just courteous. I don’t think he’s very far gone. Now, he
likes you; can’t you help us out, and save Philip from going over to
that cigarette-smoking, idle crowd?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll talk it over with mother,” Jeannette promised.
“I don’t think I have very much influence, however.”
A few days later Jeannette called to Philip as they were passing to
geometry, “Oh, Philip, mother is giving me a birthday party on the 22nd
and I want you to go over the senior class with me and help me make out
the guest-list, and perhaps you have some ideas about things to do too.
Can we do it after physics this afternoon?”
“We sure can,” Philip assented, much delighted to find himself social
arbiter. “I’ll be at your desk at 4:05.”
So Philip came to Jeannette’s desk, and they began on the list.
“There’s Sam Blennerman, he’s a good fellow. You’ll want him,” he
suggested, as they came to one of his new chums.
“That stuffy little snob? I should say not!” Jeannette lifted her nose
in great scorn. “The other day I heard him making fun of Earl Stubbs
because he stayed out to go to church in Lent. I think he’s
insufferable!”
“Do you? Oh, he’s not so bad when you know him, though. Well, how about
Vernon East?”
“He smells like a tobacco shop. I never saw him without one of those
nasty little rolls of his in evidence. Father would want to know what I
was coming to.”
“Sylvia Fanslow, Mark Gorham, Francis Hingham—I suppose they all go on?”
Philip held a tentative pencil in air.
“Yes. And Emil Irwin. Leave out Leonard James, of course.”
“But why? His family’s awfully good, and he’s no end of fun. Keeps
things in a roar, you know.”
“Yes, I know. I know his kind of a roar—he thinks he’s such a man of the
world. But isn’t he the boy Mr. Burcher almost expelled for swearing on
the campus?”
“Well, yes, he is. But you wouldn’t expect him to swear at your party
you know.”
“Naturally not. But I haven’t any use for a boy who has one set of words
for girls and another for boys. That’s a double standard and mother says
double standards of any kind are bad.”
Philip was suffering a revision of his ideals at the hands of this girl.
In the evenings he spent at her house, planning the party, he came to
revise them further still as a result of the tactful suggestion of
Jeannette’s mother. When the party was over, he found his taste for the
“fast crowd” had disappeared. To keep Jeannette’s good opinion he would
have pretended to believe anything, but so pliable is youth before habit
has fixed one’s attitudes, that he had really come to believe in the
same high standards that Jeannette held.
DIVISION VIII
The aim of the teacher should be to obtain reverence for law; the law
of the game, the law of competition, the law of the school, the law of
the state, and ultimately the law of his own life development, and the
law of God.
—_Hughes._
CASES ARISING OUT OF THE REGULATIVE INSTINCTS
1. Differing Ideals Lead to Conflict in the Regulation of Conduct
By regulative instinct is meant the tendency on the part of every normal
human being to conform to custom, reason, principles, law. It includes
voluntary obedience to authority imposed upon the individual from
without, but it is more than that; it is an inward recognition that such
obedience is fitting and obligatory. It impels even further. It leads
the individual to _impose upon himself_ laws and standards of action
even in the absence of outward authority. It is thus a tacit recognition
of moral law and of religious obligation.
Not much reflection on the teacher’s part will be needed to convince him
that if the outward authority to which the child has been subjected at
home has been arbitrary, vacillating, tyrannical, or fitful, the child’s
ideals as to what is right and what is wrong will have become sadly
jumbled long before he enters school, where the teacher has the
difficult task of straightening out the tangles. Or again, if the
standards of action, which the child more or less unconsciously imposes
upon himself, happen to conflict with the teacher’s ideals of what right
conduct on the pupil’s part should be, then, also, is there likelihood
of a clash between teacher and pupil.
Too often when this occurs the teacher is satisfied to secure outward
conformity to regulation without, at the same time, attempting to change
the inward ideal. In such a case there is the anomalous condition of
apparent obedience to a rule in which the child does not believe. The
body yields to coercion but the mind rebels. Half the child obeys, the
other half inwardly disobeys.
How disintegrating to the real moral life of a child such a double-faced
procedure must be, can best be realized by the teacher if he imagines
himself placed in a similar position where he is compelled by principal
or school board to carry on a course of action which is either highly
repugnant to himself or which he believes to be absolutely wrong. Only
half-hearted responses at best will result from such coercion in the
case of either pupil or teacher. The question, then, of how to secure
the obedience of the _whole child_, not merely the physical half,
becomes one of great seriousness. Obviously it can never be accomplished
by methods which systematically arouse antagonism toward the person who
commands. The true method of control must seek to substitute a better
ideal for the crude one held by the child. Coercion may sometimes be
necessary, but the teacher should not feel that the act of obedience is
completed until the mind of the child has been swayed to _voluntary_
submission.
In the treatment of the regulative instincts which follows, the chapter
on Obedience, strictly speaking, should be included; because of the
great importance of the subject of obedience it has been given a
Division, by itself (Part I). While, however, the more abstract phases
of the subject are dealt with in that chapter the present treatment aims
to be more concrete. Furthermore, what immediately follows has reference
mainly to the lower grades, because there the child’s school habits are
formed, but the teacher who is on the alert for principles that are
fundamental will be quick to perceive that whatever laws are basal in
the control and discipline of children in primary grades, are equally so
for older pupils because they are laws that apply to all humanity.
With these preliminary remarks, we pass, then, to the consideration of
methods of regulation of conduct in the primary grades and especially in
the first.
2. Importance of the First Year in Regulation of Conduct
It is safe to say that the most important school year of the child’s
life is the first year. The good taught then may blossom into noble
manhood and womanhood. The wrong taught then may influence a young life
in such a way as to make it a burden to society later on.
Each of the higher grades has a share in molding and shaping the child,
but the foundation will be laid in his first school year. It then
becomes the duty of upper grade teachers to build wisely upon that
foundation. The first grade teacher may have done her work in the best
possible way only to have the results torn down in a very few weeks in
the second grade.
Nowhere in the child’s twelve school years is a more proficient teacher
needed. She need not be deeply versed in the sciences generally, in
mathematics, or in history, but she must have other knowledge greater
than any of the sciences. The unfolding soul of a child is God’s
greatest mystery; the science that deals with developing life is the
science that the primary teacher must know. The little minds of her
pupils are like strangers in a strange land. The teacher is the guide.
Her responsibility is of the greatest.
(1) _The first day._ Important as is the first year, the first day of
school is equally so. Not merely the first day of the first year, but
the first day of every school year. That “first day” impression that the
teacher makes, often has a far-reaching influence. Very frequently it is
a day of confusion for both pupil and teacher, neither knowing just
exactly what is to be done. There is no surer way to complexities than
to open school without detailed plans.
(2) _Detailed plans._ The simpler the plans the better, but every detail
of the daily program, lesson, assignments, seating, etc., should be
worked out carefully beforehand.
The teacher should meet the pupils with a friendly greeting and without
any hesitancy assign them to their seats, adding such other instructions
as are necessary. However, not too many instructions should be given;
better none than too many.
If parents accompany the pupils, they should be treated with consistent
courtesy and their questions answered firmly. It is always best to say
as little as possible to parents, never forgetting, however, to be
polite. As soon as school is begun, the teacher may tell a story that
will attract the children to her and leave a good impression. Following
the story, lesson assignments should be made. All assignments and
instructions should be simple and plain. If it is necessary to do some
school work, the tasks should be short and so simple as to be entirely
within the ability of the children. Take great care to leave with them
at the close of their first day the feeling of power to do what will be
required of them. In closing the session mention some delightful bit of
work, that “we will do tomorrow.”
In rural schools the first day is even more perplexing than in village
or city schools, because, in the rural school, one teacher has all the
grades. Plans for study, recitations and recesses should all be made so
that any question asked about any phase of the school work can readily
be answered. As in the city school, older pupils should be promptly
assigned to their seats; to allow them to select their own is poor
policy and almost always results in trouble later in the year. If the
teacher knows the names of the pupils, it is a good plan to have the
names on cards placed on the seats in which the teacher wishes to have
the pupils seated. The smaller pupils should also be shown to their
seats and assistance given them in getting their books into the desk in
an orderly manner. After school is called to order the work for the day
should begin at once. The teacher may give an opening talk if he thinks
that is best. However, it is advisable not to do that. At this stage of
the work it is very prudent for the teacher to avoid making set rules or
even feigning authority. Be unassuming. As in the city school, work on
the first day should be simple. The pupils have had no preparation and
cannot respond in recitations. Sometimes teachers ask the pupils to
prepare the lessons first, but they are in new surroundings and not used
to study; it is better to make assignments and explanations, then fill
the remainder of the day with “busy work,” songs and stories. But
whatever the teacher does must be so done that the pupils will feel that
he is in earnest. Try to send the children home that night with the
impression that this term’s work is going to be a very interesting and
happy one.
In the first grade, children tire easily and consequently lose interest.
Therefore, they should have frequent changes from one activity to
another. The lessons should be short, followed by “busy work,” then a
play period, or simply gymnastics. If gymnastics are used the exercises
should be varied. There is such a wide range of possible exercises that
it is easy for any teacher to have plenty of gymnastic drills or simple
games, allowing much activity, which will interest pupils for many
months. None of the exercises of the first grade should be carried so
far as to tire the pupils.
From the foregoing, it is apparent that a well devised daily schedule is
important. It must be workable. There must be no gaps in it wherein the
teacher gives the children idle moments. Material for use during the day
should always be arranged before school opens in the morning.
3. Regulating the Movements of the Pupils
One of the most necessary duties of the teacher at the beginning of the
year is to train the children to habits of regulated and quiet movements
when passing in and out of the school-room, going to the blackboard,
coming forward to the recitation seats, passing material for busy work,
or during any other concerted action. The first day is a particularly
opportune time for drill in quiet movement, not only because no lessons
have been made ready and, therefore, the teacher is entirely free to
take as much time as is desirable without feeling that he is encroaching
upon other lessons, but also because such exercises impress upon the
children the necessity for quiet movement at a time when their minds are
not prepossessed with other subjects. The suggestion is likely to lodge
firmly in mind at this time, partly because of the prominence given to
the thought and partly because of the absence of conflicting interests
on this first day. Furthermore, in drilling the children from the start
to recognize the signals and to obey them, the teacher is taking a long
step toward securing control of his room. Of course, he must not expect
the children to learn the whole lesson in one day. Even adults require
“drill” before they can respond perfectly to regulated movements. To
first grade children the signals and directions are absolutely
meaningless until the meaning is taught. Nevertheless, even first grade
children can be taught easily to be quiet and orderly, and if the drills
are given as little games, competitive or otherwise, they will look upon
the whole thing as play and hence will respond heartily.
Suppose, for example, that the inexperienced teacher who enters the
school-room saying to herself, “What in the world can I do to keep all
these wriggling children in order for a whole day!” should have some of
the following drills (abridged from Hillyer’s “Child Training”[3]) at
command to use whenever the children begin to be disorderly or seem not
to comprehend directions.
Footnote 3:
Hillyer, V. M.—Child Training, pp. 14–28.—New York. The Century Co.
(1) _Simple directions._ Say to the children, “I want to see if you can
do what I tell you, just when I tell you, and just the way I tell you.”
Then give the order: “Stand up.”
Some may obey promptly, some may obey more slowly, some may hesitate,
look around to see what the others are going to do, and finally, but
tardily, rise. Some may pay no attention to the order at all, but look
blankly around or at something else, exactly as if they had been
excepted from the command.
If there is much irregularity in obeying correctly and at once, it may
be necessary to say, “All children stand up,” or, “All of you stand up,”
and this may have to be supplemented by the explanation, “When I say,
‘Stand up,’ I mean you, John and Mary, as well as the others.” Then give
the order: “Sit down.”
Repeat these orders, “Stand up,” “Sit down,” half a dozen or more times,
until all the children understand what is wanted and obey promptly,
quietly, and without hesitating or lagging.
Have them first imitate you, while you execute the order, as directed.
This is training by imitation. Then have them carry out the order from
the command alone. Give the order, but do not execute it yourself, or
better still, tell the children to close their eyes and keep them closed
while you give the order and they obey. This is to prevent imitation of
others in the class. They are not trained until they can obey promptly
without seeing either the teacher or another child whom they can
imitate.
Further directions may be: “Look up, down.” “Face right side, left
side.” “Place your hands on top of your head, under your chair, behind
your back.”
Afterwards, practice them individually, giving more attention to those
who are unfamiliar with the terms used or are slow to carry them out.
(2) _Simple orders._ Give the first direction to a child and wait his
precise fulfilment, asking the class if the child has followed the
direction in every particular, or if he has failed and in what respect
he has failed.
Each time an order is executed the children should be called upon to
suggest where an improvement is needed, as, for example: “John banged
the door.” “He didn’t shut it quietly.” “He made too much noise in going
to the door.” “He asked which door,” or “He hesitated,” “Took too long,”
and so on.
(3) _Simple deferred orders._ Prepare a list of orders as in the
preceding drill and tell the children you will give each one an order,
but is it not to be executed until you give the word. Then read the list
of orders, putting the name of a child before each order, and when you
have finished, say, “Now, do what I have told you.”
(4) _Negative orders._ The burden of much of the instructions to
teachers and parents is “Don’t say don’t.” Nevertheless, for purposes of
discipline, practice in obeying negative commands is highly important,
as most laws and rules from the Decalogue down, are prohibitions: “Thou
shalt not.”
Face the children away from you and tell them you are going to practice
them in obeying the order, “Don’t look.” Tell them that when you have
given the order, they are not to look around, under any circumstances,
no matter even if a contradictory order is given, until you call “Time.”
Then give the order and behind their backs try different devices to
entice them into looking. Tell a story and pretend to illustrate it,
saying, for instance, “Jack and Jill went up a hill, like this” (stamp
about or make noisy gestures), “to fetch a pail of water, like this”
(make chalk marks on the blackboard, as if drawing) “and broke his
crown, like this” (drop a book or something heavy), and so on. Suddenly
speak into the ear of one, saying, “Look here,” tap another on the
shoulder excitedly, and so on.
(5) _Double orders._ Make a list as in drill 3, but with two orders for
each child, thus: “John, hand me that book, and put this on the table.”
Use in the same way as in drill 2.
(6) _Prohibitions._ Tell the children you are going to practice them
still further in obeying “Don’ts.” Then, give the order: “Don’t make any
sound until I call ‘Time.’”
Allow them to move their heads, arms, feet; even to move about, though
this privilege should be forfeited by any one failing in the slightest
degree to observe the command. Watch and listen for the faintest sound
and have them do the same, but only the teacher must call attention to
any voluntary or involuntary breaking of silence. At the end of five
minutes call “Time.” Discuss with the children what they could do to
observe the command better or more easily and repeat the exercise.
Then tell them to get into a comfortable position, one that they can
maintain indefinitely, as they are to remain not only silent but
motionless. Ask them to pretend that they are to have their pictures
taken, that the slightest motion, shifting of position or
twitching—breathing and blinking of the eyes excepted—will spoil the
picture, and say, “Now, don’t move till I call ‘Time.’”
Call “Time” at the end of two minutes, as this is a very severe ordeal.
Further practice, however, should make them able to hold this position
for five minutes longer.
Tell the children you are going to command, “Don’t talk,” and then are
going to try to surprise them into talking or asking a question, but
they must say nothing under any circumstances. Tell them they are
supposed to be mutes, without the power of speech—as dumb as the
animals.
Then give the command, “Don’t talk,” but continue to talk yourself,
telling either a story or something about which children would
ordinarily ask questions, and if this does not succeed, abruptly ask one
of the children a question, trying to take him off his guard or to
startle him into a reply.
Any wide-awake teacher will readily perceive how these drills can be
gradually extended to include the concerted movements of the whole
school, furnishing both relief from more fatiguing school work and
pleasure in the performing, while, at the same time reducing the chaotic
movements of untrained children to quiet, restful, intelligent,
coöperative school-room procedure.
The following case illustrates the difficulties of attempting to secure
the more complex forms of regulated conduct without having first given
sufficient drill on obedience to directions.
CASE 138 (FOURTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Dismissing Classes]
It was the custom in the Rockford school for the children in the first
four grades to put on their wraps when the first bell rang for dismissal
and then to return. A second bell was rung as a signal for passing.
At this time, Miss Walker, the fourth grade teacher, had the habit of
going out into the hall. Her pupils then fairly flew out of the room and
down the stairs leading outside.
“Don’t crowd so, children. Why don’t you march in an orderly fashion?
There, Jimmie Blaine, you almost knocked Hilda down. Now do be more
careful the next time.”
But Jimmie was too far down the steps to hear these last words.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Two bells should be rung for dismissal. Let the first be a signal for
the children to pass to the dressing-room for their wraps. Let them pass
in single file, second row following the first, and so on. Let the
second bell be a signal for leaving the room. Here again, the seating
should determine the places in line. Stand at the door leading out into
the hall. Then give the signal for passing. “First row, second, third,”
and so on. See that no child violates this rule.
When the children are once thoroughly familiar with the order and with
the meaning of the signals, the first pupil in each row may be entrusted
with the leadership of that row and the signals may thus be dispensed
with.
Fire drills should be held at least once a month. Make the occurrence as
unexpected as possible. The regular method of formation of the lines
should be rigidly followed.
When the gong rings, each teacher should immediately drop the work at
hand and say,
“Attention! One, two, three!”
The word “Attention!” signifies a definite attitude of body and mind.
The work at hand should be immediately dropped, the head raised and the
hands at rest, while waiting for the next command. Do not give the
second command until you have the undivided attention of every child in
the room.
“One” signifies to turn in the seat; “two” to rise; and “three” to pass.
In case it is your week for corridor duty, take your stand immediately
at the head of the stairs.
The lines of the four upper grades should be already formed on the
second floor and stairs leading to the floor below, ready to follow the
lines of the first floor, or signal from the teacher on duty there.
It should take no longer than five minutes to vacate a building holding
fourteen hundred pupils.
COMMENTS
Miss Walker could not expect order in the line when she had taught no
definite procedure. The only thought in the minds of the children in her
room was to get out of the room as quickly as possible; the manner of
doing it was a matter of no consideration to them.
Children are naturally un-orderly; it is the teacher’s duty to train
them. In this case, she should draw up an order of marching that the
children could follow habitually and without confusion.
ILLUSTRATION (SEVENTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Dismissing School]
The bell rang for dismissal in the Bronx Park Grammar School. Miss
Forbes, the seventh grade teacher, took her place at the door of her
room leading out into the hall.
“Rise!”
“Pass! First row, second, third!” etc.
One row after another filed out of the room in perfect order. She stood
where she could see the line march down the stairs out-of-doors. At the
same time she watched the line formation in the room. Before the last
row had passed out of the room, she had taken a second stand at the head
of the stairs leading out of the building. Looking back she saw the last
child in the last row close the door of her room.
After her children, came those of the eighth grade, while on the other
side of the staircase the third grade followed the second and the second
followed the first.
Then the four upper grades came down the stairs, from the second floor,
the boys on one side, the girls on the other.
Just two minutes had passed from the time the bell rang for dismissal
until the last child left the building.
The foregoing method of line formation may be used on every occasion. By
keeping a rigid form of discipline in moving lines up or downstairs, the
children may be depended upon to march quickly and in good order in case
of fire. This matter of perfect handling of the orders of march cannot
be too strongly emphasized. Any lack of firmness in such regime will be
sure to bring disastrous results in a fire.
CASE 139 (SIXTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Passing to Classroom]
It was just eleven o’clock—time for Miss Finch’s sixth grade class to
pass from her room to one further down the hall where they were to have
their music lesson.
“You may pass, children.”
“Albert, I’ll help you with your problem now if you will come up to my
desk.”
The children literally fell over one another to get out of the room.
Miss Finch was interrupted in her work with Albert by a great confusion
of laughing and talking in the hall.
She hurried to the door and saw the boys pushing each other out of line,
bumping into the girls, and, in a word, doing everything but what they
should have done, namely, march quietly and in an orderly way down the
hall to the room in which they were to have their music lesson.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Every time your class has occasion to pass from the room, take the same
stand by the door, leading into the hall. Then say, “First row, please
pass! Second, third!” etc. When the last line has left the room, take
another permanent stand in the hall, where you watch the children to see
that they keep in a straight line and march in an orderly fashion from
room to room.
If one or two should “forget” to be quiet, speak to them while in line.
“John, remember the rule for marching in absolute order.”
COMMENTS
Every teacher must remember that her presence should mean order. If the
children are accustomed to see Miss Finch in the same place every time
they pass from the room, they will consciously or unconsciously realize
what she expects from them—perfect order.
Miss Finch could not expect a room full of healthy, wide-awake children
to pass from one room to another without noise, when her own attitude
conveyed anything but a suggestion of quietness. She put the others
entirely out of her mind when she told Albert she would help him with
his problem.
It is not necessary to take the stand of a policeman, but your attitude
should be one of expectancy that all will pass quietly and in order. It
should not, however, be necessary to speak of the matter before the
whole class, unless in commendation of the fine reputation which “our
school bears for its quiet good order.”
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Passing to Classroom]
The bell rang in the East Aurora High School for the beginning of the
first period. Miss Wilcox took her accustomed stand by the door of her
section room. Thirty-five young men and women filed out on their way to
the first class of the day.
They passed the next classroom door, where Miss Michael, the mathematics
teacher, stood. Her attitude was pleasant but firm. She was expecting
order.
After turning the corner of the building, they were met by Miss Aldrich,
the science teacher, into whose room they marched, still in single file.
To one boy, who had been especially troublesome in line at the beginning
of the year, she said, “Splendid, Joseph, you are getting so that you
can turn as square a corner as a cadet.”
The next case is a good illustration of what a teacher should _not_ do
in attempting to secure regulated conduct. The story is its own
sufficient comment.
CASE 140 (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Keeping in Line]
“Here, come back here, you fellows,” called Mr. Girdlestone, the
teacher, to two lads going up the steps ahead of the lines. “What’s the
matter with you?”
The boys came back down the stairs, but as Mr. Girdlestone turned around
the older boy again started up the steps.
“Didn’t I tell you to come back here till your line formed, John?” cried
the teacher, angrily, as he grabbed the pupil by the collar.
“I guess you won’t shake me,” responded the boy angrily as he caught the
teacher’s arm.
A scene of confusion followed, but the youth got his shaking and went
sullenly about his work.
At the close of the day the pupil was called to the office.
“I fear I must punish you more severely for your conduct in resisting my
correction, John,” began the teacher, firmly. “Come down stairs with me
and we will try to settle this affair.”
“I guess you will have to ketch me first,” returned John, with triumph
in his voice, as he ran down the other stairs.
Mr. Girdlestone was able to block his way of going home, but unable to
lay hands on the pupil.
“You may take your punishment or not get a chance to go home tonight,”
insisted the teacher.
“Well, you fire me, then,” suggested John quickly.
“I don’t intend to suspend you,” replied the teacher. “I don’t want to.”
“Go ahead and fire me. I’m just lookin’ for a chance to quit school,
anyway,” returned the boy, sullenly.
“John,” said the head of the school, firmly but kindly, “come on with me
and let’s talk this affair over. Maybe we can settle it in that way.”
After considering for a few moments, during which he eyed his teacher
narrowly, John finally came along.
“Now,” said Mr. Girdlestone, as they reached the office again, “I guess
we were both just a little to blame in this matter. I guess we both lost
our heads and were too hasty in our conduct. I am willing to assume my
share of the blame and apologize to you for my hastiness.”
“All right,” replied the pupil, in a subdued tone, “I know I didn’t do
what I ought to in this scrape. I got mad when you took hold of me, but
I’m ready to straighten the thing up now.”
“Very well,” responded the teacher, kindly. “Let’s shake hands on this
affair and try to do better in the future.”
“All right,” said John, smiling, “I guess it will be a lesson to me.”
John continued his school work with more interest in the future and a
few years later graduated from the high school.
4. Some Things That Complicate Regulation of the School
(1) _Tardiness._ Tardiness in the first grade cannot be intentional on
the child’s part, nor should it give the teacher any annoyance. It
cannot be the pupil’s fault. Whenever a first grade pupil comes tardy
the teacher should ask in a kindly manner for the reason. As a rule it
will be some excusable cause, one which the parents have imposed. The
teacher should then consult the parents. If they will start the children
to school soon enough, they will not often be tardy. Not every case of
tardiness can be prevented, however; even teachers sometimes find
themselves late on account of some unavoidable incident.
(2) _Absences._ Sometimes first grade pupils choose to be absent from
school for a day and often for several days. When the teacher goes to
find out the cause, she learns that the pupil is afraid of the teacher,
does not like to study, or there is some similar reason, and he has
begged to remain at home. The parents have consented to the request. It
is then the teacher’s duty to assure the parents that she will do all
she can to win the child to the school. Her visit often stops the
truancy if the teacher shows that kindly and courteous disposition that
all teachers should possess. Often when the parents tell a child that
the teacher is kind and good it has a tendency to overcome his
reluctance.
There are very few first year pupils who will absent themselves from
school without their parents’ consent.
With respect to older pupils, however, as long as there are schools, so
long there will be truancy. When the teacher has made his school and
school work interesting and tried to be kind and courteous, he has done
very much toward abolishment of the truant. There are many cases of
truancy that teachers have succeeded in stopping, but an investigation
of the school revealed the fact that the teacher was alive to his work;
every pupil knew that absentees would be missed; further, that the
teacher would ask for a reason for absence. They knew that every detail
of the school was interesting and that they missed something when away
from it. In other words, it was far more fun to be in school than out of
it.
If ever our readers feel that coercion is necessary to get regular
attendance, don’t punish, but try this plan instead: talk to the class
about some trip you want to take with your pupils, perhaps to a woods.
Play upon their imagination as to what they would like to do on that
trip, what you will take along, etc., and ask everybody to stand who is
in favor of taking the trip. Then say, “All right, be seated. There is
another thing to be said about this trip. Only those who work well will
be permitted to go with us. We are going to have a great time and I hope
everyone will get the chance to go, but only those who have been regular
in attendance will receive an invitation.”
(3) _Careless work._ The first few weeks in the first grade are trying
times for the teacher. All habits that she wishes the little ones to
acquire, she must carefully teach. Much patient explanation is
necessary. Often the work of the pupils will seem careless, simply
because the children do not know how to do better. Then, too, what seems
careless to the teacher may seem very good to the child. The teacher
must not judge too hastily. If some children do get through their tasks
before the others do, because of careless work, do not find fault but in
subsequent lessons see that the most interesting work is given to those
children, then act upon the principle of suggestion, by saying how fine
it would be to do the work in a certain way. The child will at least
make an attempt. Whatever is done should be approved by the teacher. The
teacher who sympathizes with the pupils, helps them, and directs their
crude efforts, following each attempt on their part with approval and a
spirit of expectancy, always encouraging, never discouraging, will soon
have no careless work among her pupils.
(4) _Mischief._ Another point that the first year teacher must learn is
that all mischief committed in primary grades is not premeditated.
Healthy children are full of energy. This energy seeks an outlet, and in
consequence, mischief may result. To leave childhood’s energies
undirected and undeveloped is a sure source of trouble. In correcting
mischief in primary grades, harsh language should not be used. The
kindest explanation of the mischief and its results is the correct way
of dealing with childish misdeeds. The child has never pondered over
mischief and has not thought ahead what the results may be. Therefore,
it is not malicious until wrong methods of control make it so. By making
prominent in his mind the right activities you will just so far keep in
the background the wrong activities and his surplus vigor will thus be
stimulated in the proper direction.
(5) _Dislike for study._ Fondness for study and good habits in studying
on the part of pupils will greatly simplify the teacher’s control of the
school.
There often develops a tendency in pupils to dislike certain branches.
Especially is this true in the upper grades. Such a dislike may often be
traced back to the primary grades, where the study habits and likes or
dislikes for school work are first instilled into the child. It is
vitally essential that the teacher foster in her pupils that attitude
toward school work that will send the child to the second grade liking
his work and well trained in the habit of study. It would seem
impossible that a dislike for subjects that are not taught in the
primary grades could be traced back, even indirectly, to wrong teaching
in those grades. But the chances are that somewhere in the child’s
progress towards the upper grades or the high school were sown the seeds
that developed into dislike of certain branches. If so, the first grade
teacher should take her share of the blame. She must guard against any
methods of teaching that will cause any child to dislike to study. It is
quite certain that if first grade pupils finish their year’s work liking
the teacher and the school and if they have acquired the habit of study
and like it, that teacher has done her full duty.
It is a first requisite of the teacher to exhibit a cheerful and
optimistic disposition in the school-room. She must teach the little
ones reading and numbers, language and story telling, writing and
drawing, with such an ardor and love for her work that the children can
only think that their teacher likes these subjects better than anything
else. She must expect every child to love his work. If the second grade
teacher and the others in the higher grades will teach in the same
manner there will be no pupils in the upper grades or the high school
who have a distaste for even one branch, much less have a dislike for
study in general. A true teacher will never make her pupils feel that
she has a dislike for school work or any part of it.
(6) _Dull children._ Many a teacher has had her difficulties and
perplexities with the dull child. In large cities special teachers are
employed to teach dull and abnormal children. Books have been written
dealing with them. Still the problem remains unsolved. Much has been
done for them, but by no means has all been said about what can and
should be done for such children under these conditions. The rural and
village teacher cannot expect to send the perplexing pupils to a special
teacher and as a rule such children are found in every school.
One thing, however, she must make sure of—that is, whether the dull
child is such because he is subnormal, or because of some physical
defect, or because of poor health. Poor food may cause a child to be
dull. Bad ventilation is often the cause of dullness in the school-room.
The teacher is responsible for keeping his room well ventilated. If the
dullness is due to ill-health, the coöperation of the parents must be
sought. If the child is dull because he is subnormal, the teacher must
do the best he can, and that is very little indeed. One thing he must
not do—he must not worry. It is not his fault. The situation will be
made easier if the teacher will secure the superintendent’s or a
director’s permission to let the dull child drop some of the school
work. The teacher should give the child the same attention he gives the
others; then his full duty has been done. Never should a teacher
intimate to any one of the pupils or to the child himself, that he
thinks him dull.
Many times such a pupil can be very mischievous. Whenever that is the
case the teacher should apply the devices and methods used upon other
children for particular annoyances. But just here is where the greatest
difficulty presents itself, for the fundamental element in all methods
is interest, and the dull child can not be interested. Many times he can
be interested in manual work of some kind when he can not be made to
care for the more abstract work which other children do with ease.
No attempt will be made to discuss further the abnormal child. The
author feels that it is only protecting the other children and the
teacher both to have abnormal children, as well as children dull because
of ill-health and mental defect, removed from the school and placed in
institutions established for such pupils. Such a course may cause
parents to become indignant, but better that than to worry the teacher
overmuch and make him less efficient for the other pupils, when he can
not help the child in any way. Nor has he been schooled to teach such
children. They should be handed over to specialists who are free to
adopt such methods as are best for the individual child, but not
necessarily so for the whole school.
(7) _Retarded pupils._ In many states where there are no compulsory
school attendance laws, pupils often come into the first grade at eight
to ten years of age. This also may happen where the child has been ill.
Sometimes thoughtless teachers make retarded pupils feel odd and out of
place, even unwelcome. The teacher must remember that the school is a
public institution and every child has a full right to all of its
benefits. Not much more can be said to the teacher than to add: treat
the retarded and overgrown pupils just like the others. If they do well
in their work, recognize their skill; if they are mischievous or cause
trouble, meet it as in the case of any other pupil. The retarded or
overgrown pupil must not be made to feel either that he should be
advanced, or on the other hand that he has neglected his work, and for
that reason is out of place in the first grade when he should be in the
third or fourth. He must not be slighted or treated differently from
other pupils because he is larger or older, unless it be to place some
little responsibility upon him like caring for the window plants or
assisting the teacher to pass materials for school work—duties which may
be regarded somewhat in the light of special privileges.
(8) _The “smart” pupil._ What constitutes the “smart” pupil is hard to
define, but every teacher knows him when he appears. The pupil that is
of this type is not hard to control. To notice every little exhibition
of smartness tends to make it worse. As a rule, the pupil is not so bad
or so mean as to cause any particular disturbance—he is only annoying.
To ignore him is the best cure and one that will in a very short time
cure the worst case in the first grade. When such a pupil has said
something that does not become a good pupil, the teacher should begin to
converse about something entirely different and more interesting.
(9) _Wrong influence of parents._ In this age of poor parent control,
there are more children in the public schools whose misdemeanors are the
direct result of home influences than of all other factors combined.
The prudent teacher of the first year needs often to solicit the aid of
parents in righting a spoiled child, and often she must convince them
that they are wrong in their methods of rearing their children. If the
teacher cannot enlist the aid of parents, then she must fight her battle
single-handed. But there is no need for discouragement. The child will
love one who loves him. A lovable and wise teacher often succeeds where
a parent fails. Parents are often alarmingly short-sighted when it comes
to training their children. It is not an imaginary condition but one all
too real, that in many homes the children are, in actuality, the
controlling forces. It is distressing to see how helpless parents can
be, and what American parents are enduring from their children. From
such poorly regulated homes come the “spoiled” children to the first
grade teacher, and in many instances all the meanness such children can
perpetrate is considered “cute” by the over-indulgent parents.
In dealing with the badly trained child, the teacher must avoid any use
of force. That would only antagonize him. The teacher should be firm,
but kind, treating him just as he treats the others; if he does good
work, commending him for it. She need not even notice many of his
outbreaks—he will soon discontinue them. Often he is spoiled because the
parents have paid too much attention to his every whim and fancy. When
he learns that he can not worry the teacher, and that she will not
contend with him in his trivial desires, he will cease to annoy her.
Last of all, the teacher can fill in the gaps of idleness in the child’s
time by keeping him interested and busy.
If the child is saucy, the teacher must avoid telling the pupil that he
“must not be saucy”; such a method will make the pupil aware of the fact
that being saucy is distasteful to the teacher, and he will resort to
that method whenever his spirits are ruffled. The better thing to do is
to ignore him altogether, and proceed with the work at hand, as though
nothing had occurred. The teacher should not display the least emotion
by look or expression, for the child usually watches the teacher to note
the effect of his sarcasm or imprudent statement. When he finds out that
he is ignored, he will resort less to his annoying habit. If the child
tries to tease her, she can casually and without any use of force, draw
him away into some interesting game or activity. Or the teacher may call
the pupil by name and say, “Come here a moment, I have something for you
to do.” She may have a new game ready and have this pupil be the leader.
This will draw his attention from teasing. In other words, substitute
some other and more interesting activity. A few weeks of such control
will remedy the annoyance.
It is a good plan with such a pupil to send him on an errand every now
and then, when he is in a good mood, making the request in a
confidential tone, and saying to him on his return, “You are so kind for
doing that. Thank you ever so much.” This will tend to get him in the
habit of doing favors for you and will increase his friendliness toward
you. Another way to establish more firmly his willingness to be friendly
is to make it a point to talk to him before school or at recess about
something in which you know he will be very much interested—about his
favorite pastime or sport.
There is no boy or girl who does not have some hobby, and after you have
made an earnest attempt to find out what that interest is and have begun
to make use of it in getting the pupil’s confidence, you will have put
into practice a great principle in discipline. Any new idea which you
can present regarding the hobby will greatly help you to gain the
confidence of the pupil. By a confidential tone and by showing you are
in sympathy with his interests, you can gradually win his confidence.
Whatever you do, do not appear to notice when a pupil is disrespectful
to you. If he has shown disrespect in the past, simply set about at once
to gain his confidence. If he ever mimics any gesture you have made, do
not take it seriously because, nine times out of ten, you would get poor
results. Either appear not to notice it at all or, if you do notice it,
assume that it did not bother you in the least.
To punish a child for anything whatsoever, suggests to him precisely the
thing which we do not want to suggest. Whatever we want a child to be,
we must put the suggestion into his mind, that he already is that very
thing and approve him for whatever he does in that direction.
The principle of initiative in coöperation should be used from the first
in case of a pupil that is extremely disobedient because of home or
outside influence. Many a teacher has invited such a pupil into his home
for a dinner or supper, and has entertained him with the best the home
afforded. In doing so he made the pupil understand that he was
interested in him. Often a walk or a drive which gives occasion for a
confidential talk will establish friendly relations between pupil and
teacher. A teacher must not cease to try to win the unfriendly pupil.
One such in a school can work great harm. The teacher must strive to
make friends of all his pupils.
Approve the child’s lessons and efforts. Whether it be numbers, or
reading, busy work, or drawing, the teacher must notice the effort and
progress, and by a pleased countenance and well chosen words encourage
the pupil. Whenever the teacher has a favor to bestow, she should see
that the unfriendly pupil gets his share of the favor. If she is having
a little play or song or game, she may appoint him as the main
character. She should frequently walk with him part or all of the way
home. Such treatment will win the child in a very short time, and what
is better, it will usually win the parents.
In case a disaffected child is unusually stubborn and absolutely refuses
to obey you, avoid the use of any commands to him until after you have
entirely gained his confidence. You may continue to command and request
other pupils around the stubborn child, but simply refrain from asking
that one to do anything. Make up your mind that you are going to cater
to this stubborn pupil for two or three days in order to win his
absolute confidence and thus lay a foundation for more satisfactory
conduct in the future.
By cater, we do not mean to allow the pupil to get ahead of you—not at
all. But it may be necessary to be a little forbearing. Present
absolutely nothing to him in a personal way except what you know will be
intensely interesting. As we said before, find out what the pupil likes
to do at home, on the playground, what he likes best to talk about, and
then make it a point to converse about those things frequently when
alone with him. Show great enthusiasm in talking along the line of his
interests. If he refuses to recite, get his confidence and then ask
questions, beginning with such as you are sure he can answer in just a
word or two.
(10) _Neighborhood conditions._ Sometimes a teacher’s work is greatly
hampered because of an unkindly spirit existing between the parents of
her pupils. Mothers often “get even” with their neighbors by influencing
their children against a neighbor’s son or daughter who happens to be in
school. Or a teacher may have used some unwise methods on a child, or
punished in a manner not satisfactory to the parents. The parents
retaliate by influencing their children against the teacher.
Both situations will respond to the same treatment. By no means must the
teacher appear to resent this opposition. It is every teacher’s duty to
treat such pupils just as kindly as circumstances permit. If the teacher
is determined to win such parents he will succeed, and in time they will
become the best of friends. In all cases where such a difficulty
continues to exist and is annoying, it is the teacher’s fault. To gain
the mother’s love, is to gain the child’s love also.
Sometimes gossip or misunderstanding causes parents to oppose the
teacher very bitterly. In such a case it is expedient that the teacher
go to see the parents and have matters understood, assuring them she
will use every means to do what is right and that the parents’
assistance will be of great value.
5. Submission to the Ringleader
(1) _Lower grades._ Even in the kindergarten certain children in every
class stand out as leaders. In classes above the kindergarten this
characteristic of leadership appears more and more strongly. If the
leader throws his influence alongside that of the teacher, well and
good. The teacher has thus a strong ally. If the leader arrays himself
against the teacher, then the teacher’s own influence is weakened and in
many cases seriously crippled. In the lower grades such an antagonistic
attitude on the part of a single pupil may not be a very serious matter,
but in the higher grades, and especially in high school, where the clan
spirit dominates, a single pupil may turn an otherwise successful term
into a failure. It is highly important then for the teacher to
understand how best to overcome an unwholesome leadership on the part of
the pupil.
There is but one basis upon which the teacher can operate such
principles of control as will secure the hearty coöperation of the
pupils. That basis is the possession of their confidence. The teacher
_must_ have the confidence of her pupils. It _must_ be a confidence that
is deep and sympathetic. It cannot be superficial. The pupil is a keen
judge and will detect a superficial attitude of the teacher. But the
teacher who feels in her heart a love for every boy and girl, a love
that desires to do the best for them, to build and strengthen their
characters, can not be superficial. It has been said elsewhere, that
whatever increases the confidence of pupils in the teacher lessens the
necessity of outer control, and whatever lessens the confidence
increases the necessity of outer control. This is an important fact and
the teacher cannot too thoroughly study it. It is the teacher who loses
patience with the boy, when he shows the first signs of waywardness, who
fails to attain the ideal in school-room control, who consequently loses
the boy’s confidence, thereby increasing the difficulty of control. Such
a boy, if he is a natural leader, will form a clique of his own and
place himself at its head. He and his clan will see to it that mischief
does not languish in that school. The teacher wonders why the boy
regards her good admonitions so lightly. He would regard and heed them,
if she had not lost his confidence. What, then, shall the teacher do to
regain and keep the faith and loyalty of every pupil?
No better plan can be given for the primary grades than to tell the
actual experience of one teacher of forty-five boys and girls. Among
these were bad boys, who quarreled, fought, used bad language and did
other things that could not be tolerated in a wellordered school. One
was an only child; she controlled her parents and insisted on similar
privileges in the school-room. By no means were the pupils well behaved.
The teacher studied her problem. In the first week of school, she bore
many annoyances, but she found out who were leaders and just how
annoying the pupils could be, and also what they were capable of doing.
She knew the actual condition of the room and had laid her plans to win.
On the second morning she entered her room bright and cheery. Before the
bell rang she copied a pleasing and easy little song on the blackboard.
As soon as the bell rang and her pupils were in their seats she told
them a very interesting story, standing as she did so. Her manner was
pleasing and she held the attention of her pupils throughout the story.
When it was finished she turned to the song and said, “Children, let us
read over this song together.” At once she started to read. Many of the
children did not read, but that did not deter her, she read on. When
through, she asked them to read it again with her. This time more read.
At the conclusion, she faced the school and said, “How fine that was! Do
read it again for me!” This time every pupil read because she had
approved their reading and showed pleasure and interest in what they
did. Then she asked them to help her sing. None sang with her, but that
did not daunt her. A second time she sang. A few of the pupils sang with
her, and when through, she exclaimed, “I really did not know you could
sing so well! Why, we must sing often!” She had won every boy and girl.
In fact, they did not know themselves that they could sing so well.
Again they sang. This time every voice helped. True there were a dozen
discords. But what did this teacher care for discords. They were not
evils. It was confidence she was planting and nurturing. From the song
she turned to the work of the day, but casually she dropped this remark:
“I know this will be a pleasant day. You all look just as though you
would do your best.”
Through the day the teacher kept up that spirit of cheerfulness. She
approved and complimented the crude efforts of each one. There was
noise. There were annoyances, but she overlooked them as best she could.
She was working for a larger end. Later, when she found her plans did
not win all of her pupils, she took up each case of the few remaining
wayward ones and disposed of it by individual treatment.
This teacher planned an autumn outing for her pupils. One bright
afternoon, when the sun silvered the country side, and softened the red,
yellow and golden tints in the forest, she took her flock to the woods.
There were nuts to gather, wild grapes to pick, asters and goldenrod to
gather and garlands of autumn tinted leaves to weave. Toward evening,
she assembled the children about her in a pretty spot in the woods, and
all ate together.
Often she allowed the children to have little play parties at which she
was the leader. She knew no end of “full-of-fun” games; her pupils never
failed to have a good time. She took them out skating. They had
snowballing bouts. Even when she wanted her room cleaned and
redecorated, she invited her pupils to join her in the task and as they
worked away, she wisely directed their efforts.
The teacher who is tactful can think of a hundred and one things to do
to please and win her pupils.
All such affairs must be given to the pupils as expressions of the
teacher’s good will. There must be that attitude toward the pupils that
indicates to them the teacher’s love for them and her interest and
consideration for them. Among such fortunate pupils there will be no
hostile ringleaders. All will readily accede to the teacher’s wishes,
because she lives with them and for them. Such a teacher keeps her
pupils busy with those things that they enjoy doing; they have no time
to think of other things, than what the teacher plans for them.
The teacher who follows this course will be the “ringleader.” She, too,
will be the one whom the pupils unconsciously will imitate and follow.
CASE 141 (THIRD GRADE)
[Sidenote: Creating a Ringleader]
Georgie Bently had just been presented with a beautiful green top as a
birthday present. The length of time it would spin when he wound it and
gave it just the right fling was something quite wonderful. It was the
dearest of all Georgie’s possessions. He took it to school and every few
minutes would take it out of his pocket, feel of it caressingly and look
at it admiringly. At last he ventured to wind it with the long string in
his pocket, so it would “be ready” when the recess period came.
At this point in the proceedings, Miss Harriman, his teacher, caught
sight of what was going on.
“Georgie Bently!” she called out, in a voice so startling that Georgie
involuntarily jumped. “Haven’t I told you boys that you mustn’t play
with toys and marbles in school time? Bring it right here to me, now.”
“There!” she added, as she gave it a careless toss into the drawer of
her desk. “You can’t have it again until Friday night.”
Humiliated Georgie crept back to his seat and buried his face in his
arms folded on the desk before him, in order to hide a briny tear or
two. Then he amused the children near him by making faces at his
teacher; but this was rather monotonous fun. He finally decided that the
appropriate thing to do under the circumstances was to draw pictures of
Miss Harriman, and relieve his feeling by jabbing his pencil through the
eyes, mouth, etc., of the drawing. The other children saw the point and
expressed their sympathy by doing likewise with similar drawings of
their own production, giggling all the while as they did so, and
occasionally breaking out in mirth which again called forth Miss
Harriman’s expressions of disapproval.
“My children have acted like little demons today!” said the tired
teacher that night, as she flung herself into the rocking chair upon
reaching home. “Sometimes I wish I never had to go back again into that
school-room!”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Go quietly to Georgie’s desk and say, “What a pretty top! Does it spin
well? I’d like to see you spin it after school is done, but you know we
all have to put our playthings away in school time. Can you take good
care of it until the bell rings, or would you rather I would keep it for
you?”
If Georgie is like most boys he will put it safely away when given a
choice in conduct, and in so doing will have had an excellent lesson in
self-control.
COMMENTS
Miss Harriman repelled George by her apparent lack of appreciation of
something that to him was precious. Her control of the situation was
purely external, coercive. She did nothing to rouse the boy’s power of
_self_-control. By using the principles of approval and initiative in
coöperation she would have accomplished her purpose just as effectively,
and at the same time would have strengthened the boy’s self-respect and
self-reliance.
By reproving George in a way that roused his antagonism she turned him
into a ringleader, for the time being, the effect of which was to
increase the disorder, rather than cure it.
ILLUSTRATION (PRIMARY GRADES)
[Sidenote: Teacher Becomes Ringleader]
Miss Moss went from a small town to a two-room school in a mining
settlement, to teach the first four grades. The school consisted of
forty-two miners’ children, and one very pretty, well-dressed girl of
ten, Florence Adamson, who was the daughter of the company store-keeper.
This little girl’s mother was a clever dressmaker, who kept her daughter
in the smartest of frocks and the perkiest of big hair-ribbon bows. The
child was bright, learned her lessons easily and had always been a
leader of the other children, who regarded her as a very wonderful being
indeed.
Although Florence made trouble among the miners’ children occasionally,
she was always forgiven this when she “made up,” a process accomplished
by the aid of a winning manner and generous bribes of allday suckers and
gum. The children followed her wishes slavishly, adored every silly
thing she did, and regarded her childish naughtiness in school as the
acme of brilliance. They tried to stand in her good graces by outdoing
her in whatever she did; if she whispered, they talked in undertones,
and if she threw paper wads, they threw bits of coal.
Miss Moss had analyzed the situation by the end of the first week. She
saw that Florence had exercised more influence than the teacher, through
her ability to provide amusement for the pleasure-starved little people.
Her entertainment usually took the form of covert ridicule directed
toward the teacher, and she always organized and managed the playground
games, in so far as there were any. Miss Moss saw that she must
substitute her own wholesome leadership for the leadership of this
spoiled child. She saw that she must introduce a wholesome democracy for
the boss management of a skillful and unscrupulous little tyrant.
She brought back with her from her first week-end at home, several
pretty waists and frocks which she had not intended to wear to school;
for she saw that one element in her leadership must be the satisfaction
of the starved sense of beauty which lived in these miners’ children.
She brought back also some dotted Swiss sash-curtains for the windows;
but these she did not put up at once. She announced on Monday morning
that she had a surprise, and that she intended to let three pupils know
about it that afternoon after school. She was so very mysterious about
her secret that the children spent the day in speculation about it.
Florence found her efforts at entertainment, for once, quite ignored.
Of course Florence expected to be one of the three who were to share the
secret after school, but at four o’clock Miss Moss chose Edward Hare, a
great, overgrown boy who should have been in the seventh grade, and
Mollie Sluss, a thin, shy, little thing who always bent over a book that
she could never master, and Dicey Savage, who was Florence’s most
enthusiastic follower. Miss Moss did not intend that the charge should
miss fire. Florence headed a crowd which gathered at the windows to peep
in at the uncovering of the great secret, but Miss Moss merely directed
the favored ones to put on their things and go to her boarding-house.
Here each one was given a package to carry, and the quartet returned to
the schoolhouse. The first package proved to be sash-curtains; the
second contained the brass fixtures; but the third was put upon the
desk, with the promise that is should be opened when the curtains were
up.
“Clean hands first!” said Miss Moss, and there ensued a scrubbing bee.
Then the curtains were put up, with much awkward help from the children,
who were unused to such tasks. When all hung in snowy beauty, then Miss
Moss gathered her helpers about her, and told them fairy stories while
they ate the candy that was in the box. It was really a little party,
and a party is a rare thing in the life of a miner’s child.
That was Miss Moss’ beginning; three children in that school now
regarded her as a source of happiness and entertainment, and pretty
things. Florence had a rival; and in the days to come the children
slowly grew to feel that Miss Moss could make them have better times
than Florence could, and that pleasing Miss Moss paid better than
pleasing Florence. Miss Moss had no scruples of conscience in pursuing
this course, for she knew that human beings have to be won to right
courses of action long before they can be made to understand abstract
reasons for doing right. She knew she could not win those children by
preaching to them; she knew they would listen to a sermon only after
they had grown to love and trust her.
There were many steps to the process of readjusting the warped relations
in that school. Florence gradually, and not at all gracefully, accepted
her new position of plain lay member of the school, a person with no
special privileges, and with no abnormal influence. The climax came at
Christmas, when Miss Moss trained her little band to present a short
cantata in which an angel told the news of the birth of the Babe to
representatives of all the nations of the earth. The leading character
was the angel, and here Miss Moss encountered a common difficulty;
Florence was really the only child in school who could take the
character well. The others were all too shy or too phlegmatic.
Miss Moss had to choose between a pretty, successful performance, one
which would bring her praise and admiration, one which the company
store-keeper would report in glowing terms to the company itself, and
the final success of her scheme of normal adjustment. She made the shy
little Mollie Sluss the angel. Mollie stepped on the end of the sheet in
which she was draped, she forgot her part twice and could never be heard
at the back of the room; she lost one of her wings at an inopportune
moment, and she failed most lamentably to look like an angel. She looked
more like a lost soul which is too frightened even to ask the way back
to its habitat. Mollie was not a shining success as an angel, but as a
means to an end she did very well.
For Mollie’s father and mother sat in the audience, and their usually
heavy faces wore a look of pride as their pale little daughter blundered
through her leading part. Mollie had her first taste of leadership that
day; Mollie knew that Florence no longer fell heir to all the good
things just because she was Florence. Florence, meekly sitting in the
background among the heathen nations, accepted this new order of things
at last as inevitable, and submitted to taking her fair turn with the
others. Her bribes had ceased to produce results; she had been outbid by
one who could offer her very place as leader, as a prize for merit.
Miss Moss showed her mastery of the situation by raising other children
to prominence among the pupils and thereby calling attention and
admiration away from Florence who had heretofore monopolized the
applause of the children.
In doing this she gave no commands. She merely brought about naturally a
transference of admiration from Florence to others.
On the day when Miss Moss selected three pupils to help her prepare her
“surprise,” she acted wisely in naming those whom she wanted. Had she
asked, “Who would like to help me?” many pupils would have offered their
services and the selection of three would have caused much antagonism,
since the others who offered their services would be sure she knew they
wanted to help.
(2) _Higher grades._ In the higher grades a ringleader who arrays
himself against the teacher’s authority is much more exasperating than
is a similar pupil in the lower grades, not only because of his greater
influence upon other pupils, but also because it is much more difficult
for the teacher to make excuses for him. “They know better!” is the
thought that will intrude itself into the teacher’s consciousness to
make difficult any feeling of leniency toward offending pupils. What,
then, shall be done? Must the teacher watch the pupil closely and
whenever he discovers evil beginnings, punish the offender? No; that is
the method which in the past has driven thousands out of the school,
only to become permanent burdens to society and in many instances
paupers and criminals.
It will be necessary for the teacher to get the confidence of such a
pupil. Enlist his abilities in leadership. He will thus become a
valuable assistant to the teacher in “regulating” his clique of pupils.
The teacher should interest the ringleader in his work, and approve of
his efforts and work whenever possible. When there is some particular
task to be performed, have the ringleader do it. When a game is to be
organized, make him captain or leader, and so on. There are scores of
places where he can be pressed into service in such a way as to gain his
good will and confidence, and at the same time in such a way as to make
him an aid to his schoolmates rather than a detriment. When once his
confidence is won he will obey every command and wish.
Stating it briefly—if the ringleader feels you are on his side and are
sympathetic with him, then, just as surely as water runs down hill he
will come over to your side.
If you treat a boy as though he were on the same level with yourself,
you are taking the first and most important step in winning his
confidence. And he will immediately see that you get fair play,
especially if he is a ringleader.
Our experience with human nature tells us that a sure way to get the
confidence of another person is to coöperate with that person along the
line of his own interests.
If the above statements hold true of the grades, still more do they
apply to the high school.
(3) _High School._ Disciplinary problems in the high school should be
solved on the largest basis possible. The increased scope of vision
enables a pupil to view a situation in the larger connections. In the
grades each act tends to stand by itself. The child is taking one step
at a time into a larger area. The youth begins to make leaps over larger
stretches and is impatient with the pettiness of a narrow method.
Consequently a wise teacher will omit all annoying puerilities in
managing high school pupils. He will expect numerous childish follies to
be retained even in the high school period. In some cases a method used
with a child in the grades will work effectively in the case of a high
school pupil. But discrimination must be very painstaking. A childish
method, unwisely used, dampens a pupil’s esteem for his teacher because
personal pride in the pupil has been injured.
On the other hand, by using a solution that puts the issue on a broad,
high level, one appeals to the maturing intelligence and sense of
personal dignity. Moreover, such procedure discloses to a pupil the
connections that bind a particular act to other factors.
The boys who tied a schoolmate to the railroad track first saw their
deed in its isolation; under judicious leadership the place of such a
deed in the life of a school community may be vividly conceived, and
when so viewed may be heartily repudiated. Such a type of revulsion
against an unsocial act is most healthful; a mere decision not to repeat
a proscribed prank has little moral worth.
The whole machinery of a well planned school system is concerned in
getting a response from pupils. Any study which proves its worthlessness
by winning no general response when well handled, is to be abandoned.
So much for the essential feature of school duty, that is, winning an
acceptance and reaction for the lessons taught. But all the more this
holds good in respect to the personal relation between teacher and
pupil. If a teacher makes no effort to secure a personal response toward
himself he can not hope to educate his pupils; he may feed an awakened
intellect; this alone can not suffice—coöperation must appear in the
teacher’s plans for the pupil’s good.
CASE 142 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Failure to Utilise Leadership]
When Carl Lindstrom went to Bentley township to teach for a year and so
earn money with which to pursue his law course, he had no fear of
meeting resistance, for this community was one of culture and good
tradition, in which the children expected to do well in school and later
to go to college. Carl himself was always popular at college, and he had
no idea of being anything else in any community that he might grace with
his presence.
Before the first week was up, he had lost this happy confidence. Charles
Moxler was the cause of the new distrust of himself which Carl felt; and
Charles was regarded as a model of boyhood in the whole countryside. He
was fifteen years old, large and handsome, with charming manners and
marked ability. He learned his lessons seemingly without much effort,
and was a good violinist and a daring horseman. His attitude toward Carl
irritated the teacher from the first, for he was not used to the easy,
condescending tolerance with which Charles regarded him. Charles never
refused to comply with any direct request; he obeyed the letter of the
law without quibble. Nevertheless, Carl disliked him.
Charles seemed to have more influence with the students than the teacher
had, and this influence seemed to the sensitive teacher to be exerted in
a way to belittle his own authority. He resolved that when a chance came
he would show everyone who was master in that school. The easy air of
superiority of Charles nettled him so that one day he made an issue,
resolved to reduce the insolent boy to his proper place. Charles, who
had a loud and resonant voice, was telling a group of pupils of a
football game he had seen the Saturday before.
“Charles,” said Carl Lindstrom, “do try to talk more quietly. You can be
heard clear to the corner.”
“All right, sir!” sang out Charles, with easy good-nature. The other
pupils, especially the girls, with whom he was a great hero, giggled,
and Charles continued his story in a low monotone. But it was an
exciting story, and soon he was talking as loudly as before, while the
rest joined in his hearty laughter at the incident he was relating.
Carl, sitting outside the circle of fun and fellowship, felt his
authority seriously threatened, as indeed it was.
“Charles Moxler, take your seat!” he called out, suddenly, surprised
himself at the irritation in his voice. “If once asking isn’t enough, I
shall have to take other means. There is no sense in your talking so
loud, and when I ask you to do a thing, I mean it! The rest of you may
either take your seats or go out-of-doors.”
The pupils scattered, rather sullenly. School began a few moments later,
and Charles studied with unusual application. When the algebra class was
called, he came forward with the rest to recite. When his turn came to
demonstrate at the board, he stepped forward, placed his problem on the
board, and then began to explain in a voice so low that no one could
hear without straining.
Carl had a mind to correct him, but, remembering his pupil’s popularity
and having some caution in his make up, he refrained. Charles continued
during that day, and throughout the week, to address his teacher in
softly modified tones, so patently artificial that they aroused the
amusement of all the young people who heard them. His manner was
punctiliously respectful; Carl could find no point of attack. He felt
helpless and imposed upon, and he was very conscious of the amused
smiles of his pupils and of their scarcely concealed pity and contempt
for him. Had he been able to laugh it off as a good joke, all would have
been well, but Carl’s sense of humor did not extend to his own affairs.
This condition of things lasted for some time. At last, Charles, either
repenting his revenge or tiring of the effort involved, resumed his
natural voice and manner, and acted in a more manly way toward his
teacher. But Carl’s year had been badly spoiled. He knew he had made a
mistake, but knew not just where to look for it. How could one deal with
a pupil who seemed to have more leadership than one’s self? How could he
have avoided that humiliation and helplessness? What had he failed to
do? Whose fault was it?
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
The next year he returned to college and Parker Ames, a classmate, fell
heir to the school in Bentley Township. When Parker came back to college
for commencement, Carl, in cap and gown, hurried to him to ask him about
his year.
[Sidenote: Coöperation with Leader]
“Greatest place ever, isn’t it?” said Parker Ames. “I surely did enjoy
those people, and I hope the youngsters know a little more for my being
there. Great School!”
“Did you have Charles Moxler?” asked Carl, thinking to hear a tale of
woe similar to his own.
“I should say I did!” Parker’s enthusiasm expanded visibly. “He was the
best one there, wasn’t he? He was my right-hand man in everything I did.
I wanted to get up a festival to raise money for the Belgian sufferers,
and Charles simply wore himself out working the thing up. We became
mighty good friends, I tell you; he was as good as a grown up any day.
He had such a hold on everybody’s heart, you know, that all one had to
do was to get him interested in a thing, and the whole country simply
followed right along.”
“He had an awfully loud voice,” said Carl.
“Big as his heart and smooth as his manners!” assented Parker.
Carl is still thinking about it.
CASE 143 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Ringleaders at Their Worst]
Instances of the operation of mob psychology in schools are
comparatively rare, but they occasionally occur in industrial
communities, where the walk-out method of gaining ends is kept
prominently before pupils. Such an occurrence took place in the oil
district of a Middle West state, where the social conditions are poor
and the schools are not yet well organized. Mr. Frank, a new principal,
found that his predecessor had gained and kept a certain degree of
popularity by making concessions to his pupils and patrons which had
greatly lowered the scholastic and other standards of the school.
Mr. Frank resolved to sacrifice personal popularity if necessary to the
efficiency of his school, and among the reforms adopted was that of
doing away with a Friday afternoon holiday which had been allowed to all
pupils who had had perfect attendance and punctuality all week. This
weekly half-holiday, which reduced the working hours of the school
one-tenth, Mr. Frank considered a bad thing. He said nothing about his
plans to his pupils, but his rather rigid views on other matters led
them to suspect that he might return to the old plan of five full days’
work; hence, they came to him frequently during the first week to ask if
the Friday half-holiday would be continued.
“Wait and see,” he would reply; “I’ve not decided yet.”
“You’d better,” replied one group of high school boys. “We’ve had it for
three years, and if you want us to work for you and like you, just keep
it up.”
This attitude of the boys settled the matter for Mr. Frank, who called
the board together and announced his position. They agreed that the
giving of the holiday so frequently was a bad thing, and told him that
they would “stand back of him if he could make it go,” which meant that
they themselves were waiting to see what he would do with a bad
situation. The board members were tradesmen who were afraid of offending
the families of the school pupils by initiating such a reform
themselves, but were willing to stand by someone else who would do so.
The grade teachers sympathized with his desire to bring up the standard
of the school, and promised to do as he directed. There was no trouble
in the grades when the discontinuance was announced. In the high school,
anticipating a general epidemic of truancy if he announced his
revolutionary policy before the noon recess, Mr. Frank told his
fifty-five pupils to come back at one o’clock, as he had a matter of
general interest to explain to them.
Thinking that some new scheme not effectively different from the old one
might be forthcoming the fifty-five gathered as they were told. Mr.
Frank noted, as the bell rang, that they had left on their coats and
carried their caps in their hands.
He told them first, as soon as they were quiet in their seats, that
there would be no Friday afternoon half-holiday. He said that perfect
attendance was expected unless illness prevented it, and that no reward
would be given for it. After a full explanation of his reasons he said
that afternoon classes would begin in five minutes.
The effect was electrical. Sam Poultney, a bully of nineteen, who led
the high school boys, sprang to his feet. He was a boy not without
ability, a boy of undisciplined will and great physical courage. He
faced Mr. Frank now, fearlessly, perhaps sincerely feeling that he
defended a real right.
“No, they won’t!” he exclaimed. “You made us come to school this
afternoon by a dirty trick, and we’re not going to stay. You can’t take
our holiday away from us that we earned by being here all week and not
tardy once. Come on, all of you!” and he started for the door.
Mr. Frank saw a quick and vivid example of the working of mob impulse.
As the great, confident leader of the high school boys made for the
door, the whole school rose and followed him, until a stream of angry
pupils surged toward him as he stood staunchly before the only exit.
Just as Sam reached the platform near which he stood, Mr. Frank’s quick
wit saved the day. He knew that the action of a mob is largely
unconscious and wholly emotional and instinctive, and he appealed to
instinct skillfully—the instinct of self-preservation.
“Stop! Oh, stop!” he called, his white face set sternly. “Don’t you see
what you’re doing?” He looked with wild eyes to the back of the room, as
though he saw a fearful spectre there. The crowd of excited pupils,
wholly under the control of whatever leader might show himself
strongest, followed his eyes, turned around, and looked where he looked.
Sam turned with the rest, and in the second of his hesitating inquiry,
Mr. Frank gained the upper hand. His voice was raised in authority; his
anger—for he was righteously angry—gave a threat to his words that the
pupils felt and heeded.
“Turn around and go to your seats this instant!” he commanded. “Sam,
walk to your seat! Turn around, all of you. If I hear one word—”
He stood like an avenging angel, a slight man, facing a mob of angry
pupils, and the dignity and confidence of his attitude won the day. Sam
started to mutter threats and objections, but stopped when Mr. Frank
took one step toward him. Two or three girls began to cry; then first
one pupil and then another took his books out slowly. The assistant, a
girl fresh from college, stood at one side of the room, bravely stifling
a temptation to indulge in hysterics. When he could trust his voice, Mr.
Frank said:
“The senior English class may pass.” The class passed very meekly into
their recitation room, and Miss Spangler closed the door after her as
she went in with them. It was a sullen group of boys and girls, however,
that stayed with her that afternoon.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
In making so great a change in school policy as that proposed by Mr.
Frank, first secure the undoubted backing of the school board. Make no
announcement until your course of action is fully arranged with them and
finally decided upon. If this can not be done early in the week, follow
the custom of the former principal for the first week in giving the half
holiday. This last arrangement has two advantages. (1) It gives the
teacher a longer time to secure the confidence of his pupils and (2) it
gives the chance of making the announcement before Friday afternoon
comes, so that it loses somewhat its element of shock, thereby lessening
the danger of a crisis.
Have a thoroughly worked out plan in mind of some pleasure which you can
offer as a substitute for the one you are taking away. Propose this just
before you make the announcement regarding Friday afternoon. If the
pupils’ minds are full of the thought of some pleasure ahead, there is
less room for the feeling of rebellion to creep in.
About Wednesday of the second week, ask the pupils to put away books
five or ten minutes before the usual time, as you have an important
announcement to make. When all are in a position of attention, say, with
the air of one who has a pleasant surprise to offer, “I’ve been
wondering if we couldn’t think up some jolly fun for Saturdays, for
those whose attendance has been perfect through the week. I understand
there are some very interesting remains of Indian settlements about
fifteen miles north of here. We’ve just been studying about the
inhabitants of the country in the period when the colonists came. It
would be a good time to visit those remains of their old homes. Most of
you have autos, or have friends who would lend you theirs. Suppose we
get up a high school party tomorrow. If we do, we’ll just make a day of
it—take our lunches along, roast our potatoes and make our coffee down
on the lake shore, and some of you might like to take your fish poles
along, or rifles, if you have them. Possibly we could bag a few prairie
chickens for tomorrow’s dinner. The school board met last Wednesday
evening and decided that we were to have school on Friday afternoons
after this, but I believe this trip would be more fun than having Friday
afternoon free. It leaves the girls out for this week, but next week
we’ll think up something that they will enjoy. Sam, I’ll appoint you,
and if you need any help you may choose one other boy, to see if we can
get autos enough. Each of us will bring lunch for one and we’ll serve it
all together.”
Get the minds of your pupils to working on the new plan immediately and
thus drain off into harmless constructive action the emotions that
otherwise would vent themselves in mischief or rebellion.
The particular form of pleasure here outlined is suggested by the
location of the incident narrated above, namely in the Middle West. But
each teacher would, of course, choose the plan best suited to his own
location and the likings and circumstances of his own school. Some
teachers, for example, might prefer to have movie entertainments for
Friday evening, correlating the pictures exhibited with the school
subjects studied. Or a social gathering on Friday evening might be more
appealing in some schools—something good to eat, a little music, a few
games and a good time all round. The papers the children have prepared
during the week might be exhibited on a long table for parents to
examine. The girls would take great pride in helping to serve
refreshments.
COMMENTS
Such situations as faced Mr. Frank in the oil town are growing less
common as time passes; in frontier towns they occurred frequently.
Sometimes they occur still; and blessed is that school whose teacher, in
such a crisis, possesses quick wits, a knowledge of psychology, and
dauntless courage.
Mr. Frank did well to check the pupils as he did, when once the school
had reached the state of insubordination indicated in the story above,
but he was very seriously at fault in allowing the school to reach that
stage. His arbitrary handling of the situation undoubtedly was a
victory, but it was the kind of victory which assuredly would breed
contempt and resentment and plotting to “get even” with the man who had
tricked the pupils into an extra half day of study.
In depriving the pupils of what they regarded as a great privilege he
should have had a substitute plan which would have eased somewhat the
disappointment of the pupils. In this plan he should have retained his
rightful place as leader and thus by coöperating heartily in the
pleasure of the pupils, should have fully demonstrated to them that he
desired only their welfare.
So regulating a school as to _prevent_ a crisis is a higher type of
administrative ability than allowing crises to come, and then meeting
them with drastic measures, even though they seemed successful.
Occasionally it happens, even in good schools, that a student commits an
act so serious as to justify his being turned over to the juvenile or
other court. In such a case the principal may sometimes find it to his
advantage to coöperate with the court in trying to reclaim an unusually
bad and daring boy.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Extreme Cases]
Paul Thompson and Stephen Longman lived in a rapidly growing frontier
town in the West. They had the name of being reckless boys, and all
through their school days had caused more or less trouble to their
teachers and classmates. The boys especially disliked Mr. Black, the
teacher who had charge of the assembly study room. He was strict in his
requirements and very severe in reprimands, and these boys had frequent
occasions to feel the force of both. One evening when Mr. Black was
scheduled to give a lecture to the school, Stephen said to Paul, “Let’s
stiffen up Blackie’s backbone a bit, he’s too limp.”
“What d’yer mean?” questioned Paul.
“When he gets well to going tonight, you go to one door of the assembly
room and yell ‘Fire!’ at the top of your voice and I’ll go to the other
and do the same. Let’s see how long he’ll keep his dignity.”
The program was carried out to the letter. Suddenly, in the midst of the
lecture, rang out the cry, “Fire! Fire!”
The frightened students rose in a body and rushed for the door. In vain
Mr. Black tried to control their movements. His voice was drowned in the
uproar. In the desperate scramble for the doors that followed, many were
injured, one or two so seriously as to require hospital treatment.
Several others fainted. All were shocked and, of course, the meeting was
broken up. It was soon discovered that the whole thing was a joke, but
the harm was done. It could not be undone.
“There is only one thing more I can do for you, boys,” said the
principal, as he talked with them in his office the next day. “Your
offense is so serious that it is necessary to turn you over to the
courts. I am going to make one more effort to help you, however, in the
hope that it may save you from a term in the Reformatory. I have asked
the judge to pronounce your sentence, then place you on probation, thus
allowing you to finish your school course. Your only alternative is to
be given over unreservedly to the courts. Which do you prefer?”
“We prefer to stay here. We never meant that all those people should get
hurt, Mr. Wells,” said Stephen. “We just thought we’d scare them a
little.”
“We will go now over to the court house. I have already arranged with
Judge Sinclair to meet you there.”
Judge Sinclair listened to the boys’ story with great seriousness, and
after pointing out to them the legal aspects of their misdemeanor, said,
“As a special favor to your principal, with whom I have already
conferred, I shall give you one more chance. I have appointed Professor
Black your probation officer, with absolute authority over you.
“The court decides that you shall discipline yourself by submitting
implicity to the commands of others, and it is only through this severe
discipline that you will become men. The probation I shall order is not
going to be for your pleasure. You will submit to rough fare and to all
the privation and discipline of prison without going to prison. You will
be punished with hard work and regular living until you grow to like
it.”
The probation was to be considered broken if the boys:
Used liquors or tobacco in any form.
Entered a poolroom or saloon.
Disobeyed the probation officer.
Attended a movie, or went out nights without the probation
officer’s consent.
The officer was enjoined to see that the boys worked hard in school and
made all their grades. They must stay at home evenings and conduct
themselves quietly at all times. They were recommended to go to church
twice every Sunday.
The probation period was to continue until the court issued further
orders.
The serious consequences of their rash sport, the severity of the judge,
and the narrow escape from the reformatory, sobered the boys. They kept
their probation and graduated two years later, having won back at last
the forfeited respect of their teachers and classmates.
6. Submitting to Conventionalities
Probably a good many persons older than the two boys named below would
be puzzled to explain many of the conventions which they, nevertheless,
implicity obey. It is one of the curious manifestations of the
regulative instinct that we yield such humble submission to what are
oftentimes meaningless customs. On the other hand, this imitative sort
of regulation of one’s habits may often lay a foundation for desirable
conduct where a rational method applied in the beginning would have
failed utterly. The danger is that when the questioning period arrives
there may be only superficial answering of the oft-repeated question,
“Why?”
CASE 144 (FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADES)
[Sidenote: Why Remove Hats?]
Leonard and Karl Rosenbush were two sturdy little rationalists of ten
and twelve years. They despised poetry, utterly rejected fairy stories,
and took a strictly scientific view of life generally. They belonged to
a family of culture and refined tradition, and their attitude amused
their father greatly, while it reduced their mother to despair. She was
often unable to give them the reasons they demanded for what she had
always accepted without a question.
Miss Forbes, their teacher, was one day giving her room a lesson in good
manners. They were discussing modes of salutation when Karl raised a
vigorous protest to taking off his hat to women.
“Well, now, _why_ do we have to take off our hats to women any more than
to men?” he asked. “I don’t see why they’re so terribly good they have
to be treated like a church.”
“Why, Karl, I never heard of such ideas. Doesn’t your father take off
his hat to women?”
“Yes, and he can’t give any more reason than you can. All he did when I
asked him was to laugh and say I mustn’t be a barbarian. I’d rather be a
barbarian than to do such a senseless thing, anyway. Women aren’t any
better than men.”
“Karl, I want you to take off your hat to women now, and when you’re a
man you’ll know the reason why.”
“That’s it, put me off with ‘when I’m a man!’ Father said that, too. But
if there is any reason, why can’t you tell me now? It’s just like Santa
Claus—there isn’t any, and only little kids and girls believe it.”
Leonard nodded a vigorous amen to his brother’s heterodoxy, and Miss
Forbes let the matter drop because she did not know how to meet Karl’s
arguments, although she was sure he was wrong. The two boys took a
mischievous delight in passing her and other teachers on the street
without lifting their caps or even touching them.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
The child of a rationalistic temperament must be met with reasons; if a
thing is right there are always good reasons for it, and these may be
fully or partially explained to any child who is old enough to inquire
for them. In Karl’s case, both parents and teacher should have given him
the true reasons for the chivalrous regard for women which is symbolized
and expressed in the raising of hats. An intelligent boy of ten should
begin to rationalize the good manners which in earlier childhood are
pure habit.
Miss Forbes might pleasantly have answered Karl, that the ceremony to
which he objected is a conventionalized expression of the regard men
have for women. “You love your mother, don’t you? She does more for you
that you can repay, doesn’t she? Now, all other right-minded boys and
men feel the same way about their mothers. And so they all agreed, a
long time ago, that they would pay this mark of respect to women.”
This explanation would serve very well for the school, but it would be
wise to have a private talk with Karl and explain to him more fully the
considerations that underlie all chivalrous customs. Put upon a basis of
rationalized justice, the custom of hat-raising will win hearty support
from Karl, but as a mere matter of unexplained tradition it makes no
appeal whatever to him.
COMMENTS
We have here a case where the love of approbation, strong enough in the
average child to be used in fixing a good habit, does not function. Karl
does not care enough for the approbation of parents, teacher or friends
to make him do a thing not approved by his reason. The incident is
inserted here because it is exceptional and illustrates the occasional
case in which the love of approbation can not be used as an incentive.
As a rule, the love of approval, of being considered “a gentleman” or “a
little lady,” is strong enough to give all the motivation necessary for
teaching good manners.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
Miss Hendrickson taught in the town of Ridgeway, where the leading
industries were carried on in factories of various kinds. Nearly all the
parents worked in some one of these. Naturally, with their long hours of
work, these parents had little time for such secondary matters as
polishing their children’s manners. Most of them were thankful if they
could feed the hungry youngsters and provide a place where they could
sleep.
Miss Hendrickson soon became aware that the matter of teaching good
manners devolved upon her exclusively. She also felt that a direct
attack upon the rude customs of her pupils would be less effective than
indirect procedure, since refined manners in this particular community
usually resulted in having the scornful epithet, “Stuck-up!” attached to
the possessor of said manners.
[Sidenote: Interest in Manners]
After careful deliberation, Miss Hendrickson decided to take advantage
of the story period in laying the foundation for more explicit teaching
of manners later. Accordingly, she began the story of the feudal system
and the institution of chivalry that sprang from it, a story always
appealing to seventh and eighth grade pupils. She told how the feudal
lord had to build strong castles for the safety of his family in those
days of warfare. She vividly portrayed life in the castle, and showed
how women also often had to do brave, daring acts in defending the
castle when the husband was away. She explained how little boy pages
were trained to wait on the ladies of the castle and to be polite to
them, and how, when these same boys were older and became knights their
highest duty was to protect these women who had few neighbors and who
were shut up much of the time in the castles because it was unsafe to go
abroad, and how the women returned this care by making the homecoming a
very happy time for the lords and husbands whenever they came back from
war. As the story progressed from day to day, Miss Hendrickson developed
the thought that this sort of life in the castle gradually changed in
many ways the ideals and habits of the people. Poetry and music, for
other than religious purposes, began to be written and sung, and the
rude people who had formerly laughed at refinement in manners as
something effeminate and unsuited to a warrior, began to realize after a
while that a man could be brave and strong, yet at the same time be
gentle and polite toward women and toward all who were weaker or more
dependent than himself. So, in time, the lords began to vie with each
other to see who could be most polite or who could render the greatest
service to his lady.
Chivalry sprang up, and, indeed, died out, many hundreds of years ago,
yet it still has an influence over us, for we still use the term lady,
not meaning now, exclusively, the wife of a lord, but any woman who is
worthy of our respect. And a chivalrous man is still a man who is polite
to women, and who always springs to their defense whenever they need
protection. Gentlemen in those days meant a lord or someone of high
birth. But such men had more refined manners than had the other people,
or serfs, as they were called, having been trained in chivalry; and
today we use the term in this country to mean any man who has fine
manners.
Of course Miss Hendrickson told the story very much more in detail than
has been done here. She dwelt upon phases which she knew would strongly
appeal to the children and illustrated them with many pictures borrowed
from the library. She had the children bring in baskets of stones from
the river bank and asked two of the boys who had the most offensive
manners to build a miniature castle on the sand table. She read a few of
the poems sung by the minnesingers and troubadours, and the oath which
the squires must take before they could be dubbed knights.
All this time Miss Hendrickson had said very little about the personal
manners of her pupils, but she had substituted a new ideal regarding the
desirability of good manners for the crude one generally held by her
pupils. She had made such manners seem attractive, and thereafter when a
child was about to do some act which she could not approve, she would
often say, “What would a knight do, James, in such a case?” and many
times the suggestion was sufficient to induce the desired conduct.
7. Submitting to State Control
CASE 145 (EIGHTH GRADE)
The Longfellow School was situated in one of the most congested foreign
settlements of one of our largest and most cosmopolitan cities. Very few
of the parents of the pupils could speak any but the most broken
English. Many made no attempt to converse in the difficult language of
the strange new world to which they had come.
[Sidenote: Saluting Flag]
The board of education was particularly anxious that the children of
these foreign parents should be trained in appreciation of American
institutions and in reverence for the American Flag, with all it stands
for. They requested that all the national holidays should be made the
occasion of special programs to which parents should be invited and that
each afternoon when the schools were dismissed each pupil should salute
the flag both verbally and with the hand.
Most of the children entered into the custom without demur, but one boy
of fifteen, Hans Neuhaus, refused to give the salute.
“Hans, everyone is expected to give the salute,” said his teacher,
William Hoover. “Once more, now.” Still Hans remained silent.
“Hans, I wish you to give the salute with the others.”
“I don’t believe in saluting the flag,” said Hans. “It isn’t my flag,
anyhow. I’m not going to salute that flag.”
“Hans, you must salute it,” said the now exasperated teacher. “The board
requires it, and if you do not obey we can not have you in this school.”
“All right, then. I’ll go,” and Hans cooly took his books from his desk
and walked out.
Three days later, as Hans did not reappear at the school, he was
arrested for truancy and taken before the juvenile court. Under the
coercion of the court he was made to return to the school and to give
the daily salutes.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Try a roundabout way of getting at Hans’ difficulty. For a little while,
at least, appear not to notice that he is not joining with others.
Meanwhile, in the story period, or in the history class study, in a
simple and interesting way, tell the history of the flag and the
principles for which it stands. Imagine yourself in Hans’ place—that is,
that you are a foreigner in a strange land, and that it is the flag of
another country that you are asked to salute. What considerations would
make you willing to do it? When this question is answered in your own
mind, then set out to win the allegiance of Hans.
Keep watch on the playground to see if some of Hans’ hostility has not
been caused by unkind teasing on the part of other children.
COMMENTS
Only the outward form of loyalty can be brought about by force. Mr.
Hoover forgot that only an intelligent understanding and appreciation
can be the basis of true loyalty, and these require time in which to
develop. He should be more concerned, then, in the conditions favorable
to a steady growth of these attitudes than about mere compliance to
outward, conventional form. Saluting the flag and honoring the flag may
be two quite different acts.
ILLUSTRATION (THIRD GRADE)
[Sidenote: Honoring the Flag]
Miss Beardsley, of the Lincoln School in Newport, taught her class, by
many little talks and allusions to venerate the ideals of the national
flag rather than the flag itself. “Only noble-hearted persons have a
right to stand under that flag,” she often said. Then, when some
especially praiseworthy act had been performed by any child during the
day, she would call that one forward to stand under the flag that was
gracefully draped in the corner of her school-room, while the others
gave the salute just before going home at the close of the day’s
session. The children soon began to vie with each other, in helping a
younger child, in being polite, keeping desks tidy—anything that would
especially entitle them to stand under the flag—the greatest honor the
teacher could confer. Thus the pupils learned to associate true
patriotism, so far as a young child could understand it, with the symbol
of state control.
8. Self-Regulation
(1) _Wise choices in human relationships._ Sooner or later in the life
of every normal child, the more or less arbitrary control of parent and
teacher must give way to self-regulation of conduct. Happy is that boy
or girl who has been unconsciously practiced in self-control and wise
choosing before that day comes when he no longer has a wise counselor at
hand in life’s startling emergencies.
CASE 146 (HIGH SCHOOLS)
“Well, you’re going to the gayest place on the coast, and when you come
back in the fall I shall expect you to bring us some startling ideas for
our winter fun, Constance. Do see if you can’t pick up something really
new. We’ve done the same old thing so long, you know! Well, goodbye.
Have a good time!”
[Sidenote: Choosing Companions]
Miss Osgood stood on the platform and waved her handkerchief to the Yule
children and their delicate little mother, who were off for Greenwood
Beach for the month of August. The Yule young people were much flattered
by Miss Osgood’s attention, for she was a young matron in a very
fashionable private “finishing school” for young ladies. She was also
quite a favorite in the society outside of the school, as well as the
organizer of all the social functions within it. Constance, especially
(who at eighteen had just finished high school and would be “coming out”
next winter), thought she was a lucky girl to have Miss Osgood notice
her in such a way as to indicate that it would be possible for her to
suggest valuable ideas to Miss Osgood’s fertile mind. Inwardly she
resolved that if any startling ideas were floating around at Greenwood
Beach, she would bring them back and lay them at Miss Osgood’s feet. Her
brother Clarence, a sophomore at college; Helen, who was a high school
sophomore, and Kenyon, just finishing grammar school, were as eager as
Constance for good times; but Constance was the leader, and as her
mother was not strong enough thoroughly to oversee her children’s lives,
Constance led the others in whatever they did.
“Oh, you dear—it’s so lucky you came tonight!” one of her friends
gushed, as they entered the hotel which was to be their temporary home,
late Saturday afternoon. “We’re planning a coaching party for all day
tomorrow, and need two more to make up the party. Won’t you and your
brother go?”
Constance reflected. She knew her mother, who was at the desk arranging
for rooms, would want them to go to church the next day, and to rest
after the long trip. Still, going to church and resting gave one no
startling ideas, and it was certainly not having “a good time.” So she
consented, and later cajoled her reluctant mother into a grudging
consent.
Having started out with the idea of social gayety rather than of rest
and recreation, Constance soon became a leader in the gayest life at the
hotel. She even planned the champagne supper at the old sailors’ tavern,
which was written up in the New York papers. Her old friends, the
wholesome girls with whom she had tramped and gone swimming in previous
summers, soon found that she had no time for them, and began to avoid
her. The month resolved itself, for her and Clarence and Helen, into a
feverish rush of engagements. Constance came home in September tired and
sophisticated, but full of those sensational ideas that Miss Osgood had
said she wanted. She met Miss Osgood at a tea before long, and hoping to
gain her notice and become her companion, she regaled the ladies present
with a lively account of her summer’s gayety.
After she had gone, there was a little silence. Then Miss Osgood said to
the other women:
“Isn’t it a pity the Greenwood Beach should have spoiled Constance so?
She was such a sweet girl last summer, and now she seems like a jaded
old society belle, and a belle not too particular as to her companions
at that. I suppose she’ll be the rage this winter, but I shall rather
steer clear of her.”
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Constance’s case calls for the application of the principles of
suggestion and of initiative in coöperation. See to it that no young
person who has been under your influence for a period of months or years
goes to a new and different world without trying to indicate to that
person how he or she may get the best rather than the worst out of the
novel experience. A little conversation as to the purpose of the trip, a
few suggestions as to the interesting places that may be visited, a
little reading together of the historical or other literature connected
with the new field, a helpful word as to how the trip may be made
beneficial to the friends who are not fortunate enought to enjoy such
pleasures, may give direction to ambitions which otherwise will expend
themselves upon unworthy ends.
COMMENTS
Girls and boys in the adolescent period are possessed of so many
conflicting ideals that they may be turned in any one of half a dozen
directions at a psychological moment. Just at the time when Constance
was feeling very grown up, and was looking forward to a very vivid
experience of some kind, Miss Osgood thoughtlessly dropped the
suggestion which colored all of Constance’s thoughts and acts during her
vacation. Instead of trying to gain Miss Osgood’s approbation she should
have spent her month in growing strong and brown in the open air, in
helping to make the life at the hotel simple and wholesome and
health-building; but Miss Osgood’s influence all went the other way.
It is important that even chance acquaintances watch their casual
injunctions to young people, not only because they may have so much more
influence than they dream, but also because they may speak at a time
when the mind of the hearer is peculiarly sensitive to suggestion.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: A Wise Choice]
Dodge Monroe was changing from the East High School to the Sidney
Lanier, because his parents were moving farther out in the suburbs. A
few nights before they left for their new home, the Claytons gave the
Monroes a farewell dinner, and Dodge, much to his delight, was included
in the invitation. It was his first dinner party, and in his new Tuxedo
he felt very grown up and manly.
Over the salad Mr. Clayton turned to Dodge, who was beginning to feel a
bit left out of the grown people’s conversation.
“And you change now to the Sidney Lanier High School?” he inquired.
“Yes, sir. I start there next Monday.”
“I know they’re sorry to lose you in the East, but you’ll make an
equally good record in Sidney Lanier. And it must be an inspiration to
any boy to attend a school named after such a man. He could hardly be
unworthy, having such an example of manhood always before him.”
Dodge knew nothing about Sidney Lanier, but this aroused his curiosity,
and on Sunday afternoon he went to the branch library and read up on
Sidney Lanier. As the details of that brave and beautiful life became
real to him, he found himself measuring his own character by the
standard of Lanier’s. He took out Lanier’s “_Boy’s Froissart_” to read.
That week he met dozens of new boys. Being frank and strong, he was
liked at once, and many acquaintances offered. Some of the boys seemed
all that boys should be; others, he knew, his mother would not approve
as his friends. This thought came to him:
“Back at East I’d just grown up with the fellows, and knew everybody.
Here there’s a bigger school, and I can’t know them all. I’ll have to
choose. If I’m trying to make myself like Sidney Lanier, why not try
some such test in regard to the fellows?”
This is what Dodge did, more or less consciously. Mr. Clayton’s
admiration for a fine man, expressed in the most casual way, had a
determining effect upon Dodge’s character.
(2) _Religious attitudes._ If regulation of conduct between man and man
must become eventually a matter of individual choosing, in a still
higher degree must religious attitudes become an issue for
self-regulation. The teacher’s problem, then, is to throw about the
pupil a social environment which shall stimulate the pupil’s highest
ideals, but yet without encroaching upon his individual liberty and
responsibility.
CASE 147 (HIGH SCHOOL)
Mr. Grey was distressed at the lack of church-going in the little town
to which he had come as principal. A very religious man himself, he
never missed a service and never failed to find satisfaction and help in
one, no matter how unprofitable it might seem to others. When,
therefore, he observed that few of his high school pupils attended the
village church, he resolved to talk to them about it.
[Sidenote: Going to Church]
“I want to talk to you about a matter which is far more important to you
than your education,” he began “Education will fit you to do your part
well in this world, but religion teaches you about the world to come,
and is, therefore, more valuable to you, since eternity so far
transcends time. I am here to train your minds, but unless you go to
church your souls, which are far more important than your minds, have no
training at all. ‘What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?’ Right now, while you’re young, you ought to be
forming church-going habits, even if you don’t care for church. You’ll
get used to it, and even come to like it in time, if you don’t at
first.”
There was more of the same sort of appeal, to all of which Mr. Grey’s
pupils listened politely, for they respected him highly, but none of
which seemed to swell the church attendance on Sunday. Although he
succeeded in other respects, in this one matter Mr. Grey had to
acknowledge that his efforts led nowhere.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Let the appeal for church attendance, like many others, be based on
interest. All young people like company, action, color and music;
therefore, most little children like Sunday School, but when they reach
an age at which the church does not offer them these inducements, they
are likely to stop unless kept in by family influence. Make your appeal
according to the age of your pupils and their tastes.
COMMENTS
Mr. Grey talked to his pupils of things they knew little or nothing
about. This world is very real to the young; the next world is very
shadowy and hypothetical. The only persons whom Mr. Grey’s appeal would
reach would be those pupils who had been brought up with religious
training—_i. e._, the children who would not need it. In separating
education and religion, time and eternity, mind and soul, he used
outworn and abandoned conceptions of things, foreign alike to modern
thoughts and to pupils’ knowledge. In assuming that they would not like
it at first, he frightened them away from the duty urged upon them.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
Mr. Tate, teaching also in one of the small towns in which church-going
was out of fashion, said to his boys and girls:
[Sidenote: Correlate Church and School]
“Mr. Corithers told me that he was going to preach about Phœnician ships
next Sunday. I wondered how he could make a sermon out of that subject,
but he wouldn’t tell me. As we’ve just been studying about this matter,
I suggest that we all hear this sermon Sunday, and then we’ll discuss it
Monday.”
He and Mr. Corithers had talked over ways and means, and had together
planned a series of sermons that should correlate with some of the
school work being done. They planned to have simple and dignified music,
and talk little about eternity until the young people had been led far
enough in the spiritual life to know they had souls. The services,
concrete and beautiful, and the sermons, which were planned to reach
their hearers, were attended and enjoyed by Mr. Tate’s pupils.
Mr. Tate did not urge his pupils to go to church without a conviction
that they should do so, and a knowledge that they would hear something
they could understand. He and the minister planned earnestly and well to
get results, and won.
CASE 148 (PRIVATE SCHOOL)
“Well, what do you think of the girls by this time?” The kindly old
president looked hard at Miss Swallow, who had just finished her second
month as a teacher in a girls’ private school.
“I think they are lovely girls, and I like to work with them,” she
replied. “With one exception, they could hardly be better.”
“With one exception? And what is that?”
[Sidenote: Time for Bible]
“The matter of piety. This is a church school, and yet I feel a real
lack of a spirit of devotion among the girls. When I visit their rooms,
I see all sorts of books in evidence except the Bible. When I attend the
Y. W. C. A. meetings, it seems to me that most of the girls give
evidence of a very superficial sort of religious experience.”
“What you say is true. I have often thought of it myself. But what can
we do? I urge the girls not to neglect their spiritual interests, in
chapel. And every Lent we have special meetings.”
“I’ll study the situation a little and tell you what I think about it,
Dr. Dayton.”
“Do, please. I am anxious to better things if I can.”
In a few days Miss Swallow was back in the president’s office.
“I think I’ve found the reason for the trouble,” she said, “and the
remedy is simple. We expect our girls to grow strong here, and so
provide them a gymnasium and a tennis court, and give them time for
exercise. We expect them to eat, and provide a meal time; we expect them
to sleep, and make them put out their lights and go to bed. But we
expect them to cultivate the spiritual life without providing any
special time for it. There is not even a five-minute period for
devotions and quiet during the day.”
“But girls say their prayers and read their Bibles at night, don’t
they?”
“Yes, if they do it at all. They do it when they are tired with the long
day’s work and play, and their attention is not particularly drawn to it
by any stipulated time set aside for devotions. I think we should
emphasize our idea of the importance of devotions by giving it time
during the day.” She outlined a plan, and they agreed to try it in the
winter term.
They provided a fifteen-minute “quiet time” just before breakfast, which
every girl was expected to use in meditation and prayer. After a time
they changed it to fifteen minutes after breakfast, before classes
began; this worked much better. Girls who had never given any time to
devotions now found a time provided, and a lack of distractions which
suggested a compliance with the expectation. Girls who had always wanted
to, but could never find time, now began systematically to study the
_New Testament_ or the “_Imitation_.” There was no compulsion about it,
but the suggestion of the definite provision for the cultivation of the
inner life bore abundant fruit in lives made gracious by its growth.
CASE 149 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Religious Perplexities]
Mr. Horne had won the respect and devotion of the high school boys by
his efficient and conscientious coaching of the athletic teams.
Therefore, it was not strange that one of the boys, Donald Hope, came to
him one day after school, and, after much hesitation, plunged into a
discussion of religious faith.
“Now, our minister says we ought to believe,” he said, “and I don’t see
how we’re to believe a thing that we never saw or felt or heard, but
that people just tell us is so. It isn’t scientific. I don’t want to be
wicked, you know—he says you’re condemned if you don’t believe; but
how’s a person to believe when he doesn’t?”
Mr. Home was greatly puzzled by this question, and much troubled as
well. He hardly knew whether to attempt to answer it or not; finally, he
decided he would better not.
“You ask Mr. Curtis about it, Donald,” he said. (Mr. Curtis was the
minister whose teaching Donald had reported.) “You see, I’m a public
school teacher, and we are not allowed by law to teach religion.
Besides, I’ve never thought much about such matters, and I might tell
you wrong.”
Donald went away with a heavy heart. Mr. Home was the one person in whom
he had faith enough to take to him this big and serious question, and he
had failed him. He did not think for a moment of going to Mr. Curtis,
who was elderly and inclined to be dogmatic. He resolved to wait until
chance might bring him an explanation of his difficulties.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
“Never fail to help where help is needed.” Even if giving help involves
research into new fields, this is a good ideal for teachers to live up
to.
Mr. Horne, finding himself unable to help Donald, should have promised
him at least to think about the matter, and the two might have discussed
it freely and in sympathetic sharing of a difficulty which most people
have faced at some time or other.
COMMENTS
There is nothing unlawful or wrong in helping students with their
personal difficulties, religious or otherwise, if this is done outside
the classroom and outside of school hours. On the other hand, it is a
very serious thing indeed to fail to help a human being who needs help.
The rationalizing of faith is not so insuperable a difficulty as it
appears to be when one first faces it. There are a number of books
dealing with the question, and these Mr. Horne might have found and
read, both for his own sake and for Donald’s. The whole structure of
civilization is built on faith, and religious faith is but a higher form
of that which children have in their parents or pupils in teachers.
CASE 160 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Saintly Recluse]
She was an anemic-looking girl of fifteen, her pretty brown hair pulled
tightly back and braided with Puritanic neatness, her thin little body
clad in the most severe of gingham frocks. Miss Corliss noticed her the
first day, noted her letter-perfect recitation in English and her
aloofness from the other students, and wondered what her story was.
In a few days the Juniors came to Miss Corliss for advice and help in
planning their fall frolic. When they came to the business of assigning
committees, she made a special plea that Susan should be given some work
to do, as she wanted to see her on friendlier terms with her classmates.
“Susan White? Oh, she’ll never have anything to do with the parties. She
thinks they’re wicked. She stays at home and reads the Bible all the
time, Miss Corliss.”
“But if you ask her, won’t she help with the work and come to the
party?”
“No, Miss Corliss, we’ve tried it. We used to invite her but she always
turned us down, and now we don’t bother. Her mother is kind of crazy
about religion, I guess, and Susan is growing to be just like her.”
Miss Corliss talked to Susan and found her sweetly frank about her
views. She was in no sense “crazy,” but she had been led to a piety
unusual in one so young, through the influence of her widowed mother,
who had found consolation for bereavement in extreme devotion. Susan,
feeling it her duty to devote herself to her mother, had gladly denied
herself the usual pleasures of youth and found real joy in her
asceticism.
“What can you do for her?” the principal, Mr. Waiting, asked.
“Do for her? I shall not do anything for her—she doesn’t need anything
done for her. She is not abnormal; she is only unusual. She is one of
the happiest girls in school, but she is one of the occasional people,
very occasional nowadays, who find their whole happiness in a very
personal, mystic type of religious service. To try to make her over to
be like the other girls would be a great mistake.”
“But this isn’t the age of the religious recluse, you know.”
“Yes, I know. That’s why one mustn’t interfere with them. If she were
living in the time of Saint Francis or of Jonathan Edwards, I should
suspect that her saintliness was copied from a model too often urged
upon her. As it is, she keeps to her mysticism and asceticism in spite
of every suggestion to the contrary here at school. I shall watch her
for signs of unhealthfulness, but as yet I don’t see any. She has as
much right, you know, to develop her talent for religious devotion as
Stanley Brand has to develop his for mechanics.”
“I never thought of it in that light. Well, probably you’re right, only,
as you say, be on the lookout for signs of a pathological development.”
COMMENTS
Miss Corliss is to be commended for her attempt to interest Susan’s
classmates in her behalf. It is unfortunate, however, that she dropped
the matter upon learning that Susan herself preferred to be left out of
their sport. There is no incompatibility between innocent fun and a
devoted religious life. To sacrifice entirely the one is to make the
other onesided in its development. Sunshine as well as shadow is
necessary for healthy growth in any of the _higher_ types of life.
Susan’s habit of isolating herself from her associates might easily
become so fixed as greatly to injure her future prospects in life.
Coöperation, rather than isolation, is to be the watchword of the future
and ability to coöperate with one’s fellows can be learned only through
actual experience—an experience that Susan was failing to get.
Finally, Susan’s own physical health required a more vigorous and varied
type of life. It is highly significant that the account, as it comes to
us, describes Susan as anemic. This pathological condition of the body
was undoubtedly, in part at least, both cause and effect of Susan’s
mental attitude—one by no means to be encouraged to the exclusion of all
recreative activities. If not strong enough to indulge in the more
vigorous sports of her classmates, Susan should at least be led to feel
it incumbent upon herself to share in such activities as did not tax her
strength too severely.
DIVISION IX
He’s armed without that’s innocent within.
—_Pope._
CASES ARISING OUT OF SEX INSTINCTS
The issues that gather around sex interests of children and young people
are numerous, vexatious and unceasingly important.
A sane teacher does not disclose a morbid concern in sex affairs,
neither does he avoid dealing with insistent problems. In fact, he
proceeds much as does a sympathetic father with his son or daughter.
Naturally any effective disciplinary measures must be supported by
accurate information as to the nature of sex life and sex actions of
children. The administrator must know a great deal more than he tells;
he is never to be surprised by disclosures of sexual misconduct.
1. Objectionable Games—Unconscious Sex Attraction
CASE 151 (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: “Three Deep”]
Prof. Walsh, principal of Burrell High School, observed his pupils
playing a game called “Three Deep.” This game, played by the boys and
girls together and calling for choices of confederates to be made,
seemed to him to lead to romance and he therefore talked against it. He
finally demanded that the pupils quit playing this game altogether.
Attaching more importance to the game than it really merited, the pupils
played it all the more after school hours.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Mr. Walsh should have led the pupils to enjoy another game and should
have said nothing about the one he disliked. Having decided upon what to
substitute for this one he should say: “I know of a game I believe you
will all enjoy. I will show you how it is played.” To insure enthusiasm
in the new play he should speak to two or three of the leaders among the
pupils, a day or two before the game is introduced, saying, “I know of a
fine game that I think we ought to play here; as soon as I find time I
will teach it to you. You are quick to see into a new proposition, so I
want you to help me get it started as soon as you understand how it is
played.”
COMMENTS
By the enlistment of the interest of several pupils you are more likely
to make a success of your new game. If pupils have plenty of chance to
play together in wholesome activities they will be much more likely to
take a matter-of-fact view of association with opposite sexes than if
their attention is called to the harmful qualities of a game and they
are then asked to stop playing it. The forbidden is alluring to high
school pupils and to young children alike. Therefore, without reference
to the often-played game, the teacher should substitute a better one in
its place.
ILLUSTRATION 1 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Prize Athletics]
In the gymnasium of the Bradley High School the students introduced
social dancing during intermissions. Mr. Burgess, the principal,
understood well the favorable attitude of some of his patrons toward
dancing. He, therefore, as a counter attraction, organized two athletic
clubs in the school, one for girls and one for boys.
He offered small prizes to the best shot-putter, runner, walker,
vaulter, etc., the prizes to be given in the following May on a field
day, the gate receipts of which would pay for the prizes. The girls were
offered prizes in archery, tennis and croquet and were asked to train
two opposing baseball teams selected from their numbers.
Field day was a grand success. The health of the pupils had been
conserved and nobody but Mr. Burgess himself knew the real reason why
the clubs had been organized.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Kissing Games]
The small high school at Lexington had fallen into the deplorable habit
of playing kissing games during intermissions. Mr. Poe, the principal,
decided to turn the attention of the students into a less dangerous and
disgusting channel. He decided upon asking the pupils to help beautify
the school grounds and buildings.
He appointed two seniors to choose sides, so that every pupil in the
high school would be on one side or the other. He then assigned the
north half of the buildings and grounds to one side. On fine days they
raked, mowed, planted flowers and vines, placed shrubs, etc., on stormy
days they planned interior decorations. At the close of the school year
a committee from the town not only decided which side had done best
work, but declared that the pupils had gained much practical knowledge
and that the schoolhouse and grounds had never looked so well before.
2. Sex Consciousness
It is toward the end of the second year that boys often begin to show
tendencies toward evil habits. This tendency does not appear because the
boys of themselves grow bad at this time; it is a matter of imitation.
In the country school the younger pupils come in contact with older boys
who lead them into evil, and the same is true in villages and cities. It
might be that could the growing boy never come into association with
evil it would not become the teacher’s necessity to use the fundamental
principles in such a way as to hold the boy’s confidence. It cannot be
denied that if he has the confidence of the boys he can control them. No
problem, however, requires greater wisdom in the handling.
CASE 152 (SECOND GRADE)
[Sidenote: Sex Hygiene]
Miss Marlowe, the second grade teacher at High Falls, had noticed by
Charlie Moncrief’s nervousness, his sometimes vacant stare, and his
frequent misuse of his hands, that he needed to be taught on the subject
of sex hygiene, but she did not know how best to bring about such
instruction. So she kept up a continual corrective set of admonitions
like the following:
“Charlie, be quiet and listen to this story.”
“Study your spelling, Charlie.”
“Charlie, come up here and stand by my desk.”
And so throughout the year, Miss Marlowe ignored the facts that ought to
have led to a reformation of this little boy’s habits.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
When a child shows he has not been given careful teaching relative to
sex hygiene, go to his mother and advise her to take the child to a
physician. Explain the physical as well as the moral and mental help it
may be to the child to have one of two very slight operations performed,
after which, with proper diet and bathing, the boy may easily forget his
wrong habits.
COMMENTS
Children can best be taught at home on matters of sex hygiene. This is
especially true of children in the lower grades. Mothers, as a rule,
gladly respond to a teacher’s or physician’s suggestions for improving
the health of their children.
ILLUSTRATION (FOURTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: School Nurse Instructs]
Miss Morris, a fourth grade teacher, called together the mothers of her
pupils and asked a trained nurse who lived in the village to address
them on sex hygiene. After the talk, Miss Morris said: “The subject just
discussed is a most important one. I shall be very glad, indeed, to make
reports to any mothers whose children, in my judgment, need attention
relative to this subject, if it is the wish of the mothers here present
for me to do so.”
A vote was taken and the mothers thus expressed their desire to have
such help as the teacher could render. Thereafter she felt perfectly
free to go to them whenever it seemed necessary to discuss this great
subject, so pertinent to a child’s welfare.
CASE 153 (FOURTH GRADE)
Miss Vane saw a note fall upon Mary Pratt’s desk. She said,
“Mary, bring that note to me.”
The child, she knew had not yet read the note. Greatly embarrassed, Mary
looked questioningly at Clyde Mitchel before starting toward Miss Vane.
[Sidenote: Improper Notes]
Contrary to the courtesy which teachers admonish pupils to show, Miss
Vane stood up, opened the note and perused it in the presence of the
school. While she was looking at the note, Clyde Mitchel buried his
scarlet face in his book.
“You wrote this note, didn’t you, Clyde?” asked Miss Vane.
Clyde only nodded “Yes,” and burrowed even deeper into his book.
“This is a shameful note,” said Miss Vane. “It contains words that no
child should ever write or speak. You may stay after school, Clyde.”
The boys waited at the second corner from the school house for Clyde
after school.
In about ten minutes Clyde came running toward them.
“What did she do, Clyde?” they asked.
“Aw, nothing; she just preached a little and gave me a few licks that
wouldn’t hurt a baby.”
“What was in the note, anyway?”
He told them exactly what was in the note, and a loud “Hurray!” went up
from the group of listeners. The subject of conversation among these
boys as they went on down the street was as full of unclean words and
suggestions as the worst boys in the group could think up.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
If you can not deal with sex subjects privately, with pupils in the
lower grades, do not deal with them at all. Miss Vane made a mistake in
reading or referring to the note in the presence of others. In her
efforts to suppress such foul communications she occasioned a talk upon
the unnamable topics by all of her own room and many in other rooms as
well.
COMMENTS
Public punishment of culprits who offend by talking or writing on sex
subjects only occasions more such talk. It is like trying to quench fire
by brandishing a fire-brand which emits live sparks in every direction,
each one of which starts a conflagration.
ILLUSTRATION (THIRD GRADE)
[Sidenote: Avoid Spreading Harm]
When Sadie Moore picked up a note from the floor and handed it to Miss
Dietz, who taught the third grade, the teacher allowed no one to see her
when she read the note. She said privately to Sadie: “I desire that you
say nothing to any one about that note. That is the best way to help me
in this matter.” She studied the handwriting and note paper and fixed
the blame to a certainty upon Conrad James. She resolved at once to keep
sharp eyes on that boy, unknown to him, and to see that he had no chance
to have unrestricted conservation with other pupils for a while. She
supervised all play periods and thereby assured herself that no harm
should come to any one of her pupils through association with him.
CASE 154 (SEVENTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Morbid Sex-consciousness]
Pearl Goodwin’s mother was a widow of ill-repute in the village. The
eighth grade girls slighted Pearl hourly. They avoided sitting with her
whenever possible; they gave her too wide a space at the blackboard
while the rest of them stood so close together as to crowd their work;
she went sadly to and from school, walking alone, for none of the others
would walk with her.
The teacher, Miss Terman, herself a native of the village, understood,
and made no effort to change the situation.
One day Pearl brought a shameful note to Miss Terman, saying that she
found it on her desk. Miss Terman was shocked and made public inquiry as
to where the note came from. Some of the girls felt sorry for Pearl and
showed it by their attitude toward her. The writer was not discovered.
Every day, thereafter, for a week, Pearl showed a similar note to Miss
Terman, and the mystery grew and with it sympathy for Pearl. Daily Miss
Terman made a speech about the notes and asked help in finding out the
writer.
Finally, in despair, she consulted the superintendent of the school.
When he heard the history of the case he said:
“I believe that Pearl herself is the writer of those notes. Her mind has
been poisoned on the sex subject by taunts. I believe she is the only
one in your room who would write such notes.”
With this thought in mind, Miss Terman sought evidence of Pearl’s guilt.
She was not long in finding the half leaves in Pearl’s tablet from which
the paper for the notes had been torn. She even found Pearl writing a
note, and got her pitiful confession of taking this way to call
attention and sympathy to herself.
Miss Terman sentenced Pearl to isolation for the remainder of the school
year (about two months). She was compelled to take her seat as soon as
she arrived at school in the morning and at noon, to have a separate
recess from the others, and remain in her seat after school closed until
the other children had time to reach their homes.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
Miss Terman should have drawn Pearl into the games of the other girls
early in the year. She should have said to the leader among the girls,
in private. “You have it in your hands to make a classmate happy or
miserable. You, yourself, will enjoy school better if no girl is made
sad and lonely. I know that the other girls will follow your lead and,
therefore, I desire that you invite Pearl Goodwin into your school games
and give her an opportunity to know and like good company.”
COMMENTS
Miss Terman, by allowing the note-writing to be publicly known, caused
an epidemic of undesirable talk in her school. She kept this in mind
daily by her isolation program for Pearl. It is only when all are
concerned in a question of this kind that a public talk should be made
on questions of sex.
ILLUSTRATION (EIGHTH GRADE)
[Sidenote: Hygienic Toilet Rooms]
Enoch Fites found the disgraceful condition of the toilet rooms
belonging to his school to be a source of great temptation and danger to
his pupils. He first solved the general problem of winning his pupils’
confidence. He was a master in quietly introducing improvements in the
school. For example, he secured funds for a splendid clock, which was
connected with the Western Union Telegraph wires and was corrected every
hour. He established a manual training department and set every boy in
high school and in the eighth grade at a bench.
He opened up a domestic science department. He organized tennis teams
and put through a large number of important measures.
When the appropriate time came, he found no difficulty in putting the
toilet rooms for boys in a sanitary condition and keeping them so. He
remarked to a visitor,
“I have not inspected those rooms for two months, but I know just how
they are kept.”
“How in the world do you manage it?”
“I put it up to my boys. I made the toilet rooms entirely adequate for
their needs and then put it up to my boys to keep them clean. They have
never disappointed me.”
3. Meeting the Boy and Girl Question
CASE 155 (HIGH SCHOOL)
When Mr. Harley went to take up his work as superintendent of the
Jamesville High School, he said to a teacher who had served there the
year before: “I believe in preparedness—what was your greatest
disciplinary problem last year?”
[Sidenote: High School Parties]
“Parties, without a doubt,” she replied. “The last party or the coming
party occupied the minds of the students to the exclusion of their
studies. They were out late at night and consequently did mediocre work,
even the brightest of them.”
“Was nothing done to stop party going?”
“Well, you see, many of the parents upheld the pupils in what they
called their social education, so Mr. Turner (the former superintendent)
didn’t try to prohibit parties.”
“I’m glad to have this information,” replied Mr. Harley.
Later, when the pupils were known to be planning a hallowe’en party, Mr.
Harley announced that he would suspend every pupil who attended any
party at any time during the school year, without first securing his
permission, and that such permission would be given only very rarely.
A storm of protest from the pupils was seconded by several mothers, who
called upon Mr. Harley to discuss the social aspect of education.
When, after a nerve-racking day, he told Mrs. Hines, the leading society
woman of the village, that he must carry out his own plans _unaided by
the parents_, he unwisely aroused the opposition of so many of his
patrons that his work in Jamesville was very seriously handicapped and
he resigned at the end of his first year there.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
A Parent-Teachers’ Club should be organized in every school. Early in
the year a meeting of the club should be devoted to the discussion of
out-of-school-hour entertainments. The superintendent should have the
pros and cons presented before the club by both parents and teachers.
The teacher who upholds parties should advise mothers to talk often with
their children upon the subject of desirable companions; to forego all
teasing of the sons and daughters about “girls” and “beaux”; and to see
to it that the young people have wise chaperons.
COMMENTS
Much of the mischief that arises from parties is due to parents.
Realizing this to be the case, teachers should find a way to talk to
mothers about how to win and hold the confidence of their children
during the trying high school period. The girls should also be
admonished by their teachers to talk to their mothers freely about their
social affairs.
ILLUSTRATION 1 (HIGH SCHOOL)
Miss Fanson was a high school teacher who was justly admired by the
girls under her care. She had talked to the girls about the deference
and homage which they should show to their parents in social matters.
Alice Grant believed that Miss Fanson was exactly right, hence was
willing to act upon her teacher’s advice.
Since she had entered high school, boys had suddenly become very
interesting to Alice. She blushed one afternoon as she plucked up her
courage to reveal certain developments to her mother.
“Mother, the Freshmen are going to give a party, and a boy in my German
class has asked me to go. May I?” Her voice affected indifference.
[Sidenote: Retaining Control]
But Mrs. Grant knew her young daughter and saw through that coolness.
Her Alice was excited and flushed and happy over a boy! And she stared
blankly for a moment as the realization forced its way. Then a
tempestuous refusal from a heart that resented her little girl’s growing
up sprang swiftly to her lips, but she kept back the words. It did,
indeed, hurt to have Alice begin to be a young lady, but could even she,
the most adoring of mothers, restrain time and the youth that was
blossoming in her child?
“I’ll have to think it over, Alice. I’ll tell you in the morning.”
And Alice went to her studying, confident that, whatever her mother
decided, she would be just and allow only big reasons to weigh with her.
Mrs. Grant thought it over and that night talked it over with her
husband.
“She’s absurdly young—only fifteen,” he objected.
“Yes, but absurdly natural, too, and strong in her desires. I fear, if I
refuse, it may only surround boys with a mysterious glamour for her, and
she might then be tempted to associate with them in spite of me, and any
secrecy or deceit just now is dangerous. And you know our Alice is
growing pretty.”
Mr. Grant regretted and bemoaned the loss of his little girl, but
agreed. “But who is this boy?” he demanded. “Do you know him?”
“No. But I’m going to know all her friends from now on.”
And next morning, when Alice, pink-cheeked and eager-eyed, sought her
mother’s decision, she welcomed the “Yes” with a little squeal of
delight.
“But I’ve been thinking, Alice,” her mother added, “that I’d like to
know the boys and girls you’re going with. Wouldn’t you like to ask some
of them over here some evening before the party?”
“Would I? Well, rather! Mother, you’re a dear.”
“And what about a dress. I suppose you’d like a new one?” Further
question was stifled by an enthusiastic hug.
So they talked of the party and the dress, and then it was not far to
“the boys” and Alice’s new feeling for them. And Mrs. Grant felt that
the sweet intimacy she was entering with this new daughter more than
compensated for the loss of the little girl, who had suddenly become a
young woman.
When Alice returned from the party her mother showed interest in each
detail that her daughter related. She remarked: “You must have had loads
of fun—what did you have to eat? What did you especially like in the
conduct of your classmates?” It is while such concrete subjects are
being discussed that much guidance can be given the daughter in her
formation of opinions as to what is proper or improper conduct. A
teacher who brings about such intimacy as this incident illustrates has
done much for both mother and daughter.
ILLUSTRATION 2 (HIGH SCHOOL)
Miss Canfield took hold of her work with genuine interest as science
teacher in the James Fisk High School. Her knowledge of girl nature was
sufficient to save her from many blunders. Mary Turner was her problem.
A giddy set was overturning nearly all of the constructive work done for
her by her teachers.
Miss Canfield decided to go over matters with Mrs. Turner, Mary’s
mother. In the conversation, Mrs. Turner saw where she must take a hand
in Mary’s affairs.
[Sidenote: Overcoming Undesirable Influences]
There was no doubt but what Cecily Gregg, a classmate, was having a bad
influence on Mary. Mrs. Turner rocked fitfully between stitches and
remembered how sweet and natural Mary had been before she got so
intimate with Cecily. But now she was catching some of that young lady’s
affected ways, and, Mrs. Turner feared, some of her lack of modesty with
boy companions. Cecily was seventeen, and Mary, a year younger,
respected her opinions greatly, and gloated over her popularity with
certain overdressed and rather sporty youths who took her about to
picture shows and ice cream parlors. Cecily was slowly convincing Mary
that theirs was the type to admire.
And Mrs. Turner had unwittingly let Mary drift so far from her influence
of late, that she felt helpless. She dared say nothing openly against
Cecily. Mary would only flare up in defense and stand more staunchly for
her friend. If she laid down rules, Mary might secretly break them, and
if she tried to make subtle suggestions, the girl was certain to pounce
on her meaning and resent it.
Mary came home from school that day full of plans for her birthday
party.
“Cecily says I must get some new dance records for the victrola. Ours
are all passé. And I’m going to make little crepe paper favors, by a
cute pattern that Cecily knows. And she wants me to ask Cousin Ralph. Do
you think he’d think us too young for him, since he’s finished college?
I’m crazy to have him meet Cecily! He’ll be ‘dippy’ about her.”
While Mary chattered, a thought lodged by Miss Canfield came to Mrs.
Turner. If she couldn’t influence her daughter herself, unaided, she
must reach her through others.
She answered: “Why, I think it would be lovely to ask him, and I’m sure
he’d like to come.”
And so Mary wrote a cordial invitation to Cousin Ralph and her mother
quietly added a postscript that night—a postscript that grew into an
epistle as she told her nephew, a clean-souled and manly young fellow,
of her problem about Mary.
“Can you help me?” she wrote. “A word from you would weigh much with
her. You’re her ideal of young manhood. Let her see that you are not
fascinated by Cecily; she believes her irresistible. Say no more than
you can judge by seeing her at the party, though. That will be enough.”
His answer to Mary, his “sweet little cousin,” was frank and warm. His
answer to Mrs. Turner was earnest and sympathetic. He would try.
The great evening came, and with it a gay and brightly dressed bevy of
Mary’s friends. Some were rollicking; some were bashful; but Mrs. Turner
fancied she saw the Cecily stamp on all of them. On all except Evelyn
Lewis, a simple, attractive girl with fine manners. If Mary would only
prefer her to Cecily!
Cousin Ralph arrived late and created a sensation, for he was tall and
good-looking and possessed of polish and charm. He led all the fun after
that and Mrs. Turner saw Mary’s eyes sparkling with pride in him.
At a late hour the guests took their leave. But Ralph, lingering after
the others had left, talked over the party with Mary and her mother, for
the former was too excited to want the evening to end.
“How did you like the girls?” Mary inquired, eagerly. And just then Mrs.
Turner found an excuse to leave the room.
“Very much, little cousin. They’re a jolly lot of youngsters. And I’m
quite struck with one of them.”
“Oh, I knew you would be. Cecily, of course!”
“Cecily! O, no!” His emphasis was expressive.
“Not Cecily?” Mary was bewildered.
“That would-be chorus girl with come-hither eyes?” he demanded, and
then, seeing her stricken face, added hurriedly, “But maybe she’s a
special friend of yours.”
“Oh, no,—that is,—not so very. But she’s awfully popular.”
“With only one kind of boys, then, and that’s not the sort I’d like to
see you running round with, cousin mine. The girl that took my eye
was—her name was—Evelyn. She’s a peach. Ask me over some time again when
she’s here, will you?”
Mary nodded a little uncertainly, and then promised.
“Mother,” she said, wonderingly, as Mrs. Turner entered the room, “Ralph
likes Evelyn. And she certainly did look pretty tonight. I’m—crazy about
her myself!”
And as Mrs. Turner squeezed her nephew’s hand, she felt somehow that a
new name was about to be substituted for “Cecily” in Mary’s vocabulary.
Miss Canfield listened attentively to the mother’s report of the party
and of Mary’s drift into better companionship and naturally lent aid to
the scheme in a dozen little ways—assignments of team work, comments to
Mary on certain lovely qualities in Evelyn and her type of girl,
recommendation of books and magazine articles, etc.
Mother and teacher accomplished an important piece of work by this
campaign in which they substituted, in the unformed mind of a school
girl, a correct model of young womanhood in place of a degraded type.
4. Falling in Love with the Teacher
When pupils fall in love with their teachers, the problem is not nearly
so serious as the same event would be out of school, for the reason that
every normal tradition of school relations is against such a state of
affairs. The teacher stands, as is said so often, _in loco parentis_;
and if teachers are fit to bear this relation to their pupils, they can,
and will, easily handle any tendencies toward too intimate relations
with their pupils. The treatment for a pupil who develops too ardent an
admiration for a teacher is based upon the process of de-personalizing
the relations between them; for almost always it will be found that when
pupils have fallen in love with their teachers, it is because, purposely
or unconsciously, the relations have been too personal.
There are two typical cases—that of young girls who fall in love with an
attractive young man teacher, whom usually they hope to captivate and
marry; and that of boys, relatively less mature, who rarely reach the
ridiculousness of such plans, but shower such attentions as they may
upon the object of their affections, and go to any length to please her.
Most young women teachers have the tact and good sense to manage such
cases wisely, keeping the boys within the bounds of a normal and fairly
platonic regard, and often using their power to bring about the
development of a fine idealism and many manly virtues in their admirers.
But the vain young woman who likes this kind of popularity is not
unknown in schools; she is a nuisance, doing more harm by her vanity
than a dozen sensible colleagues can undo through every means known to
good pedagogy.
The teacher is to blame, as a rule, when either of these conditions
develops. Being older and more experienced, he has the upper hand and
can cure the malady, if he will, especially as he has every sane
tradition on his side. The elimination of the dangerous personal
attitude, of opportunities for the expression of regard, of the personal
appeal, and of subtle suggestions of a sentimental nature, are all in
the power of the teacher. It is just a question of whether he cares to
exercise his will and his ingenuity in the interest of a healthy
relation, or whether he chooses rather to have his vanity flattered by
attentions and popularity.
CASE 156 (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: Appeals to Vanity]
Annabel Kingsley was an English teacher in a small, prosperous town. She
was a tiny, sharp-faced girl of about twenty-five, keenly intelligent,
clever and selfseeking. She dressed well; she sought social
opportunities; she made the most of her friends. Before she had been
teaching a month she had won the devoted admiration of all the boys and
most of the girls in her classes and by Thanksgiving the other women
teachers would hardly speak to her, regarding her with that silent scorn
which intelligent women have for their sisters who will not play fair.
The superintendent was divided between amusement and contempt.
Miss Sperry, the mathematics teacher, went to Miss Bulwer, who had had
the Latin and German for years, and had a talk with her. “My boys and
girls come day after day with their algebra only half learned,” she
complained. “They say they don’t have time for it, and they are losing
all their interest, too. But they write great long compositions for Miss
Kingsley that must take hours to do, and now she talks of getting up a
play to be given at Christmas. She seems to have captured them
completely. How does she do it?”
“When you’ve seen as much of teachers as I have you’ll know,” Miss
Bulwer replied, grimly. “I haven’t heard her talk to them, but I can
tell you just how she goes about it. She makes every one of them think
he’s the budding genius of the century. She has Verne Gibbs reading
Ibsen and planning to write a tragedy. I’ll be bound! She has persuaded
Morris Talbot that he can write short stories. Warren Hughes thinks he’s
very remarkable because she told him he could appreciate Francis
Thompson. Maybe he can, but he can also appreciate Cicero when he’s
given half a chance. Every one of those youngsters thinks that at last
he has found a teacher who really sees what is in him, the great promise
to which the rest of us are blind. Then he proceeds to fall in love with
Miss Kingsley to show her that her interest is not lost. She appeals to
the adolescent vanity that they all have so much of, and she’s making
them so insufferably self-conscious and sentimental and onesided that
you and I can’t do anything with them.”
Miss Sperry watched Miss Kingsley. She saw that the boys who could use
their father’s automobiles vied with each other for the honor of taking
her home on Friday nights—she lived in a neighboring town; that they
hung over her desk before and after sessions, engaged in interminable
discussions of the value of poetry or the madness of Hamlet. On her
birthday her desk was banked with roses; Miss Sperry wondered how they
found out when her birthday came. Miss Kingsley’s work went very well,
but she robbed every other teacher of the time and energy that fairly
belonged to the other subjects taught. The result was that the poor work
caused by her selfish policy showed in the classes of other teachers. In
her own there was a constant and lively interest, fanned continuously by
the numberless “conferences” with which she kept her hold on her
students. The school was badly demoralized by Christmas, and yet the
real cause of all the trouble appeared to be the one brilliantly
successful teacher on the force.
CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT
The principal of a school should see to it that each teacher and each
subject has a fair share of the attention of the students. In this case,
the principal should say to Miss Kingsley, “I notice that a number of
our boys are falling behind with their mathematics, and Miss Bulwer
tells me that Howard Grimes failed in Latin last month—something never
heard of before. I have been looking for the cause, and I find that most
of those who are failing are spending more time on their English than is
fair. You are stimulating them by a personal appeal to put time on
English which really belongs to other studies. So I am asking you to
discontinue your private conferences for the present; and, moreover, it
is not dignified for you to accept attentions from the boys as though
they were your own age; it will lead to criticism which will hurt your
work and your influence.”
Private talks to the boys and girls about their work, following this
restriction of the English teacher’s demands, may help to bring results.
The other teachers should be encouraged to make their work as appealing
as possible, and to show a personal interest in the bringing up of
grades in the neglected studies. Most important of all, wholesome social
conditions may be stimulated by a series of parties among the high
school students, in which normal relations amongst themselves are
encouraged. Such regulations for study as are needed to keep the boys
from too much contact with Miss Kingsley are to be adopted, without
making their object obvious to the pupils.
COMMENTS
The amative impulses of youth are not vicious, but need direction and
control. Self-control, above all else, is to be taught, and the teaching
must often be reinforced by wise, friendly restraint. Frank friendships
are to be encouraged; sickly, silly sentimentality laughed out of court.
If a teacher, instead of standing ready to give this help and guidance
when it is needed, encourages a sentimental devotion, as Miss Kingsley
did, the most fundamental safeguard of youth is sacrificed—the ideal of
controlled emotion, of a conscious saving of a sacred experience for the
future. A large range of interests, a healthy balance of activities, and
a wholesome unconsciousness of self, tend to keep young people simple
and child-like in their emotional lives. Above all, no teacher has any
business to give the impression that he alone appreciates youth and its
promise, or to make his relations with impressionable boys and girls
unduly personal.
ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL)
[Sidenote: “A Wet Blanket” for Infatuation]
Clarence Miller was an exceedingly handsome young teacher in a small
village high school. In his second year of service, Carolyn Brush,
daughter of the great man of the town, decided that she would not return
to the fashionable boarding school which she had been attending, but
would go to the village school and subjugate Clarence Miller, whom she
met during the Christmas vacation. She was very pretty and very clever,
and her stay in a girl’s boarding school had not made her less romantic
than other girls are.
The lessons were easy for her, and during the first few days she recited
brilliantly, hoping to win special attention from the young principal.
He accepted her most studied efforts with the same pleasant courtesy he
gave to all, and then Carolyn tried another plan. She failed to recite
altogether, looking at Mr. Miller with a pitiful, hurt look whenever he
called upon her, and shaking her pretty head sadly. The village boys and
girls, somewhat awed at best by Carolyn’s pretty clothes and polished
manners, and keenly conscious of everything she did, observed all this
with much interest. Carolyn became more and more enamored of Mr. Miller
the more she saw of him.
One morning she stepped to the desk when there were no other pupils
near. “Mr. Miller,” she said, “I wonder if I may speak to you—alone—some
time? Tonight, after school, perhaps? Just for a moment. I am in such
trouble.”
“Of course you may, Miss Carolyn,” said Mr. Miller, heartily. “I’ll be
glad to help you if I can.”
But Carolyn was not at school that afternoon. She called up the school
by telephone at five after four, however, said that her mother had
required her help that afternoon, and added that they all wanted Mr.
Miller to come up for supper. “And I hope you will, for I do feel that
you can help me. We can talk after supper.”
“Sorry, but I have some work that is going to take my whole evening,
Miss Carolyn. You can tell me about that matter at recess tomorrow.
Please thank your mother for the invitation, and tell her how sorry I am
I can’t come.”
At recess the next morning, Carolyn said, when she was sure no prying
boy lingered near:
“Oh, Mr. Miller, I have been so worried lately I just couldn’t study. I
have a dear friend at school, whom I’ve trusted and loved for two years
more than anyone else. And now I find that she has deceived me, and it
almost breaks my heart. It seems as if everything has just stopped, you
know; life isn’t the same. What can one do? If one can’t trust one’s
friends, what is there one can count upon?” She looked up at him with
tears in her eyes, the lovely picture of disillusioned youth in its most
appealing form. “I just had to talk to some one about it, and you’re the
only person here who is—you know—like myself—who would understand.”
Mr. Miller neither fell into this fair trap nor shied at it. He said,
“Now, I’ll tell you just what I would do if I were you. You talk to your
father. He knows all about people, and he’ll give you more good advice
in a minute than I could in a year. If it were I, and a girl had treated
me like that, I’d find a better chum and let her go, and not weep over
it either. Just stop worrying about her. You can’t afford to lose out on
your lessons for a snip of a girl who doesn’t know a good friend when
she has one. Oh—you’ll excuse me, won’t you? I promised the boys to show
them a new curve, and here they are for me.” And the cautious, sensible
principal vanished out-of-doors.
Carolyn, being really infatuated, made one more attempt. “I know you
don’t like me,” she told the principal one day. “But why is it? What
have I done, that you should hate me so? I have tried to get my lessons,
and tried to be good in school; but you seem to hate the very sight of
me.”
“Now, that’s all nonsense,” Mr. Miller averred. “I like you just as well
as anyone else in the room, and, so far as I know and intend, I treat
you just as I do the others.”
To be treated just as the others were treated, was exactly what Carolyn
did not want. She suddenly discovered that the principal was not
handsome, and that she did not care for him. She told her father that
the school was so much poorer than Grey Gables that she wanted to go
back there, and at the Easter vacation she left the high school. So
Carolyn came and went, and not one of the other pupils knew of the
little comedy of sentiment and sense that had taken place there that
winter.
The quickly-veering emotion of youth is easily stimulated or inhibited
by suggestion. Mr. Miller saw through the schemes of his pupil, and,
instead of falling in with them, as he might have done had he wanted
excitement or adulation or romantic adventure, he cut them off in a
friendly, but matter-of-fact way that nipped expectation in the bud. A
flirtation with his pretty pupil might have been a great deal of fun,
but it would have marred his influence with the people of the village
and with his pupils; and he was wise enough to deny himself that fun for
the sake of his professional duty. He might have stimulated an adventure
in half a dozen ways; he steadily declined even to suggest the thought
of such a thing until Carolyn was cured of her fancy. Without
humiliating her in any way, before the other students, he kept his
relations with her impersonal and free of romantic elements, and so
gradually overcame her infatuation by giving it nothing to feed upon.
DIVISION X
Who breaks his faith no faith is held with him.
—_Cervantes_
Always act in such a way as to secure the love of your neighbor.
—_Cato_
AN ILLUSTRATIVE CONTRAST BETWEEN FAILURE AND SUCCESS
Mr. Bradley was principal for two years of the Newcastle school. He
revealed his characteristics as a teacher so fully that we find in him
an example of the type not to be recommended and yet one that is very
instructive for students of school discipline.
In stature he was slightly below medium height. He came from rural
ancestry and was fairly well equipped as to physique. He had black hair
and eyes, somewhat mobile features and a wandering gaze. His movements
could hardly be called quick, but they were prompt and without distinct
mannerisms.
He had a most gracious manner when meeting people on the street or in
their homes. He spoke kindly to everyone and had the reputation among
the townspeople of being a royal, good fellow. Even his pupils could not
deny that he treated them very courteously and jovially outside of
school hours.
Despite all this he used essentially the method of the hen-pecking
incompetent when handling disciplinary matters in school. The moment he
entered the school precincts he was a different man. His countenance
then betrayed the sternness of the schoolmaster who dwelt within and
apart from the polite gentleman he seemed to be when outside the
school-room. His eyebrows gathered and his muscles reverberated with the
sense of authority that flooded his whole nature.
His eye was on the lookout for misdemeanors and if a pupil made a
misstep in the realm where Mr. Bradley thought he had jurisdiction, that
harsh, strident voice, with but the slightest trace of fellow-feeling,
spoke the word of correction or announced an impending penalty.
In the school-room it was his delight to slip up behind an offender and
pluck him by the ear as a reminder of duty. Being the only instructor
who indulged in this practice it soon came to be one of the most odious
signals of his presence in the room. When absorbed in his subject he
made instruction interesting; his pupils could not fail to learn if they
did not venture to vary the program by misconduct. However, their
recollection of his general attitude toward them, the ease with which
they could upset his plans by introducing a few school pranks, the
certainty that he would lose his temper on slight provocation, always
hung as a barrage screen between them and undivided concentration on the
subject-matter of their lessons.
Mr. Bradley made it a practice to watch for accumulating offenses. He
felt incompetent to handle minor evils, but attempted to squelch a
wayward pupil by reciting a list of grievances and applying penalties
for the same. He had a good memory for facts of this sort. He could
shake his finger in the face of a boy or girl and say, “Didn’t you pull
Esther’s hair yesterday ... trip up Jimmie on the way to class in
geometry and purposely spill the crayons when you were at the board?
Now, I have had enough of this. I want to know what you are going to do
about it.”
This gentleman could not catch the drift of things. Early in his first
year Mr. Bradley’s attention rested upon Ted. Ted was a short, heavy-set
chap of some fourteen years, incapable of any revolutionary
propensities, but able to interest himself with a variety of aggravating
tricks. His pranks were individually almost too small to command severe
penalties, but they were too annoying to escape the principal’s eye.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bradley hit upon the lash as a cure for Ted.
Selecting a more pronounced misdemeanor as an opportunity for settling
accounts with the troublesome pupil, he gave him a sound whipping.
There was some ground for the general protest that arose from the high
school. Ted was a favorite with every one. The crude principal had
struck one but he had wounded all. His untactfulness had made him
abhorrent to all, even to those who had not hitherto drawn upon
themselves his specific disapproval and useless punishments. Mr.
Bradley, perhaps, never knew that he had undermined his own usefulness
as much by this treatment of a school favorite as by any single deed
that transpired during his whole stay in Newcastle.
He had his own method of handling the problem of whispering. He made it
a rule that every pupil in high school must answer at roll call at the
end of the day on the matter of whispering. If a pupil had whispered he
must answer “Present,” and specify the number of times during the day he
had whispered. If he had a clear record on whispering he was privileged
to answer “Perfect.” Now, in fact, the pupils formed cliques and
agreements to such an extent that they made almost a complete farce of
this attempt at discipline. They lied with the greatest liberty and
seemed to feel no restraint from their principal. He appeared not to
know that they were guilty of deception and insubordination, and of
course he became the butt of ridicule because of these and many other
unwise acts.
The girls would be found by him crying over the low grades they
received. Through their hands they joyously watched him as he marched
back to his desk and silently changed the numerals. Occasionally he
returned and reported, “After thinking over your work further I have
decided to give you a better grade.” He was more than paid for his
trouble as the smiles drove back the tears and the eyes of the poor,
grieved ones hung for a moment on his.
He suffered from note-writing. Jim was a source of anxiety on this
score. The unvarying procedure was the following:
“Where is the paper you had a moment ago?”
“It’s in my desk.”
“Is there any writing on it?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Hand it to me.”
Silence on Jim’s part.
“Jim, aren’t you going to give me that note?”
“No, sir.”
“Jim, you go at once to Mr. Evans’ room,” or, “Take your books and go
home.”
Not once, nor twice, but scores and scores of times this same routine
was followed. Jim never handed him a note in the whole two years. Mr.
Bradley never discovered the intense satisfaction that Jim had in
drawing attention to himself, in defeating the principal and in thus
creating a general sensation.
Mr. Bradley’s temper was easily aroused. At first his face would turn
white; the pupils quickly noted his pallor and laughed at him; his anger
then drove him to a few tears, which one by one trickled down his
careworn cheeks.
In these moments of ill-temper he was more helpless than ever. He did
not attempt to do much teaching for a short period, but marked time
until he could recollect himself and get his pedagogical machine back on
track again.
In the frequent, extreme cases of refractory pupils that he had to
dispose of, his main resort was to send or accompany pupils to Mr.
Evans, the superintendent of schools. In reporting the misdemeanor or in
remarking on the items of a report of misconduct by the pupil himself he
adopted the very poor method of exaggerating the circumstances
insufferably. Often he interrupted a pupil’s account with single words
or phrases that exaggerated the offense and so attempted to justify
himself in referring the case to higher authority. These unfair methods
enraged even a guilty pupil to an extent that all hope of his returning
to the high school room with any little good will toward the principal
was lost.
You at once inquire, How was it possible for a man of this sort to keep
his position for two years? The answer is two-fold: his treatment of
pupils and citizens generally outside of school hours was such as, in a
way, to discredit the impressions reported by dissatisfied pupils; the
superintendent was capable enough himself to neutralize, in part, the
ill effects of the principal’s poor disciplinary methods and thus to
enable him to retain a well informed instructor.
You want to know more about this remarkable superintendent, Mr. Evans?
His personal presence was somewhat in his favor. He was a man of good
height, but very slender. The look of his eye was direct and lingering.
His hand-grasp was warm, kindly and reassuring. He was never in a hurry,
but disposed of mountains of work. He always took time to hear all that
pupils had to say—one of his strongest assets.
It was a valuable lesson in school discipline just to observe him in an
interview with an offending pupil.
“Well, Jim, what is it this morning?”
“I suppose I’ve got to tell you about a little affair that occurred in
the Latin class yesterday.”
“Come and have this chair over here by the desk. Excuse me until I pull
down the shade a bit. Well, now, go on. What is it all about?”
But these cold words do not convey to the reader the impression that
they made on Jim. There was a yearning in the voice that fairly drew Jim
out of himself. He had just come from a fresh combat with Mr. Bradley
and was in a mood to do battle; in fact, strange to say, this thought
crossed his mind, “All right, I’ll go in to see Evans. If he has it in
for me, I’ll show them both a new deal; I’ll give them the time of their
lives in this town!”
How easy it would have been to set fire to this piece of tow and so
produce an uncontrollable conflagration. But there was Mr. Evans’ voice,
so suave and appealing. He assumed that Jim had something interesting to
tell; that he had suffered some accident; that he was in search of a
friend. Mr. Evans was that friend. He said, “You know, of course, that
I’ll want to hear the other side of the story, but you go ahead and tell
me everything just exactly as it is.”
Jim told his story. The superintendent nodded assent to the several
statements, indicating that he had taken in their full significance and
was laying the ground for a just disposition of the matter. About the
time Jim finished, Mr. Bradley stepped in. He soon began his account of
the affair. Mr. Evans listened with a judicial air, by no means
disclosing any antagonism toward his principal, but very cautious not to
give Jim any notion that the principal had the inside track in the mind
and sympathy of his superior. There were no comments, no nodding of the
head, no knowing smiles that meant, “We’ll fix this fellow, all right.”
Since Mr. Evans had previously frankly said that he would hear the
principal’s story, in the first part of the interview, Jim was not
surprised that it was given unremitting attention. But he was highly
pleased to see that favoritism for the principal was not going to play
any part in the final settlement of the matter.
In fact, every pupil expected to see Mr. Evans go the second mile in any
case where he came intimately into contact with a pupil, either in the
ordinary affairs of the school, or when disciplinary problems must be
adjudicated. It was, in a way, a painful experience to meet Mr. Evans
under circumstances such as these; he made one feel grieved to impose on
him by wrenching his heart with disappointment. There was no fear of
consequences, but an anguish over injuring the feelings of the
superintendent.
When the facts were all before him, this friend of boys and girls would
say:
“I don’t believe it would be right in this case to ...” and he would
mention penalties that were severe, though perhaps often employed by
other teachers, perhaps were even not condemned by the community. He
would finally come to the conclusion of the matter by saying:
“I think we can fix this up in this way ...” a method that was almost
without exception such as to strengthen the discipline of the school, to
rescue the pupil from provoking circumstances and probably to serve as a
deterrent to future misconduct.
At the conclusion of every case of discipline, Mr. Evans left the
situation in a better status than before. The boy or girl who had to
settle accounts with the superintendent, when all was said and done,
knew that the issue was disposed of according to the principles of right
and for the good of both the pupil and the school. Wisdom, sympathetic
understanding, willingness to make concessions, positive devotion to the
pupil’s comfort and welfare, were written all over the man’s actions so
plainly as to disarm criticism and to bind every pupil to him as a
life-long friend.
Throughout this Course for teachers, we have steadily laid emphasis on
the need in the pupil for the cultivation of self-control as a basis for
any satisfactory building of character. Scarcely less have we insisted
that the same trait of character is essential in a successful teacher.
Our survey of the blunders of disciplinarians leads to the conclusion
that by far the larger part committed by school teachers can be traced
back to an inexcusable lack of this central virtue of self-control.
The passionate, selfish teacher can not see the pupil’s point of view.
The measureless transformations of the adolescent period throw a vast
majority of people out of sympathy with the adolescent and still more
with those of younger years.
The system of school discipline advocated in this Course for teachers,
frankly rests on coöperation with the pupil, initiative being taken by
the teacher in working out disciplinary problems in frank, wholehearted
adjustment to pupil needs and characteristics. No teacher can adopt the
policy represented by this principle without attaining, in a measure,
and further developing his own self-control. Our experience and
observation, our fresh survey of all the facts while compiling the data
presented in these volumes, have deepened immeasurably the conviction
that the teacher who seeks the level of the life of the children whom he
wishes to govern, assisting them, aiding them, guiding them according to
the dictates of their natures rather than contrariwise, will cure
himself of one of his own worst vices, namely, anarchy in mood, temper
and judgment; and will develop in its place the basic element of a noble
character, self-control.
By presenting, as a final word, the contrast between these two teachers,
we hope to heighten the impressions that have repeatedly been made as
the reader has followed the narratives and discussions contained in the
preceding pages. Remember that the two men here described worked under
the same circumstances, during the same two years, with the same pupils,
in the same building; that each had the benefit of consultation with the
other, that both were well received in public and had many friends among
the business men and in the homes of the city. The advantage in physical
organization lay with him who failed. The essential difference between
the two is found in the inner, basic attitude of each toward his pupils.
The one ruled by personality and broad, humane principles; the other was
an apostle of force, fitfully administered, as, in fact, it must of
necessity be administered. The one was conscious of his authority; the
other forgot it and worked man to man with his pupils. The one exhausted
his force and failed; the other scarcely ever drew upon his reserve and
never lost a pupil friend. The one ground his teeth in rage at the
perversity and rebellion of his pupils, the other enjoyed their
friendship and reveled in the memories of sympathetic appreciation of
his labors. In short, one was beloved by all, the other despised.
Of all the words from tongue or pen that explain the more desirable of
the two methods described, none is better than the word Coöperation.
This is the capstone of our five fundamental principles—Suggestion,
Substitution, Expectation, Approval, Coöperation. Approval of good
effort, in fact, turns out to be one mode of coöperation with the pupil.
It ministers to his self-love and elicits further effort. A teacher can
not exemplify this one principle of coöperation without hitting upon or
consciously employing all the others we have named and illustrated. “I
work with my pupils,” is the highest self-praise a teacher can utter. It
is a simple, modest, unassuming statement; if true in its deepest sense,
he who thus speaks of himself is a perfect teacher and disciplinarian.
We commend this gospel to coöperative school-room discipline to every
aspiring teacher who reads these volumes; we can only hope that every
one may be converted heart and soul to this mode of action and with
religious devotion set about remoulding his treatment and management of
school children so that he truly may be a Friend to Man.
INDEX
PAGE
Absences, 764
Acquisitiveness, 309
Adaptive instincts, 361
Adenoids, 58
Altruism, 586, 727
Anti-social tendencies, 672
Approval, 51, 55, 58, 61, 92, 103, 108, 132, 137, 139, 147, 161, 171,
181, 190, 201, 210, 213, 222, 235, 244, 266, 272, 277, 294, 303,
376, 388, 394, 401, 411, 415, 422, 440, 448, 450, 486, 507, 519,
588, 595, 662, 735, 774, 868
Athletics, aid in discipline, 96, 405, 530, 726, 737, 739, 740, 831
cheating for sake of, 284, 289
fights in, 249
Attention, desire to attract, 23, 50
in school work, 55, 368, 554
Authority, excessive use of, 81, 94, 95, 183, 220, 634, 644, 661, 697,
860
Awkwardness, 61, 141, 143, 148
Bluffing by teacher, cause of disobedience, 121, 536
Boy and girl question, 839
Bullying, 233
Card-playing, 115
Carelessness, 83, 562, 567, 765, 801
Cheating, on examination, 269
how provoked, 268
in recitation, 273
sentiment against, 269, 282
Chewing gum, 388
Choice and disobedience, 31
Church-going, 817
Cigarettes, 402
Class rivalry, 253
Cleanliness, 76, 449
Cliques, 471, 474, 717
Cloaks and overcoats, 79
Clumsiness, 140, 148
Collections of curios, 70, 209, 236, 310, 311, 502
Commands, how to give, attention to be secured, 55
be near child, 50
choose what child wants to do, 51
privately given, 60, 103
repetition to be avoided, 55
rights of pupil to be conserved, 93
speak intelligibly, 53, 753
time to be opportune, 72
Community, understanding conditions in, 43, 775
Companions, choosing, 321, 474, 812, 841, 843
Competition, leading to fighting, 249
Conceit, 192
Confession by pupil, 73, 101, 163, 212, 242, 294, 302, 308, 309, 340,
565, 568, 837
by teacher, 124
Confidence, 31, 32, 52, 60, 68, 71, 85, 89, 96, 105, 116, 121, 150,
167, 196, 201, 209, 212, 266, 299, 376, 406, 496, 499, 642, 667, 776
Conspiracy, 106, 378, 384, 464, 536, 695
Conventionalities, submission to, 803
Coöperation, initiative in, 45, 50, 60, 70, 74, 79, 81, 82, 87, 91, 96,
103, 108, 114, 119, 124, 142, 149, 158, 160, 162, 165, 171, 181,
190, 198, 201, 203, 209, 213, 222, 231, 241, 243, 256, 262, 265,
282, 313, 317, 320, 337, 372, 386, 392, 396, 397, 410, 416, 420,
424, 447, 467, 478, 492, 503, 508, 569, 637, 662, 711, 718, 738,
772, 797, 819, 824, 842, 866, 868
Coughing epidemics, 380
Crying, 257
Curiosity, 549
Dancing 111, 831
Defamation of a teacher, causing disobedience, 65
Defying a teacher 69, 70, 73, 99, 101, 106, 111, 118, 123, 168, 173,
180, 183, 189, 195, 199, 202, 208, 220, 762, 774, 809, 862
Desk order, 77
Destruction of property, 89, 254, 644, 647, 649
Disciplinarian, description of, a 17
Discipline, kinds of, 19
Discipline, what it is, 16
why necessary, 13
Dislike for school, 158, 162, 860
Disobedience, causes of, 41
community sentiment, contravened, 110
due to commands impossible to obey, 56
that are inopportune, 72
that infringe personal rights, 93
unintelligibly stated, 53
due to community conditions, 44
due to defective motor functions, 61
due to faultfinding, 89
due to imitation of others, 69
due to inattention, 55
and instincts, 41
due to parents, 42, 49, 65
due to pleasure-seeking, 117
due to pupils’ conspiracy, 106
due to teacher’s suspicious attitudes, 42, 59, 83
due to unregulated independence in the child, 86
nature of, 30
over-emphasized, 76
wilful, 49
Disputing with teacher, 123, 133, 199, 200, 211
Disrespect for teacher, 187, 366, 368, 370, 373, 490, 538
Dramatizing, 416, 417, 427, 435, 453, 490, 491
Drawing, 74, 303, 665
Dull children, 768
Eating at school, 59, 391, 392, 689
Examinations, cheating at, 269
correct view of, 271
fear of, 264
plans for, 277, 282
questions for, 270, 272
when to give, 271
Expectancy, 51, 58, 61, 62, 65, 68, 79, 80, 84, 85, 88, 92, 96, 104,
124, 133, 137, 183, 202, 231, 252, 392, 397, 411, 462, 479, 582,
585, 729, 772, 868
Explanation of commands, 35, 36, 79, 133, 143, 251, 282, 288, 333, 403,
404, 419, 429, 446, 596, 610, 626, 654, 663, 582, 729, 804, 805,
821, 823
Expressive instincts, 577
Failure and success, contrast between, 859
Falling in love with teacher, 847
Faultfinding, 62, 66, 78, 89, 100, 141, 159, 173, 183, 215, 225, 234,
250, 261, 329, 371, 374, 377, 382, 388, 395, 416, 418, 421, 433,
443, 485, 557, 571, 602, 626, 780
Fear, and cheating, 269
and discipline, 259
and examinations, 264, 284
instinctive, 255
and the lie, 297
in recitation, 264
and stubbornness, 180
Fidgets, 134, 142, 150
Fifth and Sixth grades,
cleanliness, 412, 450, 456, 462
cliques, 717, 719
curiosity, 569
disrespect, 197, 367
eating at school, 395, 689
gambling, 315
giggling, 382
impudence, 206, 210
inattention to study, 554
jealousy, 707
leaving room, 378
lying, 307
manners, 418, 420, 442, 444, 803
Mimicry of speech, 366
mischief, 485, 494
obedience, 65
paper wad throwing, 219, 307
play, teaching how to, 525, 527
selfishness, 688
stealing, 638
stubbornness, 172, 178
studying aloud, 628
talkativeness, 607, 608, 611, 612
tattling, 638, 639
teasing tricks, 509
whispering, 592, 604
Fighting, due to accidental situation, 236
due to competition, 249
due to ridicule, 239
Thomas Hughes’ advice on, 96
Fire drills, 757
Firmness, 585
First and Second grades,
absences, 764
altruism, 729
careless work, 765
cleanliness, 451, 453
crying, 257
dislike for study, 766
disobedience, 773
disrespect, 189
drawing, 665
drills, 752
dull children, 768
eating at school, 392, 393, 691
fighting, 236
first day in school, 748
first year in school, 747
ill-temper, 182, 187
impudence, 772
indifference to school, 159
laughing, 234
leaving room, 375
lying, 300, 301
making faces, 483
manners, 415, 428
mischief, 766
muscle training, 144
noise, 136
obedience, 49
passing quietly, 751
penmanship learning, 663
play, teaching how to, 524
quarreling, 225, 229, 231
refusal to recite, 256
ringleader, 782
scribbling, 659
selfishness, 677, 679, 781
sex hygiene, 832
sickness a cause of backwardness, 155
smartness, 770
stealing, 327, 330
stubbornness, 170
stuttering, 652
swearing, 651
talkativeness, 634
tardiness, 763
tattling, 633, 634
whispering, 581, 583
Flag salute, 809, 811
Gambling, 115, 312, 318
Games, certain objectionable, in acquiring motor control, 148, 829
Gesture, mimicry of, 368
Groups of pupils, enlisting, 79, 91, 97, 119, 540, 573, 574, 712, 715,
719, 722, 724, 726, 777, 782, 830, 838
Gymnasium, promoting use of, 149, 501
Habit of crying, 258
quarreling, 230
whispering, 583
Hair-pulling, 203
Helping pupil in study, 103, 105
High School,
altruism, 736
athletics, supervision of, 532, 534, 537
boy and girl question, 839, 841, 843
cheating by pupil, 281
cheating by teacher, 284
cigarettes, 409
cliques, 720, 725
companions, choosing, 812, 815
curiosity, 571, 573
dancing, 831
destroying property, 561
eating in school, 397, 400
falling in love with teacher, 848, 852
fear, 264, 267
fighting, 249
gambling, 320
impudence, 214
indifference, 167
jealousy, 712, 713, 716
laughing, 193, 194, 497, 598
manners, 425, 427
marking books, 661
nervousness, 264
obedience, 89
passing quietly, 761
practical joke, 504, 513, 516, 519
race prejudice, 471
religion, 817, 819, 821, 823
ringleader, 788, 790, 793, 800
selfishness, 675, 699
sex attraction, unconscious, 831
stealing, 338
sororities, 720
talkativeness, 623, 624
tattling, 643, 647, 649, 661, 697
truancy, 157, 548
whispering, 598, 601
Home study, 77, 87
How to study, teaching, 626, 628
Humor and discipline, 215, 598
Ideals, false and perverted, 24
Ignoring misconduct, 142, 196, 200, 205, 238, 293, 372, 381, 444, 482,
484, 520, 635, 637, 662, 763
Ill-temper, 182
Imagination, aid in discipline, 184, 488
and lying, 295
Imitation, aid in discipline, 184, 361
and bodily action, 63
cause of misconduct, 23, 69, 361
provoking impudence, 206
Impartiality, 108
Impudence, 65, 190, 199, 206, 211, 213, 772, 795
Inattention, 55, 554
Independence in the child, causing disobedience, 86
Indifference as cause of disorder, 157
Inhibition and discipline, 21
Injured child, sympathy for, 258
Instincts, classification of, 129
relation to discipline, 13, 17, 19, 20, 21
disobedience, 30
fear, 255
function of, 129
Interviews, 34, 52, 60, 62, 63, 68, 84, 86, 87, 88, 92, 96, 101, 112,
113, 114, 119, 132, 155, 174, 175, 177, 191, 215, 222, 232, 242,
251, 288, 302, 313, 320, 322, 332, 336, 398, 410, 421, 423, 449,
457, 466, 472, 494, 499, 510, 520, 566, 586, 605, 641, 645, 682,
700, 864
Jealousy, 700
Jokes on teacher, 366, 368, 370, 373
Joking teacher, 205, 505, 507
Kindergarten. (See First and Second grades.)
Knowing the pupil, 51, 58, 60, 63, 87, 108, 131, 142, 151, 156, 176,
179, 186, 194, 200, 209, 212, 218, 226, 339, 241, 481, 566, 511,
584, 615, 620, 673, 706, 777
Laboratory as an instrument of discipline, 167
Laughing in school, 72, 74, 75, 99, 193, 194, 234, 382, 493, 494, 497
Laziness, clumsiness and fidgets as causes of disorders, 130
Leaving the room, 375
Lighting of a school-room, 154
Literary societies, troubles with, 106
Lunches, stealing of, 334
Lying to conceal, 301, 465, 594
enquiry into, 212
for fame, 506
for gain, 298, 300
and gambling, 313
and the imagination, 295
kinds of, 297
provoked by teacher, 67, 292, 303, 307
and stealing, 329, 335
teacher practices, 59, 288, 304, 863
Mannerisms of teacher, 102, 366, 370, 373, 368
Manners, 53, 191, 411, 672, 684, 695, 700, 715, 717, 736, 740, 803
Making faces, 482, 483, 487, 500, 781
Marbles, gambling with, 312
Marking desks, 301
Matching pennies, 319
Mimicry, 365
Mischief-maker, 98, 478, 485, 501, 504, 766
Money stolen, 337, 338, 340
Motor functions defective, causing disobedience, 61
Nervous child, 134, 447
Noise, 94, 135, 143, 443, 446, 463, 466, 589, 591, 602, 621, 622
Note-writing, 643, 834, 835, 836, 862
Obedience, factors making for, 38
Fifth and Sixth grades, 65
First and Second grades, 49
formal, 34, 746
High School, 89
intelligent, 36, 746
kinds of, 33, 186
public expects, 38
pupils expect to obey, 39
relation to character building, 29
relation to school efficiency, 27
Seventh and Eighth grades, 76
stages in development of, 33
Third and Fourth grades, 56
Oversensitiveness, of pupil, 214
of teachers, 189
Paper scattered, 49, 77, 80, 459
Paper wad throwing, 219, 307, 492
Parents, causing a boy to tease, 240
defaming teacher, a cause of disobedience, 65
leading families, dealing with, 70
provoking disobedience, 41, 86, 438, 770
provoking impudence, 206
provoking indifference to school, 159
provoking quarrels, 228
provoking selfishness, 684, 687
provoking stubbornness, 172
responsibility in keeping order, 110, 165, 323, 452, 457, 469, 745,
840
teacher conferring with, 67, 68, 158, 228, 322
Passing quietly, 137, 751, 756
Pencil, misuse of, 135, 187, 443
Penmanship, learning, 663
Personal right of pupils, infringement of, 93
Physical conditions, causing misconduct 131, 134, 141, 143, 148, 155,
236, 587
Picnic manners, 418
Play, 477, 671, 692, 829, 831
supervised, 226, 230, 317, 522, 692
Pleasure-seeking causing disobedience, 117
Poolroom, The, 641
Practical jokes, 504, 510
Preparation (to teach), defective, 121
Prohibitions, 99, 111, 362, 383, 390, 395, 398, 416, 451, 580, 754,
755, 591, 795, 839
Promise, making to pupils, 109
Public opinion disregarded, 110
Punishment, apology as, 321, 371
corporal,
awkward position, 443, 483
boxing ears, 276
requesting right to use, 94
shaking, 50, 384, 603, 762
tying hands together, 562
whipping, 66, 68, 78, 89, 93, 163, 164, 172, 173, 195, 202, 211,
218, 261, 263, 319, 332, 485, 508, 706, 861
demotion, 502, 629
detention after school, 73, 151, 190, 230, 241, 260, 275, 336, 374,
588, 612, 710
discipline, not dependent upon 17
grade lowered, 277
ineffective, 135, 141, 161
loss of privileges, 321, 737, 780, 802
provoking disobedience, 89
ridicule, 206
school work, as 90, 599
suspension, 282, 317, 467, 513, 518, 839
Punning, 200
Quarreling from spite, 228
on school grounds, 225
way to school, 229
Quarrelsomeness, bullying and fighting, 223
Questioning pupils about misconduct, 73, 90, 99, 213, 234, 273, 275,
276, 292, 301, 307, 317, 321, 333, 335, 382, 389, 391, 393, 398,
410, 421, 443, 464, 466, 498, 499, 501, 506, 517, 543, 636, 661,
797, 862
Race prejudice, 471, 474
Reasons, failure to comprehend cause of misconduct, 22
Reform of teacher, 95, 102, 124, 228, 590, 612, 763
Refusal to do home work, 87, 88
to go to school, 87
to recite, 256
Regulative instincts, 745
Religious attitudes, 817
perplexities, 821
recluse, 823
Responsibility, 84, 86
Retardation of a pupil, 64, 67, 132, 150, 769
Ridicule provoking fighting, 239
Rights of child as to playthings, 313
Ringleader, dealing with a, 52, 70, 98, 113, 119, 367, 385, 405, 411,
529, 546, 574, 740, 776
Rivalry between student groups, 106, 713
Rules, overemphasis of, causing disobedience, 76, 81, 662, 750
Rural School
anarchy in, 217, 310
cheating, 273, 276, 281
clumsiness, 140
coaching pupil, 181
conceit, 192
defying teacher, 69
eating during school hours, 59
first day, 749
inattention, 55
indifference, 159
joking teacher, 205
mischief in, 99
paper scattered, 49
quarreling, 229
selfishness, 684, 687
stealing, 327, 330
tattling, 635
whispering, 581, 594, 597
School-room conditions related to discipline, 157
Scribbling, 659
Selfishness, 672
Self-preservative instincts, cases of discipline arising from, 129
Self-regulation, 812
Self-reporting, 594
Seventh and Eighth Grades
altruism, 734
bullying, 240, 246
cheating, 276, 279
chewing gum, 389, 391
cigarettes, 402, 405
clumsiness, 140
curiosity, 563, 567
defying teacher, 809
disrespect, 198, 200, 368
fear, 255
fighting, 240, 246
gambling, 316
hygienic toilet rooms, 838
impudence, 211
indifference, 166
jealousy, 709
keeping in line, 762
loyalty, 809
manners, 421, 423, 806
mimicry of gesture, 368
mischief, 501
noise, 140
note-writing, 836
obedience, 76
passing quietly, 758
play teaching, how to, 522, 527, 531
ringleader, 787
selfishness, 692, 694
sex interests, 829, 836
stealing, 334, 337
strained eyes a cause of disorder, 150
stubbornness, 180
studying aloud, 628, 630
talkativeness, 612, 613, 617
tattling, 641, 642, 644, 646
teasing, 505
truancy, 163, 343
Sex-consciousness, 832
instincts, 829
Shot-throwing, 309
Sickness of a child prevents study, 154
Slouching, 57
Smartness, 190, 770
Smoking, 402
Snowballing, 236, 522, 524
Social grounds for discipline, 93,
impulses, how to control, 111, 839, 843
instincts, 671
Socializing the individual, 14
Special methods a help in discipline, 53, 54, 55, 112, 114, 303
Speech, mimicry of, 366
Spit-balls, throwing, 219, 307
Stammerer, assisting the, 248
Stammering as a cause of fighting, 246
State, submitting to control of, 809
Stealing, lunches, 334
money, 337, 338, 346
motives for, 324
pencils, etc., 638
provoked by teacher, 83, 325
Strained eyes a cause of disorder, 150
Strike of students, 106
Stubbornness, 169, 180, 774
Studying aloud, 625
Study room discipline, 59, 61, 69, 72, 94, 99, 104, 151, 194, 513, 598,
612, 623, 834
Stuttering, 651
Substitute teacher, 379
Substitution, 52, 60, 62, 71, 91, 96, 109, 112, 149, 165, 166, 167,
176, 185, 191, 201, 218, 225, 228, 231, 235, 236, 237, 238, 241,
247, 251, 253, 258, 267, 313, 367, 385, 388, 404, 406, 478, 552,
579, 583, 635, 681, 698, 797, 868
Suggestion, 51, 52, 63, 64, 79, 80, 81, 86, 92, 96, 97, 105, 114, 140,
146, 181, 183, 254, 265, 267, 300, 325, 376, 380, 385, 391, 405,
409, 413, 427, 436, 441, 478, 489, 665, 681, 698, 708, 796, 816, 868
leading, 92, 113, 119, 132, 146, 168, 198, 231, 267, 445, 592, 665,
846, 855
negative, 50, 62, 77, 83, 304, 768, 773, 812, 834
Sulkiness, 172
Suspicious attitudes causing disobedience, 59
Swearing, 651
Tale-bearing, 73, 336, 337
Talkative pupil, 605
Talking back, 195
Talking on conduct, 414, 449, 817,
on misconduct 62, 76, 80, 119, 278, 293, 304, 305, 337, 403, 434,
591, 603, 714
Tardiness, 763
Tattling, 398, 464, 466, 631
Teasing, 240, 304, 501
Terrorizing the pupil, 221
Third and Fourth Grades
bullying, 235
busy work, 553
cheating, 273, 274, 306
cleanliness, 456, 459, 554
creating a ringleader, 780, 782
curiosity, 561
discipline through fear, 259
dislike for school, 162
disrespect, 190, 195, 202, 370
fighting, 238
flag salute, 811
impudence, 205
jealousy, 702, 712
leaving room, 377
lying, 303
making faces, 487
manners, 417, 432, 439, 491
meddlesomeness, 557
mimicry of walk, 370
note-writing, 834
obedience, 56
passing quietly, 756
pets at school, 503
practical joke, 510
ringleader, submission to, 776
sex hygiene, 833, 834
stealing, 331, 333
studying aloud, 625
whispering, 586, 588, 602
Threatening the teacher, 217, 795
Threats, 57, 78, 94, 136, 173, 191, 221, 226, 259, 332, 371, 421, 518,
536, 589, 591, 697, 699, 791
Time of correction, opportune, 175, 177, 241, 242
Trips out of town, a group of pupils on, 106, 117, 534
Truancy, 163, 543, 810
Unsocial child, 671
Visitors present, discipline of children, 61, 139, 429, 431, 483
Walk, mimicry of, 370
Wilful disobedience, 49, 98
Whispering, 577, 861
Wrong-doing of children, causes of, 20, 70
Words, choice of, 175, 178
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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