OBEDIENCE (continued 2)

Pupils rebel naturally against being rounded up for lessons either mediocre or positively distasteful. Nearly all pupils respond appreciably to a first-class attempt to teach a subject. Substitute excellence in class work for coercion in social affairs and you appeal to the common sense of every one concerned. Poor teaching leaves the pupil unsatisfied and disposed to fill up his life with that which pleases him most.

Direction Not Suppression

Suppression of social interest is impossible. Education of high school pupils in social intercourse and recreation is a necessary part of school training. A teacher may easily be as lax in caring for this phase of his duty as a pupil is in preparing his lessons.

The art of holding an interview with a pupil is not easily learned. Let us see how a boy describes a conversation with a strong, fine man who knows how to make men out of boys.

“Well, I just told him all about it. You can’t think how kind and gentle he was, the great grim man, whom I’ve feared more than anybody on earth. When I stuck he lifted me, just as if I had been a little child. And he seemed to know all I’d felt, and to have gone through it all. And I burst out crying more than I’ve done this five years; and he sat down by me, and stroked my head; and I went blundering on and told 115him all; much worse things than I’ve told you. And he wasn’t shocked a bit, and didn’t snub me or tell me I was a fool and it was all nothing but pride and wickedness, though I dare say it was. And he didn’t tell me not to follow out my thoughts, and he didn’t give me any cut-and-dried explanation. But when I’d done he just talked a bit—I can hardly remember what he said; but it seemed it spread round me like healing and strength, and light; and to bear me up, and plant me on a rock, where I could hold my footing and fight for myself.”^[5]

Again, it is clear that if disobedience grows out of the certainty on the part of pupils that the community will support them rather than the teacher, the logical thing for a teacher to do is to deal with that community sentiment, in its adult and influential exponents, rather than in the children whose attitudes are formed by it.

ILLUSTRATION

Gambling

Thomas Mallory was principal of a high school in a suburban town where practically all the citizens were well-to-do people. In November of his first year, he noticed that at noons the students who in fine weather walked or played tennis after eating luncheon, on stormy days were playing cards. This in itself was not serious, but a little observation showed him that gambling in a small way was being carried on. He did not pretend to be greatly shocked by these discoveries, for he knew that most of the students had taken a hand in card games in their own homes without 116restraint, and that many of them knew that their fathers played for small sums at their clubs and that their mothers won valuable prizes at bridge parties. To most of them, the staking of their pin money but lent a pleasurable zest to a game of cards.

But Mr. Mallory had a horror of gambling. After much thought upon the matter, and several interviews with boys and girls who liked to make bets, he decided to submit the problem to the parents themselves. He sent out with the November report of each pupil a mimeographed and signed note to the parent or guardian, explaining the situation and saying that he thought that, owing to the abuses that young people were liable to make of the privilege of playing cards, they would better not be allowed to play at all, especially as it was impracticable for teachers to oversee personally the conduct of each group during the noon recess, even if such espionage were wise. He called attention to the importance of the formation of right habits during adolescence, and asked each parent if a prohibition of card-playing in the high school would not meet with his approval.

The response was everything that could have been wished. Even those parents who were themselves gamblers in one way or another, did not want their children to gamble even in a small way at school. Having, then, the practically undivided support of his patronage (a few parents were not sufficiently interested to reply, but none opposed his measure) Mr. Mallory made a rule that no card-playing was to take place upon the school premises, and without any trouble more wholesome recreations took its place.

117

6. Disobedience Growing Out of Unbridled Pleasure Seeking

There come times when the usual routine of school life is suspended and the pent up enthusiasm or passion for play seems to run wild.

High school pupils find it particularly difficult to keep within the established limits on such occasions.

CASE 18

A Big Celebration

Five other boys went with the six debaters of the Roylston High School, when they went to Barrymore, twenty miles away, for their annual debate. The principal, Mr. Knapp, always had gone with them on these trips; but this time he was detained by illness in his family, which developed too late for him to find a substitute. He therefore gave them last instructions at the station and hurried home, the boys’ assurances that they would “do him proud” ringing in his ears.

At twelve o’clock a worried mother called up to know what was the trouble; at half-past twelve an irate father wanted to know why his boy had not returned. Mr. Knapp asked his assistant to make inquiries, and at two the assistant telephoned that the eleven boys, very hilarious, had just come in from Barrymore, where they had eaten a late supper at the hotel after the debate. Mr. Knapp, thoroughly out of patience with them for their duplicity and lack of honor, resolved to make an example of them the next Monday morning.

On Monday morning, therefore, at chapel, Mr. Knapp read the names of the eleven boys distinctly. He said the debaters had won the contest with Barrymore, 118but had lost all credit for the victory through a breach of good faith. Because he could not go with them, they had remained until the last car and had indulged in a celebration supper. Therefore, he thus publicly withdrew from each boy in that group the privileges of representing the high school in any contest the school might thereafter hold during the year. He did this because a boy who could not be depended upon was unworthy to represent Roylston High School.

Addressing the boys personally he said:

“You have been guilty of a breach of good faith, boys, in that you did a thing when I was not with you, which your knowledge of our customs and our standards makes every one of you know to be wrong. You took advantage of my absence in a dishonorable way. I dislike to take from the six debaters the privileges of debating for the school, for that seems unjust to the school. I hesitate to forbid these five boys to go with the team again, for I am as anxious as I suppose they are, for the boys to redeem themselves by good behavior next time.”

The result was a scarcely concealed spirit of defiance in that high school. The students were indignant that a victory had been so lightly acknowledged; that what they thought a slight offense had been so severely punished; above all, at the ex post facto nature of the punishment, for the boys had not been told they were to return at once after the debate. This had been their custom always and Mr. Knapp had not thought it needful to give specific directions. There was a feeling that Mr. Knapp was unjustly severe; and his influence and authority weakened perceptibly as a result.

119CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT

Hold a private interview with the eleven pupils after definitely deciding on a course of action. In the interview these matters should be covered: the honors brought to the school by the victory; the plans for the next debate; the changes in personnel if any; an account of the after-debate celebration held at Barrymore. Do not disclose any faultfinding attitude toward the group. Make no statements about their delinquency; ascertain their motives and attitudes toward their misconduct.

Later after discovering the ring-leader, meet him privately and go over the affair in detail. Make him admit the error by tactful questions and lead him to accept your plan to hold celebrations on home ground in the future.

Proceed in like manner until a strong minority accepts your policy. At a regular meeting of the debaters make brief announcement of the opinions, judgments and resolutions thus accumulated. Reinforce them by a few strong statements full of enthusiasm and subdued firmness in a way to show that you stand positively behind the decision to maintain the school policy.

In your own mind accept the chief responsibility for having so loosely managed affairs as to make the delinquency complained of a possibility.

COMMENTS

Mr. Knapp made two mistakes in this case. First, he failed to provide for a situation which, had he been less preoccupied, he might have foreseen; that, if they 120won, these boys would consider a late supper a manly and smart way of celebrating. Second, he punished them, not by taking away a personal pleasure from each, but by cutting them off from a social enterprise for the good of the school, an enterprise which was a means of growth in just that very sense of responsibility which the boys lacked when they took advantage of their principal’s absence.

If a punishment is too severe in the minds of the pupils, the administrator loses the possible endorsement of the penalty which would in fact effectively reinforce it. A punishment that does not accurately represent social conscience can have almost no value. It generates repugnance.

“The mood of repugnance tends to give rise to and to be accompanied by either a mood of anger or of sorrow, according to the degree of opposition to which it is subjected and the degree of energy available for resistance.”^[6]

Do Not Fight Instinct

He made too much of a misdeed that grew out of very natural instinctive impulses. The public announcement was a flaunt in the face of the entire school and a severe attack on a matter which had strong public sentiment behind it. It is unwise to launch one’s self against a small misdeed in a way to make one an enemy to a popular movement which one after all desires to promote. Confidence in high school pupils must be genuine, yet a principal must safeguard them against overstrain on matters where adolescent enthusiasm easily runs wild. There is a way of trusting pupils and at the same time “fixing” 121circumstances so that disobedience is not likely to occur.

7. Disobedience Due to the Inefficiency of the Teacher

High school pupils become very expert in detecting the real from the imitation in the matter of character and ability in teachers. They have, as a rule, a keen respect for intellect; so much so that they will usually yield ready obedience to a teacher who can really open their eyes to the wonders that lie in the world of lessons. Intellectual attainment alone is not enough, but real learning, combined with the rare art of imparting it, will almost always win admiration and following.

The Bluffing Teacher

One of the great hindrances to good feeling and ready obedience in our American high schools is the comparatively low standard of preparation of many of their teachers. Teachers who are too young, too quickly and too superficially trained, very seldom succeed in keeping the pupils long in ignorance of their shortcomings.

Some teachers who have felt a lack of respect and a tendency to disobedience and disorder, have found the atmosphere of the school to change as if by magic when better preparation of lessons on their own part has been made. Pupils who have once known the joy of having a wide-awake, well-prepared, and keen teacher are especially quick to detect low scholarship and faulty training in subsequent instructors.

122CASE 19

The Junior English class in the Warren High School was reading Macbeth under the guidance of a teacher who had just come to take the place of Miss Foster, the regular teacher, who was ill. They had reached the second act.

“Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care,” read John Harris. “What does that mean, Miss Kirk?”

Miss Kirk did not really know, for she was not a student of Shakespeare and she had not had time to prepare the lesson. She considered hastily, however, and made what she hoped was a shrewd guess.

“They wore knitted doublets in those days,” she said, “and of course they would ravel out with wear and use. So the women used to knit them up again when they needed it, in the sleeves for instance, just as we darn hose now.”

John finished Macbeth’s speech, and sat down quite satisfied that he understood it. But Harold Newcome, the minister’s son, waved his hand vigorously, and Miss Kirk let him speak.

“Father and I read this over last night together,” he averred, “and we found a different meaning from that. We found that sleave is a Scotch word and means the silk before it’s spun into thread.”

Miss Kirk was shrewd enough to say, “That is a passage upon which the authorities disagree. You may go on, Constance.” Harold, while unconvinced, was silenced for the time being.

The class reached the third scene. “He should have 123old turning of the key,” read Mary Bond. “Miss Kirk, I think there must be a misprint here—I don’t make sense of it.”

“There is,” Miss Kirk replied, bluffing as before. “It should read, ‘He should grow old turning the key.’ Go on.”

“But that isn’t it,” Harold cried out in his eagerness. “That expression is just like one the girls use when they say, ‘You mean old thing.’”

“Harold, please get permission to speak next time,” Miss Kirk admonished. “And don’t interrupt the reading.”

They reached the lines,

“Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon.”

“What is a Gorgon?” some one asked.

“Jennie, can you tell?” Miss Kirk was growing cautious. Jennie could not, so she asked first one and then another. Harold, although he could have told, shook his head, and waited with a sardonic smile to hear what Miss Kirk would say. Feeling obliged to answer her own question, Miss Kirk at last hazarded,

“It is a kind of weapon they had in those days. Tomorrow I want you all to look up all the words you do not know.”

At this, Harold closed his book with a bang and grinned broadly. Miss Kirk looked at him severely, and said,

“Harold, open your book and read the next lines.”

“Excuse me,” he answered, “I don’t believe I will. 124I’m learning so much from your wonderful definitions that I think I’d rather listen to you.”

“Harold Newcome, open your book this instant. Do you mean to do as I say?”

“I certainly do not. You don’t know as much as we do about this play. You haven’t even read the notes at the back of the book, I bet.”

“You may leave the room this instant,” Miss Kirk commanded in a rage. “Will you do that?”

“I certainly will, with pleasure,” and Harold left with a mocking bow.

At recess he gathered a group about him and explained his teacher’s ignorant mistakes. The other pupils enjoyed the joke thoroughly, and did not trouble that night to prepare the next day’s English lesson, feeling that they could either bluff or excuse themselves with so “easy” a teacher. Miss Kirk found them disrespectful and inattentive, listening to her comments and instructions with amused smiles. Her work was a total failure, and in a few days she had to give up to a more able substitute, whose preparation was such as to command respect.

CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT

The teacher who has not had time to prepare a lesson will find it best to be quite frank with his pupils; no mistake could be greater than to pretend a knowledge which he does not have. Miss Kirk might have said to her class on that first day,

“I have just come, and have not even read over today’s lesson; and it has been several years since I read this play or saw it performed. So we shall have 125to work it out together, and I’ve no doubt that you can tell me many things I’ve forgotten.” Harold, who had had his father’s help in studying the act, would have been delighted at the chance to contribute his facts, and their gracious reception would have encouraged others to prepare lessons in the same thorough way.

COMMENTS

The authority of a teacher over his pupils rests upon the theory that the teacher is fit to direct the conduct of those who are younger and less able to select right courses of action. If the teacher be immature, stupid, badly educated or uncultured, this theory breaks down; the pupils themselves are quick to recognize the fact that the basis of authority does not exist.

Even when they do not consciously reason out this cause for disrespect and disobedience, they feel it, being logically minded and keenly sensitive on the subject of obedience. They feel the injustice of being asked to obey one whom they see to be unfit to control, because of his dishonesty in pretending to be what he is not. If the teacher is frank, pupils will often make generous allowances, but they rightly despise a bluffer and decline to give him loyal support.

127DIVISION IV

CONCRETE CASES ARISING OUT OF SELF-PRESERVATIVE INSTINCTS

“... The training of a child ... does not consist of elimination or suppression but of direction of the native impulses so that they co-operate in a rational and organized manner.”

Angell, Psychology, p. 430.—Holt.

129