Part 2 — DIVISION IX

He’s armed without that’s innocent within.

—Pope.

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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)

“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.

830Attaching 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.

831

ILLUSTRATION 1 (HIGH SCHOOL)

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)

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 832raked, 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)

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 833bring 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)

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 834discussed 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.

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.

835In 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)

Avoid Spreading Harm

When Sadie Moore picked up a note from the floor and handed it to Miss Dietz, who taught the third 836grade, 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)

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 837Terman, 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 838desire 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)

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,

839“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?”

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 840at 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 841trying 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.

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, 842whatever 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 843than 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.

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 844boy 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 845told 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.”

846“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, 847in 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 848using 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)

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 849have 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 850and 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 851most 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 852Kingsley 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)

“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 853of 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 854at 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 855the 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.

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