Part 2 — DIVISION V (continued 4)

543(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)

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 544I 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 545sliding 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.

546

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 547making 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

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. 548The 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)

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 549take 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 550property, 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 551answers 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)

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 552fluctuating 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, 553after 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)

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 554to 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)

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!”

555The 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 556and 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 557of 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)

“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 558had 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.

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?”

559“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 560increased, 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.

561

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.

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)

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 562principal, 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 563be 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)

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 564along 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.”

565“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.

566Get 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.

Breaking Necklace

567One 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 568immediately 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 569remarkably 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)

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. 570Taney’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.

571(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)

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.

572“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 573marks. 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)

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)

A Rush to Windows

When the fire engines rushed by the Shields High School, as by common consent the pupils rose in their 574seats 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.”

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.

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