Class LJfy^L . Book o y* Copyright^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT School Management A TEXT-BOOK FOR COUNTY TRAINING SCHOOLS AND NORMAL SCHOOLS BY ALBERT SALISBURY PRESIDENT OP THE WHITEWATER NORMAL SCHOOL AUTHOR OP "THE THEORY OF TEACHING", ETC. CHICAGO ROW, PETERSON & COMPANY \\ &x Copyright 1911 BY ALBERT SALISBURY CCI.A280248 PREFACE If any apology is thought to be due for adding to the number of books on School Management now in print, it may perhaps be found in the statement that this is the latest one, and possibly the further fact that it represents the fruits of a lifetime spent in the schools and in the training of teachers. School conditions have greatly changed in recent years, and books on s.chool economy which were excellent twenty years ago are now antiquated. Much more is now demanded of teachers than formerly. The growing tendency to devolve upon the school responsibilities which were once recog- nized as duties of the home has greatly changed the relationship of the teacher to his charge. And the progress of sanitary science together with the move- ment just mentioned has tended to make him a more important and responsible personage than ever before. He has, in fact, become an official of the state, with larger functions and greater need for intelligence concerning those functions than the old- time pedagogue. "While endeavoring to recognize this newer con- ception of the teacher 's office, and the greater bur- dens which it imposes, it has been the desire of the author to make a small book rather than a bulky 3 4 PREFACE one; and there has been a resolute purpose to ex- clude padding and time-honored commonplace. The work has not been written throughout on the same scale in the matter of compactness. Many of its paragraphs are texts, rather than discussions, the purpose being to leave room for the instructor to exercise his proper functions by way of amplifica- tion, even to the point of making his pupils do a part in supplementing the text. In other cases, as in the chapter on Moral Training, where amplification by the teacher might be more difficult, a more complete treatment of topics has been attempted ; though there has been no attempt at exhaustiveness. The book is intended to serve the needs of young teachers and those in preparation for the work, and clearness has been aimed at rather than profundity. A word needs to be said perhaps concerning the use of the personal pronoun as regards its gender. While due respect has been paid, in the majority of instances, to the grammatical canon requiring the use of the masculine form where both sexes are con- sidered, there has been intentional deviation from it, with seeming inconsistency possibly, in many cases, the feminine form being freely used in connections where it seemed more appropriate to the conditions under discussion. The critical reader will also find some repetitions, the same thought, in perhaps the same words, being introduced in different connec- tions. This is not accidental, neither is it unpeda- gogical. The writer wishes to acknowledge his obligation PKEFACE 5 to Prof. George C. Shutts for judicious counsel throughout the work, to Prof. W. S. Watson for helpful criticism on those chapters relating to hygiene and sanitation, and to Walter E. Larson, State Inspector of Rural Schools, for many valuable suggestions. A. S. Whitewater, Wis., November, 1910. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of. Congress http://www.archive.org/details/schoolmanagementOOsali TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Introductory 9 II. The Physical Environment 14 III. Heating and Ventilation 30 IV. General Sanitation 44 V. The Hygiene of the Sense Organs 54 VI. The Teacher 64 VII. The Teacher in His Eelations 74 VIII. The Teacher and His Time 85 IX. The First Day of School 93 X. The Program 99 XL Incentives to Study 107 XII. Moral Training 118 XIII. Elements of Moral Character Culti- vated by the School 131 XIV. Rules and Punishments 145 XV. Class Management 158 XVI. Examinations and Promotions 182 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY For the intelligent prosecution of any enterprise or calling, two kinds of knowledge are necessary, theoret- ical and practical. Theoretical knowledge may be defined as knowledge of what ought to be done and the reasons why. No great and permanent success is possible without some understanding of the laws and natural conditions which determine the outcome of the enterprise, that is, the principles, or theory, of the business. By practical knowledge is meant familiarity with the actual processes of the undertaking, the knowledge how to do it, how to apply effort. This is acquired only by personal experience, though this experience may be directed by instruction. In some cases, this practical knowledge is acquired first, and often through expensive failures. The story is told of a great English oculist, that when compli- mented on his skill in eye-surgery he answered sadly, "Yes, but it has cost a whole bushel of eyes/' If he had known, at the first, the whole theory of the eye, most of that bushel of eyes need not have been sacrificed. Why Study School Management? — The manage- ment of a school is an important enterprise, in which 10 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT the consequences of failure fall heavily upon the teacher but far more heavily upon the pupils, as victims of the failure. Hence a study of the general principles of school management by the prospective teacher is a step tending to economy, or the prevention of wasteful mis- takes. Even in a factory, working upon inert materials, a knowledge of the principles of mechanics is essential to success; but when the material on which the effort is expended is spirit instead of matter, and the product is life itself, the need of wisdom, in every sense of the word, is immensely increased. What is a School?— We are to study the theory and practice of school management. First, then, what is a school? Is it a group of children or a place? It is both, and more. Let this be our definition : A school is an institution of society, supplementary to the home, for the training of children. We must lay stress upon the fact that the school is a supplement to the home. But why is such a sup- plementary institution necessary? It is necessary be- cause parents, as a rule, are not fully able to give their children the training that is needful to lead them into completeness of life. They usually lack: (1) Time; they are too deeply absorbed in the cares of their daily occupation or in their ambitions, social or otherwise. (2) Knowledge and skill; they have not themselves had the training which they wish their children to have, and so are not able to communicate it. (3) Wisdom, as to end and means. INTKODUCTOBY H Most parents, unfortunately, have no true or ade- quate conception of what a child really needs and is entitled to in the way of training for life in civilized society. The education of children is, in short, a com- plex and difficult process of great importance not only to the child . but to society at large, and demands a special preparation on the part of those who carry it on to completion. What Parents Delegate to the School. — What, then, do parents turn over to the school, as requiring more time, knowledge, and wisdom than they them- selves possess ? The first thing which will occur to most minds is instruction in look 'knowledge, and this is indeed made the basis of most school work; but it is by no means the whole duty of the teacher. The home turns over to the school much of the needed training in manners, speech, and morals. A certain woman known to the writer had a young son who had great need of home discipline. A neighbor expostulated with her for her easy-going neglect of the boy's behavior. "You ought", she said, "to teach your boy obedience". "Oh", answered the mother, "the school will do that". And this woman is only a type of a large class of par- ents who are more and more turning off on the school that discipline which was once thought to be the special province of the home. The teacher is coming to stand in loco parentis in a very comprehensive 'sense. This comes about, in a measure, from the increasing com- plexity of our social life and the growing tendency to ease and luxury. 12 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT But, aside from this tendency of parents to delegate their responsibilities to the teacher, it is the unques- tioned province of the school to inculcate ideals, to inspire worthy interests, and make not only possible but actual a wider and higher vision of the meaning and value of life. In the familiar phraseology, "complete living" and "character building" are the ends of edu- cation towards which the school must supplement the beginnings, whatsoever they may be, of the home. The Essential Elements of a School. — What, now, is necessary to constitute a school? What are its essen- tial elements? (1) A place in which to conduct its activities. (2) A teacher j or teachers, to stimulate and control its activities towards their proper result. (3) Some one to he taught and educated, pupils of some sort. Every one is now familiar with President Garfield's striking remark that a log with Mark Hopkins on one end and a receptive pupil on the other would constitute a school. And so it would; but that would be a school reduced to its lowest terms, and not much "manage- ment" would be necessary. What is School Management? — Management is the act or art of control towards a desired result. School management, then, is the direction and control of school activities towards the true ends of education. Does this include instruction? No, not instruction itself, but the conditions which favor successful instruction. One of these conditions is financial support, but in INTRODUCTORY 13 public schools this responsibility is removed from the teacher. School management, however, does include all prac- ticable control of the physical environment and condi- tions of the school ; hence school hygiene may properly be regarded as subsidiary to school management. Fur- thermore, school management has to deal not only with the bodies of the pupils but also with their wills. It must aim to secure the right mental attitudes towards all the activities and duties of the school. We may lead the horse to the watering trough, we may provide the water, but there must be a thirst before the horse will drink. School management, in its fullest sense, must aim to increase, or at least not destroy, the mental thirst. We may, therefore, state the ends of school manage- ment as: (1) To provide favorable conditions for instruction, to make it possible. (2) To economize time and effort on the part of both teacher and pupil, by rightly shaping the mechanics of the school. (3) To produce a right disposition towards instruc- tion, and so make control more easy and effective. (4) To produce in the school a social environment which will tend to establish those habits and dispositions which constitute moral character. These aims are all very comprehensive and cover, in each case, a great variety of detail, calling for large intelligence and great alertness on the part of teachers and superintendents. CHAPTEE II THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT We have seen that the first factor of a school is a place in which to conduct it. While this may be very- simple and unobtrusive, just as a place of worship may be, yet the aims of the school will be best served by such an outlay of money and ingenuity as will remove all physical limitations and hindrances from the educa- tional process. As physical vigor and well-being is not only infinitely important in itself, but is also the in- dispensable condition of normal mental activity, every accessory which has a bearing upon the general health or the normal functioning of the bodily organs of those under instruction should be understood and duly con- sidered by all who are in any way responsible for the efficiency and success of the school. The School Site. — The first matter for considera- tion in this connection is the location of the school building. What are the most important requisites of the school site ? (1) The first requirement is that it shall be sanitary. The drainage should be good, and it should not be in proximity to a swamp or any other source of noxious gases or evil odors. (2) It should be accessible and reasonably central to 14 THE PHYSICAL ENVIKONMENT 15 the school population served, and not away at one edge of the district. (3) It should be commodious. The land which it comprises should be measured by acres and not by square feet. There is no worse parsimony than that displayed in depriving any school, from kindergarten to high school, of ample playgrounds. (4) It should be as retired and quiet as practicable. That is, it should not be located, in towns, near the business center nor near railroad tracks or noisy fac- tories. The question of beauty in the site and its sur- roundings should not be ignored. A gentle acclivity, or "rise of ground", is highly desirable; and the possi- bility of ornamentation is an important requisite. Moral considerations, also, should never be forgotten. The school should not be located in proximity to saloons or haunts of vice. If these, at a later time, invade the vicinity of the school, the discovery of some remedy or means of prevention ought to be the active concern of every one interested in the preservation of impressible children from contaminating sights and sounds. The presence of candy shops in the vicinity of the school is also to be deprecated. Common Mistakes. — Serious and reprehensible mistakes are often made, especially in small cities, in the location of school buildings. Who has not seen the High School located away at one side of the town, com- pelling innumerable miles of useless travel on the part of pupils; or on a steep hilltop, compelling the lifting of all the avoirdupois of the school twice a day to a 16 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT needless height? Who has not seen a building con- taining hundreds of children permanently located close beside a railroad track, or even a busy switching-yard? And who has not seen an expensive high school building placed almost flush with the sidewalk, thus precluding forever all possibility of play grounds, lawn, trees, or flower beds, exhibiting a stinginess of land little less than criminal in its shortsightedness? Improvement of the School Site. — When the site has been wisely chosen, the next consideration is that of its proper improvement. The old time country school furnished a striking illustration of "how not to do it". Located on perhaps half an acre of cheap land, the first step was to cut down all the trees, and often that was the last step also, the site being left without fence, well, or other improvement. In an earlier day, cattle and hogs ran at large, and often found the school site a favorite grazing ground. Whittier's familiar couplet, "Still stands the school-house by the road, A ragged beggar sunning", was only a picture of familiar fact, a fact not wholly unknown at the present day. Whether the school lot should be fenced or not de- pends on circumstances. In Great Britain, it is usually surrounded by a high wall, with iron gates. But the school should always have its own water supply. If a well, it should be ready for use as soon as the school- house is ready. THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 17 A Model Country School Site. — The writer has seen a country site which comprises perhaps two acres of land. On it are planted suitable shade trees. At one side is a school garden, planted and tended by the pupils. At the rear, is outdoor athletic apparatus, and good outbuildings. The fuel supply, as coal is burned, is kept in the basement. The lawn is cut with a lawn- mower; and the whole premises are beautiful to the eye and. educational in their effect. Why should not this model be duplicated in almost any school site? Outbuildings. — An absolutely vital matter is the provision and proper location of outbuildings. The fol- lowing extract from the statutes of the state of Wis- consin forms the basis of a circular of instruction issued by the State Department of Education to all district officers, viz. : Chapter 232, Laws of 1907. Section 435a. It shall be the duty of each school district board, or, in towns under the township system, the town board of school directors, to pro- vide at least two suitable and convenient outhouses or water-closets for each of the schoolhouses under its control. Said outhouses or water-closets shall be entirely separated each from the other and shall have separate means of access. The boys' outhouse shall be provided with suitable urinals. Said out- houses and said water-closets, if detached from the schoolhouse, shall be placed at least thirty feet apart and~separated by a substantial close fence not less than seven feet in height, and where placed on opposite sides of the school grounds shall be suit- ably screened from view. The board of education 18 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT shall have said outhouses and water-closets kept in h clean and wholesome condition. The Schoolhouse. (1) School Architecture, Past and Present. In the past, far too little attention was given to the true prin- ciples of schoolhouse construction; in fact, it was not recognized that any such principles existed. Accident and caprice have generally ruled in this matter. In city schools, the planning of schoolhouses has been turned over to architects, who had little knowledge of or interest in the proper conditions of school work, and were more concerned about architectural effect than edu- cational efficiency. In recent years, however, there has arisen a class of architects who have given special atten- tion to the construction of school buildings and have wrought a great improvement in the suitability of their structures for the practical purposes of education. In other words, the science of schoolhouse construction has begun to receive adequate attention; though many seri- ous failures still mark the experimental stage of school architecture. (2) The Country Schoolhouse. The country school- house was long thought beneath the notice of architects. Its needs were, it was thought, so few and simple that any carpenter could put up a box adequate to the needs of a country school, though the stupidity sometimes exhibited in the interior arrangement had in it at least some element of originality. But here, too, a change is taking place. State Departments of Public Instruc- tion have made a study of rural school architecture, and in some states bulletins have been issued giving approved THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 19 plans for model schoolhouses. It would be well if every country teacher were to make himself acquainted with some of these plans, and so be qualified to furnish in- formation and suggestions to school boards whenever opportunity offered itself. The country schoolhouse ought to be something more than a hollow parallele- piped. (3) The Schoolroom. The plan of any school build- ing as a whole must be determined, in part at least, by the principles which should govern each and every schoolroom. Let us, therefore, consider what these requirements are. It is now an accepted principle of school manage- ment that no teacher should be charged with the instruc- tion and control of more than forty pupils. We may assume, then, that each separate schoolroom should be planned for the accommodation of about that number of children, certainly never more than fifty. Accepting this limitation, along with others, the following speci- fications will follow : (a) Shape. In form, the schoolroom should not be square but oblong, with the teacher's desk placed at one end. This will favor the proper lighting of the room and will bring the pupils better within the view of the teacher. (b) Size. For a school of, say, forty-two pupils, a room 24 by 30 feet will serve the purpose, though 25 by 32 feet is perhaps preferable. The height of the ceiling should be somewhat greater than in dwellings, though never higher than 15 feet. Wherever, for any reason, more than forty or fifty pupils are to be seated 20 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT in the same room, the lateral dimensions should be cor- respondingly greater. It is considered by the best authorities that at least 15 square feet of floor space should be provided for each pupil, and 200 cubic feet of air space. (4) Lighting . (a) The Position of Windows. The first considera- tion in connection with the lighting of schoolrooms is that of the position of the windows, as determining the direction from which the light rays shall reach the pupil. Careful scientific studies of this question have led to the conclusion that windows should be placed in not more than two sides of the room. There are, in fact, some strong reasons in favor of what is called unilateral lighting, and this is probably best where the room is not too wide and the window space adequate. If light is taken from one side only, that should be at the left of the pupil as he sits; so that the shadow of his hand in writing shall not fall upon his paper. If light is taken from two sides, they should be contiguous, the left and rear. No lighting should be permitted which will make distinct shadows on the pupil's book when studying or writing. Double shadows from cross lights are especially injurious. Only in large assembly rooms should light be admitted from two opposite sides ; and pupils should never be allowed to sit facing windows. It is important that light should fall from above as much as possible. The windows should therefore extend upwards to within six or eight inches of the ceiling, and should not be rounded or arched at the top, as that cuts off some of the best light. The window sills should THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 21 be from three to four feet above the floor, high enough so that pupils will not be able to see outside objects while sitting. (b) The Amount of Window Space. Another impor- tant consideration is that of the quantity of light neces- sary, and so of the amount of window space to be pro- vided. This matter, also, has received much careful investigation. The best authorities are agreed that the amount of window space in a room should equal from one-sixth to one-fourth of the floor space. The windows should be wide and the piers or mullions between them should be narrow. (c) Window Shades. The matter of proper shading for the windows is of no less importance than their size and position, and the common negligence and igno- rance with reference to it are reprehensible in the extreme. The shades are usually ill chosen and wrongly hung. The shades should be of a durable material that will not easily crack or tear. The material known as "Bren- lin" is well adapted to meet these requirements. They should not be too opaque, and should be mounted, of course, on spring rollers. The color should be a light shade of green or buff, preferably the former. Since light from the lower part of the window falls on the floor, and the light should reach the pupil's book or paper from above, the rollers should be placed near the bottom of the window instead of the top, as is usually done, so that the shade shall pull up from the bottom. In other words, the unshaded portion of the window should be at the top instead of the bottom. A 22 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT device now coming into use known as a "Shade Ad- juster" enables the teacher to shade any part of the window and to change the adjustment readily. To the bottom bar of every shade a cord should be attached, long enough to be easily reached in any position of the shade, and this should be promptly renewed whenever broken. This may seem a minor matter but it is not unimportant. The teacher should never need to climb a chair to reach the curtain. But the provision of suitable shades, properly hung, is only the first step. The shades should be continually readjusted to suit the changing conditions of the sun. It is the teacher's duty to form the habit of being alert and attentive to these conditions, taking account of dark days and bright, and of the time of day. There is danger of neglect through absorption and oblivious- ness. Two cautions should be particularly observed: (1) Never let the direct rays of the sun fall on a desk occupied by a pupil, and (2) always admit the light from above and not on a level with the pupils' eyes. (5) Heating and Ventilation. This subject is so im- portant as to require a separate chapter, following, which see. (6) Equipment and Decoration of the Schoolroom. (a) The Walls. The walls should be smoothly fin- ished, as a rough surface catches dust and grime. They should then be tinted in a subdued tint, a light shade of green or greenish grey being preferable. All strong, pronounced colors should be eschewed, especially red and dark colors. The ceiling should be a lighter tint than the side walls. If the room is not well lighted THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 23 the ceiling would better be plain white. As to the tint- ing material, kalsomine or alabastine will do, but must be renewed from time to time and can not be washed. For that reason, a surface of oil paint over a sizing coat is preferable, but this should be stippled over to prevent glare. The use of wall paper in schoolrooms can not be approved under any circumstances. It is neither dur- able, sanitary, nor appropriate. (b) Blackboards. A great variety of materials is now used for the construction of blackboards. Natural slate is the most expensive but has the merit of permanency, not requiring annual renovation. An "artificial slate", now on the market, has also the quality of permanency, with the added advantage of having no seams, but a continuous smooth surface. Then, there are the "hylo- plate" board and slated cloth and even slated paper, any of which may be useful under certain conditions. Very commonly the board is made by the application of liquid slating to the plastered wall. In this case, the surface needs to be renewed by the annual application of a fresh coat of the slating, which is an inconvenience even greater in the country than in cities, where qualified workmen are more easily found. Where this kind of board is adopted, it is best to cover the wall with a thick- ness of heavy Manila paper of the requisite width, on which the slating may be applied, with a proper "sizing". This will prevent possible crumbling or pitting of the plaster wall. A blackboard should be, as a rule, four feet wide, with the bottom edge not more than two and one-half feet from the floor. For primary grades, the height should 24 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT not exceed twenty-six inches. A chalk-trough covered with wire netting should be provided at the bottom to receive the dust. The most pleasing color for a black- board is an olive green, but slating of this color is not always easily found. The ordinary green slating is hardly preferable to the dead black of natural slate. The best erasers are made of ribs of felt, open at the end, with the ribs not too close together but open enough to let the chalk dust run out between them. Many "noiseless" erasers are failures from neglect of this point, and only serve to mop the chalk around on the board. (c) Desks and Seats. The first consideration in the furnishing of a schoolroom is that of the proper size, style, and placing of desks and seats. Size is, of course, determined by the age of the pupils to be accommodated. The ordinary American school desks are made in six sizes, No. 6 being designed for children in the first grade, six or seven years of age, and NTo. 1 for pupils in the eighth grade and high school. Of late, however, "adjustable" desks are much favored. These are made in only three sizes, the adjustable feature providing for individual variations in size within these limits. Such desks are much to be preferred for hygienic reasons, especially for young children, but have the disadvantage of being somewhat higher in cost. There is the further drawback that teachers are apt to be negligent in the matter of adjusting or readusting the desks and seats to the needs of changing occupants. Another question to be settled in the selection of new desks has reference to the character of the seats. The more common style at present ig that of folding seats, THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 25 attached to the desk just behind the pupil. This style of seat has certain advantages, but there is something to be said in favor of separate "chairs", fastened to the floor but having no contact with the desks. These, then, are the two questions to be decided : Shall we have folding seats or chairs? And shall we have adjustable desks and seats or not ? The next consideration is that of the proper placing of the desks in the room. They should be placed in rows the long way of the room, with aisles between not less than eighteen inches in width, or twenty inches for the larger sizes. For a room of forty pupils, five rows of single desks, eight in a row, would be a good arrange- ment. If the room is, unfortunately, square or nearly so, six rows, seven in a row, would best fit the conditions. It is a serious mistake, though not uncommon, to place desks of different sizes in the same row. Each row should be of the same size throughout. There is a fur- ther question as to the desirability of "recitation seats", that is, settees in the front part of the room to which pupils are called for class exercises. Latter day prac- tice seems to favor the hearing of lessons with the pupils in their regular seats. This plan has its advantages in cases where written work is to be taken up and does away with the obstruction of settees crossing the aisles in front. But where the grade, or class, is large there is danger that the teacher will be too far removed from the pupils. The teacher should come into as close rap- port with the children as possible, and this does not permit physical remoteness. (d) Other Equipment. In the way of further equip- 26 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT ment, there should be, of course, a suitable teacher's desk, with drawers, and a rail about the top for the support of books. There should be a set of wall maps in spring-roller cases, and a proper rack, or receptacle for holding them when not in use, for they should never be stood on end, as is so often and untidily done. These maps should not be kept exposed on the walls of the room, but should be unrolled only when in actual use. Sunlight, dust, and flies are great enemies to maps; moreover, "familiarity breeds contempt" here as in other cases. There should be a suitable case for the school library with an effective lock. If possible, there should be a reading table, conveniently placed, at which the diction- ary and other reference books can be consulted. The selection of books for the school library is an important matter; it should be made under competent advice. Mention has already been made of the importance of a proper water supply for every school. If drinking water is kept in the schoolroom some better receptacle should be provided than the ordinary pail, open to dust and germs. A closed tank or "cooler" should be fur- nished where running water, in pipes, is impracticable. In city schools, from this time forth, the "bubble", or sanitary drinking fountain, should displace all other devices for the quenching of school thirst. (e) Decoration. The aesthetic aspects of the school- room are of great importance educationally. School children should never be confined, day after day, in the presence of what is coarse, untidy, or unbeautiful. Dingy walls, defaced furniture or woodwork, grotesque THE PHYSICAL ENVIEONMENT 27 or vulgar pictures or placards must have a vulgarizing effect on the taste and mental atmosphere of pupils. The use of advertising cards of any sort, of cheap chromos, and of anything faded or discolored should be religiously avoided. The writer remembers to have seen in a high school room, in a fairly intelligent community, a framed pic- ture (?) on the walls, put forth originally as a seeds- man's advertisement, in which the features of a highly colored human (?) face were made up of garden vege- tables, a carrot for the nose, etc. And there this mon- strosity had hung for years until faded and grimy, as, forsooth, a schoolroom decoration. What that argued for the taste and sense of the teachers need not be en- larged upon here. The national flag should not be used as a wall decoration. It spoils other decoration, and is not in its proper place on the walls of a room. It should be used only on special occasions. The first step in the direction of school aesthetics is, it need hardly be said, cleanness, clean walls, clean floors, clean windows, clean furniture. Others are (1) tinted walls; (2) suitable and properly mounted window shades, and (3) well chosen pictures. Comment has already been made on the proper tinting of walls. It may be added here that if the walls are treated with oil-paint, the surface should be stippled to prevent a glary effect. The most common mistake in the matter of pictures consists in the overloading, clut- tering up, of the walls with a profusion, and confusion, of small pictures and bric-a-brac. A few good-sized, framed pictures by artists of note, and having a real 28 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT educational value, constitute the most effective and edu- cative decoration. The selection of school pictures is an important and responsible service and should not be trusted to ignorance or caprice. Any teacher wishing to give a little intelligent study to this matter of school pictures and their selection would do well to secure a copy of "The School Beautiful", a most admirable pamphlet, issued by the Wisconsin De- partment of Public Instruction in 1907. In this Bul- letin will also be found valuable suggestions in all the lines, or departments, of school beautification, including outdoor decoration. From it the following quotations are extracted as per- tinent and helpful : "The purpose of pictures in the schoolroom is two- fold; first, to decorate the bare and silent walls, and, second, to direct the child's taste and sympathy toward the beautiful. A third but much less significant pur- pose is to familiarize the pupil with recognized works of art and methods of expression in art. "Every schoolroom should have at least one picture of artistic merit. If means permit, it is well to have more, but it is a great mistake to have too many. * # * * * * * * "Select pictures having a human interest. Pictures of animals and of children always appeal to the little folks. Whatever the subject, let it be one which the child will be able to comprehend through experience or knowledge common to children of his age. * * * * * * * * "Select colored pictures if it is possible for you to obtain those which are true works of art. They are more decorative as a rule and are more appreciated by the child. THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 09 "Be very careful, however, in your selection. * * * * * * 5is * "Select bright, sunshiny or at least moderately cheer- ful subjects. Children are greatly influenced by sub- jects of pictures and sadness conies soon enough. It need not be lugged in. Avoid also subjects which give no food for thought and which will soon become tire- some. "Take into consideration the amount of wall space available and the size of the room, so that you Avill buy pictures neither too large nor too small. A very small picture in a very large room is lost. A very large picture in a very small room looks out of place." CHAPTEE III HEATING AND VENTILATION The bodily comfort and safety of the pupil confined in a schoolroom during several hours of each day, mostly in a sitting posture, and greatly restricted in his move- ments, is a matter of, literally, vital importance. Neg- lect of these conditions may result in not only perma- nent physical damage, forming a handicap in the battle of life, but also in at least partial failure to accomplish the intellectual results for which all this outlay of time and money is made. Heating. — Apart from the question of health, no child can apply his mind to study in either extreme of temperature, hot or cold. He must be in a state of at least tolerable comfort. The fundamental question here is, "What is the normal standard temperature which will be most conducive to both health and mental energy?" But that is, to some extent, a matter of habit. In British schools, the standard of schoolroom temperature in general use is 56 degrees Fahrenheit, though 60 degrees is allowed in the Infant Schools. Even at this, many of the children wear short socks and go habitually with bare knees. In Germany, much the same standard prevails. In this country, on the other hand, we carry our custom of overheating our living- rooms into the schoolrooms, and the standard most gen- 30 HEATING AND VENTILATION 31 erally accepted is 70 degrees ; though many teachers, es- pecially women of sedentary habits, who sit while teach- ing, are addicted to a higher temperature still. There is little doubt that the health of American chil- dren is more or less impaired by the national habit of overheating. While we would not think the British standard endurable, unquestionably it would be to the advantage of our schools if the temperature were kept at 65 degrees, or 68 degrees at the utmost. Heating Systems. — In city schools, three methods of heating are more or less in use ; viz., steam, hot water, and hot air, or furnaces. The hot water system, admir- able for dwellings, is not well adapted for heating large school buildings. Steam heating is preferable in schools large enough to command the services of a com- petent man in charge of the boilers; but smaller build- ings are most economically heated by hot air furnaces. The greatest objection to the hot air system lies in the fact that the air sent into the rooms has just been in contact with surfaces of superheated, often red-hot, cast iron, which is believed to vitiate the air. Moreover, the furnaces are very likely to leak coal gas, and dust from the rooms is apt to find its way into the furnace pipes and there be scorched and sent back into the rooms. For these reasons, steam heat should be used where practicable. In large buildings, it is advisable to com- bine direct and indirect radiation, as described later on page 38 In most country schools, the heating apparatus is still primitive. In even recent times, nothing better was 32 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT thought of than the old box-stove, with a stovepipe over head the whole length of the room, the result being cold floors with very unequal distribution of heat. In some however, a furnace in the basement or a jacketed stove has now superseded the simple firebox. Heat Regulation. — One of the really valuable tri- umphs of science in this generation is found in the mechanical regulation of temperature in buildings by means of thermostats and pneumatic or electric trans- mission. The Johnson System of heat regulation is the oldest and most widely used. This takes the con- trol out of the hands of both teacher and janitor and lodges it with forces more reliable than human intelligence. But in the country or small village school such de- vices are not thought to be practicable, and the teacher must charge himself with a watchful control of the schoolroom temperature. In this, he must allow nothing for his own personal habit or peculiarity. The adopted standard should be maintained as closely as possible throughout the day; and especial care should be taken that the room is properly warm at the opening of school. Ventilation. (a) What Ventilation Is. What is meant by venti- lation as related to schools and public assemblies? Not simply abundance of air or change of air, but change of air without disagreeable or injurious change of tempera- ture. In order, then, to have satisfactory ventilation, there must be movement of air combined with control HEATING AND VENTILATION 33 of temperature ; in other words, the heating and venti- lating apparatus must have a close connection with each other. This involves the fact that proper ventila- tion costs money, which is one reason why we have so little of it. Another reason is ignorance as to its im- portance and ignorance as to the most practicable means of securing it. (b) Why Ventilation Costs. Why does ventilation cost money? First, because change of air means loss of heat which we have been at the cost of producing, or, in other words, it involves the heating of larger quantities of air; and artificial heat costs money. Sec- ondly, the moving of air in rooms requires the applica- tion of power in some form, and power costs money. Those thrifty people who caulk up their houses in the fall and run coal stoves without means of changing the air continually, breathing practically the same air all winter, are able in spring to boast of small fuel bills, though the doctor's bills may be correspondingly large. (c) Why Ventilation Is Important. Pure air for breathing is absolutely essential to health. Impure air poisons the bodily tissues, or, rather, impure air fails to properly purify the blood in the lungs, and leaves it burdened with the waste products of internal com- bustion. What, then, are the sources of this impurity ? Atmospheric air consists of a mixture of approxi- mately 79 per cent of nitrogen and a little less than 21 per cent of oxygen with a small admixture of a num- ber of other substances, including from three to four one-hundredths of one per cent of carbon dioxide, or carbonic acid gas. It also contains, or sustains, a vary- 34 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT ing amount of water vapor, the amount depending on climatic conditions. This presence of moisture in the air is known as humidity. The oxygen of the air con- stitutes its life-giving quality, nitrogen being, in its effect on the bodily tissues, comparatively inert. Any considerable diminution of the due proportion of oxy- gen in the air we breathe becomes a source of danger, as also any addition to the air of other substances. (d) What Vitiates the Air? First, dust and par- ticles of organic matter held in mechanical suspension in the air, and often harboring, or consisting of, dis- ease germs. The soot and dangerous gases emitted by factories, locomotives, and other sources of imperfect combustion; the effluvia given off by decaying garbage, and from slaughter houses, open cesspools, or stagnant water; these and other sources of contamination tend in greater or less measure to change the air from the means of life to a means of disease and death. A second source of vitiation is found, especially in connection with evening assemblies, in the abstraction of oxygen from the air by the burning of lamps, gas jets, etc. The somewhat popular oil-heater, often used for warming sitting rooms and even bedrooms, is an especially vicious contaminator of air where pure air is most needed; though it has not invaded the school- room to any extent. But, thirdly, the most universal and effective cause of vitiation is found in the functioning of the vital organism itself. Excretions from the skin, both through the sensible and insensible perspiration, espe- cially when connected with habits of uncleanliness, HEATING AND VENTILATION 35 infrequent bathing, etc., play a part in the vitiation of the contiguous air. Bad teeth and bad digestion con- tribute their quota of effete matter; while the victims of tuberculosis, incipient or developed, through the sputum and also through sneezing and coughing, and even ordinary breath, disseminate the deadly germs. In respiration, the lungs carry on a continual com- merce with the atmosphere, withdrawing from it the oxygen necessary for the purification of the blood and giving to it in exchange the products of internal com- bustion, especially carbon dioxide, or carbonic acid gas, and also the nitrogenous gases. If, by an enforced re- breathing of this deteriorated air, this carbon dioxide is repeatedly offered to the lungs instead of the needed oxygen, already exhausted, the whole purpose of respira- tion is thwarted and the blood is literally self -poisoned instead of purified. When the air breathed already con- tains a little above four per cent of carbon dioxide, it refuses to receive any more, and the blood in the lungs is unable to unload its waste matter. Given, then, a closed room full of children more or less unwashed, more or less already the victims of skin or other diseases, and all diligently engaged in destroy- ing the life-giving quality of the air, and we have a concrete example of the need for ventilation. The first problem in ventilation is therefore prevent- ive, to provide a supply of air which is pure to begin with. The second and more difficult problem is mechanical, to produce such movement and change of air as will prevent its becoming overladen with unsan- itary or disease-producing products. 36 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT (e) The Effects of Bad Ventilation. Thus far, we have discussed the causes and nature of air- vitiation, without much consideration of its effects. To set forth the full and ultimate effects of breathing impure or vitiated air would require a more elaborate and scien- tific exposition than can be attempted here. That would belong to the sphere of pathology rather than of school management. But the observant teacher is familiar with those immediate results which affect the success of his endeavors. First, semi-conscious discomfort and the resulting restlessness and diminution in power of attention. Second, torpor and sluggishness, even to the extent of drowsiness and mental obtuseness. Third, headaches and disturbed circulation. All resulting in loss of mental energy and of the natural enjoyment of mental activity. The permanent effects on the nervous system and the general bodily tone are carried over into the home and furnish occasion for the services of the physician later on. The Means of Ventilation. (a) Window Ventilation. A simple and time- honored means of ventilation is that of open windows, though this, in cold weather at least, does not conform to our definition of changes of air without injurious change of temperature. However, if proper precautions are exercised against sitting in the drafts thus caused, this is better than no change of air at all; though a good deal of truth is embodied in the saying that "bad air is a slow poison but drafts are a two-edged sword/' Even in hot weather, it is extremely danger- HEATING AND VENTILATION 37 ous to sit near an open window. There are certain de- vices, however, which may easily be employed to lessen this danger from window ventilation. The simplest of these is the placing of a board several inches wide and as long as the window is wide under the lower sash, which is thus caused to overlap the upper sash. This admits an upward movement of air between the two sashes and above the heads of the pupils, which diffuses itself into the room. A more complicated apparatus consists of a thin board of similar length and greater width, attached to the top of the upper sash so that when the sash is lowered a current of air is shunted against the ceiling and is thence diffused through the room. Where no such device is employed, it should be made the rule to open windows always at the top, and never on the windward side of the room. At recess time, however, when the pupils are in motion or out of the room, it is a good practice to open wide the windows for a few minutes and so secure a greater or less change of all the air in the room. But this should not be carried to the extent of reducing the temperature of the room too greatly or too long. (b) Mechanical, or Fan Ventilation. The only thoroughly effective and reliable method of ventilation seems to be that of a forced movement and control of air by means of a revolving fan or turbine. This in- volves, of course, the presence of power for the driving of the fan. The best forms of this fan system include also a chamber into which the outside air is admitted after having been partially warmed, or tempered, by passing through steam coils. From this chamber, or 38 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT plenum, in which the air pressure is greater than that outside, the air is distributed by flues to the several rooms. Provision must also be made for the escape of the foul air which is to be displaced. The fresh air is usually introduced near the top of the room, while the foul air is drawn off or forced out through registers near, or sometimes in, the floor. One rule, here, should be carefully observed, the intake and outlet registers should not be placed on opposite sides of the room. Formerly, it was thought that two fans were necessary, one to push and the other to pull; but it is now recog- nized that if enough fresh air is forced in, the old air will of necessity find its way out. Since the fresh air is not introduced at a high temperature, it is usually found necessary, in cold climates, to reinforce this system with provision for direct radiation of heat from steam coils, or radiators, suitably placed in the rooms, preferably under the windows. (c) Gravity Ventilation. The system known as gravity ventilation attempts to secure the needful move- ment and change of air not by the application of force mechanically but by the effect of heat upon the specific gravity of air, or, stated more concisely, by the produc- tion of heated columns of air rising through ventilating shafts under the influence of gravity. The heating apparatus, usually hot air furnaces, is connected by pipes with the rooms to be warmed, and also provided with a fresh-air intake. The air, warmed by contact with the shell of the furnace, rises into the rooms, which are provided with foul-air ducts up which the air again rises after circulating through the room. It will easily HEATING AND VENTILATION 39 be seen that such a system must be greatly inferior in efficiency and reliability to the fan system; though it serves a useful purpose, in small buildings or other places where forced ventilation is, for any reason, impracticable. The Jacketed Stove. — The old-time box stove, like the still older fireplace, produced a sort of ventilation by drawing in air from the room and passing it up the chimney. This was very wasteful of heat, and did not produce a proper diffusion of that which remained. But a modern device known as the jacketed stove is capable of very good results in country schools and other small assembly rooms. This apparatus may be simply described as follows. The central item is an upright, cylindrical stove of adequate size, burning either wood or coal. Around this stove, at a distance of perhaps six inches, is placed a galvanized iron shell, or jacket, starting several inches above the floor and extending somewhat above the top of the stove. This jacket is provided with an asbestos lining to prevent too rapid radiation of heat. Inside this, there should be another lining, of corrugated tin. A fresh-air pipe, or intake, at least twelve inches in diameter should open into the jacket. If brought from the outside foundation wall, under the floor, it should turn upwards to a level several inches above the bottom of the jacket. But, if the stove is rightly placed, it may be brought through the side wall of the room and tap into the jacket at the level indicated. There should be a close-fitting damper in this intake, near the outer end, which can be closed when the stove is not in use. 40 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT The construction of the chimney is a matter of im- portance. It should be located in one end of the room and extend from the ground to a point at least four feet above the peak of the roof. Its inside dimensions should be at least sixteen inches square. A double- course chimney is preferable. Inside the chimney should be placed a steel smoke stack eight inches in diameter with a T in it at the level of the smoke open- ing in the stove, which should be directly connected with the steel stack. The bottom of the stack should be tightly closed. A wing register, 16 by 20 inches, should be set in the bottom of the chimney, the lower edge of the regis- ter being an inch or two above the floor level. The smoke from the stove, passing up the stack, will warm the interior of the chimney enough to produce an upward current of air, drawing out air from the room. At the same time, the stove will create a strong- upward current within the jacket, and the fresh air warmed by contact with the stove will be sent towards the ceiling to be thence reflected, and. diffused through the room. It is important for the effective Avorking of any sys- tem of heating and ventilation that windows should be tight and the floor free from cracks. There should also be no cracks or openings in the ceiling. There are a number of patented apparatuses now on the market which employ this principle of the jacketed stove effectively. Their outward appearance is of course more satisfactory than that of a home-made apparatus. Where the school house has a basement, HEATING AND VENTILATION 41 which is desirable for other reasons, a furnace will take the place of the jacketed stove, and the warmed air will be introduced into the schoolroom through registers in the floor. The same plan for smoke stack and venti- lating shaft will be necessary. The Proper Amount of Ventilation. — A funda- mental consideration in the problem of ventilation is the question of the amount or ra|)idity of air change necessary to insure healthful conditions in the school- room. Specialists differ somewhat in their conclusions; hence, it seems well to note some of the data on which their reasoning is based. The Difference in Composition between Pure and Impure Air. Atmospheric air, as has already been said, consists of a mixture of approximately 79 per cent of nitrogen and a little less than 21 per cent of oxygen, with a small admixture of a number of substances, in- cluding three or four one-hundredths of one per cent of carbon dioxide. Expired air contains practically the same percentage of nitrogen but only 15.4 per cent of oxygen — a loss of over 25 per cent of the amount of oxygen — and 4.3 per cent of carbon dioxide, an increase of over one hundred fold, or 10,000 per cent. Now it might, perhaps, be conceded that even this amount of carbon dioxide is not poisonous in itself but, as has already been stated, if this air be rebreathed it refuses, so to speak, to take up any more carbon dioxide from the lungs, but leaves the blood still un- relieved of its waste products, with evil results to the whole svstem. 42 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT (b) The Proper Bate of Change. How long will it take to change the air of a room from one of these conditions to the other? That will, of course,, depend on the size of the room and the number of people occupying it. There seems to be pretty general agree- ment among scientific investigators that, for safety, the percentage of carbon dioxide should never be allowed to exceed six one-hundredths of one per cent. It is figured on this basis that each person should be sup- plied with from 2000 to 3000 cu. ft. of air per hour. In Massachusetts, the minimum standard fixed by the Inspectors of Public Buildings is 30 cu. ft. of fresh air per minute for each pupil, though in many modern buildings from 40 to 50 cu. ft. is supplied. Adopting the Massachusetts rule of 30 cu. ft. per minute, in a room 25 by 32 by 12 ft. containing forty persons, the whole air content of the room would have to be changed once in eight minutes. To do this without creating strong drafts in the room, it is necessary that the flues, both for admission and exit, be large enough to carry the required amount of air at a low velocity. A slow but large movement of air is what is required. The Humidity of the School Atmosphere. — A mat- ter which has but recently begun to command due attention is that of the proper humidification of the air in schoolrooms. It was at one time generally be- lieved that a dry atmosphere was especially desirable for persons in delicate health, particularly the victims of tuberculosis; and thousands of these have been sent to the arid regions of our country as the only hopeful HEATING AND VENTILATION 43 curative agency. That doctrine and practice now seem to be in the process of abandonment. In harmony with this change of belief, the view is gaining acceptance that the health of school children suffers from excessive dryness of the air. It is held that the breathing of dry air into the lungs will injure the delicate cells of the mucous membrane, permitting less oxygen to be taken through the cells into the blood. This will result in poorer work in the school and lowered vitality in general. In the most modern and highly approved heating apparatus, at the present time, provision is made for humidifying the air by the injection of live steam into the plenum, or air chamber, from which the tempered fresh air is distributed to the rooms. It is held, with reason, that this increase of moisture in the air makes a high temperature in the rooms unnecessary, and so results, under proper management, in a considerable decrease in the amount of fuel consumed. Under such a system, children will be perfectly comfortable, it is alleged, with a temperature of 60°. In small buildings, or those having an antiquated system of heating, this humidification of the air can be accomplished, to some extent, by the evaporation of water in pans placed about the furnace or in the air flues. With such apparatus, the teacher should be vigilant in seeing that the pans are kept continually supplied with water. CHAPTER IV GENERAL SANITATION Heating and ventilation might well be considered as belonging to the field of sanitation; but they have been thought of such importance as to require a sepa- rate chapter. They are differentiated also by the fact that they have so immediate an effect on the menial states and energy of the pupils. But there are certain other matters which are entitled to intelligent and watchful attention on the part of the teacher. The Drinking Water. — Mention has been made, in our discussion of the school site, of the importance of a suitable supply of pure water, from a w r ell on the premises in the case of rural schools. But attention should be given also to the matter of drinking vessels. The common cup or dipper, passing from hand to hand and from mouth to mouth, was tolerated for ages without challenge; but sanitary science has now de- creed its abolition, and it is fast giving place to the "bubble" fountain, where that is practicable. In Wisconsin, the State Board of Health has pro- hibited the use of the common cup, and the school- houses are now being provided with closed water tanks with spring faucets and individual cups. A row of these, each marked with its owner's name, hangs con- 44 GENERAL SANITATION 45 veniently beside the tank. A similar prohibition has been enacted in several other states. Sweeping and Cleaning. — What responsibility has the teacher for the cleanness of the schoolroom and its contents? In buildings where a janitor is employed, it is v the teacher's duty to see that he does his work efficiently. If he is not directly under control of the room-teacher, then she must reach him through the principal or the school board. She has no right to absolve herself from that responsibility. But there are many cases where the teacher must be her own janitor, at least in part. The first problem arising here is that of the best method of sweeping and dusting. The time-honored way of sweeping with a common broom had the result of stirring up the dust so that, while it removed coarse dirt and litter, it left the most dangerous part of the dust to float in the air and again settle upon the furni- ture and apparatus. The dusting, if done at all, was usually done with a brush which whipped the dust and germs up into the air again to repeat the process of settling somewhere. Various devices have been proposed and tried for the overcoming of these difficulties. "Dustless oil/' which retains a somewhat viscid surface and so tends to hold the dust and keep it from rising, was, for some years, quite popular, but eventually left the floor in bad con- dition. Sweeping brushes with a receptable attached for slowly giving out kerosene have also had some advo- cates. The time is probably near at hand when the 46 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT "vacuum cleaner" of some type will play the larger part in all housecleaning ; but at present the most satisfactory aid to the sweeping process is found in the "sweeping mixtures/' composed in part of saw- dust, oil, and other ingredients, which are now on the market at a moderate cost. The mixture is strewed upon the floor and then swept up with large sweeping- brushes, taking the dust with it without raising it in the air. The same portion of the material can be used several times over. Desks and other furniture should not be dusted by any switching process, but with soft dust-cloths, operated by hand, and frequently cleaned. The dust should be taken up into the cloth and not whipped about. But school cleaning does not end with sweep- ing and dusting. Chalk dust should not be allowed to accumulate, and the erasers should be frequently cleaned by beating or otherwise. The windows espe- cially should be kept bright, and the ceiling free from every suggestion of cobwebs. Periodical Cleaning. — In the old-time country- school, it was customary to hold an annual house- cleaning "bee," at which the good women of the dis- trict would congregate for the mopping out and scrub- bing of the interior. Once a year was, at least, better than nothing. But modern ideas of sanitation would demand a more frequent application of hot water and the scrubbing brush. A monthly mopping of floors in all graded and country schools is not too much to ask. Of course, a competent and faithful janitor will be GENERAL SANITATION 47 always house cleaning, here a little, there a good deal; but every vacation will furnish occasion for a more general campaign. The coming of autumn frosts and the end of "fly-time" will be the signal for a general cleaning of windows. There should be at least a weekly washing of black- boards, with a mixture of vinegar and water, a pint of vinegar to a gallon of water. A cloth slightly damp- ened with kerosene is also very useful for that purpose. Closets, Outbuildings, etc. — Even housekeepers of high repute could not all bear the test of an inspection of the "sink-cupboard/' the boxed up space under the kitchen sink. And there are many teachers who have somewhere in the schoolroom a "catch-all," a closet which does not get even a weekly setting to rights and dusting out. A superintendent would find it quite instructive to take an inside look, from time to time, at every closet and store-room in the school building. A wise school board would do that, and would also make a thorough inspection of the school basement, looking for that "bone-yard" into which broken apparatus and furniture are likely to be dumped by an untidy janitor or principal, and left to accumulate for years^ it may be. In cases where the water-closets are placed in the basement, there should be the utmost care, first, to provide adequate and effective drainage and ventilation, and, second, to keep everything clean to the eye and the touch. This supervision is especially the duty of the principal, and daily inspection is not too frequent. In the case of country schools and schools in small 48 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT towns without sewerage systems, this problem is even more difficult. In such cases, there should be, as a matter of common decency, separate out-buildings for the two sexes at some distance apart, with proper walks leading to them, as already described on page 17. The proper construction of the vaults is an important matter for which the school board is responsible; but it is a duty of the teacher to keep the board properly and promptly advised of all defects and needed repairs or renovation. Negligence and false modesty are alike reprehensible in such a case. There is, perhaps, no fairer test of the civilization of a school district than its attention to or neglect of this matter of the school outbuildings. In this connection, it is fitting to consider the very serious problem of the moral contamination which inev- itably results from the defacement of school outbuild- ings by vulgar writing, drawings, etc. The conditions which have often existed in this particular were nothing less than horrible; and their existence has always been more or less due to the weakness or negligence of teachers. It should always be remembered that it is the first offence that counts. For one defacement of any kind is a challenge to other lawless pupils to repeat the offence or surpass it. Daily inspection of outbuild- ings is the first step towards their purity. "Eternal vigilance" is the price of more things than liberty. There should also be a strong effort to secure the co- operation of pupils in this endeavor. This has some- times been accomplished by appointing a committee of GENERAL SANITATION 49 pupils, including some of those most likely to offend, to co-operate with the teacher in securing decency. Contagious Diseases. — The teacher will often be confronted with questions of duty as to the exclusion of pupils who have been exposed to contagious diseases, or who show symptoms of the incipiency of such illness. He must always remember that he is,, in the nature of the case, the official guardian of the health of pupils from all avoidable attacks; and that it is always best to be "on the safe side". The following rules, issued to Med- ical Inspectors of schools in Chicago and other cities, will afford useful guidance to principals and teachers in the matter of exclusion : "Examinations are to be made for the following dis- eases ; Scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, rotheln, small- pox, chicken pox, Tonsillitis, pediculosis, ringworm, im- petigo contagiosa, or other transmissible diseases of the skin, scalp, and eye. Tuberculosis, when thought to be far enough advanced to be a menace to the public health, must be reported to the Chief Medical Inspector before excluding the pupil from school. " Scarlet fever cases must not be allowed to re- turn to school until all desquamation is completed, and there is an entire absence of discharge from ears, nose, throat or suppurating glands and the child and premises are disinfected. This requires at least six weeks ; severe cases, eight weeks or longer. "Diphtheria cases must be excluded until two throat cultures made upon two consecutive days show absence of the Klebs-Loeffler bacilli. Those exposed to diphtheria should be excluded one week from last ex- posure. 50 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT "Measles cases are very infectious in the early stages, and must be excluded at least three weeks and longer if there is present bronchitis, inflammation of the throat or nose or abscess of the ear. Those exposed to measles should be excluded two weeks from date of last exposure. "Whooping Cough.- — Cases should be excluded until after the spasmodic stage of cough — usually about eight weeks. Whooping cough is very infectious in the early stages of the disease. Those exposed to whooping cough should be excluded two weeks from date of last exposure. "Mumps. — Exclude ten days after all swelling has subsided. Those exposed to mumps should be ex- cluded three weeks from date of last exposure. "Chicken Pox. — Exclude until scabs are all off and skin smooth — two or three weeks, according to the severity of the attack. _"Rotheln, German Measles. — Exclude from school two weeks. Those exposed to rotheln must be excluded from school three weeks from date of last exposure." The great enemies of regularity of school attendance are whooping cough and measles. Mumps and chicken pox are less serious. Scarlet fever and diphtheria are more dreaded; but the progress of medical and sani- tary science has brought them under control, and the vigilance of doctors in the matter of quarantine is such that comparatively few children now get into school in a condition to communicate those diseases. But the teacher should be always alert to note any- thing abnormal in the actions of the children and thus to detect cases of sore throat, feverishness, etc., which GENERAL SANITATION 51 would furnish grounds for suspicion, especially when any of these diseases are epidemic in the community. Children thus suffering should be promptly sent home and advised to remain there till all question is removed, or till they have sought the advice of the family physi- cian. A few days of absence is the least of evils in such a case. It is best, always, to seek the advice of the medical attendant or the health officer as to the safe time for return to school of a pupil who has been kept out by any contagious disease whatever. The disinfection or destruction of all text-books which have been handled by the patient or which have been in his home during his illness, is also a matter which the teacher should carefully look after. Mention ought to be made, no doubt, of a con- tagious disease of the eye to which pupils are some- times subject. Technically, it is known as conjuncti- vitis, but popularly as "pink-eye." It affects the lining membrane of the eyelids and the periphery of the eye- ball, and it may be communicated by anything which comes in contact with the discharge, as towels, hand- kerchiefs, etc. The ailment is really a serious one and every person affected by it should at once seek medical attention, and remain from school till wholly recovered. What Children Should be Taught with a View to Prevention. — The following printed rules are dis- tributed to all pupils in the schools of Providence, E. I., and should be taught to all children anywhere. 52 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT REMEMBER THESE THINGS Do not spit if you can help it. Never spit on a slate, floor, or sidewalk. Do not put the fingers into the mouth. _Do not pick the nose or wipe the nose on the hand or sleeve. Do not wet the finger in the mouth when turning the leaves of books. Do not put pencils into the mouth or wet them with the lips. Do not put money into the mouth. Do not put pins into the mouth. Do not put anything into the mouth except food and drink. Do not swap apple cores, candy, chewing gum, half eaten food, whistles, or bean blowers or anything that is put in the mouth. Never cough or sneeze in a person's face. Turn your face to one side. Keep your face and hands clean; wash the hands with soap and water before each meal. Medical Inspection of Schools. — It is desirable that teachers everywhere should learn something of the growing movement for the medical inspection of schools. It is coming to be more and more clearly seen that good health and sound bodily organs are essential to good citizenship, and that educational expense and effort are largely wasted when children are handicapped by physical defects and abnormal physical conditions. It is becoming increasingly evident that intellectual efficiency and moral health are largely dependent upon normal bodily conditions; and hence that every argu- ment for universal public education is also an argu- GENEEAL SANITATION 53 ment for making such education efficient and success- ful by the removal or diminution of all physical obstacles thereto. Where parents through ignorance or poverty fail to remove these handicaps, the state must step in for its own protection and welfare. In Great Britain and in some of the principal Amer- ican cities, this principle is fully accepted, and a sys- tem of medical supervision of school children is well established. At first, in American cities, as New York, this supervision was chiefly directed towards restricting the spread of contagious diseases and the securing of sanitary conditions in school buildings ; but the work is now taking on a wider scope by providing for the children of the needy free medical advice, and even service, for the correction of bodily defects and abnormalities. This service extends not only to defects of the sense organs, which will be discussed in the following chap- ter, but also, and especially, to the care and preserva- tion of the teeth, a matter which is now commanding serious attention as having an importance hitherto un- recognized in the physical and mental history of children. But in this matter, and others of similar nature, the teacher should not wait for the provision of expert med- ical inspection. There is much which can and should be done on the initiative of the individual teacher, by way of instruction and friendly counsel. CHAPTER V THE HYGIENE OF THE SENSE OEGANS As has already become manifest, it is impossible to make even an elementary review of the physical side of school management without excursions into the field of physiology. School hygiene and school manage- ment are inseparable. And yet it is only within the present generation that the teaching world has begun to have any suspicion, much less clear comprehension, of how the iwhole business of education is hindered and even thwarted by defects in the bodily organs, especially the organs of the special senses. A chapter must, there- fore, be given to the hygiene of the nose, ear, and eye; though the treatment can only be suggestive and in no sense thorough and exhaustive. Abnormal Conditions of the Nose and Pharynx. — The most common abnormality of the nasal tract, though often unsuspected by the victim or his friends, is that known as adenoids. In the naso-pharynx, the upper part of the pharynx, above the soft palate and continuous with the nasal passages, is a spongy tissue somewhat resembling the tissue of the tonsils. This frequently grows abnormally and becomes so large as to exert considerable pressure and obstruction in the region occupied by it. As a result, the child is unable to breathe freely through the nose and becomes what 54 HYGIENE OF THE SENSE OEGANS 55 is known as a "mouth-breather/' His hearing is often also affected, he is unable to give due attention to school exercises, and memory thus becomes defective. The child experiences difficulty in blowing his nose, and his voice has a nasal quality. The shape of the mouth cavity is often changed so as to result in defective articulation. The presence of adenoids is easy of de- tection by an observant eye; the habit of breathing with the mouth open raises strong suspicion at once; the face is liable to acquire a peculiar and unpleasant expression, a dull and vacant look, while imperfect ar- ticulation and a disagreeable quality of voice add their testimony. The prompt removal of these growths should be brought about as soon as possible in the interest of the child's mental and physical life. It is the teacher's part to study carefully every case of marked dullness among his pupils, to watch for the symptoms of adenoid trouble, and when found, to urge upon the parents the serious nature of the defect and the impor- tance of prompt and thorough medical examination. Adenoid trouble is confined to the school period, chiefly between the ages of six and sixteen. After this time, the growth of the glands is checked and they are slowly reduced in size by being absorbed into the sys- tem; but the evil effects will never be outgrown. Other diseased or abnormal conditions in the nose and pharynx sometimes exist, all unsuspected but a source of hindrance to the child's progress in school. Enlarge- ment of the tonsils is frequent, with results not unlike 56 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT those of adenoids. In many cases, removal of the tonsils would greatly improve both the health and men- tal vigor of the child. Polypus, a sort of tumor, or abnormal growth, on the mucous membrane in the nose is sometimes, but less frequently, a cause of similar trouble, and demands, first, detection, and, sec- ondly, surgical attention. The habit of mouth- breathing may indicate this trouble. Abnormal Conditions in the Ear. — A handicap under which not a few pupils labor is that of partial deafness. This may be the result of infantile diseases, of catarrh, or of enlarged tonsils and adenoid growths as described in the foregoing paragraphs. Often, how- ever, it is a result of the hardening of the ear wax, causing inflammation or congestion in the tympanic membrane. Most of these causes are removable by proper medical or surgical treatment, though chronic catarrh is perhaps the most refractory of all. Many a child acquires a reputation for dullness or stupidity because of his defective hearing. He does not clearly hear questions or directions, the words which he does hear are blurred and indistinct, while the unemphatic connectives and relation words drop out altogether. Consonant sounds are obscured, and he is left to guess at the setting of the vowels. It need hardly be said that it is the teacher's duty to be watchful for indications of dull hearing and use all due effort to discover the nature of the causes and report the same to the parents. Such children should be favored in the matter of seats, or position with ref- HYGIENE OF THE SENSE OKGANS 57 erence to the teacher and the class, the best position being a front comer of the class, so to speak. Simple tests may be used to detect, and determine the degree of, aural dullness. The most common test, to determine the distance at which the child can hear the ticking of a watch, is quite unreliable. A better test consists in whispering certain words at different distances, behind the pupil's back, to see how well he can recognize and repeat them, comparing his success or failure with that of normal pupils. Sometimes, there is partial; or total, deafness in one ear only, which' re- sults to the disadvantage of the pupil. This condition, also, should be discovered and recognized when it exists. It ought to be needless to add that the ear is a very delicate and complicated organ, which should never be subjected to blows or rough treatment. • Directions for Testing Hearing. — The following extracts taken from the directions promulgated by the Massachusetts State Board of Health should be useful to teachers. The examination should be conducted in a room not less than 25 to 30 feet long. The floor should be marked off with parallel lines one foot apart. The .pupil should stand at one end of the room with his back to the examiner. The examination should be made with the whispered or spoken voice; the child should repeat what he hears, and the distance at which words can be heard distinctly should be noted. The examiner should attempt to form standards by testing persons of normal hearing at normal distances. In a still room, the standard whisper can be heard easily at 25 feet. 58 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT The test words should consists of numbers, 1 to 100, and short sentences. It is best that but one pupil at a time be allowed in the room. The two ears should be tested separately. Defects of Vision. — The eye is the most highly specialized of all the organs of the body and is corre- spondingly subject to malformation and disorders. With blindness, the ordinary teacher does not have to deal, but with the various forms of partial blindness or imperfect vision, he is liable to have daily contact. The most common of these are due to malformation of the eye ball and its refracting media. They are known as myopia, or near-sightedness; hypermetropia, or far- sightedness; and astigmatism. Myopia, the commonest of eye defects, results from too great convexity of the crystalline lens, or the eye ball is too long, so that the rays of light are focused before reaching the retina. This is very easy of detec- tion and also of correction where not complicated with other defects. Hypermetropia, or far-sightedness — not the far-sightedness of old age, however — is more diffi- cult of both detection and correction. It results when the lens is too flat, or the eye ball too short, so that the rays would focus behind the retina. Astigmatism is a defect in the structure of the eye in which there is unequal curvature of the cornea or lens along certain lines, in consequence of which the rays of light from a given point are not brought to a single focal point, thus causing imperfect images. The effect of this is to blur those letters especially, in read- HYGIENE OF THE SENSE OKGANS 59 ing, which contain round or oval forms, as 0, c, d or the capitals B, P, etc. The immediate effect of all these, especially astigma- tism, is blurred and indistinct vision. In school, the child does not see words clearly, or sees only parts of words. Bad reading and bad spelling are, therefore, the natural and innocent result. The miscalling and misspelling of words are always ground for suspicion, at least, that one or more of these defects exists. Since they can all be corrected by the proper adjustment of lenses, it is a sin against the mental life of the child when an unobservant or indifferent teacher permits him to go on in school the victim of undiscovered abnor- malities of vision. Inequality of Vision. — Another defect, often wholly unsuspected by any one, is that of unequal power, or range, in the two eyes. One eye may be normal and the other myopic, or both may be myopic in different degrees. This inequality is found in all degrees. In some cases, the difference is so great that the child is practically one-eyed, one eye being overworked while the other is starved, as it were. In other cases, the differ- ence is so small that the eyes constantly struggle to focus or accommodate equally, which results in eye- strain, often causing headaches and nervous derange- ments. Observations made by the writer through a period of years on a large number of adult students showed that fully twenty-five per cent of the whole number were subject to various degrees of inequality of range in the two eyes. 60 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT This trouble, too, can, in most cases, be overcome by a proper adjustment of glasses. The chief difficulty is found in the fact that even the victims of all the defects named are usually wholly unconscious of their abnormality. Some very near-sighted youth go on to adult years without discovering that they differ from other people in their vision. An acquaintance of the writer, a man in almost middle life, went, with his wife, to consult an optician, who fitted him with glasses. Looking out upon the street, he said to his waiting wife, "You stay here, I am going out to see this town." He was not previously able to see trees or houses clearly across the street, and he had suddenly come into a new world. The Teacher's Duty. — While the teacher is not an oculist, it is clearly his duty to qualify himself for the detection, in school, of these major deformities of the sense organs, and then to be vigilant in their discovery, and faithful in urging upon parents the importance of competent professional attention. For the sure dis- covery of the various eye defects, a simple apparatus is necessary, in the shape of a large card, with letters and characters printed on it, ' which can be hung upon the wall when needed for use. A suitable card, or chart, devised by Monoyer of Paris, is published by Ginn & Co. Other cards of low cost, printed with the Snellen test types, which are now perhaps most commonly used, may be had through any druggist. Directions for their use, which requires no technical skill, accompany the cards. A reduced copy of one of these charts is given herewith. HYGIENE OF THE SENSE ORGANS 61 EO BOF Much attention should be given by the teacher to the postures of pupils in studying and w r i t i n g They should not be al- lowed to lean for- ward with bent head and neck. The ten- dency to bring the *1P *lf^ "D ^^^ face down near the JLhI JLJ wm V^ page is usually a sure sign of myopia ^^ ^V T^i 1P% TTl or other eye defect. ™* ^^ ™* «^^ ™ Even where it is . only a careless ,£ C T XJ O £ habit, it is in every way unhygienic and B P E D O T C should be persever- ingly corrected. The ELNFCTDB first step, however, should be to send TOPDLEFNCB the pupil to a com- 1 r OETHPLDBPC p e t e n t optician. The normal dis- oobetklc^t tance at which the page should be held from the eye is about fourteen inches. Rules for Testing the Eyesight. — The following rules issued by the Massachusetts State Board of Health 62 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT can readily be followed by any teacher of common intelligence. To Test the Eyesight Hang the Snellen test letters in a good, clear light (side light preferred), on a level with the head. Place the child 20 feet from the letters, one eye being covered with a card held firmly against the nose, without press- ing on the covered eye, and have him read aloud, from left to right, the smallest letters he can see on the card. Make a record of the result. To Record the Acuteness of Eyesight There is a number over each line of test letters, which shows the distance in feet at which these letters should be read by a normal eye. From top to bottom, the lines on the card are numbered respectively 50, 40, 30, and 20. At a distance of 20 feet the average normal eye should read the letters on the 20 -foot line, and if this is done correctly, or with ajnistake of one or two letters, the vision may be noted as 20/20, or normal. In this frac- tion^ the numerator is the distance in feet at which the letters are read, and the denominator is the number over the smallest line of letters read. If the smallest letters which can be read are on the 30-foot line, the vision will be noted as 20/30 ; if the letters on the 40-foot line are the smallest that can be read, the record will be 20/40 ; if the letters on the 50-foot line are the smallest that can be read, the record will be 20/50. If the child can not see the largest letters, the 50-foot line, have him approach slowly until a distance is found where they can be seen. If 5 feet is the greatest dis- tance at which they can be read, the record will be 5/50 (1/10 of normal). Test the second eye, the first being covered with the HYGIENE OF THE SENSE OEGANS 63 card, and note the result, as before. With the second eye have the child read the letters from right to left, to avoid memorizing. Whenever it is found that the child has less than normal sight, 20/20, in either eye, that the eyes or eye- lids are habitually red and inflamed, or that there is a complaint of pain in the eyes or head after reading, the teacher should send a notice to the parent that the child's eyes need medical attention. CHAPTER VI THE TEACHER Having now considered with some fullness the physi- cal side of the school, the place and material conditions demanded for the successful prosecution of the educa- tion of children, it is proper to consider next the essen- tial characteristics of the efficient and successful teacher, the central factor in the educational process. The teacher, as we have often heard, stands in loco parentis, and we have already begun to see, in our study, that this is true in a much fuller and deeper sense than has usually been assigned to the phrase. The teacher is the main factor in this work of supplementing the home which we have recognized as the function of the school. He is charged with important functions and duties towards the children which their parents are unable or unwilling to perform. What sort of person, then, should this be to whom some of the most important and sacred duties of the parent are delegated? Essential Characteristics of the Teacher. — What are the essential characteristics of the ideal teacher? (a) Instructional Efficiency. In the minds of many people, if not most, the teacher is thought of simply as an instructor; his business is to impart knowledge and skill; all his other functions are only auxiliary to this main function of instruction. Without endors- 64 THE TEACHER 65 ing for a moment this superficial view of the teacher's mission, we may recognize fully that instructional effi- ciency is an attribute which every one has a right to expect in a teacher as a condition of his continuance in the work. This implies scholarship, that is, an acquaintance not only with that field, or segment, of knowledge which he is to communicate or develop in the minds of his particular pupils, but with wider fields of related knowledge. The fit teacher must have some outlook upon the big world of human achievement and aspira- tion. He must, in his own soul, live in a larger world than his immediate neighborhood, or even nation. He must, at least, know the bearings of the knowledge which he attempts to teach upon human life and endeavor. Secondly, his grasp upon that field of knowledge which he assumes to teach should be firm and accu- rate. It need not necessarily be exhaustive, but js far as it goes it should be clear and well grounded. Vague, hazy concepts in the teacher's mind can not do otherwise than generate equal vagueness and hazi- ness in the minds of his pupils; and there can be no worse failure in education than that. The would-be teacher who flounders and "stabs" in the process of instruction is in no true sense an educator. Moreover, the teacher should remain a student. No matter what his previous acquirements may have been, when he loses the student attitude he will no longer be a fertilizing teacher. (b) Professional Knowledge and Skill. The sue- 66 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT cessful teacher must not only know his subjects and have a good degree of general culture; he needs also to have technical knowledge and skill. First, comes a theoretical acquaintance with the laws of mind, of mental acquisition and growth, the psychology of teaching. This should form the basis of a working acquaintance with the most approved methods of teaching. He should appreciate the difference between true method which we define as "systematic procedure according to jDrinciples 7 ' and mere mechanical devices, however useful these may be when they are in harmony with valid methods and principles. To this theoretical knowledge there must be added skill in presentation and in the art of questioning. This skill is never the result of accident, though it may be, in some cases, the result of natural quickness and clear- ness of mind. For the most part, it is a product of experience and conscientious effort in the way of daily preparation. The well thought out lesson-plan is the first step towards luminous exposition and strong im- pression. The teacher who neglects this specific prepa- ration and "runs his face" in the class exercise will, in the end, meet the failure which he so richly deserves, (c) Physical Efficiency. From the true point of view, however, the first requisite in a successful teacher is that of a sound, well-nourished bodily organism and the vigorous, reliable health which appertains naturally to such an organism. The nervous strain of the school- room is such that no invalid or semi-invalid can with- stand it without injury to herself and injustice to the children under her charge. The children have a right THE TEACHER 67 to bright looks and a cheerful spirit on the part of their teacher. In short, the teacher who is in so many respects their model ought to have a wholesome, en- gaging personality. It is true, in a sense, that every teacher of children ought to be beautiful, at least a good specimen of human kind. Yet it is a notion not uncommonly held that a person who is physically unfit for other occupations may properly look towards teaching. Has any one a right to teach children who is notice- ably deformed, a hunchback, for instance, or one with any facial deformity? Has any one a right to assume the office of teacher who is tuberculous, neurasthenic, or dyspeptic? The question may be thought too compre- hensive, but only a negative answer can, in justice to the children, be given. Irritability, "nervousness," hypochondria, and all the brood of morbid moods which follow in the train of physical abnormality and weak- ness have no right to cast their shadow over the lives of school children, even though they may be often encountered in the home. Ought any one to be admitted to a normal school who is physically unequal to light gymnastics? It would hardly seem just to the children to open the doors of the teaching profession so freely to semi- invalids with poorly organized nervous systems or broken down digestive apparatus. In Great Britain, this truth is realized, and no person is admitted to the benefits of the Training Colleges (normal schools) who can not pass a close medical examination. (d) Efficiency in Control. School officers seeking a 68 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT new teacher are prone to say, "We must have a good disciplinarian." Just what do they mean by that? What are the elements which must combine to pro- duce the "good disciplinarian" ? What they desire, first, is personal force, energy and will, that quality which makes things go, what, in the vernacular, is called "grip." The quality of leadership is essential, and the elements of leadership are energy, self-reliance, and self-control. A touchy, explosive manner will do only harm; but a teacher without determination and self- reliance may well be commiserated, for children are quick to discover weakness and take cruel advantage of it. L. M. was a practice-teacher in the Normal School, over whom her pupils were exercising the tyranny of disorder. Said her critic teacher, with more point than elegance, "Why don't you get mad, and bring them to time ?" "Oh ! Miss K., I cant get mad," was the hopeless reply. It was not anger but quiet determination, with a capacity for righteous wrath, that was needed. This does not imply any harsh- ness, or lack of sympathetic interest in the pupil; but a person of weak personality can not meet the demands of the teacher's office. But there is another element which is essential to the good disciplinarian. Discipline is not simply firm rule. Successful control demands skill in management, tact, the establishment of the proper conditions of control. The teacher must be alert, watchful for the beginnings of disorder. He must be able to distribute his atten- tion and not become so absorbed in the class before him, for instance, as to be oblivious of all that is THE TEACHEE 69 going on elsewhere. Above all, the good disciplinarian must be self-poised, not irritable nor hasty and un- reasonable in requirement. It is only a common place to say that tact is an essential condition of successful control; though those who emphasize its necessity seldom attempt to explain what tact is or how it can be acquired, if at all. Quickness in taking in a situation and adjusting one's self to it, a genuine human sympathy at bottom, and some felicity in expression are, perhaps, the principal elements which enter into this useful instrument of control. The school boards are right in demanding that the teacher shall be a good disciplinarian, for two reasons : (1) Because good order is a necessary condition of study. Disorder means idleness, inattention to study, and consequent mischief, "For Satan finds . some mis- chief still for idle hands to do," in the words of the old nursery rhyme; (2) Because good discipline is educational, it is the very foundation of all moral training. If the end of education is "character building," then a wise school discipline is even more important than the in- struction. And the American home, in these days, is more and more throwing upon teachers this labor of moral training. A townswoman of the writer had a young son who was in need of a firmer control. A neighbor expostu- lated with her, saying, "You ought to teach him obedi- ence." "Oh," was the. nonchalant reply, "the school 70 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT will do that/' But if the school should also fail in this duty, what about the boyf (e) Social Quality. The teacher should be "a good mixer/ 7 conversable but not loquacious. He should be genuinely interested in the life of the community, but should avoid alliance with cliques or factions. He should not shut himself up with his work to the extent of being thought a recluse; and, on the other hand, in the interest of his own success and influence, he should not be given to social excess in the way of dances on school nights, card parties, etc. In short, the teacher should be democratic, never exclusive; and graciousness of manner to "all sorts and conditions of men," grow- ing out of real sympathy and friendliness, will be a great asset in his professional career. (f ) Professional Spirit and Enthusiasm. The truly efficient teacher will love teaching, partly from pride in doing his work well, partly from sympathetic de- light in the unfolding of youthful powers, and partly from his abiding consciousness that it is a work worthy of the highest endeavor, a noble vocation and not merely an occupation. Ambition for professional growth and advancement and consciousness of fellow- ship with others of like purpose will conspire to make the genuine teacher not apologetic but proud of his calling. The teacher who does not feel this pride and has no uplifting enthusiasm for his work would do well to leave it at once and resort to some occupation of less moral responsibility. And it is as true here as in any other profession that the practitioner who would keep professionally alive must never cease to be THE TEACHER 71 a student. And he needs contact not only with the newest literature of his profession, as found in peda- gogical books and periodicals, but also with his fellow practitioners in conventions and associations. The teacher who holds aloof from professional gatherings and thus misses contact with the men and women of his guild, does injury to himself and to those whom he is paid to serve. (g) High Personal Character. The reader may well enough wonder that the character and habits of the teacher have not been placed earlier in the list, since all these characteristics and forms of efficiency which we have named are, after all, largely dependent on the personality of the teacher. Its place in this list is not meant to indicate its relative importance. The teacher needs to be a person of high ideals, of such moral tone, fundamentally, that he will not be in danger daily of lapses in conduct through accident or inadvertence. It is the spirit that counts. The question has been asked. "Has the public a right to demand any higher moral standards in teachers than in other citizens ? v To this, there can be but one answer, "It has." The teacher is, willy-nilly, an exemplar. He is such not by his own choice or con- sent but by the very nature of his office. That is what he is selected and paid for. He may declare, "I do not set up as an example, or model," but that does not change the situation at all; lie has been set up as a model, and he accepts the responsibility by accepting the position. It is true, however, that manv teachers who might 72 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT accede to this view as a general truth, or principle, are nevertheless very careless of personal obligations in the community, much to their own disadvantage. The teacher who "jumps" contracts, simply because he has no financial assets and can thus escape legal penalty, the teacher who is careless or indifferent about paying his bills, and the teacher who uses tobacco or intoxi- cants, all alike do damage to the youth whom they are employed to uplift. Aside from this question of habits and external relations to the community, there is one quality which is needful, above all others, in the teacher's immediate personal contact and influence with his pupils, inside the school and out, and that is the attribute of sincerity. If the teacher is truthful, genuine, and earnestly devoted to the improvement of his pupils, some minor faults or shortcomings will be condoned. Unfortunately, there are teachers who have not this instinct of truthfulness. They seek to ingratiate them- selves with pupils or parents by the distribution of "taffy," insincere compliment. All false pretence or "buncombe" is dangerous on either hand. The writer knew a skilful teacher who effectually taught lying in her school in this way. She had a special half- day's program which was understood to be always in force when visitors were present. Then the teacher would say, "If we had known you were coming, we might have prepared some special exercises; but as you came unexpectedly you will have to take us as you find us." And so they did. But the children admired that teacher so much for her skill and a queenly pres- THE TEACHER 73 ence that they accepted the whole thing as all right and proper, because Miss P. did it; though children are usually quick to catch the note of insincerity. (h) Mechanical Proficiency. With some teachers, the whole day's work in school is thought of as chiefly mechanical, consisting in the giving of signals, the moving of classes with precision, etc. This is a most dangerous and deadening attitude. And yet if the characteristics already enumerated be found in the teacher the addition of mechanical expertness will in- crease their effectiveness. First of all, the teacher must not be a sloven — no more in his work than in his dress. Accuracy and neatness in blackboard work and all written work, is not only an accomplishment; it is a duty. Carefully made programs, effectively posted, accurate records and reports promptly rendered, are indications of an orderly and conscientious mind. And, we may add, that ability to stand at the blackboard and impress instruction by illustrative drawing is always a source of power in the teacher. It is a resource of very great value. CHAPTER VII THE TEACHER IN HIS RELATIONS Having made some analysis of what the teacher should be in himself, we may next consider briefly the various relations in which he must stand by virtue of his office. "No man liveth to himself alone/' and the teacher is, perhaps, the farthest of any one from such an isolation. The Teacher and the Law. — One of the first ques- tions to arise, logically, is, "Who may teach?" Who shall decide whether the would-be teacher possesses those characteristics which we have been discussing, or such measure of them as would entitle him to assume the teacher's office? In answer, the state steps in and attempts to fix a standard of qualification; but, strangely it might seem, it confines its inquisition to the single matter of scholarship. The teacher must pass an examination before a public official in certain prescribed subjects; but no standards are set up for physical efficiency or any of the other essential charac- teristics of the ideal teacher. All inquiry into these qualifications is left to the will or judgment or caprice, the wisdom or the ignorance, of the myriad school boards that besprinkle the land. But this much is fixed, no person may assume to teach in a public school who has not the legal sanction known as a "certificate." 74 THE TEACHER IN HIS RELATIONS 75 And the person who possesses that, in force, is a "legally qualified" teacher. It is to be observed, however, that a considerable advance has been made in recent years in the way of legal recognition of graduates from normal schools and from colleges which maintain courses in pedagogy. In other words, the certificate of the authorities of the professional school attesting the moral character, scholarship, and instructional efficiency of the gradu- ate are accepted as testimony of at least equal validity with the results of a technical examination into schol- arship alone. The law also demands that the public school teacher shall be provided not only with a certificate, or license, but also with a written contract executed by the school board. Armed with a certificate and contract, the teacher has nothing more to fear from the law unless he shall be so unwise as to administer corporal punish- ment of so cruel and excessive a nature as to make him the defendant in a lawsuit. The law is liberal towards the teacher's authority, but it must also stand for the protection of the child from undue severity. The Teacher and the Parent. — The parent is the child's first teacher, for better or for worse. On the foundation which the parent has laid the teacher must build. It will be of little avail to quarrel with this foundation, whatsoever it may be. It will be the part of the wise teacher to make himself well acquainted with the basis on which he is to build and there pro- ceed to business. It must alwavs be assumed that the 76 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT parent always really desires the welfare and improve- ment of his child. Whatsoever defects are found in his training of the child must be considered as due to ignorance or defect of judgment and not to malice aforethought. How to remedy the defects or supple- ment the virtues of the home training is the compre- hensive problem of the child's teachers. We have repeatedly insisted that the school is the supplement of the home, that the teacher is to take up and discharge, as far as possible, those duties which the parent owes to his child but is unable individually to perform. What the Parent Delegates to the Teacher. — What, then, are these duties; what does the parent turn over to the teacher? Most consciously, of course, instruc- tion in books and training in the arts of acquiring knowledge. Less consciously, but no less truly, training in speech, manners, and morals. In many of the great city schools, the first thing to be accomplished is in- struction in the language of the country. But even along with this comes the establishment of habits and ideals consonant with American citizenship, in short, the civilizing process. But this labor is not confined to children of foreign parentage. Even in the case of native born children from well-to-do homes, the labor of training for social and civic responsibilities is largely and increasingly devolved upon the school. This is due, in large part at least, to the increasing luxury and strenuousness of American life; neither parent has time to meet parental responsibilities in any adequate THE TEACHER IN HIS RELATIONS 77 manner, nor even time to give much attention to the selection of the teacher who is to stand in their place. Correlative Rights of Parents and Teacher. — But much as the average parent leaves undone and much as he expects the teacher to accomplish, it does not follow that he surrenders the child wholly to the tender mercies of the schoolmaster. He does not sur- render but entrusts his child to the school, and it may not be with a perfect trust. The teacher should always remember that it is his proper function not to super- sede but to supplement the parent. There need be little occasion for friction as to au- thority or jurisdiction. It is generally recognized that the teacher is in full control during school hours. It is not recognized so generally as it should be, perhaps, that the teacher's jurisdiction extends over the home- ward way as well. When the pupil has once been de- livered, so to speak, at his domicile, the teacher's responsibility ends. But there ought never to be any sharp question as to the boundaries of parental and school authority. There should be such acquaintance between teacher and parent, and such mutual under- standing, as will make co-operation not only possible but easy and natural. How can the teacher supplement the work of the parent whom he does not know, and with whom he never has personal conference? The question arises as to how such acquaintance can be secured. There are various methods suited to different environments; but it may be said here, at least, that the teacher should never stand on his dig- 78 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT nity or wait for advances to come from his patrons. The children are, after all, the dearest possession of even the weakest of parents, and their interests and needs furnish always a common ground between parent and teacher. It is not wise to wait till trouble has arisen through misconduct of the pupil before any contact with the parents is sought. It is best to have some basis of mutual understanding before trouble de- velops. Of course, it is not to be expected that all parents will be judicious or unbiased or reasonable where their own children are concerned, but most trouble with parents of any sort arises from misunder- standing or misinformation. And a personal inter- view is the surest way of removing these. The Teacher and the School Board. — In the large city system, the teacher's relation to the board may be so tenuous and indirect as to occasion little thought; but in the country school the case is very different. In either case, however, the relation is real and important. The school as a supplement to the home is shared by many families; hence the need of an official body, or board, to represent them in its control. The teacher's initial contact with the board in the securing of an ap- pointment and the execution of a contract is only the beginning of what should be a cordial and intelligent co-operation. The board must learn of the material needs of the school through the teacher; the teacher should learn something of the conditions under which he is to work from the board. The board should be kept advised of the progress of the school and of any THE TEACHER IN HIS RELATIONS 79 causes of obstruction or embarrassment, and their coun- sel should be frankly sought in every case of need. The Teacher and the Superintendent. — In a city system, the superintendent is the highly empowered representative of the school board, or at least the inter- mediary between board and teacher. It is on his ad- vices that the board acts. It is through him that the mandates of the board reach the teacher. But, of course, a superintendent worthy of his place is much more than a dread arbiter of the teacher's tenure. It is to the superintendent, above all else, that the rank and file teacher must go for direction, criticism, or sympathy and counsel in cases of difficulty. The relation between him and his teachers should be one of candor and confidence. In certain cases, of course, the principal will stand in place of the superintendent, but with less delegation of power. The jmncipal is likely to be also a teacher, and often without proper allowance of time for super- vision. He may, therefore, be less helpful in the way of suggestion from sheer overwork; yet he is, after all, in closer daily contact with the teachers, and the rela- tion should be an intimate one professionally. The first duty of the teacher in this relation is that of loyalty and cordial co-operation. A backbiting teacher, trying to undermine the authority or repute of the principal, is wholly unworthy of the position which he occupies or the respect of his fellows. The honorable course for a disaffected teacher is, first of all, to seek a better understanding with the principal. Failing in that, 80 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT there remains only the alternative between an open ap- peal to the school board and a resignation. In the country schools the case is different. Each teacher is his own principal. The county superintendent does not embody the authority of a school board; he is the educational captain, or chief, of the county or dis- trict. It is his duty to marshal the educational forces of the country, and the teacher owes cheerful allegiance and prompt obedience to his requirements. Even those teachers who do not derive their legal sanction from him but from state authority, as graduates of normal schools, owe it to the public and to themselves to co-operate cordially with the superintendent in all his efforts to improve the educational status of his territory. A selfish or supercilious attitude on the part of such state- qualified teachers towards the local associations, teach- ers' institutes, etc., can not be defended from any point of view. The prompt and accurate rendering to the superin- tendent of all reports or records required by law is sim- ply a matter of common business morality. The super- intendent should never be laid under the necessity of making a second call for such returns. The Teacher and the Community. — It has already been urged that the teacher should come, as far as pos- sible, into friendly and familiar relations with the parents of his pupils, with the whole community in fact. But how shall this be done ? The old system of "board- ing around" practiced a generation or two ago in coun- try districts provided for this friendly contact in a very THE TEACHER IN HIS RELATIONS 81 effective way. The teacher, in the course of his term, went into each household as a guest for a number of weeks proportionate to the number of school children in the family. The coming of the teacher to "board" was looked forward to as a social event, and the teacher was a wiser man after his visit and better qualified to do his best service to the children of that household. In order to achieve the full measure of influence and success, the teacher should live in the district or com- munity during term time. The teacher of a country school should not betake himself to foreign parts at the end of each day, or even week. The town girl who teaches in the country and bicycles home every after- noon can have, in the nature of the case, only a limited interest in and a limited vitality for the work for which she is employed. She should be, for the time at least, a resident and not a "carpet-bagger." Under our present-day conditions it is not always easy to cultivate a personal acquaintance with the peo- ple in their homes. But "the parents should be in- veigled into a closer acquaintance with the school than they will seek of their own motion. Special programs, school exhibitions in which many children take part, "parents' days," to which special invitations are given, are useful ways of securing this contact. All take time and labor, it is true, and are opposed by some teachers on the ground that they interfere with the regular progress of the school work. But that is a rather super- ficial view of the matter. Any device which will offer to parents a special occasion for visiting the school and seeing the teacher, as well as their own children, in 82 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT action is worth, in indirect ways, all that it costs. And the efficient handling of such public or semi-public oc- casions tends to give the teacher a stronger hold of in- fluence on the school and its supporters. It is well, too, for the teacher to lend a hand, when- ever able, in the local activities of the community, e. g., in farmers' clubs and institutes, in musical organiza- tions and literary societies. The "spelling school' 7 was one of the agencies by which the old-time country teacher made the existence of himself and flock known to the country-side. But, of course, the teacher must not allow himself to be so loaded up with social service as to over- tax his time and strength to the detriment of his daily work in school. This regular daily work must always be first and foremost with the teacher ; and temptation to overindulgence in social activities and amusements must be conscientiously resisted. The teacher who lowers his stock of vital energy and consumes time needed for proper daily preparation for his school work injures himself professionally and wrongs the pupils entrusted to his ministrations. The Teacher and His Boarding Place.— The ma- jority of teachers must board away from home, and that is well. The teacher who "lives at home" may be for- tunate in the matter of physical comforts and freedom from the constraints which boarding-house life imposes ; but there are countervailing drawbacks which outweigh these advantages. It is especially unwise for the young and comparatively inexperienced teacher to teach in "the home school." Without attempting here to enum- THE TEACHER IN HIS RELATIONS 83 erate all the reasons for this judgment, suffice it to men- tion the many temptations and demands of a social na- ture which heset the teacher living at home. Her family and her social set conspire to interfere with her pro- fessional duties and diminish the strength of her inter- est in her daily work. But to the teacher away from home the question of a suitable boarding-place is usually a serious one. And in country districts especially it is often difficult to secure a comfortable environment for the out-of-school hours. The teacher may sometimes have little or no choice as to his accommodations ; but, of course, it is highly desir- able to have quiet and comfortable quarters, in which work and study will not be interfered with. The family sitting-room is an utterly impracticable place in which to pass the evening hours, which are needed for the daily preparation. The teacher boarding in a family should carefully re- frain from obtrusiveness and from all manifestation of discontent or disrespect for his surroundings. He should adjust himself generally to the social environ- ment, and at the same time maintain a degree of dignity and self-respect suitable to his. responsible office in the community. Recognition of the family as his hosts, and consideration for their rights and preferences, should mark all his intercourse with them. He should care- fully refrain from any dogmatic or disputatious atti- tude or manner; in short, the teacher should be a gen- tleman in his boarding place as well as elsewhere. The discreet teacher, moreover, will carefully refrain from discussing in the family circle the shortcomings and 84 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT peculiarities of individual pupils. The school history should not be rehearsed outside. It may be added that a hotel does not afford a suit- able environment for a teacher, especially a woman teacher. It should only be resorted to in case of abso- lute necessity. Better many discomforts in a home rather than the publicity and distractions of hotel life. CHAPTER VIII THE TEACHER AND HIS TIME By this term, the teacher's time, is not meant simply its distribution among his daily duties, important as that is, but the larger allotment of his time and atten- tion. Assuming that the teacher is rightly ambitious^ that he really wishes to conquer success, that he is not content simply to draw his wages but means to rise in his profession, what will be his attitude with reference to the use of time? He will wish to keep himself in good condition physically, to enjoy the society and stimulus of kindred spirits, to discharge each day's duties efficiently and faithfully, and also to increase his intellectual and professional equipment for the work, to the end of a greater efficiency and a fuller recognition as an approved workman "that needeth not to be ashamed." During the hours of the school day, the school pro- gram will be the teacher's program, to which he must faithfully conform; but there still remain hours which he can not afford to pass in any haphazard fashion. They must be economized wisely. The next duty after the departure of his pupils had best be such clerical duties as devolve upon him, the writing up of the daily register first of all. Dr. Bagley has well said in his ex- cellent book on "Classroom Management" : 86 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT "In every well regulated life there must be a time that is specifically allotted to all routine tasks. The teacher's hours of actual service are comparatively short — at most thirty hours each week for a maximum of forty weeks, or twelve hundred hours annually. In view of this fact it is not too much to expect that the teacher dispose of the necessary clerical work outside of the regular school hours. By far the best plan is to set aside the hour immediately following the close of the daily session for such work, and to keep reports and records up to date. The tendency to postpone clerical work until reports are called for is pernicious and should be strenuously combated from the outset." But this is only one of many items which the earnest teacher needs to consider in the proper organization and economy of his time. The remaining time before the evening meal may well be spent in the open air, in walking or outdoor games. Daily Preparation. — Doubtless, the most impor- tant and exigent duty which the teacher has to perform is that of planning the daily lessons and refreshing his mind on the subjects of instruction. This work is too important and laborious to be undertaken immedi- ately at the close of the daily session. As has already been urged, that is the appropriate time for making up the daily record of attendance, making out reports to parents or superintendent, and such like mechanical work. The wise teacher will also keep a daily journal, or log, of the more important happenings of the school, including mention of special events or exercises, visits, THE TEACHER AND HIS TIME 87 accidents, etc. This is an almost universal custom among teachers in Great Britain, and is well worthy of imitation. But the work of lesson-planning and supplementary study should be reserved for the evening hours, after rest and refreshment. The correcting of written work and marking of test papers is also important work and ought not to be done perfunctorily nor in the hours of greatest fatigue. Such of this work as can properly be reserved for Saturday forenoons would best be done at such time. The teacher, however, should study to keep down the amount of this work within reasonable limits. Provision for Reading and Self Culture. — It may not be thought practicable for the teacher to set apart any definite portion of each day for reading, but cer- tainly some hours in each week should be religiously devoted to his mental nourishment. What, then, should the teacher plan definitely to read ? First, the news of the world. If he has not access to the metropolitan dailies, he should be a regular subscriber to some repu- table weekh T , like the Outlook or Independent, in which he may find careful summaries of the world's doings. This reading of the news may well occupy the hour be- fore supper if that time is not spent out of doors. Next, he should be a subscriber to at least two educa- tional journals, one his state journal, of whatever name, and the other a publication of national repute and pur- view. Thirdly, he should read some monthly magazine of high quality and tone, along with such books as he can 88 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT command in the field of history and general literature. If it be protested that the teacher has not time for all this, the answer, absolutely true, is that this is wholly a matter of inclination, that every person can find the time for this, and more, if he only wills. Many teachers do much more. With regard to novel reading, it may be said that generally this may well be relegated to the summer vacation. The young teacher should commence the gathering of a professional library, beginning with some such books as Fitch's "Lectures on Teaching" and Arnold's "Waymarks for Teachers/' and adding at least one or two good volumes each year. He will need, however, to seek wise counsel in the selection, since much that passes as pedagogical literature is mere platitude. Professional Contact. — As has been said elsewhere, the teacher should not be a recluse. He needs social contact, but he also needs contact with others engaged in similar work, his fellow craftsmen. An effectual way of securing this is by frequent participation in teachers' associations, both local organizations and those of wider scope. In the local gatherings, he will become ac- quainted with his professional neighbors and get prac- tical hints, at least, for his own work. In the larger bodies, he will come under the stimulus of those higher in the profession and of wider fame, men and women chosen because of their power to awaken thought and stimulate discussion. The teacher will also be brought into contact with large themes, the greater problems of education. These may lie, in a measure, beyond or above THE TEACHEE AND HIS TIME 89 the plane of his own immediate work ; but acquaintance with them is demanded as a condition of professional intelligence and culture. Moreover, the benefit received from "the program" will be fully equaled by that de- rived from personal and social contact between the ses- sions. In the hotel lobbies and elsewhere, he will be making desirable acquaintance, and he himself will be- come known to others. This mutual acquaintance be- tween teachers in the same state or district is of great advantage not only to the individuals concerned but also to the work at large. It tends to dignify and solidify the profession of teaching. The best outing of the year to a live teacher is the meeting of the State Associa- tion. School Visitation. — The teacher in active service has not much opportunity to visit other teachers at work ; but such possibilities as exist or can be created should be eagerly improved. Few experiences, if any, are as immediately valuable to the aspiring, ambitious young teacher as visits to schools where good work is be- ing done. Teachers are, unfortunately, prone to fall into ruts, or stereotyped ways of doing things, and a day's visit to a live school seldom fails to yield stimu- lating suggestions of better ways and quickened energy. A caution may well be given, however, to the visiting teacher. The visitor should be considerate of the order and regular ongoing of the visited school. It is far too common for the visitor, whether teacher or other, to assume special privileges and spend his time largely in personal conversation with pupils, to the neglect of any 90 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT real observation of the work being done. Nothing can be more embarrassing and annoying to the teacher in charge than this inconsiderate trespassing on the order of the school and neglect of the true purpose of the visit, which thereby becomes a visitation rather. Neither should the visitor too freely interrupt the work with questions to the pupils, or other emphasizing of his presence. The Teacher's Sunday.— This discussion of the teacher's distribution of his time would undoubtedly be incomplete without some consideration of the wise and proper use of the weekly day of rest. Wholly ir- respective of his religious affiliations, there are certain habits which the wise teacher will aim to establish in himself. He will make, habitually, a clear distinction between Sunday and other days. If wise, he will array himself in better raiment than his workday clothes; that is the first step towards marking off the day from the working days of the week. If wise, he will never adopt the practice of marking written work or doing other school drudgery on what should be, in every sense, a day of physical and mental restoration. In justice to his pupils and his work, the teacher should bring to each Monday morning a refreshed and reinvigorated spirit. "Blue Monday" should never be allowed to in- vade the schoolroom. What the nature of the teacher's Sunday reading- should be his own best judgment must decide ; but it may safely be urged that it can not profitably be confined to the Sunday newspaper, that dropsical aggregation of the THE TEACHER AND HIS TIME 91 sensational, the trite, and the laboriously useless. His reading, like the other exercises of the day, should at least tend towards his own edification and make him each week more fit than before for the guidance and inspiration of youth. It is sometimes argued that teachers ought not to allow themselves to be pressed into service as teachers in the Sunday school, since teaching engages their activities during all the rest of the week. But the soundness of this argument is at least open to question. The fact that teaching is the business for which the teacher has been trained and to which he is thoroughly habituated makes the work of teaching a Sunday class easier and more natural than it is to persons not accustomed to teaching. Undoubtedly, there are some cases where the teacher, as a matter of religious duty, assumes Sun- day labors which she can ill afford, physically, to carry ; but these cases are not frequent. It is the rare excep- tion where the teacher is in any way the worse for faith- fulness to religious obligations. The Teacher's Vacations. — The daily duties of the conscientious teacher are nerve-wearing work. They need to be relieved by suitable forms of recreation. The teacher, perhaps above others, needs some play time. This it is often difficult to find place for; but so far as possible it should be passed out of doors. At best, teach- ers get too little of the open air. From the teacher's standpoint, it seems a pity that croquet did not retain more permanently its one-time popularity. With city teachers, the theater is likely to be sought 92 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT as .the mosi available resource for relaxation. But the late hours and emotional tension which it involves, to say nothing of the bad air, can scarcely be held to furnish real relaxation. The character of the nerve strain is simply varied, and the nerves are not rested. The summer vacation is the teacher's great oppor- tunity. Happy is the city teacher who has a country home, or who has friends living in the country with whom she can spend a time each year in country air and country quiet. But to the teacher who can afford to travel that is the most rational and profitable form of recreation; though its recreative value is impaired when taken in long itineraries in which the time is over- crowded with hurried sight-seeing. There is much so- called recreation which is more exhausting than regular work. But change of work sometimes serves the purpose of play ; work on a farm during the summer has afforded many a student and teacher a profitable form of recrea- tion. Mere idleness is seldom the best medicine for the tired teacher; let him rather seek some diversion which will occasion a cheerful but not severe activity of mind and body. CHAPTEE IX THE FIEST DAY OF SCHOOL To the veteran teacher in a city system, who has taught for years in perhaps the same grade and, it may be, the same room, the first day of a new term or year has no terrors. But to the young teacher starting in with her first school or with a new school, under new conditions, "the first day" is a notable and often very critical occasion. It is undoubtedly true that many a young teacher has lost ground in the first day or two with a new school which she was never able to regain. Many a poor teacher's failure was, all unknown to her perhaps, sealed in that first day's failure to grasp the situation and master it. It is important, therefore, that the tyro in teaching should be forearmed and well pre- pared for that first trial of strength. Before the Term Opens. — At some time before the term begins, the teacher should visit the district and thoroughly inspect the school premises. He should at that time invite the attention of the board to any needed repairs or renovation. This is where the teacher's ideas of what the school environment ought to be, and how it can be made what it ought to be, should have a practical result. At the time of this visit, he should secure the school records and take them home for a careful study 93 94 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT of the names and classification of former pupils. He should also study the previous daily programs, learn what text-books are used, and become somewhat familiar with them. The teacher who neglects all this work and depends on getting up all these facts on the opening morning, in the presence of waiting and curious young strangers, recklessly invites failure in advance. He should plan fully what he will do on the opening day, even if he has to modify his plans when the time comes. If the teacher lives at any considerable distance from the school he should come into the neighborhood on the preceding Saturday and spend Sunday there. It would never be wise to run any risk of a late and hurried arrival on Monday morning. The teacher should be, on that fate- ful morning, in the best of physical condition and free from weariness or worry. On the Opening Day. — -At what hour should the teacher arrive at the school ? The answer is easy : Before the first pupil. "Little Miss Espenet" left the Normal School, as an undergraduate, while she was still in short dresses. On the opening morning of her first term, she arrived at school before any of the children. She found the yard in disorder and at once set about clean- ing it up, picking up sticks, removing rubbish, etc. Each pupil, as he arrived on the scene, at once enlisted under her leadership % Before nine o'clock, the yard was nicely set to rights, the little teacher had, all unconsciously, established her leadership, and had made a good begin- ning towards personal acquaintance with her pupils. THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 95 TIacc fabula docet that the \>ay to leadership is through well directed action. But if the school yard should chance to be already in perfect order, then what? Set the schoolroom in readi- ness. Perhaps it may be sweeping and dusting that is needed. Then take the opportunity to open acquaintance with each pupil as he arrives. When the opening hour comes, call the school to order promptly on time. Domt wait for more to come. Stand at the door and oversee the coming in of any who were outside. At the outset will come the problem of seating. Some of the children will have come early with a special view to the choice of seats, and their choice may not at all be yours, with farther acquaintance. It is well to pre-empt the situation by saying, "You may take such seats as you see fit this morning until I am ready to seat you in a different order.*' That is, indicate gently but plainly that the permanent seating will be arranged later on. If this preliminary seating is allowed to continue for a day or two. the teacher may discover some facts which will be useful in determining the rearrangement advis- able. Start Work at Once. — First, use some form of opening exercise, which should have been thought out definitely beforehand. It will not be well to consume much time in any individual enrollment. If that is thought necessary, pass slips of paper, prepared before- hand, and have the pupils who are able to write enter their names with such other data as may be desired. Then, using a tentative program, start work at once, and 96 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT keep things moving. Unoccupied time is the worst thing that can happen to the children on this first morning. For this tentative program, the program of the previous term may be used if the previous teacher has performed her duty by leaving it on record. This may well enough be used on the second day also, while the new program is in the process of incubation. All this time the teacher should be very alert and ob- servant in the "sizing up" of individual pupils, studying their temperament, their stage of advancement, and their apparent capacity. The first day is no time for dreaming nor for indecision. The recess periods and dismissions should occur promptly at the proper time; and the teacher should give attention to the doings of the children during the recesses. When the day is done, the teacher may then sit down to review the events of the clay and consider what things have been neglected or overlooked, and plan the campaign for the next day. If she has been master of herself and has kept things going, she need have no misgivings or fears as to her further success. For the Week Following. — The following sugges- tions for the week or two following the beginning of work with a new school will be found worthy of atten- tion by the teacher who is anxious to insure success. (a) It is a good plan to have the names of all the pupils written on a sheet of paper or large card, in the order of their seating in the several rows, and kept on the teacher's desk, where it can easily be consulted. It means much to children to be called by their names, and THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 97 the teacher should acquire the ability to do this as early as possible. (b) Much of the work in the first week or two should be a review of what was covered in the previous term, but it should contain some element of newness to sus- tain interest. Nothing could be worse than to assign a large number of pages from the book of the previous year with any expectation that it will be properly studied by the pupils. Almost every motive for real study will be lacking. (c) The work should be carefully planned and as- signed. There should be something definite to be done by every pupil in each lesson. The assignment should be wisely measured as to amount; and then the pupils should be held responsible for performance. The teacher should watch carefully, and with tact and quiet firmness resist the beginnings of idleness, inattention, and dis- order. It is always easier to assert and maintain con- trol from the start than it is to recover mastery after the school has slipped into disorderly habits or insub- ordination. (d) Observe and study the pupils individually to discover their moral characteristics and, if possible, the causes of their weaknesses. As early as possible identify those individuals who are most likely to make trouble. Get acquainted with them, study their dispositions, and try to gain their co-operation by assigning them special duties, as your assistants, so to speak, in the care of the schoolroom and its belongings, the school grounds, and outbuildings. (e) Begin at the outset to keep a record of the work 9g SCHOOL MANAGEMENT done, of where each class begins, and any other facts which may be of use in making out reports at the end of the term or year. It is well also, as the time goes on, to keep a record of visitors, official and other, of any public exercises or special events, in short, a sort of diary of the school year. (f ) Do not allow yourself to speak slightingly of the work of your predecessor. Of course he was not perfect ; and it is probable that your successor may find some opportunity for criticism. In any case, such criticism can do no good and is likely to excite needless antagon- ism. CHAPTEE X THE PROGRAM What Need of a Fixed Daily Program?— Why should it be thought necessary to formulate a stated, in- flexible order of exercises to be imposed on each day's work? Why not leave the length and succession of exercises to be determined by the conditions of the hour ? To which the answer might well be, "Why have clocks at all ? Why not leave meal times to the caprice or tempo- rary convenience of the cook?" How would it work if railroad trains had no fixed schedules but "ran wild" at the pleasure of the engineers ? The purposes of a definite school program, closely ad- hered to, may be stated as follows : (a) To prevent waste and secure a proper distribu- tion of time. (b) That pupils may know what to expect and when. The first fact to be recognized is a psychological one. Each person, or child, has in each day of his life a lim- ited amount of disposable energy. He may not use all of this — usually does not — but he can not use more. This energy may, it is true, be used in spurts of concen- tration with intervals of relaxation between ; but there is also a limit, especially in children, to these periods of concentration. This varies with different ages, being low in young children but increasing with the age and development of the child. Through the common experi- 100 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT ence of teachers these limits have become tolerably well defined. It is also well understood that attention can not be forced beyond these limits. Fortunately for the child, he has the power of instinctively protecting him- self from any attempt to overstep the bounds. He sim- ply lets go, and ceases to attend. Or if, by superior skill or strategy, he is led to efforts beyond this natural limit, he will recoup himself afterwards by prolonging his relaxation, which the teacher is sometimes tempted to dub laziness or stupidity. An Illustration. — The writer once saw an old-time schoolmaster, a man of sixty with shaggy hair and over- hanging eyebrows, teaching a grammar lesson to a sixth grade class of boys in the city schools of Atlanta. The old man was master of his subject. Every question hit the bull's eye. The boys were bright and alert, and he kept them literally "on the jump" for sixty minutes. He undoubtedly had, somewhere, a daily program, but it had no restraining power over his enthusiasm. He would have said, perhaps, that he was trying to strike while the iron was hot, and he did. But at the end of the hour both he and the boys were overdone. They were worth little for the rest of the half day; and the other subjects of the morning program had been ex- cluded or robbed of their due share of time and mental energy. This instance has probably been paralleled "many a time and oft," but it may well serve as an ex- ample of the need of a proper proportion of work and a due recognition of the attention-limits of the pupils themselves. THE PEOGKAM 101 The Limits of Attentive Power. — What, then, are these attention-limits, which it is not wise or economical to transgress or ignore? Without attempting, at this point, any scientific discussion of the matter, suffice it to say that no class of children in the first two years of school life should ever be held to an exercise of more than fifteen minutes in duration, while no recitation in the grammar grades (7th and 8th) should exceed thirty- five minutes, or forty at the utmost. In high schools, perhaps the usual limit for ordinary lessons is forty-five minutes. It certainly should not be more. The Pupil's Right to a Program. — Children at play have no program; they follow the impulse of the moment, and they have no sense of time. But work, even for children, is a different matter. The pupil needs to have before him a definite and intelligible indication of the time when he will be called upon to render results or the results will not be forthcoming. Which means that a definite study program is no less needful than a mere schedule of class exercises. It is well that this definite mapping out of the activi- ties of the school clay should become incorporated into each pupil's mind as a habit, so that he will be guided by the mere routine and succession of daily events. When this has been accomplished, he will no longer need to watch the posted schedule, nor even the clock; but the teacher will never get beyond this need of keeping an eye on her timepiece to save her from irregularity. Need of a Study Program. — The adult pupils need the guidance and help of a study program no less than 102 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT the younger ones. The defense continually offered by students, and by persons in daily life, for delinquency in performance of duties is, "I didn't have time," which is in the majority of cases a false plea. There was plenty of time if it had been rightly economized. So much time is lost by dawdling, by faulty distribution of energy, by lack of forethought and system, that there seems to have been a dearth of time itself. A definite program of study and work will, of course, be the result of forethought, it will embody system, it will prevent easy-going waste of time, and so multiply the efficiency and productiveness of the pupils' efforts. Pupils should therefore be held to a reasonably close observance of its provisions. The Making of the Program. — How, then, shall the teacher go about the making of the permanent pro- gram ? If she is a city teacher with perhaps but a single grade in her room, the problem will be comparatively easy; but to the teacher of a country school, or of per- haps three grades in a small village, the situation is quite different. Let us, therefore, consider the matter from the standpoint of the one-room country school. The first step is to determine definitely the number of classes necessary in the various subjects. Then deter- mine which of these classes should recite more than once a day. For instance, the beginners' class, not being able to make use of books in study, must receive more fre- quent attention from the teacher. Their lines of work are not yet much differentiated, and learning to read is their main activity. Will it be too much, then, other demands permitting, to call this class four times a day THE PEOGEAM 103 instead of once or twice ? If, at the other extreme, there are any classes which can not be heard every day of the school week, that fact should be noted. We now have the data for determining the total num- ber of daily exercises, or "recitations". The maximum number, which should never be exceeded, is twenty-two. We reach this result in the following way: There are, by established custom, six hours in the school day. Set out two recess periods of fifteen minutes each, and we have left five and one-half hours, or 330 minutes. As- suming fifteen minutes as the minimum average time for each exercise, we have as a quotient twenty-two such periods in the day. But in assuming an average length of fifteen minutes for all the exercises of the day, we still have to apportion the time to each exercise according to its nature and necessity. We shall find it necessary to establish a maxi- mum limit, which in the mixed country school can not be placed at more than twenty-five minutes. The Order of Recitations. — It yet remains to de- termine the proper arrangement, or order, of recitations. But this can not be successfully accomplished without taking into account the whole question of study, the pupil's preparation for the recitation. (a) What class shall be called first, in the morning? If any class is of such age, or in such a subject, as will admit of home study, that particular class may properly be called first to recitation. If home study can not be counted on, the first class called should be one so young as to be incapable of "study," and therefore ready to face the teacher at any time. 104 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT (b) Another guiding principle is that of a proper alternation between recitation and study. This does not mean, however, that a class having studied a lesson, or assignment, should make haste to recite it immedi- ately. It is well for the student, if practicable, to keep the lesson "on his stomach" for a time before being called upon to regurgitate it. Other guiding principles are these : (c) That work which calls for the closest mental ap- plication should be placed in that part of the day when the powers are freshest and most vigorous. There seems to be general agreement that memory flags first, that is, that memorizing is the most exhausting of mental oper- ations. The reflective powers retain their energy some- what longer. (d) Those exercises which call for less energy of atten- tion and involve most of muscular activity should be reserved for those parts of the day when the mind is disposed to flag. Exercises which have to be written out fall under this description. If the teacher has been able to keep in mind these four rules during the arrangement of his recitation pro- gram, it will then be an easy matter to annex the study program, and all that remains will be to put it into a compact tabular form for posting and for entering in the school records. The Grading of Country Schools. — These several steps in the making of a country school program, viz., the determination of the number of classes and recita- tions, the proper allotment of time to each, and the THE PROGKAM 105 discovery of the right order or arrangement of exer- cises, bring us naturally to the question of possible grading, or classification, in rural schools. In not a few states, like Wisconsin and Illinois, this subject has engaged serious attention for many years. The Wis- consin plan, promulgated as early as 1882, proposed the division of the country school course into three divi- sions, or zones, which were denominated the" Lower, Middle, and Upper Forms, these terms corresponding in a general way with the terms Primary, Intermediate, and Grammar Grades as applied to graded schools. This plan contemplated that the child should be held to all the work of the lower form before being allowed to enter upon the work of the middle form, and so on. This, of course, was great gain, as it operated to pre- vent the pupil from becoming lopsided through neglect of essential studies and undue attention to others. In late years, there has been a tendency among some teachers to go yet farther in the matter of classifica- tion and, so, to attempt the making of an eight-grade program for the country school instead of a three-form one. This tendency does not seem, on the whole, to be a wise one, though it may sometimes be possible or ad- visable to classify more closely than the three-form plan proposes. By way of suggestion, a sample program is here given, one on the three-form plan. 106 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT PROGRAM Recitation Study Opening Exercises 2d, 3d, & 5th Eeaders 9:00 9:10 1st Eeader 9:20 Beginners 9:30 5th Eeader or Classics B. Arith., C. Seat work. 9:50 2d Eeader A. & B. Arith. 10:00 3d Eeader " " 10:15 B. Arith. A. & C. Arith. 10:35 10:50 11:10 11:20 11:30 11:45 12:00 1:00 1:10 1:20 1:30 1:50 2:10 2:20 2:30 2:45 3:00 3:10 3:30 3:50 4:00 A. Arith. C. Arith. Beginners B. Lauguage A. Language Eecess C. Arith., B. Lang. A. & B. Lang. A. Lang., B. Geog. B. Geography- Intermission 2d Eeader, A. & B. Geog. 1st Eeader Beginners 2d Eeader B. Geography A. Geog. or History C. Language B. Spelling Writing Eecess Beginners Agric. & Hygiene, 4th Eead. Agriculture & Hygiene 4th Eeader 4th Eeader A. Spelling A. Spelling B. Arithmetic Dismission A. Geography & C. Lang. B. Spelling, C. Lang. Agriculture & Hygiene " " C. work Seat CHAPTEK XI INCENTIVES TO STUDY The teacher being duly installed, in a suitable environ- ment, with his work properly planned and under way, the next consideration is that of motives to keep the work in progress. First, of course, come the teacher's motives, those inner springs which keep him up to his best work. The love of activity, the sense of duty, pride in good work, professional spirit and ambition, the de- sire to wield influence over growing minds, all these conspire, in the real teacher, to invigorate effort and preclude failure. But our problem here is that of motive in the pupils. On what motives may we prop- erly and successfully rely to keep pupils up to the work in a way to produce the results we seek ? The Gamut of School Incentives. — What do we mean by the term "motive" ? The etymology of the word furnishes the key;/motive is that which moves us, which incites to action. Now the antecedent of action, if we except the purely reflex movements, is feeling of some sort. Motives are feelings. But feelings have a great variety of type and quality, ranging from the bodily sensations to the esthetic and moral sentiments. The motives, therefore, to which the teacher must appeal may be graded or arranged in a sort of gamut or scale. At the bottom of this scale, we may place : 107 108 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT (1) The Dread of Physical Pain. This fear of pain, or dislike of being hurt, is the old, time-honored motive on which the schoolmaster in past ages has mainly re- lied. Its application is so easy and it so chimes in with the animal impulse to inflict suffering that its inferior- ity as an incentive was long overlooked or ignored.' It is scarcely half a century since its efficacy or propriety began to be questioned. The ancient proverb, "Spare the rod and spoil the child", was thought to be an ex- pression of wisdom divinely sanctioned; the mistake lay in taking it too literally. In much later days, a famous English Headmaster whose pupils had exceptional success in passing the ex- aminations at the Universities, was importuned by his less successful rivals to tell them his secret. "I have no secret; I whip them and they learn", was his sen- tentious reply] Scotch dominies famed for skill as edu- cators have relied greatly on "the tawse' ? as an intel- lectual and moral stimulant. But whatever may be thought of physical pain as a moralizing agency through its effect on conduct, it seems wholly unaccountable that it should so long have been held as the chief in- centive to intellectual effort and application. ) (2) The Fear of Mental Pain. The nerve ends of the skin are not the only primal source of childish suf- fering. So a substitute for the rod has often been found in the infliction of mental pain, shame, chagrin, the wounding of pride and self-respect, by means of scold- ing, ridicule, or sarcasm. There are children of the stolid type to whom such stimuli are not altogether injurious; on the other hand, there is a large class of INCENTIVES TO STUDY 109 super-sensitive children, of delicate nervous organization, to whom such inflictions are the height of cruelty, and paralyzing in their effect. Just and well-tempered reproof is often necessary and wholesome; but scolding, which implies a degree of irritation and temper, usually provokes an attitude of resistance and obstinacy or retaliation on the part of the pupil. It is not contended that the teacher shall always be sweet and complaisant in the face of miscon- duct. Even Divinity is sometimes thought to wear "a frowning face"; and the teacher needs to have at least a capacity for righteous indignation. The child often gets his clearest idea of the moral quality of his action by the energy of disapproval which it excites. The essential thing is that the teacher, in reproof, shall be always master of himself and not the victim of weak nerves and a fretful habit. The infliction of mental pain is one step higher in the scale, in refinement, than that of physical pain; but it is often more dangerous and more liable to misuse. But we should remember that we are not here discussing pain as penalty or pun- ishment, but its use to stimulate pupils to greater and more continuous mental effort. There is a wide differ- ence between motive and penalty. (3) Love of Approbation. We reach a point here where pain as an incentive gives place to pleasure. The love of approval is a universal human instinct, shared even by man's most faithful servitor, the dog. But there are different forms, or strata, so to speak, of this desire. (a) Fondness for praise. The simple delight in praise is the lowest and most universal form. Mere HO SCHOOL MANAGEMENT praise appeals, after all, to our selfish nature, to our vanity and self-conceit. It tends withal to strengthen these feelings, and therefore has its dangers. Every- thing in the nature of flattery, insincere or excessive praise, should be sedulously avoided by the teacher. These, while convenient stimuli for the accomplishment of certain purposes, tend only to the cultivation of ego- tism and an overweening self-estimation, a dangerous exaggeration of one's own importance. The child should never be praised for that which is only a matter of natural endowment and not the result of his own will or effort, as personal beauty, strength, or even talent. He should no more be praised for these than those less fortunately endowed should be blamed for their defects or deformities. What should be praised is honest effort rather than achievement. It is safe to say that cordial recognition of industry and faithful endeavor can never do harm, and it is only simple justice that it be given. Much amiable talk has been expended on the propo- sition that pupils must be praised for their encourage- ment. It has been assumed, rather superficially, that praise and encouragement are synonymous. We have seen, and may well recall, that many children are vain and crave praise as a confirmation of their self -estimate. There is another large class of children who are timid, wanting in aggressiveness, and lacking in self-confi- dence. They need the stimulus of conquest, and suc- cumb easily to the discouragement of failure, or even partial failure. To such pupils, all possible apprecia- tion should be given, the praise due to effort, and the INCENTIVES TO STUDY m recognition of thoughtfulness where found. Sympathy, personal interest, and helpful suggestion will all help towards the establishment of greater self-confidence and persistence. (b) The desire to please or win regard. We have here a motive of really higher order than mere love of praise. It is not vanity which underlies this, but some- thing more akin to respect and affection. A right- minded child will put forth effort in a direction which he knows to be pleasing to his parents because of his affection for them. Whom we love we would therefore please. Affection towards a teacher will go far towards inducing the effort to please, and not simply to please but to command regard in return. Here we reach, for the first, a plane of motive which is altogether safe and wholesome. And that teacher will have great ad- vantage in his daily work whose character and sympa- thies are such as to command confidence and admira- tion. We may recognize the fact, also, that whatever calls forth admiration on the part of the pupil will increase his desire to please. That is one reason why the teacher should cultivate such personal carriage, such manners, such habits of tidiness and good taste in dress as will command this admiration. Akin to this, is the influence exerted by a man teacher who is expert in athletics and yet bears himself as a gentleman. (4) Love of Superiority. Under the general term love of superiority, we have, again, several related types of feeling which need, after all, to be clearly discrimi- nated by the teacher. Endeavoring to begin with the 112 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT lowest type, most closely allied to the animal impulses, we may name : (a) The desire to "beat" others. The desire to ex- hibit power, to display or demonstrate one's physical strength and prowess, the ambition to outstrip others in any line of endeavor simply to win attention and rec- ognition is, perhaps, only one form of the animal im- pulse of combat. A man strives or even fights for the mere joy of struggle and victory. This impulse would be less dangerous if it could be wholly divested of its usual accompaniment, the disposition to exult over the defeated or distanced rival. This propensity to "crow" over, or hector, the vanquished is so selfish and cruel in spirit that parents and teachers need always to be on the alert to check its manifestation. (b) Ambition: rivalry. We sometimes say of a boy or man that he has no ambition, by which we mean that he is content to remain in a position of inferiority or insignificance. He has not that healthy love of struggle and desire for personal advancement which cause men to put forth their best energies in the business of life. We sometimes, again, say of a youth that he has not yet "waked up" or found himself. Rivalry is perhaps a feeling of lower and earlier de- velopment than ambition. It makes its earliest appear- ance in connection with sports, where, at first, it is scarcely removed from what we have called the desire to beat. The danger is, of course, that its undue in- dulgence will develop the braggart and the bully. But this feeling, at its best, is so potent and effectual a motive force that the teacher can not well refrain from INCENTIVES TO STUDY 113 utilizing it. The main thing is that it shall be employed wisely, seeking to induce not an inordinate ambition or unscrupulous rivalry, the danger in public sports, but a healthful emulation. Various devices have been adopted in schools for the stimulation of scholarly ambition, such as report cards and "rolls of honor" posted in the schoolroom or pub- lished in the local newspaper. Some educators seem to have fallen into a state of needless alarm with reference to the effect of these devices, and, indeed, with reference to the giving out of standings, or grade marks, at all. It is sometimes alleged that under this system pupils come to work only for "standings" and not for under- standing. Serious if true, but it may be doubted whether such a charge ever represents the real truth. At any rate, the pupil who does not care what his standings are or what estimate his teacher has been able to place upon his work is certainly not a very hopeful candidate for culture. There may be but two or three pupils in a class who have the laudable ambition to lead the class, but there will be many who wish to maintain at least a decent rank, and who will be spurred to renewed effort by the sting of a low standing or the encouragement of a high one. (c) The desire to increase in power, to excel one's self. We need to recognize here that higher form of ambition, the desire to excel one's self, to break one's own record. While with many the desire to exercise power, to dominate others, is a ruling passion, there is also with many, if not all, an intense satisfaction in the mere consciousness of the possession of power, whether 114 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT exercised or not. On this foundation, it is wise to build, if possible, that desire for greater personal value which we may call Aspiration. This implies as its object some power or condition felt to be above one's present con- dition, the striving after which is uplifting or ennobling. In the kindling of this sentiment we have perhaps the highest work of the teacher, and with this incentive we rise, again, to a higher plane of motive. ) (5) Desire for Knowledge for its Practical Value. We reach now an incentive less instinctive, more rational and calculating, than those thus far considered, the desire for knowledge through a belief in its future utility, as a means of getting on in the world. This may be called the commercial or utilitarian motive. The pupil is under the rule of a remote and rational interest instead of an immediate and sensuous one. While the motive is a self -regarding one, it neverthe- less lies, so to speak, on an intellectual plane. This motive, or desire, as it operates with pupils in school, even in the high school, is rather indefinite. The child may look upon education as the indispensable means to advancement and success in life, and yet he does not picture very clearly any particular way in which this is to happen. With many parents, the whole estimate of education hinges on its utility in the direc- tion of better wages, the making of money. With the youth himself, the ideal may not be so mercenary. His attitude may find expression in the declamation, "I want to be somebody". And many parents have said, "I don't wish my children to have as hard a time in life as I had". Thus, both in home and school, the prac- INCENTIVES TO STUDY 115 tical utility of education, and consequently of diligence in study, is more often held up before the mind of youth than any other motive. (6) The Love of Knowledge for its Own Sake. We come here to a still higher level of motive, the desire for knowledge as a source of high satisfaction in itself, with- out regard to practical results, either in wealth, power, or reputation. Curiosity is a natural instinct of the human mind, and finds its most active manifestation in the young child, who seems continually oppressed by "the pains of ignorance". This instinct may be so neg- lected or misused as to finally concern itself only with the petty personal details of neighborhood life, the curi- osity of the common gossip. If properly directed and stimulated, on the other hand, it may be developed into one of the noblest attributes of the human soul, the passion for truth. The gossip represents an aborted type of curiosity; the zeal for the discovery of truth which characterizes the scientist and philosopher stands at the other extreme of a fully developed intellectual appetite. The wise teacher will employ every means to stimu- late this appetite and commend to the pupil the pure joy of understanding. Merely to know great scientific truths, the reasons of the universe, all apart from any practical advantage, the ability to appreciate the glow- ing images and inspired metaphors of poetry, the pos- session of the keys to human history and progress, raise one above the common herd and make him truly a man, created in the image of God, whose greatest func- tion is to know. 116 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT This, then, is the culture motive. In every child, the desire to understand is strong; hut later on in the school career it seems to lose its force or to attach itself only to trivial objects. What is it that has happened? Some one has coined the phrase, "the artificial produc- tion of stupidity in schools". Who is responsible for this atrophy of curiosity? Is it not the teachers who base their appeals on the lower motives and who do little to illustrate in themselves the pure joy of knowing? (7) The Desire to be of Greater Service to Mankind. From the culture motive, the desire for greater breadth and depth of intellectual experience, one step more brings us to the top of our scale in the philanthropic, or altruistic, motive, the desire to qualify ourselves for more efficient service to our fellow-men. It has been a matter of discussion whether this motive is really of a higher order than the culture motive; but as it adds the ethical quality without necessarily subtracting any- thing from the keenness of intellectual appetite, it may justly claim to the noblest, if not always the strongest, incentive to study. Even the scientist in his eager pursuit of truth is all the more a scientist if he is moved by a desire to alleviate the miseries or increase the comforts of life. Pasteur, Lister, Koch, Edison even, have devoted their lives to exhaustive research equally moved by the love of truth and the love of mankind. But we need not go so far for examples of the vitality of this motive. Every divinity student toiling in the seminary to pre- pare himself for more effective service as a fisher of men illustrates its presence and power. INCENTIVES TO STUDY H7 It need hardly be said that this altruistic motive is not one that can be appealed to in early years. It is not until adolescence, the age of heroic impulses, is opening up that the ideal of service can have great moving power. And so, the teacher, having a clear consciousness of all the planes of motive, their place and their potency, must strive to employ that one, or such ones, as can be most successfully invoked in the given case and at the given age. The greatest achieve- ment of the teacher will consist in kindling the pupil's will into harmony with his own purpose, so that he shall conspire freely and gladly towards the end of his own spiritual enfranchisement. CHAPTER XII MORAL TRAINING At various points in the preceding chapters, it has been assumed that the formation of character should be a leading object, if not the overshadowing purpose, of the teacher's endeavor. If a worthy and stable moral character has not been developed, intellectual acquisi- tions and acuteness may prove to be a source of danger to society rather than of benefit. The educated rascal is no legitimate fruit of public education. The teacher must, therefore, always and unweariedly study by what means this meed of character may result from his labors. The Great Problem. — This is, after all, the great- est problem of the educator, How shall the school ac- complish its high aim of character-building? No ques- tion at the present time is engaging more earnest and anxious thought on the part of not only teachers but all thinkers interested in the right direction of education. There is no difference of opinion as to the end; but there is much diversity of judgment and much per- plexity as to the proper means. The Essential Conditions or Constituents of Char- acter. — For the development of character, three factors or constituents are essential; first, the genesis of right and inspiring ideals; second, the activity of will involved in yielding allegiance to these ideals ; third, the consolidation of right impulse and resolve into 118 MOEAL TRAINING 119 habit. High ideals and a good will flowering into habit, these are the ends sought in moral training. The Creation of Ideals. — First, then, how shall worthy and uplifting ideals be infused into the minds and hearts of youth? All such ideals are a result of the conjunction of intelligence, imagination, and sensi- bility. The idiot, the savage, the dolt, the untrained yokel are shut out from the possibility of high ideals by lack of knowledge — knowledge of the possibilities of human life — and lack of the ethical imagination, ability to image higher planes of thought and action. The youthful mind must, by every possible means, be moved and stimulated towards a true conception of the per- fect man, the ideal life; which will induce the longing of aspiration, and vital effort towards at least its partial realization. If the youth can not be quickened into admiration of the good and morally heroic, education must be accounted a failure in his case. For such ad- miration, kindling discontent with his own present self, is the first step towards the goal of character. All the teaching of the school should help in this direction, but especially that in history and literature, through their portrayal of the leaders of the race and the ideal char- acters created by novelist and poet. But the most immediate agency of all in this direc- tion will be found in the personality of the forceful and worthy teacher. The first and highest requisite, then, for moral inspiration is that the teacher shall be in his own life and character that which he wishes his pupils to become. The matter of the teacher's moral 120 SCHOOL, MANAGEMENT standards and habits becomes, therefore, of the most vital importance to all charged with the selection and appointment of teachers. The Cultivation of Moral Judgment. — It was said above that high ideals are a combined result of intelli- gence, imagination, and sensibility. By intelligence is meant, first, such knowledge of life and its issues, of the natural and inevitable consequences of certain modes of life and conduct, as will furnish the basis for rational choice between objects of desire and lines of action, and for the exercise of self-restraint and the inhibition of dangerous and unworthy impulses. Secondly, the term must include the power and habit of deliberation and reflection upon the far-reaching consequences of action, even that which may seem at the time trivial, and the ability to "see # straight" as a result of such deliberation. In other words, the training of the judg- ment to caution and clear insight in dealing with moral questions, whether related to one's own personal be- havior or to the problems of society, is a most impor- tant factor in character building. Here, again, all good teaching, which must aim always towards the cultiva- tion of accurate judgment and clear conception, will conduce towards the development of sound moral judg- ments. The unconscious outcome of really good in- struction and its constant demand for thoughtfulness and critical analysis, is not likely to be overestimated. On the other hand, the moral mischief engendered by loose, superficial, or inaccurate teaching is correspond- ingly great and insidious, MORAL TRAINING 1#1 Character and Habit. — Matthew Arnold has given wide currency to the apothegm that character is three- fourths conduct. It might be added with perhaps equal truth that conduct is three-fourths habit. Right habit is the rudder of a worthy life, holding it true to its chosen course. It is right habit which saves us from the perversity of sudden impulse and moral acci- dent; and equally is it true that wrong habit imposes that slavery to evil impulse and appetite whose chains are strong as links of steel. It is beyond the power of the child to know or com- prehend what habits it is for his eternal interest to form; his view of life is too limited. The teacher, un- aided, might also be at a loss as to what habits he ought to make a point of establishing. But society, or the common judgment of civilized men, has very largely settled that question, and the problem of what habits are good and what are injurious need not occasion the educator any great perplexity. It is the process of liabit-forming which needs his most careful attention. First, the inculcation of desirable habits must begin early, while the brain is still in a plastic state. Forma- tion is easier than reformation; and some of the most important habits must be established so early that the duty belongs to the home rather than the school. The primary teacher comes next, and upon her more than on any of her successors fall the burden and the duty of habit-training. Personal habits merely physical, so far as any habit can be purely physical, manners, pos- tures, the manipulation of muscles as in the holding of the pen, language habits, and the more specifically 122 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT moral habits, such as kindness, truthfulness, obedience, etc., all fall to the primary teacher as her most impor- tant field of attention and effort. Watchfulness, pa- tience, unwearied perseverance, and the stimulating force of an admirable personality, all are needful in this new mother whom we call the primary teacher. In what we call the intermediate grades, however, we come upon a new plane of habit-training. Here, with the greater development of memory and language power and the advent of text-books, we find a new field for the same watchfulness, patience, and persistence. Here, the chief work of the pupil is the formation of a host of intellectual habits. The multiplication table, for instance, must become a habit. The proper holding of the pen in writing, for an example of a different sort, demands a degree of insistence on the part of the teacher which it unfortunately seldom receives. Such habits as the uniform crossing of fs and dotting of is should be made a matter of conscience until the habit becomes firm enough to render volition unnecessary. So with all the habits which finally give ease and accuracy in the use of both spoken and written language. And the teacher should understand and remember that this unwearied vigilance and persistence in the enforcing right practice to the end of right habits, is no small part, and an indispensable part, of moral training. The Forming of the Will. — But, so far, we have been only skirting around the center of the great prob- lem of moral education. We come now, of necessity, to the core of the problem. Between ideals, on the one MORAL TRAINING 123 hand, based on "intelligence, imagination, and sensi- bility", and habit, on the other hand, resulting from instruction and repetition, lies the great force which must accept ideals and transmute them into moral habits, the good will. How shall "the soul's power of self-direction towards chosen ends" be enlisted in the establishment of a noble character, outwardly expressed in worthy deeds? Conduct is the outcome of will; moral conduct is the fruition of a good will. Will is rooted in desire, from which it ascends through choice to execution. Desire is rooted partly in instinct, and partly in knowledge; it must be tempered by sympathy and the sense of duty. Active sympathy, again, is partly due to instinct and partly to suggestion and the contagion of feeling. It needs guidance from knowledge, from the experience of the race. All habits were in their inception voluntary acts, which have through repetition by free choice become automatic, no longer needing direction by the will. But will, moved by desire of some sort, however induced, was their author. There must have been, somewhere and somehow, a persuading force which made the repe- tition possible. The very center of the teacher's- prob- lem, therefore, seems to be that of engendering or bringing into action this persuasive force, thus creating at least a temporary and recurring desire to perform the worthy action, to "do the right thing". But the choice must, after all and always, be the pupil's own. He must wish, for the moment at least, to do the right thing, and the wish must, if it lapses, 124 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT , be capable of renewal upon fit occasion. An action can not be called moral unless the child has chosen to do it. It is the teacher's task, then, to furnish such occasions, to envelop the pupil in such an atmosphere as will make right choice seem rational and easy, to appeal to his highest ideals and purest sympathies, and to re- move or reduce as far as possible conflicting or hinder- ing motives and influences. And it will be a great step gained if the pupil can be got to view his own possible or actual acts from an impersonal standpoint. Kant's maxim, "So act that thy conduct might become the law for all", may be too abstract and too elevated to take vital hold on the mind of impulsive or tempted youth; but it is the ideal towards which the teacher should patiently and hopefully strive, putting his own personality and his own personal love and sympathy back of the endeavor. The Question of Methods. — Thus far, the discus- sion may have seemed to the reader to be too general, more philosophical than practical, unless he recognizes that some philosophy must underlie all effectual prac- tice. Let us now, however, try to approach the matter more closely from the practical side of ways and means. What are the possible methods by which influence can be brought to bear upon pupils in school for the crea- tion of high ideals, the training of the moral judgment, and the determination of the will to those attitudes which will result in right life-habits ? At least five more or less distinct lines of practical effort have been advocated, all of which have been em- MORAL TRAINING 125 ployed to a greater or less extent. A brief presentation of these seems profitable at this point. Dependence may be placed on (1) The Personal Example of the Teacher. If the teacher is a person of high character and engaging per- sonality, one who acts from principle, with evident sin- cerity and sympathetic interest in his pupils, his un- conscious personal influence will be more effective than his conscious efforts. The importance of this has al- ready been insisted on ; but great as this inspiring influ- ence may be, it is not adequate for all demands. The child needs something more than silent example to give that intelligence and moral judgment which are neces- sary elements of sound character. Moreover, the exam- ple and bearing of teachers are not always of such quality and consistency as would render other agencies unnecessary. (2) Incidental Instruction and Discipline , as Condi- tions Necessitate. The personality of the teacher will do its beneficent work not merely through the bare force of example, but it will naturally and necessarily find expression in the daily discipline of the school. A wise dealing with school offenses and the moral shortcomings of pupils furnishes occasion for the most practical kind of instruction in the bases of conduct, the reasons for right action and the evil consequences of wrongdoing. Here we have morality in the concrete; and here is the place for the teacher, avoiding all unnecessary an- tagonisms, to press home the principles of right con- duet, by instruction, argument, and appeal. In the chapter on "Rules and Punishments" (Page 126 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 150), attention will be definitely called to the office of punishment as an objective expression of turpitude, embodying the judgment, not of the teacher alone but of society at large, against selfish and wayward conduct. Children learn to estimate the moral quality of acts by noting, or experiencing, what is done about them by the ruling power. The result of this incidental and objective instruction in connection with discipline, as occasion requires, in the making of character will of course depend upon the wisdom and personal force of the teacher in charge. Punishment, wisely adminis- tered, emphasizes in the most impressive manner the opinion of good society with regard to selfish, lawless, or vicious acts, and gives greater vitality to the pre- cepts and prohibitions of the school. It is thus an effective aid toward the formation of right habits of action. (3) The Power of Regular School Activities to Im- press Moral Habits and Ideals. The regular ongoing of the school life, with its routine of class work, its organized movements, its games and athletics, and its daily intercourse under authoritative supervision, fur- nish an unconscious moral discipline of such importance as to call for separate and detailed treatment in a suc- ceeding chapter. But here, again, the moral outcome will be determined by the wisdom and efficiency of the administration, in other words, upon the power and quality of the teacher. (4) Indirect Moral Instruction in Connection with School Subjects. Certain of the school studies furnish material and occasion for an incidental and indirect MOEAL TEAINING 127 cultivation of the moral sense. Mathematics and nat- ural science, by their insistence on absolute accuracy, are thought to exert an unconscious influence in favor of truthfulness. Other studies, especially history and literature, unquestionably offer a most favorable oppor- tunity for the development of high ideals of human efficiency and character. Under skillful teaching, the youthful mind may be kindled into enduring enthusi- asms by the high examples which history records and literature creates. Who can measure the silent influ- ence which has been exerted through the generations by the story of youthful David, of the 300 at Thermopylae, of Socrates and the fatal cup, of Cornelia and her sons, of William Tell and Winkelried, of St. Francis Xavier and his like, of La Salle and Marquette, of Washington from the cherry tree to the presidential chair, of Flor- ence Nightingale and Jane Addams, and, perhaps above all others, of Abraham Lincoln, "the first American". And the creations of poetry and fiction, while perhaps less vital in their influence, afford admirable oppor- tunities for character analysis and the exercise of moral judgment without personal bias. The teacher of history, no matter how learned his expositions or how wide his references for research, fails, after all, of his chief mission if he neglects this oppor- tunity for eliciting the admiration of his pupils for admirable characters and their critical judgment on those which furnish warning rather than example for imitation. Yet it will behoove the teacher not to let his moral purpose become too evident; for youth reacts 128 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT against preaching and especially against the "rubbing in" of moral j3recept or admonition. (5) Systematic Instruction through Principle and Precept. Concerning the modes of moral influence thus far discussed there can be little controversy. They are all useful and all necessary. The question remains, however, whether any or all of them are adequate to the need without the addition of definite and systematic instruction in ethical precepts and principles. Concern- ing the value and efficiency of such formal instruction there is great diversity of opinion. To such instruction, it has been objected with much force that morality can not be taught by abstmctions, that such study is only study about morals and not training in morality, that knowledge as to the theory of morality by no means insures its practice, which is the end sought. It is further t objected that theoretical ethics is too abstruse to be taught before adult age, when the habit-forming stage is well past; that effectual training in morals must be done, if ever, before the age at which ethical theory can ,be appreciated. So far as purely theoretical instruction in ethics is concerned, these objections are, no doubt, well taken; but there would seem to remain the possibility of a simpler form of moral instruction, in which principles of right conduct should be assumed rather than argued, and illustrated by concrete cases, so as to bring them within youthful comprehension. This, certainly, is the only way in which moral instruction can be brought to young pupils in any systematic manner. Anecdotes, true or invented, must serve as the basis of such les- MOEAL TEAINING 129 sons, constituting the text, if not the whole discourse, leaving the pupils to draw the moral themselves. It may not be wise to place these lessons as a set exercise in the daily program, but rather to introduce them as occasion favors in the "general exercises" of the school. The ordinary teacher can not, of course, be expected to originate these objective illustrations, nor even to cull them out for himself from the great fields of his- tory and literature, though suitable anecdotes and inci- dents will often present themselves when least expected in his daily reading, in the newspapers even. Many attempts have been made to prepare books suit- able for the use of teachers in this sort of work; but few of them can be commended as really successful. An early and quite successful effort may be found in Gow's "Morals and Manners" (Am. Book Co.), pub- lished as long ago as 1873. For a more systematic effort, Everett's "Ethics for Young People" (Ginn & Co.) may well be studied and utilized by the teacher. Some excellent material for use in general exercises may be found in Garrison's "Parables for Home and School" (Longmans, Green & Co.). A new book by Ella Lyman Cabot, "Ethics for Children" (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), however, is undoubtedly the most satis- factory book of this sort yet offered. It may be safely said that any teacher of children in the elementary schools will find this collection of stories and poems, arranged with reference to fitness for use in the several grades, a most valuable guide and aid to instruction in morals. 130 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT Religious Education as a Basis for Moral Char- acter. — There can be no doubt that religious belief and feeling often constitute, where they exist, the strong- est motive toward right conduct. It is entirely natural, therefore, that many people should feel that no effort at moral training can be thoroughly successful or com- plete which does not develop and utilize the religious basis. In Germany and Great Britain, religious in- struction of some sort is required even in state-sup- ported schools; but whether this is more for its effect on morals or more for strictly religious reasons it might be hard to say. In this country, the public schools are now pretty thoroughly secularized, and in. some states it is even unlawful to read the Bible, as part of a devo- tional exercise, in schools. But even if entire freedom in that respect were still the rule it would require much wisdom on the part of teachers in the selection of Scrip- ture readings suited to further the ends of moral edu- cation. Mere perfunctory reading of the Bible, with or without comment, is almost certain to fall on closed ears and minds. In any case, the giving of religious instruction in public schools seems to be beset with almost insurmountable difficulties. CHAPTER XIII ELEMENTS OF MORAL CHARACTER CULTIVATED BY THE SCHOOL As was intimated in the preceding chapter, the ques- tion of the wisdom or efficacy of theoretical moral instruction in schools is a mooted one, with sincere disputants on either side. But there is no question at all that there should be moral influence in the school. But how shall this influence be exerted if not through instruction? In answer to this question, let us take the matter of instilling good manners. Some instruc- tion in manners, that is, some information as to the ways and usages of polite society, will be useful, even necessary; but the acquisition of good manners must, after all, be largely a matter of suggestion and imita- tion. Contact with people of courtesy and refinement will do more for the youth than any amount of formal instruction. Conduct is an art and not a science; and moral character, so far as it is not a matter of good birth and good breeding, must come as the result of personal influence, appeal, and example. All these the school can do much to furnish, with a minimum of preaching or moral instruction, if the teacher is really qualified for his post of influence. But this is not to be taken as an argument against wise and practical instruction in morals. Moral char- acter is too important an end of school endeavor to 131 132 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT justify neglect of any and every means which can be made to further its attainment. But to those who lack faith in the objective result of formal instruction in morals there is great consolation in the fact that every well-ordered schcol does give training in morals by the mere force of its daily ongoings. Back in 1872, Dr. Wm. T. Harris, late U. S. Com- missioner of Education, then City Superintendent of St. Louis, gave in his Annual Eeport for that year so luminous and informing a discussion of the moral habits which a good school tends unconsciously to form in its pupils that his essay has become a recognized educational classic. It was repeated by himself in vari- ous connections and has been paraphrased and adapted by nearly every text-book on School Management which has since appeared. It is thought well to follow the same practice here, using the language of Dr. Harris more or less freely. School Discipline as Adapted to Secure Moral Education. — The pillars on which public school edu- cation rests are Behavior and Scholarship. The first requisite is Order; each pupil must be taught, first and foremost, to conform his behavior to a general standard. Only thus can the school as a community exist and fulfill its functions. In the outset, therefore, a whole family of virtues are taught to the pupil, and these are taught so thoroughly, and so constantly enforced, that they will become fixed in his character. The duty of being a well-behaved pupil is not a vague generality ; it divides into specific and well-defined duties: ELEMENTS OF MORAL CHARACTER 133 (a) Punctuality. The school demands that the pupil shall be in his place on time. Sleep, meals, play, busi- ness, even indisposition — all must give way to the duty of obedience to the school requirement of time. Punc- tuality does not end with getting to school. During the school hours it is of equal importance. Combina- tion can not be achieved without it. The pupil must have his lessons ready at the appointed time, must rise at the tap of the bell, and go through all the evolutions with precision. The value of punctuality as a habit can not well be overestimated. The immorality of tardi- ness and dilatoriness not only in school but still more in business life must be impressed by every available means. A school officer once said, "I have spent more time in waiting for other members to come together after the appointed hour of meetings than it has ever taken to do the business of the board". He justly felt this waste of his time to be robbery. In these days, the school has an efficient ally in the railroad in this matter of educating the people into habits of punctuality. "Time and tide wait for no man", still less does the express train. (b) Regularity. "Kegularity is punctuality reduced to a system"; but it deals with larger units of time. Eegularity means being at school every day ; punctuality means doing things at the minute appointed. It need not be difficult for the teacher to show to both child and parents the irreparable evil of irregularity; but neither pupil nor parent will realize this without thoughtful effort on the teacher's part. Making school a business is the standard to be perseveringly aimed at, 134 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT There are two principal causes of irregularity with which the teacher has usually to contend, (1) the neg- ligence or selfishness of parents in keeping children out of school on slight pretexts, and (2) the indolence or antipathy of pupils, taking the form of truancy. Both are alike inimical to the establishment of that habit of reliability in the meeting of duties at which the school aims. But so far as the school succeeds in overcoming these obstacles it becomes a true teacher of morality. Combination in school, and afterwards in business life, rests on these two virtues, regularity and punctuality. They are the most elementary ones of the moral code — its a, b, c. (c) Silence. Silence is the basis for the culture of reflection — the soil in which thought grows. The pupil is therefore taught habits of silence, to restrain his natural impulse to prate and chatter, or to excite at- tention by his acts. All ascent above mere physical being arises through this ability to hold back the mind from utterance of the immediate impulse and to correct its one-sidedness by reflection. Thus silence in the school- room has a two-fold significance. It is necessary to the attainment of combination with others, and besides this, it is a direct discipline in the art of combining the dif- fused and feeble efforts of the pupil himself. The dis- traction of the mind consequent upon garrulity pre- vents reflection. The absorption of the mind in thought absolutely necessitates abstention from talk and all noise-producing activities. And, in school, this should go farther than mere negative silence ; the pupil should acquire the difficult but needful habit of absorption in ELEMENTS OF MORAL CHARACTER 135 his proper task, even when a lively recitation is going on in another class. He must acquire that strength of mind which will enable him to pursue without dis- traction his train of thought and study under any ex- ternal conditions. Out of this discipline, grow atten- tion, memory, thought — the three factors of culture. The cultivation of this habit of silence and this re- pression of "the animal instinct to prate and chatter" is no easy part of the teacher's duty. The social impulse is strong and the disposition towards reflection is weak. There must be a constant effort to secure, on the part of each individual, consideration for the rights of others and the recognition of the fact that no one should in- dulge himself in conduct which could not be properly engaged in by all. Arnold Tompkins has said (Philosophy of School Management), "Most effective of all means of divert- ing attention is that of noise. Silence must be the law of the schoolroom. It is quite common for the teacher to make more noise than all the pupils together. A teacher should speak in quiet tones and move about too quietly to attract notice. "I know it has been often urged that a noisy school- room is a sign of energy and activity, of industry and hard work, that the working beehive must hum. This sounds very well till we reflect that it is physical energy and activity that make the noise ; there is no mental analogy. The greater the mental activity the greater the silence. This doctrine of a noisy school arises from two classes of teachers — those who can not secure silence, and seek an escape through the theory; and 136 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT those who champion in good faith the plea for freedom on the part of the pupil — or, as it seems to some, a plea for license." (d) Truth. The school, as its fourth virtue in the ascending scale, inculcates truthfulness. Truth is the basis of the duties of a man toward others. "The truth shall make you free" is the word of inspired wis- dom. Truth is the foundation of all trust, in the fam- ily, in social relations, in business of every kind. Falsity is a subtile poison which destroys the positive benefits that may be derived from the institutions of society; and the individual who practices it will soon find him- self in the condition of a wild beast, as regards social life. The virtue of truthfulness is developed in a two-fold way in the schoolroom. First, by the continual disci- pline of the recitation; the pupil is required to be accurate and comprehensive in his statements; he is taught that suppression of important particulars makes his statement false; he is held strictly accountable to know what he says, i. e., to have a clear conception of what is involved in the words he uses. The second mode of securing truthfulness is the direct application of discipline to the behavior of the pupil. Any lack of truthfulness in the pupil reveals itself at once in his struggles to conceal his misde- meanors. It is an object of constant care on the part of the teacher to suppress lying and dishonesty in what- ever forms they may manifest themselves. The admoni- tion of the teacher, the disgrace felt at exposure in the presence of schoolmates, are most powerful caustics to ELEMENTS OF MOEAL CHAEACTEB 137 remove this moral disorder. But it is to be remembered that the most common cause of lying in school is the fear of punishment for offenses and failures. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that the teacher should be able to establish an abiding confidence in his fairness, forbearance, and personal sympathy. And in all school work it is to be held that accuracy is simply a phase of truthfulness, not only accuracy of formal statement, but accuracy in the choice of words and accuracy in form, even to orthography and punctua- tion. He can not tell the truth who does not choose his words accurately. And even the dotting of one's i's and crossing of his t's should be a matter of con- scientious fidelity to the truth of form. All slovenli- ness is, in a sense, slackness of regard for the truth, a want of fidelity. (e) Justice. The duty of justice follows that of truthfulness, and partly presupposes it. Justice can be taught only in a community. In a well ordered com- munity, it grows spontaneously. A system of measure established by which conformity to rule and right is rewarded by recognition, and all breach of discipline by prompt exposure, appeals constantly to the sense of justice and develops its normal exercise. The little community of the schoolroom filled with forty or fifty children presents a miniature world. There are chil- dren of the wealthy and of the indigent, children of talent and children of slow, imprisoned intellects, some with deep spiritual instincts, others with base, brutal ones. Dress and carriage and speech vary accordingly. But before the schoolroom ideal all artificial distinq- 138 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT tions vanish, and each is equal in rights and duties. The standard of comparison shall be the work done, its quantity and its quality. We have here no aristocracy save that of honesty and good will. Can there be a better soil for the growth of a feeling of moral respon- sibility or a sense of justice? The normal power and influence of the school may, however, be impaired or in a degree thwarted by certain mistakes on the part of the educator. Whenever any artificial and extraneous motive, like special rewards, the buying of good be- havior, is introduced the whole mechanism goes wrong. The question of what is just and true must not be clouded by motives of immediate self-interest. Any sort of bribery of children to do what we wish them to do, confuses the notion of justice and argues weakness and shortsightedness on the part of the teacher. (f ) Humanity. Says Dr. Harris, "The highest virtue in our list — Kindness or Love of Mankind — like the sense of justice, requires a community for its culture, a community which, like the school, brings together all classes and conditions, and subjects them to the same trials and the stame standard of success. * * * The trials that all are alike subjected to reveal to each child- ish heart the temptations and struggles with passion and impulse, as well as the weakness of will and intellect that belong to his fellows. He sees in them the gap between intention and actual performance and this ex- cites his commiseration. Broad human sympathy begins its growth under these conditions." The child begins with demanding justice for himself, but comes, in time, to realize that this can only be had ELEMENTS OF MORAL CHARACTER 139 in correlation with justice to all. And the growth of the feeling for justice gets great assistance from the sympathetic impulses of the soul. Pity, the pain of witnessing suffering in others, the later impulse to kind- ness and friendliness help on the ideal of justice, "the square deal"; and this, in turn, helps to weld all these feelings into the great humanitarian sentiment without which true society can not exist. It may be questioned, perhaps, whether this analysis of Dr. Harris, profound in its insight, covers exhaus- tively the whole field of moral training unconsciously and incidentally given by the well disciplined school. Some would wish to add the discipline in : (g) Industry. The habit of continuous application to the end of some positive result either in knowledge or disposable products is one of the most valuable assets in human life. Its opposite, the habit of idling, or dawdling, of frittering away time in aimless or incon- secutive effort, is one very easily acquired and fatal to success of any sort. One of the chief problems of the school is to secure the establishment of this industrious attitude, which finds pleasure in the productiveness of continuous effort, delight in getting things done. This involves, of course, the element of self-denial at first, until the pleasure in achievement becomes a strong and adequate motive. And a degree of courage, or fortitude, must enter in, helping the pupil to face difficulty with resolution. Thus the training to industry is a training of the will along with the founding of a habit. The teacher should strive to impress upon his pupils the full force of the old injunction, "Work when you 140 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT work and play when yon play", the valne of putting their fnll force into either form of activity, and the mischief of trying to combine the two, or, worse yet, of making a pretense of work without any real industry. Make clear to them that shirking and "soldiering" are among the most contemptible forms of dishonesty, while trifling and dawdling in worktime are sure con- ditions of failure in achievement. (h) Obedience. Practically every one who writes on the subject of school discipline places great emphasis on obedience as a school virtue. And this is well; but perhaps the term is in need of clearer definition. We do not wish to train children to servility or mere sub- servience. With adults, we count resistance to tyranny or extortion as a virtue. When we enjoin obedience we need to be conscious, at least, of the other term of the relation, namely, the authority which has a right to command. Obedience — to what ? Of course, to rightful authority. The child has a sense of this when he hotly declares to the stranger, "You ain't the boss of me !" But we do need, as teachers, to address ourselves to this duty of training in obedience, though often badly handicapped by the failure of the home in this respect. What is demanded of the public school above all else, at this time, is the production of law-abiding citizens. The charge seems to be only too well founded that the crowning vice of American civic life is lawlessness, a self-indulgent disregard of law. Yet it can safely be assumed that the child trained from the start to respect- ful obedience has, and will have, "a better time" than the lawless, undisciplined one. A boy coming home ELEMENTS OF MOEAL CHARACTER 141 from the district school once said impatiently to his mother, "I do wish that teacher would make us behave ourselves". He had reached a realization of the un- satisfactory, unprofitable nature of disorder. The obe- dience which we should teach is eventually simple con- formity to the "rules of the game" of life, harmony with the social organism, co-operation with the forces which make for human welfare. And the well-ordered school will do much to make this attitude easy to the citizen in his mature years. True Obedience. But the type of obedience which we should aim to develop is not a more or less reluctant submission to authority backed by force, but the cheerful spirit of co-operation with the directive power of the school. To secure this, the teacher must (1) command confidence and respect. Unless he can show in himself the fine fruits of education and self-discipline, unless he shall impress the pupil as worthy of imitation, his capacity for moral influence will be small. (2) He must show himself friendly in the best sense, genuinely solicitous for the pupil's well-being, and not merely the person in official charge. (3) He must show himself alive and energetic in leadership. A listless, sluggish, or wavering manner or temperament is an almost fatal impediment to that loyalty which we are now con- sidering. As was said in the preceding chapter, conduct is the outcome of will; moral conduct is the fruition of a good will. Will is rooted in desire; desire is rooted partly in instinct and partly in knowledge. It is vitally important, therefore, that youth shall somehow gain a 142 SCHOOL, MANAGEMENT clear knowledge of the natural consequences of the different forms of conduct. This knowledge is gained largely through experience, and school experience is here of great value because it comes at a time of life and under conditions which give it force in the forma- tion of moral habit. It should, however, be wisely sup- plemented, incidentally it may be, by instruction and appeal, drawing illustrations and warnings from the outside world. And all this must be vitalized and forti- fied by the personality of the teacher. The Conditions of Success in All This. — The school virtues which we have been considering are, withal, the cardinal virtues of social life ; these are the moral habits essential to civilized life. But while the good, well- ordered school works constantly and silently towards the development of self-control and considerateness, it must not be imagined that every school will automatically produce these fruits of the spirit. Punctuality, regu- larity, reflectiveness, truthfulness, justice, kindness, obe- dience are not so instinctive that they will sprout up of themselves in the soil of school life. The discipline of the school, by the teacher, must continually and wisely press towards these results. All moral habits must be acquired by repeated acts of choice on the part of the individual. And in school, as elsewhere, that choice must be, finally, a free choice on the pupil's part. Even where punishment impends as an alternative, obedience must result from a volun- tary surrender of the pupil's will. Here, then, is the great problem of the teacher's daily, and hourly, life, how to secure a succession, unbroken if possible, of ELEMENTS OF MORAL CHARACTER 143 right choices by each and every pupil. Whether these be secured by instruction and precept, by personal ex- ample, by the inspiration of historic characters, by direct appeal, or by the steadying force of penalties, or all combined, the work will demand vigor, firmness, sympathy, much study of individual cases, and eternal vigilance on the teacher's part; and no amount or kind of machinery will altogether relieve him from the ex- ercise of all these attributes and more. A good school may seem to run itself, but it never does. And the dis- orderly, ill-kept school may cultivate vices rather than virtues. The Moral Training of the Playground. — While allowing due weight to all the activities of the school- room, in both instruction and discipline, we must not overlook the fact that, from the standpoint of moral training, the playground is a very important part of the school. It is there that children train themselves into the possibilities and habit of concerted action. Choices are freer than in the schoolroom, but rights are asserted and must be regarded ; self must be in a measure subordinated in order that the "team-work" of games may be learned and practiced. Here it is, too, that vicious instincts are liable to be given free rein; here the bully flourishes and the cor- rupted mind spreads its contagion. No greater mistake can be made by the teacher than to assume that the burden of responsibility has slipped from his, or her, shoulders when the children are "turned loose" for play. The playground should be conscientiously supervised. 144 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT This does not require that the teacher should be always on the playground at recess time ; but it does mean that he has no right at that time to esconce himself behind his desk to mark papers or prepare himself for the next lesson. For the most part, he should have a faithful eye on the children; his most suitable station will often be at the window ; but as frequently it should be out of doors. It is not often advisable that the teacher should participate in the children's games; though no absolute rule of that sort can be enjoined. But he should know what is going on; and can often assist the children to make better use of their playtimes than they would do if left wholly to their own devices. The comprehensive fact to be remembered is that the teacher has the same responsibility for the playground that he has for the schoolroom. CHAPTER XIV RULES AND PUNISHMENTS School government is only a means to an end, but the end is of such importance as to exalt the means. Good school government consists in such management, such application of motives, and such guidance of ac- tion, as will insure that harmony of purpose and spirit of co-operation between pupil and teacher which will secure the end sought, the inducting of the pupil into a truer and stronger selfhood, on a higher plane of spiritual experience. To inspire confidence, to quicken aspiration, to win and so to lead, that is to govern in the truest sense. But not every teacher is equal to this achievement in all cases. Even where pupils are responsive and well- disposed there are always, in an assemblage like a school, many occasions and temptations tending to cause for- getfulness or disregard of the ends for which the school exists and the teacher strives. At all ages, impulse is often stronger than reason, and checks must be pro- vided to reinforce right intentions. Even the most right-minded of citizens often find themselves helped and saved from wrong action by the checks and penal- ties of the civil law. The good citizen is a law-abiding citizen. And as the state needs statutes not only for the checking of the wayward but also for the quicken- ing and guidance of the good, so the school needs some 145 146 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT general principles, more or less definitely formulated, for ready application in emergencies and times of spe- cial stress. This brings us to the question of Rules in School. — In human society, we are familiar with two kinds of civil law: (1) the common law, or that body of unwritten law which receives its binding force from long usage and general acceptance; (2) statute law, those definitely formulated rules and prohi- bitions enacted by the legislative branch of government, and consequently varying greatly in different states or countries. The question now arises. Should the rules of the school be common law or statute law? It has been preached that a school should have but one rule, "Do right"; but that is too vague and comprehensive a rule for practical guidance to any one. The difficulty often lies just in seeing what is right. It is better to have more definite rules, even if unnecessarily restrictive in some cases, as in the home, for instance, the rule, "Never play with matches". That is a matter which can not safely be left to the judgment or conscience of children. Rules Should be Few. — The school, because of the immaturity and ignorance of its members, needs some statutes; yet they should be as few as possible. Even civil society seems to be suffering from the overloading of the statute books with unnecessary and sometimes conflicting laws; so that the citizen needs a lawyer to tell him whether he is obeying the law or not. In earlier days, it was no uncommon thing for a RULES AND PUNISHMENTS 147 teacher, on taking charge of a new school, to announce or post up an elaborate list of "rules and regulations", a procedure which often tended to provoke antagonism or even suggest mischief which would not otherwise have been thought of. When a teacher included among his prohibitions, "No pupil shall climb on the wood-shed roof, it must have been a dull lot of boys who would not, sooner or later, have accepted the challenge. In short, it is best to trust to the "common law" of the school as far as possible, to have but few specific rules, and never to start with a long code of rules at the outset. Nor should there ever be any definite an- nouncement of penalties for infraction. In general, it is well for the pupil to find out the teacher's estimate of a wrong action by what lie does about it. It is better to establish a series of judicial precedents — common law — by action in individual cases. This will save the teacher from needless complications, and enable him to suit discipline to the individual child and act. The Ends of Punishment. — Before attempting to discuss the subject of school punishments, it is well to give some reflection to the real nature and ends of pun- ishment in general. Punishment, as a law term, has been defined as, "a penalty inflicted by a court of justice on a convicted offender as a just retribution, and inci- dentally for reformation and prevention". (a) Retribution. The definition, when analyzed, is very instructive. It emphasizes a thought which has ruled the world for ages, that the chief end of punish- ment is retribution. "Even-handed justice" has meant 148 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT "getting even" with the offender, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". Nineteen hundred years ago there came a great Eevelator and preacher of righteous- ness who discarded the whole doctrine of retaliation. Yet after all these centuries there rises easily in the mind of child and man the feeling that evil conduct deserves, and therefore ought to experience, retributive suffering. "He deserves to be hung" is almost a house- hold word. But this instinctive idea of retribution as the end of punishment, still largely prevalent in human thought, can not properly be admitted into school gov- ernment. And here the teacher will need to be con- stantly on guard against the retaliatory impulse. Every act of the teacher which even seems to the pupil to in- dicate the spirit of revenge or the desire to "pay off" weakens his influence and makes his future work more difficult. (b) Punishment as a Deterrent. Even in civil ad- ministration, prevention has come to be recognized as the chief end of punishment. The law is not made for the purpose of meting put to the evil-doer his desert, but to forestall evil doing. To give its warning suffi- cient force and impressiveness, penalties are affixed, which in some rough way indicate the enormity or injuriousness of the conduct prohibited or the impor- tance of that which is enjoined. When an offence against society has been committed, and the offender convicted, it is intended that his pun- ishment shall be severe enough to deter him from a repetition thereof; but the chief efficacy of the allotted punishment is found in its deterrent effect on others. KULES AND PUNISHMENTS 149 Hence the penalty must be promulgated along with the law, and the punishment of offenders must be made matter of public knowledge. But, here again, school government need not follow all the methods of the civil law. It is not well to prescribe, beforehand, specific penalties for specific offenses. With children, circum- stances vary too widely, and the matter of temperament and environment must be taken into account as the civil administration can not do. The relation between teacher and pupil is too intimate and personal to be regulated by inflexible rules. And yet, of course, the teacher must restrain pupils by employing prudence, or regard for consequences, as a motive. (c) Reformation as an End in Punishment. In the present generation, the idea of reformation as an end in punishment has been gaining quite general accept- ance. This is shown forcibly by the multiplication of "reformatories", intermediate prisons, etc., and the adop- tion of "indeterminate sentences". There is here, per- haps, a little confusion of thought. While there is often, no doubt, a discipline in pain, it is not punishment that works reformation; it only affords the occasion or op- portunity. And reformation can only be sought in con- nection with particular forms of punishment, as im- prisonment. Fines can have little or no reformatory effect; and the death penalty puts a summary end to the possibility of reformation. That is one of the argu- ments against it. In school discipline, the reformation of the offender should be a conscious and prominent end in punish- ment. Its first effect should be to bring the child to 150 SCHOOL. MANAGEMENT himself, to check the wrong impulses and give his nat- ural goodness, his right impulses, more opportunity for development. But even where punishment seems to work reformation, the result may be only negative. Ke- pression, even the suppression, of a habit is not enough ; we must aim to make the child love and desire the rilght. Punishment, thus, can only pave the way for positive reformation; of itself alone, it is never able to produce character. (d) To Express a Condemnatory Judgment on In- jurious Forms of Conduct. There is yet another office of punishment, not wholly included within any or all of those named, which is not as clearly recognized as it ought to be, namely, the use of punishment as an objective expression of turpitude, embodying the gen- eral judgment against wrong doing. Public opinion has with us all a power greater than we realize. Many a man is restrained from acts of passion or vice mainly by the fear of being found out, not merely because of the statutory penalties but because of the certain loss of his place in public estimation. He dreads the penalty because it is an expression of the public judgment and conscience. The whole code of legal penalties is largely a graded expression of the general mind on forms of conduct. Children in home and school learn to estimate the moral quality of acts by what is done about them by the ruling power. For this very reason, it behooves the teacher to see that all his punitory acts are well considered and furnish a just and reasonable expression of the degree of blameworthiness involved. RULES AND PUNISHMENTS 151 If we would see more clearly how far these four ends of punishment enter into civil administration, we shall lind a helpful test in trying to answer the question, "Why are defaulting bank officers sent to prison?" In the minds of their victims, retribution will instinctively bulk large. Eeformation will, after all, take a secondary place. The man is not likely to repeat his offense, even if free. He is punished as a warning to other weak or tempted men, for the protection of the public. But, even here, the most important reason for punishment is the objective expression of the common estimate of his iniquity and his unfitness longer to associate with honest men. The same principles hold with children, and the educational value of punishment is the one chiefly to be considered. The Characteristics of Punishment. — We have next to consider the qualities which should characterize all punishments and the proper attitudes of those . on whom its administration devolves. (a) Punishment should be Certain. This is a com- monplace so often asserted as seldom to be challenged; but how much do we mean by it ? The first step towards the punishment of an offence, as obscene writing in outbuildings, is the detection of the offender; and this can never be certain. In civil administration, the prin- ciple prevails that the more difficult the crime is of detection the more severe should be the penalty on con- viction. The same principle is undoubtedly valid in school government. What is really meant by certainty of punishment is that the teacher should not be negli- 152 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT gent in the detection of offences nor "easy" and spas- modic in the enforcement of rules and the administer- ing of correction. The teacher who "wobbles" in his administration soon loses control of the situation. (b) Punishment should be Just. It should be suit- able to the offence in kind and amount. This requires, of course, that the teacher shall not punish summarily, unless all the facts of the situation are open and undis- puted. He should aim always to investigate the repre- hensible act or event carefully and thoroughly and pa- tiently. Punishment can afford to wait for full evidence. The mere fact that the culprit is "on the carpet" and awaiting the verdict is, in itself, often a wholesome and impressive experience. It is frequently the better part of the whole penalty, provided always that the teacher does not weakly fail to carry the trial out to its proper conclusion. As has already been intimated, punishment should not be passionate or premature. Neither, on the other hand, is it always wise to defer punishment so long that it has to be done "in cold blood". A certain degree of moral warmth adds to the impressiveness of the pun- ishment. And in certain cases a degree of righteous wrath is admissible, if not desirable. The first requisite is that the teacher shall be sure of his facts and his interpretations. It seldom happens in school adminis- tration that an offence is as bad as it looks on the face of it; and many a teacher has had occasion to regret his hasty judgment and repent his severity when all the circumstances and motives came to be revealed. (c) Punishment should sustain, if possible, a natural KULES AND PUNISHMENTS 153 relation to the offence. Much has been said in years not far gone about "the discipline of consequences". The phrase is a seductive one, but as a principle it must not be too rigorously or literally applied. A lad at home is forbidden to climb the big tree in the back yard. He disobeys, climbs high in the tree, falls out and breaks a limb. That, literally, is the discipline of consequences. "Serves him right", shall we say? A surgeon must be called and ultimately paid; a nurse must be employed, or else the mother must play the nurse in addition to her daily cares; the outlay, the labor, the anxiety, on whom do they fall? Another boy disobediently or ignorantly plays with a stick of dynamite and blows out both eyes; another skates on thin ice ?nd is drowned. It is clear that we must eliminate from our discipline of consequences all natural or physical consequences. The consequences bear no proper ratio to the moral quality of the offence ; they are often cruel and disproportionate. We should aim to make the punishment fit the offender rather than the offense. Yet there is a field in the discipline of the school where the penalty can be adjusted to the offence with some degree of suitability. Most of the offences in school may be looked upon as offences against the life of the school as a social organism, for such it is. The pupil shows by his daily conduct whether he is entitled to full fellowship in that organism. If he sins against the social life of the school, then a natural penalty will be his exclusion in some measures from the privi- leges and pleasures of that life. For most offences,, 154 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT in fact, deprivation, forfeiture, or exclusion are the most suitable punishments, the nearest practicable approach to a discipline of consequences. Forms of Punishment. — If we have the right ends and proper characteristics of punishment clearly in mind, we shall now have little difficulty in judging as to the most rational and effective forms of penalty. (a) Corporal Punishment. In our consideration of School Incentives, we recognized the dread of physical pain as the lowest, yet, in the past, the most generally employed of all. The most common modes of its appli- cation have been symbolized by the terms "the rod", the "birch", the "tawse", "caning", etc. Perhaps the crudest and most cruel of all the instruments thus employed was the "ferrule", or ruler, a piece of polished maple or beech about twenty inches in length, two inches wide, at least half an inch thick, and beveled somewhat on one edge. This inflexible weapon was most often applied to the palm of the extended hand. That day of barbarity is now past, but there still remains the question of "corporal punishment". Much benevolent sentiment has been voiced, sometimes a little hysterically, against its application in school under any circumstances; and its use has happily been greatly diminished if not practically abolished. Yet much that has been urged in favor of its complete abolition lacks the force of truth. Corporal punishment, properly ad- ministered, is not necessarily cruel. To children, it is not unnatural or "servile". In some cases, pain seems to be about the only motive available. But it EULEvS AND PUNISHMENTS 155 should be used infrequently and only as a last resort. It is not amiss to add that when whipping is employed as a punishment, it should be done with a flexible leather strap that will adjust itself to the rounded surfaces of the body, and never with any rigid instru- ment or anything which will raise welts upon the skin. A young friend of the writer, in earlier days, ap- plied for employment as teacher in a near-by district. The school board, quite contrary to the usual practice of that day, stipulated that he should not use cor- poral punishment in any case. His answer was, "I will take your school under that agreement provided that the whole arrangement shall be a secret between you and me; but if the children are to know that my hands are tied, I do not care to take your school at all". That was the speech of a sensible young man. It should be the aim of every teacher, as it was his, to so lead and inspire the school that the question of punishment need not enter in at all; yet to do this there must be back of him a hidden reserve fund or reservoir of authority, backed by possible force. (b) Deprivations. Deprivation of privileges has already been approved as sometimes a natural and proper penalty. But certain forms of deprivation need to be employed with care. For instance, the boy who fights or uses vulgar language at recess times may fittingly be deprived of a part or the whole of his recess until he makes himself fit to associate with others. But he should never be wholly deprived of opportunity to obey the necessary calls of nature. The keeping of children after school to make up 156 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT lessons stands on different ground. If the child needs individual assistance, and the teacher keeps him for that purpose, the act is defensible. But a child should not be kept after school as a penalty. It is then a form of punishment and not of friendliness, and will almost certainly defeat its own end. The child, under such circumstances, is in no frame of mind for study. If not sullen and refractory, he is at least jaded and incapable of concentration. And, furthermore, he is probably expected at home, and parents have rights in that matter. (c) Suspension and Expulsion. Temporary sus- pension from all contact with the school is sometimes a useful corrective, though it involves a serious dis- advantage in loss of time from studies. A headstrong or perverse youth, with an overweening sense of his importance, may sometimes be brought to his senses by a period of exclusion. It gives him time and occa- sion to reflect on his conduct and it focuses the atten- tion of his parents, especially, on his insubordination. If, however, this proves ineffectual, the more drastic remedy of expulsion, or permanent exclusion, may be- come necessary. It is well to remember, however, that about the worst use you can put a boy to is to turn him upon the street. But if expulsion will result in his being put to useful labor that may be the best thing that could happen to him. The real criterion, on which the question of expulsion must turn, is this, Is his presence in the school a source of moral or physical contamination to the other pupils? Just as a child in the early stages of smallpox must be ex- EULES AND PUNISHMENTS 157 eluded for the general good, so the disseminator of vice, secret or open, has no longer any right to make the school a field for his contagions. The teacher should remember, however, that the power of expulsion is not his, but rests with the school board, through which he must secure action. Expul- sion is a serious step, even when necessary for the preservation of all that the school stands for, and the teacher may well be glad to have the counsel and sup- port of his board in such a juncture. Reproof and Personal Criticism. — Closely allied to punishment, at least in aim, are those forms of criticism and disapproval known as reproof, repri- mand, and censure. All such disapproval should start from a plane of some moral elevation, and not from any spirit of querulousness or irritation; and this often demands much self-control on the part of the teacher. It should be preceded by a careful gathering of fact and analysis of motives. Reproof, employed as a factor in school discipline, may be: (a) General. The conduct which calls it forth may have been participated in by all, or many, of the pupils ; or it may be simply some form of offense which is likely to become general by contagion, such as the snow- balling of passers-by or trespassing on lawns and private premises. In such cases, the imputation of personal blame need not, at first, be specific, and general remon- strance or admonition may be the suitable form of dis- approval. But persistence in the evil practice will call for more severe forms of reproof and a closer inquiry into personal complicity. 158 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT (b) Particular, or Personal. When the offense is in- dividual in character or origin, or when it becomes a question of personal leadership or instigation of wrong- doing, the disapproval must take a more positive and personal form. In such cases, reproof may be either public or private. The judgment of the teacher must be exercised in deciding which of the two modes will be the more effective. It is seldom well to make a public exhibition of a wrongdoer, for it is human nature to sympathize with "the under dog-' even when he merits the suffering inflicted, but there are cases where this danger must be braved and the deed, if not the doer, held up before the school in condemnation. In the majority of cases, however, of individual mis- deed, the private, personal conference, the personal inquisition into motives, the "heart to heart talk", and perhaps the conference with parents, are the wisest and most hopeful forms of procedure. The pupil under public reproof or punishment is apt to "play to the galleries"; he does not put himself in a receptive atti- tude. In private conference, he can more easily face the facts as they are and has not the support of an audience. In such conferences it is not well for the teacher to indulge too freely in direct charges and allegations. The interrogative forms are safer, and often sufficient. CHAPTER XV CLASS MANAGEMENT By and large, the greatest and most difficult prob- lem of the instructor is that of attention, how to arouse and hold the interest and volition of the pupil. That problem belongs to Pedagogy rather than to School Management. But there are certain phases, or elements, of class management, the proper conduct of the recitation, which fall within the field of school mechanics, and so within the scope of this book. The Movement of Classes. — Brief reference has already been made to the matter of the seating of pupils with reference to their classification and con- venience of movement. This must be considered in the original organization of the school, in the first days of the term or year. In the graded school, even if there be two or three grades in the same room,. this is a comparatively simple matter, especially if the seats are adjustable. If they are of different sizes, as they should be, and non-adjustable, some irregularity will be created unless seats and desks can be changed about to accommodate the overgrown pupils in younger grades and vice versa. In the ungraded school, the seating problem will call for more study and adaptation. So mechanical a thing as the routine movement of classes, lines at recess time, etc., ought not to demand much of the teacher's time and attention. For that very reason, the movements should be conveniently 159 160 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT planned at the outset and then reduced as quickly as possible to automatic regularity and precision. This requires that precision be exacted at the start and vigilantly insisted on until a good habit is established. There should not be any needless amount of bell- thumping, and no signals should be noisy or numerous. While the quiet use of a thumb-bell is not objectionable, especially in a large school, vocal signals, as numbers, given in a well-controlled voice are preferred by many good teachers. Wherever pupils are required to move in lines, the lines should be kept in good alignment. A careless, straggling line is worse than none, and per- sonal carriage is a thing worth cultivating, even in children. Forms of Instruction. — The general form of the class exercise, or recitation, varies much according to conditions and the ends sought. We will note first the distinction implied in the terms Oral Teaching and Text-hook Teaching. The latter, of course, is adapted only to pupils of some advancement in ability to read. It involves the assignment of a certain portion of the text to be studied, that is, to be carefully read, analyzed with a view to comprehension, and to a greater or less extent memorized. One purpose of the recitation is to enforce and test this preparation. With some teachers, this is mistakenly thought to be the whole purpose of the recitation. Oral Teaching. — The term oral teaehing means, literally, teaching by "word of mouth", but will be used here to denote all teaching without text-books. CLASS MANAGEMENT 161 It may employ, therefore, blackboard writing and draw- ing and even the use of apparatus. It may take the form of lectures, formal or informal, or of conver- sational exposition, with objective illustration, for the purpose of imparting knowledge of facts and relations. It may employ drill or repetition for the deeper im- pression of important facts and symbols. It may take either of the following forms; viz., (1) Objective, "showing", employing the senses in direct observation of (a) objects and natural phenom- ena, (b) processes and combinations as exhibited in laboratory experiments. (2) Direct, "telling", lecturing, followed, it may be, by tests or quizzing. (3) Indirect oral teaching, in which the other forms may be to some extent combined, but in which sug- gestive questioning and discussion intended to incite the pupil to analysis and reflection play the greater part. No wise teacher will confine himself to any one of these three modes of instruction; but his wisdom and skill will be shown by the way in which he adjusts them all to the age and mental status of the pupil and to the subject matter of instruction. Relative Advantages of Oral and Text-book Teaching. — It has been said that the proper use of the text-book is peculiarly an American problem. In no country, perhaps, is so great dependence put on text-books as here. In Great Britain, there is compara- tively little of that assigning of text-book matter for study and recitation with which we are so familiar. 1()2 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT In German schools, there is still less; so that it might almost be said that instruction is exclusively oral. Some consideration of the relative advantages of oral and text-book instruction seems, therefore, desirable. Oral instruction gives the teacher's personality fuller play. It has the great advantage of being aided by the teacher's manner and especially the modulations of his voice. In text-book study, the pupil is set down in front of the printed page for the purpose of extract- ing its meaning and lodging the same in his memory. But in studying a text-book the pupil lacks the clues given by the living voice and often fails to place the emphasis properly; in other words he fails to attach the right relative importance to the ideas, and so goes astray in his thought. The text-book gives him every- thing on the dead level of the types, so to speak. Half the labor of studying a text-book lesson, in fact, consists in the effort to place the emphasis correctly — though the pupil usually does not realize that — and the effort is often unsuccessful. The text-book has the further disadvantage that it is not usually interesting in its forms of expression, or style; it uses many technical terms not familiar to the pupil, and also familiar words in new significations ; it lacks, as has been said, the aid of vocal expression, and it lends itself too easily to the laziness of the lazy teacher, who assumes that the author has done the teacher's work also. It is not true, as many seem to suppose, that teaching a text-book is easier than oral teaching when both are well done. In oral instruction, on the other hand, the teacher CLASS MANAGEMENT 163 locates the emphasis himself and by facial expression, the glance of the eye, and vivacity of manner is the better able to hold attention and impress his meaning. Oral instruction is easier for the pupil, in a way, which may not be wholly in its favor; for candor compels the experienced teacher to admit that oral instruction does not stick unless reinforced by the requirement of much written work and much drill, which neither pu- pils nor teachers greatly enjoy. The old rule of "easy come, easy go" seems to hold here. In oral instruc- tion, too, there is the danger of "scatteration" and lack of organization on the part of the poorly prepared or overworked teacher. The use of text-books tends to reduce this danger, since the author has given much greater consideration to the organization and arrangement of his matter than can be expected of the ordinary teacher. More- over, the printed page affords the pupil the opportunity, if he will use it, of dwelling silently and reflectively on the matter presented, in the individual effort to assimilate its meaning. And as he must, in after life, depend largely upon books and other printed matter for his intellectual nurture, it is important that he should learn in school, as early as possible, how to get out of books what is in them. Yet the teacher needs always to make the utmost effort to vitalize text-book instruction by the force of his own per- sonal interest in and comprehension of the matter taught. But a more fundamental consideration, in the case of young pupils at least, arises from the fact that text- 164 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT books are usually, and almost necessarily, constructed on the deductive plan. They begin with abstractions and broad generalizations, from which they descend by alternate definition and division to particulars, a method which is not naturally adapted to the youthful mind. Oral instruction, on the other hand, in the broad sense in which we have taken the term, lends itself more naturally to the inductive method of in- struction, which starts from individual experiences and rises by analysis and synthesis to general propositions, thus ending instead of beginning with definitions. The fuller discussion of this matter, however, belongs to Pedagogy rather than School Management. The Recitation. — It may be useful here to call attention to the "Americanism" involved in our use of the term "recitation". In Great Britain, the word is never used, as with us, to denominate every kind of class exercise. There, the teacher either gives a "lesson" orally or sets one in the text-book. The pupil, instead of "reciting" spends his time in writing up what he retains of the lesson in note-books. What we know as topical recitation — the true application of the term — and the general give and take of question, answer, and discussion, including even manual exercises and drill, which we lump together as "the recitation", is little known in British schools. While we have stretched the application of the term away beyond its etymological signification, it is nevertheless a very convenient appel- lation in this broad sense, and it will be so used without further apology. We may next consider : CLASS MANAGEMENT 165 (a) The Objects of the Recitation. 1. To test the information acquired by the pupil, his mastery of the lesson presented or assigned. 2. To test or to increase the ability to apply and do, including the development of skill in the school arts, as reading, writing, etc. 3. To verify and correct the information acquired, to remove mistaken conceptions. 4. To supplement and vivify it. Here is where the teacher's daily preparation comes to his aid. 5. To fix in mind the essential points in what has been acquired. 6. To stimulate original thought and investigation. 7. To cultivate free and accurate expression. Every recitation should be a lesson in English. 8. To guide the pupil's further quest. If the reader has digested the above propositions, he is prepared to appreciate the vast distance between teaching and the old-time "lesson-hearing", not yet wholly extinct, it is to be feared. The writer recalls a teacher, good Miss F., who "heard the recitations" in Physical Geography with the text- book open in her lap, following the text, line by line, with her finger, to see whether it was recited verbatim. Comment is unnecessary. (b) The Teacher's Part in the Recitation. The teacher needs to have a clear and correct idea, from the beginning, as to his proper functions in the reci- tation. Some teachers apparently conceive their office to be that of a pump, though not always operating in the same way. With some, the main effort is directed 166 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT towards pumping out of the pupils such ideas as they may have in any way imbibed, and, often, the process resembles the attempt to pump water from a dry well. With others, the continual endeavor is to pump knowl- edge into, or onto, the pupils' minds. And, frequently, this effort resembles the attempt to pump water into a teakettle, with the lid on. The most common and use- less error on the part of teachers in the recitation is undoubtedly that of talking too much. The "talkee- talkee" teacher is the bane of any schoolroom. The reasons for this habit of excessive speech are several: (1) The teacher, it may be, is fresh from school him- self, and is so full of his subject that he has no sense of proportion, and feels called upon to teach everything he knows. So, out of his fullness, he literally spills information over his pupils, sometimes, perhaps, with no higher motive than to air his own knowledge. (2) Another reason is found in the teacher's anxiety to get over ground. The recitation moves slowly, and he loses patience with the slow and bungling efforts of the class at expression. So he takes the tale out of the pupil's mouth, and does the reciting himself, a real injustice to the pupil. A good measure of the teacher's real power as an instructor might be found by observing the ratio of his own speech, in the recitation, to that of the members of the class, — the less talk the better teacher. There are times, of course, when the teacher should talk, especially under what are given above as the third and fourth objects of the recitation; and then he should talk in a clear-cut and illuminating man- ner. But this can never happen when, by reason of CLASS MANAGEMENT 167 inadequate daily preparation, he attempts to "run his face" before the class. The real teacher is not a mere lecturer; monologue is not teaching. And that fault is scarcely less when the teacher consumes much of the time with ill-digested and ill-formulated questions. Eeal teaching will allow the pupil some time to think before speaking, and will make it necessary for him to think, by an unflinching demand for clear and connected statements concerning the matter in hand. Expression is the measure of thought. (c) The Art of Questioning. A question is a de- mand for thought or the results of thinking. If the results are not ready for immediate delivery, then re- flection must ensue to meet the demands. It is the office of a question to arrest the attention and focus it on a definite, limited field of thought. It is also an intellectual stimulant, or irritant. Questioning aids the mind of the learner by its analytical quality; it breaks up the larger segments of knowledge into smaller ones on which it concentrates the mental activities. It ought to follow that most of the assistance which the pupil needs can very well be given in the interrogative form. Why question pupils, then? 1. To find out their needs. (a) What they already know, by way of prepara- tion for further instruction. (b) Their misconceptions and difficulties, a most essential part of the teaching process. 2. To show them their needs. To secure the activ- ity of their minds and their co-operation. It secures 168 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT activity through the sting of ignorance, the pain which Socrates called a "gadfly" to provoke thought; and opens the door to co-operative effort through its analytic function. 3. To test the results of thinking, and of our teach- ing. We may, therefore, distinguish three kinds of questioning : (1) Tentative, or Preliminary Questioning. (2) Instructive, or Socratic Questioning. ( 3 ) Examinations . Tentative questioning, probing the pupil's intelligence to see what foundations he has on which we can build, is of the utmost importance. Our danger is two-fold, first, of assuming too much knowledge on the part of the pupil, and so failing to find the "point of contact", building in the air, so to speak; and, secondly, on the other hand, of giving the pupil too little credit for intelligence and so staling his appetite by useless repeti- tion. "What are you learning at school, Johnnie ?" was asked of a lad, whose prompt and disgusted reply was, "What I allers knowed". Test questioning, or examination, may be formal or informal, may occur daily or at stated intervals. It is a mistake, however, in examining to split up the matter too fine by a multiplicity of specific questions, thus giving the examinee too many cues; though the opposite extreme of question-topics too general and comprehensive, leading to "stabbing", or mere guesses at what the examiner wishes, is also to be avoided. Tentative questions and examining, or testing ques- tions, should be (1) Searching. They should not be CLASS MANAGEMENT 169 superficial, trivial, or irrelevant, but should go to the mark, the vital parts of the subject matter. It is their purpose to reveal weakness with a view to its remedy, if weakness there be; though, of course, they should reveal knowledge, where knowledge exists. "Young man/' once said Dr. Samuel Eliot to the writer, on a certain occasion when they were examiners together at Hampton Institute, "you are not trying to find out what these pupils know but what they don't know". The remark, perhaps, had its point; but that is at least one purpose of examination, to find out what pupils don't know which they ought to know. (2) Not suggestive. The object of this questioning is not to elicit passable answers but to discover mental conditions. No question here should convey more than it demands. This will be further touched upon a little later on. Instructive Questioning.— But the greater part of the questioning by a skillful teacher will be of our sec- ond sort, Instructive, or Suggestive Questioning — some- times called, rather mistakenly, Socratic questioning. This is the kind of question which is an intellectual stimulant, keeping the mind of both learner and teacher on the qui vive. It helps the pupil over the hard places by giving the right direction to his attention and so, in a sense, pioneering the way for his own thought. Instructive, or Socratic questions should: (a) Have a logical procedure. They must never be aimless or haphazard. They should follow on in a series,, and each question in the series should have in 170 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT view the ultimate end sought, either in the way of conviction or refutation. While the question may often grow out of the previous answer, the goal in view must remain constant. (b) Should stimulate curiosity. The question should be such in form and in its immediate demand as to provoke interest and mental alertness. (c) Should lead on to original thought. That is really the main purpose of this kind of questioning. The method of Socrates consisted in such a sequence of questions as would draw the disciple into contradictory positions and admissions, "putting him in a hole", so to speak, and compelling him to revise his premises and start over again. The teaching of intellectual hu- mility, taking the conceit out of smart young men, which evidently afforded the Greek sage much satisfac- tion, will not, however, figure very largely in the aims of the modern teacher. To encourage careful analysis of facts and develop the attitude of mental independence and self-reliance will be the more salutary aim. What Constitutes a Good Question? — What stand- ard, then, can be applied to determine whether a ques- tion is good or bad? The first test is, What was the purpose of the question? Had it any definite aim? Which kind of question was it? And does it suit the purpose for which it was intended? If so, it is good. Every question gives, or contains, certain data and requires others to be supplied. For instance, in the question, "Of what state is Springfield the capital?", three facts are given, or assumed, a CLASS MANAGEMENT 1?1 state, a capital, Springfield; and only one fact is left to be supplied, the name of the state. In the question, "Is Milwaukee the capital of Wisconsin?", three facts are again given, and only a mere assent, a simple choice of facts, is demanded. But in such a question as, "What importance attaches to the struggle for Fort Duquesne?", only three facts are assumed, Fort Duqaesne, struggle, importance, while a goodly group, or series, of facts must be adduced in response to the question. ' In a rough way, we may be warranted in saying that the greater the number of facts demanded in proportion to the number of data given, the better the question. Defective Forms of Questioning. — We may turn from the inquiry as to what constitutes a good ques- tion to consider certain bad forms. Perhaps the worst of all is the indefinite or ambiguous question. The question which has no clear point and the one which is capable of more than one interpretation are alike vicious. They only blur and befog the mind of the learner. The bottom fact about such questions is, per- haps, their clumsiness. The questioner has no clear idea of the point he wishes to reach, and his language reflects the haziness of his mind. Next in badness, is the wordy, or diffuse, question, which weakens itself by verbiage and lack of concise- ness. A question should contain just the words which are necessary to make it clear and intelligible, and no more. Here as elsewhere, "A fool's voice cometh with a multitude of words". But the worst vice of all in 172 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT questioning is found in the habit, only too common, of repeating the question with modification. The teacher fires off a poor question, sees its lameness, and tries again, and even a third time, shifting his base more or less, and leaving the pupil's mind in a state of hope- less confusion. The rule should be, Think what you wish to ask, state your question in decent English, and let it alone till the pupil has had his chance at it. Leading Questions. — Much has been written against the use of "leading questions", those which more or less openly suggest the answer. These ques- tions are often so framed that the pupil knows at once, with the aid of the teacher's voice and manner, just what answer is desired. And in such cases pupils are apt to be very accommodating, feeling no responsibility for thinking, under those conditions. A clear distinc- tion must be recognized between such questions as these, framed to facilitate mechanical answering and to re- lieve the pupil from mental effort or embarrassment, and real suggestive questions, propounded not for the sake of formal answers but to provoke reflection. An extreme form of the leading question is that known as direct questions, questions which can be answered by a simple Yes or No. By these, the mental activity of the pupil is brought to an "irreducible mini- mum". It is true that the direct question has its uses. Sometimes, the activity desired is a simple cat- egorical judgment, "Is this thing (statement or proposition) true or not?" In such a case, the simplest question that makes the issue squarely is the best. But CLASS MANAGEMENT 173 we must always discriminate between such decision- compelling questions and those intended to exempt the pupil from any labor but assent to an implied or fore- shadowed answer. Book Questions. — The time is not far past in which it was the custom to supply a text-book with an elabo- rate outfit of formal questions, placed at the bottom of each page and sometimes, even, so numbered as to refer to the lines above in which the answer would be found. This practice, once practically universal and unquestioned, has now entirely disappeared. The ob- jection to such questions lay in the fact that they were "cut and dried", leaving no stimulus in themselves and forestalling the proper initiative of the teacher. They were, too, wholly of the testing or examination type. In a few books, nowadays, a chapter is followed by a short list of suggestive questions, intended to stimulate the reader to draw inferences or conclusions not fully developed in the text; and to this there can be no objection, if the teacher will see to it that the intended use is made of them. The Pupil's Response (in the Recitation). — Corre- lated to the art of questioning, is what might be called the art of answering. It will be a matter of economy in school work, and a condition of greater success, if pupils are properly trained or habituated with respect to their manner of response to the demands of the teacher in the recitation. When a question is asked, what should be the immediate response? We may give some consideration here to the qualities 174 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT of good answering. They are (1) Thoughtf illness, (2) Distinctness, (3) Correctness, or truth. A reckless, unconsidered answer is worse than none. If the ques- tion does not demand "thought or the results of think- ing" it is a worthless question and might as well not be answered at all. All flippant, irrelevant answering is lacking in moral as well as intellectual quality. The question arises with regard to "guessing" — should it ever be allowed? Sometimes, when a pupil has answered, out of his indolence, "I don't know", the teacher, in order to compel some sort of activity, says, "Well, guess, then". This, however, is only a case of poor English; the teacher does not wish a mere guess, but some sort of revelation of the pupil's real mental condition with reference to the question or topic. Distinctness and audibility in answering are of the utmost importance. All muttering of answers, "mental snoring", all muddled, incoherent answers furnish ground for suspicion, if not clear evidence, that they represent an equally muddled, incoherent state of mind. Clear cut articulation and enunciation are the natural accompaniments and expression of clear thinking, and vice versa. Concerning the matter of audibility, How loud should either the teacher or pupil speak? The answer is sim- ple and easy of application. So that all may hear who have the right to hear. The matter of personal carriage also enters in. The pupil reciting should stand squarely on his feet, with- out bodily contortions, and deliver himself intelligently of whatsoever thought he possesses. The teacher may CLASS MANAGEMENT 175 well spend part of his time and strength in securing this result and cultivating a proper poise and repose of physical posture in the recitation. With regard to the manner of answering, questions may be (1) Individual, (2) Collective, or Simultaneous. The disadvantages of purely individual questioning are (a) It tends towards lack of attention by the rest of the class. When one pupil has been called to the wit- ness stand, the rest feel released from duty, tempo- rarily at least, and proceed to take a vacation, from which it may take some effort to call them back. (b) It thus happens that each pupil does not get the whole value of the recitation. The teacher must therefore adopt such a system in the matter of answering as will not allow the rest of the class to wholly relax attention when one member is called upon to talk. But the remedy for the dangers named is not to be found in a resort to collective questioning. Collective Questioning. — The disadvantages of col- lective questioning — questions "fired at the flock", as it were, are: (a) It prevents thoughtful answers. Those who answer at all are in haste to get in first, and so answer without deliberation and often at a mere venture. (b) It allows the laggards to escape. It not only leaves out of the game those who are slow by tempera- ment, but it affords the lazy and unprepared an oppor- tunity to slip through without real participation in the work of the recitation. 176 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT (c) It tends to destroy mental independence and re- sponsibility. The pupil who answers rashly knows that others are doing the same. And often he is able to catch a cue from the first words of his neighbors. It thus happens that frequently the several members of the class do not really know what answer has been given or accepted, and it becomes necessary for the teacher to restate the answer on that account. The recitation, therefore, becomes more or less mechanical and irresponsible. The device of having the pupils raise their hands in token of their readiness to answer a collective question has attained a very general use in public schools. Almost anyone has seen, under such circumstances, a small sea of waving hands and writhing bodies, some standing, others leaning forward, in an apparent frenzy of eagerness to meet all demands; and yet no distinct or satisfactory answer to be had out of the whole class. Indeed, the most active contortionist was, perhaps, the least likely to offer any satisfactory answer — the worst "stabber" in the lot. Whether pupils should be allowed to raise hands and volunteer answers at all, without being individually designated, is at least a debatable question. But, if the practice be tolerated, it should be held within reasonable bounds and never allowed to degenerate into a mere gym- nastic exercise. At best, it is liable to result in the doing of the work, so far as it is done at all, by the brightest or nimblest of the class, to the damage of the slower or duller members. It is usually better that no rais- ing of hands should be allowed, until a definite signal CLASS MANAGEMENT 177 from the teacher, as by the word, "Hands", indicates his readiness to hear volunteers. And the whole action should be kept within decorous restraint. In the mat- ter of reciting, "bodily exercise profiteth little". Concert Recitation. — Because the process of indi- vidual questioning is slow and subject to the disadvan- tages already pointed out, considerable popularity was attained at one time by the device known as concert recitation. It was found most feasible in reading classes and in the learning of arithmetical tables; but its use was also attempted in other studies. It is subject to all the disadvantages of collective ques- tioning and more. It is mechanical in the highest de- gree and not thought-provoking. Even in the Reading class where it would seem tolerable if anywhere, it tends to destroy all natural expression. In order to keep together, the pupils inevitably fall into a sort of arti- ficial rhythm both as to pauses and stress, and so subvert the real purpose of the Eeading lesson. And wherever memorized matter is required to be recited in concert, the work is really done by only a few. The rest stumble along, "touching the high places" only, but usually com- ing out strong on the last word of each sentence or stanza. Yet there are occasions, as in reviewing or drill exercises, where this form of recitation may be profitably used by the discreet teacher. The Reception of Answers. — Having discussed at some length the duties of the teacher as a questioner and the manner of the pupil in response, a closing word may be said on the manner of receiving answers to 178 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT questions. It has been a popular dictum with writers on pedagogics that the pupil should always be required to answer in complete sentences. There is an impor- tant truth underlying this dogma. Pupils should not be allowed to answer in scrappy and incomplete ex- pressions, sentences lacking subject or predicate, mere tails and fins of sentences; but that they will surely do unless otherwise trained. And yet there are many cases in which to insist on complete, formal sentences would be mere pedantry. "In what year did Columbus discover America?" Shall we insist on the answer, "Columbus discovered America in 1492"? Or would that be a waste of time? But where a full sentence is needful to convey the proper response, there a full and correct sentence should be exacted. Shall all wrong answers be summarily rejected? By no means. If the answer is stupidly wrong through inattention to the question or through flippancy, it may properly be thrown back upon the pupil as an empty shell, not worth consideration. But most wrong- answers are not wholly wrong or senseless; and every indication of thought, or the honest attempt to think, should be hospitably received by the teacher. Thus, "Yes, you are partly right in that statement, but you go astray in some particulars; now what is your mis- take?" Met in this spirit, the pupil will almost surely be willing to make another attempt at straightening out his thought. If he is finally unable to do this, it will then be time to let some classmate undertake the job for him. Least of all, should the teacher plunge at once into a correction; though there are occasions CLASS MANAGEMENT 179 when to an unsatisfactory answer or statement he may say, "No, try again", or even repeatedly "No" to a suc- cession of unsuccessful attempts or experiments on the part of the pupil. The Repeating of Pupils' Answers. — One of the most common and vicious of teachers' mistakes consists in the uniform and mechanical repetition of the pupil's answer, as a sort of echo. It is rather difficult to com- prehend why this pedagogical vice is so common. Teachers sometimes make the defence that they repeat the answer so that all the class may hear it; but it is the duty of the pupil to make the class hear him, and he should do the repeating if any is necessary. The teacher should not make himself a sounding-board to reflect back to the class the inaudible utterance of timid or lazy pupils. With many teachers, doubtless, the repeti- tion is merely a device to gain time while he thinks what to say next, like the "ers" and "ahs" of an un- trained speaker. In any case, it is so much clear pad- ding and dead waste of time, to say nothing of its silly interruption of the onward progress of thought in the recitation. The Assignment of the Lesson. — The disadvan- tages, or drawbacks, of text-book instruction have been briefly commented on in a previous chapter. The abstract and technical character of many of the terms used, the dead level of the types offering little assist- ance in determining the relative importance of the ideas presented, and often the lack of logical arrange- ment or organization of the subject matter make the 180 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT way of the pupil hard. If he is also sent outside of the text-book for supplementary matter, the difficulty is increased; and he is likely to find in the recitation that his labor has been largely lost by misdirection or a failure to comprehend what was expected of him. It thus happens that the assignment of the lesson, the mapping out of the field of labor which it is desired that the pupil shall work becomes a very important part of the teacher's daily duty to his class. And yet this is, almost universally, the duty which is most weakly performed or most often shirked. It is a far too com- mon practice for the teacher to assign a stated amount of print, so many pages of the text, so many problems to be worked, so many lines to be translated. Or with younger pupils, as in a reading class, it may simply be, "Take the next lesson". Now it may be, in rare cases, that the text-book is so well organized, the matter so clearly divided, with such pertinent captions, that the assignment of work has already been fairly provided for by the author. But in such subjects, for instance, as history or liter- ature, no such easy measuring off of tasks will suffice. In such studies, the advance lesson should receive some analysis by the teacher in the assignment. The general purpose of the lesson should be indicated — what is to be got from it as a whole. Then the leading "points" should be singled out as matter for special attention. With a literature lesson, the setting of the poem or section assigned, how it came to be written, what value attaches to it historically, any facts which will tend to create a more vital interest on the part of the pupil in CLASS MANAGEMENT 181 what he is asked to study, will be useful. In any case, the assignment should reveal to the pupil clearly just what he is expected to do. If he is required to look up supplementary matter in the library, he should be given definite references, and not be left to consume his time in fruitless rummaging for — he doesn't know exactly what. In fact, the teacher's preparation for the assign- ment should be as definite and thorough as that for the lesson in hand; and it should be given plenty of time, not left to the last half minute of the recitation or till the signal has already sounded for the close of the exercise. CHAPTER XVI EXAMINATIONS AND PROMOTION Not the least of the educator's problems is that of determining the results of his labors. The teacher needs to know what degree of success has rewarded his effort, whether progress towards the end sought, in each individual case, has been adequate or commensu- rate with effort and opportunity. How shall he come by this revelation? Those charged with the employment and supervision of teachers, and responsible for their retention, also greatly need some means of estimating and grading, in a wajr, the results of instruction, in other words, the educational efficiency of their teachers, individually and collectively. Is it possible, then, to apply any tests which will reliably indicate this efficiency? Do any means exist by which progress towards the true ends of education can be determined and registered ? The Criteria of Success. — At least three compre- hensive but distinct ends are sought in all true educa- tion, namely, the establishment of right habits, the acquisition of knowledge and thought power, and the adoption of high ideals. What we call character is the coalition of habit and ideals; but this is dependent, in a degree, upon knowledge and thinking. Habits are, of 182 EXAMINATIONS AND PROMOTION 183 course, open to observation; but their formation is slow and difficult of measurement. Ideals are still more elusive and incapable of quantitative estimation. And so we seem thrown back, so far as any ready and tangible estimate is concerned, upon the field of knowledge and thought power; and here our effort to test results has been mainly applied. The conjoined necessity and difficulty of securing some tests of progress has, there- fore, led to the development of the examination system as we know it. Examinations. — The periodic written examination has obtained such a hold upon the American public school system that many teachers look upon it as a part of the order of nature and accept it without reflec- tion, notwithstanding the severe attacks upon it which have been made in various quarters in recent years. The Objections to Examinations. — The opposition to examinations has been largely copied from or inspired by the attitude of British writers, who have in mind a far more elaborate and pervasive system of examinations than has ever prevailed in this country. This British criticism was stimulated largely by a system, now abol- ished, known as "payment by results", under which the teacher's wages were dependent, in part, upon the proportion of pupils able to pass an examination by the iSTational Inspectors. The fact that examinations there are seldom conducted, as here, by the teachers them- selves, but by official examiners, greatly increased the objectionable features. The criticism really indigenous to our own country has been largely sentimental in its 184 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT character, but is still entitled to thoughtful and candid consideration. The leading objections are (1) That the examination system induces cramming. What is meant by "cram"? If the term is applied to a review of the field to be covered by the examination, made with keen mental concentration under the pres- sure of a present motive, but with a view to better or- ganization of the subject matter and a clearer recogni- tion of relations and the relative importance of parts, then cram is a good thing. This sort of concentrated review must be placed to the credit of whatever system induces it. But if cram means only a cursory skim- ming over of the book-matter studied, with a view simply to a temporary and verbal retention thereof, then, of course, it is unmitigatedly bad. And the exam- ination should always be so formulated as to put no premium on that superficial sort of preparation. (2) That it necessarily involves an injurious strain on the nerves of pupils. This is a serious charge, and, in some cases, has a basis in fact. Here is where the wisdom of the examiner must be exhibited, firstly, in avoiding a preliminary state of over-anxiety and need- less alarm. The harm of examinations in this direction appears quite as much before as during the actual work. Secondly, the examination period should not be too long, varying with the age of the pupils; and the hygienic conditions of the room should be carefully looked after. Thirdly, the pupil's fate as to promo- tion should never be allowed to depend wholly on the results of the examination, even with adult pupils. A Further Objection to the Examination System. — The charge is also made that examinations give a EXAMINATIONS AND PKOMOTION 185 wrong direction to work. This would quite possibly happen where, as in England, the examinations are con- ducted by outside officials. The teacher, under such a system, would very naturally shape his instruction to meet the known hobbies or idiosyncrasies of the examiner; his aim might become simply that of getting his pupils past the inspector, with little regard to the higher functions of the school. In our American sys- tem, the limitations on the teacher's freedom imposed by the course of study are not properly chargeable to examinations. Yet it is always to be remembered that examinations are only an auxiliary to instruction and not the end of instruction. The Purpose of Examinations. — Many teachers have acknowledged the force of the criticisms made, but have not, after all, found any acceptable substi- tute for the examination system. Let us, therefore, give a little time to the consideration of the real purpose and need of examinations. Examinations may be classified according to their purpose into two classes, selective and educative. With some examinations, the predominant purpose is that of selection, as in the case of civil service examinations and even teachers' examinations, the object being to determine qualifications to such a degree, at least, that the fittest may be chosen for appointment and the wholly unfit rejected. The same is true of all examinations for admission to any of the professions, as law or medicine. On the other hand, such examinations as are set by the great correspondence schools of the coun- 186 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT try are not given to determine rank or rewards but rather to reveal to the examinee his own state of pro- ficiency. These are in their purpose educative rather than selective. The Nature of School Examinations. — What, now, about the ordinary school examinations ? It is clear that those held at the end of a year or term as a basis for promotion are primarily selective. Those pupils failing to reach the required standard are "selected" to do the work over again. The same is, in less degree, true of examinations held at the end of a subject, as geom- etry, to determine whether the pupil is prepared to leave, or "pass", the study. The fact, however, is somewhat different in the case of those partial examina- tions, or "tests", held from time to time during the progress of a study. While the results, or "standings", of these may contribute to the final determination of whether the pupil shall pass the subject or not, their chief value is of a different sort, a fact which teachers do not, as a rule, appreciate as fully as they ought. These examinations are really educative in the exhibit which they so impressively make of the pupil's present degree of mastery, or state of progress. If no record were made of these examinations, and the papers when marked were simply returned to the writers, their value would hardly be diminished. But a still better course than the simple return of the marked papers may be adopted, in which the return of the papers is made to occupy a whole recitation period, the best answers being read before the class, by the writers, while all typical or EXAMINATIONS AND PROMOTION 187 egregious errors are brought up for discussion, so that each individual, and the class as a whole, may have a better understanding of the teacher's standards and their own deficiencies. The Educative Values of Written Examinations. — It may be asked, "What are the educative values of written examinations?" The question is not hard to answer. The written examination on which something depends is a stimulant; it furnishes efficient motive to compel (a) Concentration of mind and effort. The examinee gets promptly down to business; he doesn't dawdle or procrastinate. (b) It makes, or should make, a very cogent demand for accuracy of thought and statement; though it is to be feared that many teachers are too uncritical or too lenient in their estimate of muddled and incoherent answers. The pupil should learn, through "the disci- pline of consequences", that "any old thing" will not serve in the way of answer to questions. (c) It demands systematic thinking and the organ- ization of one's communicable knowledge. It trains the pupil to make choice between really relevant and irrele- vant items of knowledge. (d) It furnishes practical training in self-reliance, though this will depend somewhat on the watchfulness of the teacher and the external conditions of the exam- ination. The pupil should be made to feel that, now at least, he is shut up with himself, to stand or fall by his own ability. It is "up to him to make good", 188 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT if one may utilize the vigorous colloquialism of the day. (e) It furnishes effective training in expression, .a practical discipline of the power to shape one's thought and put it concisely. There is really no more valuable exercise in composition than the written examination if properly conducted and properly utilized afterwards. Of course, this educative effect of examinations de- pends greatly on the insight and wisdom of the examiner; and it is clearly greatest in the case of the older pupils. The question of examinations for chil- dren below, say, the sixth grade is still far from a satisfactory settlement. It is probably true, with all that has been said, that, to many teachers, the chief function of examinations is governmental. The fear of failure to "pass" is held over pupils like "a hangman's whip To haud the wretch in order". And it is doubtless true that the modern examination system in schools is to be credited, in part, with the general abolition of the old penal system which relied on physical force for its incentives. Yet the teacher who sees nothing more in his examinations than a tonic to keep pupils more industrious has failed to realize their cultural possibilities. The Marking of Examination Papers. — Much dis- satisfaction has been felt in some quarters with the common custom of attempting to estimate the value EXAMINATIONS AND PROMOTION lg9 of examination results in definite per cents; and some teachers prefer to use only general qualifying terms, as Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, using perhaps only the initial letters of those words. It may be questioned, however, whether this plan has any advantage over that of per cents. In the estimation of a series of answers, in the same paper, the law of averages helps greatly to correct inaccuracies of estimate. If one answer is rated too highly, it is quite probable that the next one will be somewhat underrated, and so on, the errors serving to cancel each other. To aid in the just marking of papers, the questions should first be evaluated; that is, if the questions are not of practically equal importance, their relative value should be estimated, in the scale of 100. In all cases, each answer should be marked separately, upon the paper, in its own allotted scale, and the results combined for the paper as a whole. The teacher should never flinch from placing his every estimate on record, on the face of the paper, so that it may be seen by the pupil or any one else entitled to an interest in the same. It should, however, be understood by all concerned that in the estimation of answers, outside of mathe- matics, there can be, in the nature of the case, no absolute accuracy of valuation; the per cents are only the best approximation which the examiner is able to make; and the words, "Good, Fair", etc., are nothing more. The fundamental thing is that there shall be, on the part of the examiner, a candid, conscientious effort at justice and accuracy. The caution should, per- haps, be added that with inexperienced teachers the 190 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT error is likely to lie on the side of too great liberality in marking. This is a common fault with "practice teachers" in normal schools, for instance. This loose- ness in marking is, of course, due to a lack of critical power on the part of the young teacher ; his own knowl- edge of the subjects taught is not yet sufficiently clear and consolidated to enable him to discern readily the lapses and omissions of the pupil. It is possible, how- ever, that over-experienced teachers sometimes go to the opposite extreme. Promotions. — The graded system and the exami- nation system are sometimes confused, as if they were identical, and indeed they are, with us, closely related. The limitations imposed by the course of study belong to the system of grading and promotion of pupils. This employs examination only as a means or auxiliary. Bu't the question of frequency of promotion is an important and troublesome one. In the ordinary system of annual promotions much harm is done to exceptional pupils. Bright, capable children are often able to progress faster than the pace decreed by the course of study and so lose time, or even fall into sauntering habits of half- employment. Others find the pace of the course too fast, or are retarded by illness or accident, and so fail to meet the requirements for advancement. Such a pupil is "between the devil and the deep sea"; if he goes on to the next grade he will probably be unable to do the work and will soon be ruled out or wholly dis- heartened; if he, on the other hand, is compelled to spend a whole year in going over old but not well- EXAMINATIONS AND PROMOTION 191 tilled ground he will, of a certainty, not work effectively or cheerfully. The work will all be to him "a sucked orange". Various remedies have been proposed for this diffi- culty, the simplest of these being the plan of semi- annual promotions, which, where practicable, greatly reduces the evil. Under that plan, it is much safer to "jump" a bright pupil over one grade altogether, and the pupil who is demoted does not suffer so great a loss of time in the doubling process. Other devices have been exploited, such as the Cam- bridge plan, the Elizabeth plan, and the Batavia system, but the scope of this discussion does not admit of their description here. That should be sought elsewhere. INDEX Abnormal conditions, of nose, etc., 54 ff. in the ear, 56-7. Adenoids, etc., 54-5. Air, difference between pure and impure, 41. humidity of, 42. proper rate of change of, 42. what vitiates, 34-5. Answering, proper forms of, 173-6. Answers, reception of, 177-8. the repeating of pupils', 179. Approbation, love of, 109-10. Art of questioning, the, 167-8. Assignment of the lesson, the, 179-81. Attentive power, limits of, 101. Blackboards, 23. Boarding place, the teacher and his, 82-3. Carbon dioxide, 35, 41. Character, and habit, 121. cultivated by school activ- ities, 131 ff. essential conditions of, 118. means of developing, 124 ff. of the teacher, 71-2. Chimney, 40. Choice, free, a condition of moral character, 123-4. Class management, 158 ff. Cleaning, periodical, 46. sweeping and, 45. Closets, outbuildings, etc., 47. Community, the teacher and the, 80-1. Concert recitation, 177. Contagious . diseases, 49 ff . Corporal punishment, 154-5. Country school program, 106. school-house, the, 18. schools, the grading of, 104-5. Cram, kinds of, dangers of, 184. Daily program, the, 99 ff. Decoration of schoolroom, 22, 27. rules for, 28-9. Defects of hearing, 56-7. vision, 58. Deprivations as punishment, 155-6. Desks and seats, 24. proper placing of, 25. Disciplinarian, the good, 68-9. Discipline, of consequences, 153. school, as related to moral training, 132 ff. Diseases, contagious, 49 ff. Drinking water, 44. Dusting, 45-6. Ear, abnormal conditions in, 56-7. Encouragement as an incentive to study, 110. Equipment of schoolroom, 22- 25. Erasers, 24. Essential elements of a school, 12. Examination papers, the mark- ing of, 188-9. 193 194 INDEX Examinations and promotions, 182 ff. as criteria of success, 182. educative value of, 187-8. nature of school, 186. the objections to, 183-5. purpose of, 185. Example of the teacher, 71-2. Exclusion of pupils having con- tagious diseases, 49 ff. Expulsion, suspension and, 156-7. Eye-sight, see vision. First day of school, 93 C Forming of the will, 122-4. Gamut of school incentives, 107 ff. Grading of country schools, 104-5. Habit, character and, 121. training, 121-2. Harris, Dr. Wm. T., 132. Hearing, defects of, 56-7. directions for testing, 57. Heating, 30. systems, 31-2. Heat regulation, 32. Humidity of . school atmos- phere, 42. Hygiene of sense organs, 54 ff. Ideals, creation of, 119. Incentives to study, 107 ff. gamut of, 107 ff. Industry as a school virtue, 139. Inspection, medical, 52. Instruction, forms of, 160. Jacketed stove, the, 39. Judgment moral, cultivation of, 120. Justice as a school virtue, 137-8. Kindness as a school virtue, 138. Knowledge, love of, 115. Law, the teacher and the, 74-5. Leading questions, 172. Lesson, the assignment of, 179-81. Library, the school, 26. Lighting, of schoolroom, 20. Love of approbation, 109-10. of knowledge, 115. of superiority, 111-12. Marking of examination papers, 188-9. Medical inspection of schools, 52. Methods of moral training, 124 ff. Moral instruction, direct, 128-9. indirect, 126-7. judgment, cultivation of, 120. training, 118 ff. conditions of success in, 142-3. methods of, 124 ff. of the playground, 143-4. problem of, 118. through school discipline, 132 ff. Mouth-breathers, 55. Movement of classes, 159. Nose, abnormal conditions of, 54 ff. Obedience as a school virtue, 140. true, 141. Opening day, the, 94-5. Oral teaching, 160 ff. Outbuildings, 17, 47. Pain, mental, fear of, 108-9. physical, dread of, 108. Parents, correlative rights of teacher and, 75-7. Parent, the teacher and the, 75, 77. INDEX 195 Parents, what they delegate to the school, 11, 76. Physical environment of the school, 14. Pictures, in schoolroom, 27-8. Playground, the moral training of the, 143-4. Preparation, daily of the teacher, 86-7. Principal, teachers and the, 79. Professional spirit and con- tact, 88-9. Program for country schools, sample, 106. for study, need of, 101-2. guiding principles for, 103-4. pupil's right to a, 101. the making of the, 102-3. what need of, 99, 100. Promotions, 190-1. Punctuality as a school virtue, 133. Punishment as a deterrent, 148-9. characteristics of, 151 ff. ends of, 147 ff. forms of, 154 ff . reformation as an end in, 149. Punishment, to express con- demnatory judgment, 150. Punishments, rules and, 145 ff. Pupil's answers, the repetition of, 179. m response in the recitation, 173-4. Question, what constitutes a good, 170-1. Questioning, collective, 175-6. defective forms of, 171. instructive, 169. kinds of, 168. Socratic, 168-9. the art of, 167-8. Questions, book, 173. leading, 172. Eecitation, concert, 177. Eecitation, the objects of the, 165. the teacher's part in, 165-6. the pupil 's response in, 173-4. Eecitations, length of, 101, 103. order of, 103-4. Eecitation as an end in pun- ishment, 149. Eeligious education and char- acter, 130. Eepeating of pupils' answers, the, 179. Eeproof and personal criticism, 157-8. Eetribution as an end in pun- ishment, 147-8. Eivalry as an incentive to study, 112. Eules and punishments, 145 ff. for decoration of school- room, 28-9. for prevention of contagion, 49, 50, 52. for testing eyesight, 61-2. for testing hearing, 57. should be few, 146-7. Sanitation, general, 44. School activities, power to make character, 131 ff. architecture, 18. board, teacher and the, 78. discipline as related to moral training, 132 ff. essential elements of a, 12. first day of, 93 ff. -house, the, 18. -house, the country, 18. incentives, gamut of, 107 ff. management, what is? 12. management, why study? 9. -room, the, 19. -room, equipment and deco- ration of, 22, 26 ff. site, the, 14. improvement of the, 15. a model country, 17. virtues, the, 133 ff. what is a? 10. 196 INDEX School, what parents delegate to a, 11. Schools, grading of country, 104-5. medical inspection of, 52. visiting, 89. Seats, desks and, 24. Sense defects, testing for, 57. organs, hygiene of, 54 ff. Shades, window, 21. Silence, the basis for reflection, etc., 134-5. Site, a model country school, 17. the school, 14-16. Stove, the jacketed, 39, 40. Study, incentives to, 107 ff. program, need of, 101-2. Sunday, the teachers', 90-1. Superintendent, the teacher and the, 79. Suspension and expulsion, 156-7. Sweeping and cleaning, 45. Teacher, the, 64 ff. and his boarding place, 82-3. and his daily preparation, 86-7. and his self -culture, 87-8. and his Sunday, 90-1. and his time, 85 ff. and his vacations, 91-2. and professional contact, 88-9. and the community, 80-2. and the law, 74-5. and the school board, 78. and the superintendent, 79. correlative rights of parent and, 75, 76, 77. duty with respect to sense defects, 60. essential characteristics of, 64 ff. in his relations, 74 ff . personal character of, 71. personal example of, 71-2. Teacher's part in the recita- tion, 165-6. Testing for sense defects, 57. Text-book teaching, advan- tages and disadvantages, 162-4. Time, the teacher and his, 85 ff . Truthfulness, a school virtue, 136-7. Vacations, the teacher's, 91-2. Ventilation, effects of bad, 36. means of, 36 ff . proper amount of, 41. what it is, 32-3. why it costs, 33. why important, 33-4. Virtues cultivated by school activities, 132 ff. Vision, defects of, 58 ff . inequality of, 59. rules for testing, 61-2. Visitation of schools, 89-90. Vitiation of air, 34-5. "Walls, of schoolroom, 22, 27. "Water closets, etc., 17. drinking, 26, 44. "Why study School Manage- ment? 9. Will, the forming of the, 122-4. "Windows, position of, 20. Window shades, 21. space, amount of, 21. ventilation, 36. Mr 2© I9tf One copy del. to Cat. Div. illilili* 020 975 645 6