by no means approve; first, because it is a disgrace and
a punishment for slaves, and in reality — as will be evi-
dent, if you imagine the age changed — an affront; second-
ly, because if a boy's disposition be so abject, as not to
be amended by reproof, he will be hardened like the
worst of slaves, even to stripes; and lastly, because if
one who regularly exacts Ms tasks be with him, there
will not be the least need of any such chastisement. At
present, the negligence of pedagogues [^. e., attendant
slaves] seems to be made amends for in such a way that
boys are not obliged to do what is right, but are pun-
ished whenever they have not done it. Besides, after
you have coerced a boy with stripes, how will you treat
him when he becomes a young man, to whom such a
terror cannot be held out, and by whom more difficult
studies must be pursued? Add to these considerations
that many unpleasant, even shameful things, happen
to boys when being whipped, under the influence of
pain or of fear; and such shame enervates and depresses
the mind and makes them shun the sight of the people
and feel a constant uneasiness. If, moreover, there has
been too little care in choosing governors and tutors of

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CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT

reputable character, I am ashamed to say how scan-
dalously unworthy men may abuse their privilege of
punishing, and what opportunity also the terror of
the unliappy children may sometimes afford to others.
No man should be allowed too much authority
over an age so weak and so unable to resist 01-treat-
ment." '

Century after century, the protest went up to heaven,
perhaps from no other man more earnestly than from
Martin Luther, who in the day of the breakup of the
old order declared, — "Now since the young must leap
and jump, or have something to do, because they have
a natural desire for it which should not be restrained (for
it is not well to check them in everything), why should
we not provide for them such schools, and lay before
them such studies? By the gracious provision of God,
children take delight in acquiring knowledge, whether
language, mathematics or history. And our schools are
no longer a hell or purgatory in which children are tor-
tured over cases and tenses, and in which with much
flogging, trembling, anguish and wretchedness they
learn nothing. The world has changed, and things go
differently." '

In this changed world since the days of Quintilian
and changed again many times since then, there are no
slaves to be punished with blows; and we have set out
to educate all men. Ours is indeed a new and a baffling
problem, for school-going is no longer a privilege but is
a compulsion, and suspensions and expulsions, instead

* Institutes of Oratory quoted in Painter's Great Pedagogical
Essays. 90 a.d.

^ Letter to the Mayors and Aldermen of all the cities of Germany
in behalf of Christian schools. 1524.

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CONTROL OF THE CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL

of causing sorrow, cause in some youthful breasts a
sense of relief and of pleasure.

Once the world was content to educate the strong
and brilliant and well-favored; now we propose to
educate the mediocre, the dull, even the feeble-minded
and the defective. Moreover, we have given over the
control of education in the free public State-supported
schools to the democracy. Small wonder then that not
everywhere can we place the enlightened teacher in
attractive surroundings with ample equipment and
authority to educate. We have tried to build our
educational Rome in a day; and we have almost suc-
ceeded. Perhaps our new city will rise complete before
many years.

But already there are communities where school
government by good teaching is possible; and in such
conmiunities, the better system of managing boys and
girls as individuals and in classes should be installed.
This system involves certain points, which should be
set forth.

First: Better is complete obedience slowly won than
prompt obedience at heart sullen.

Second : Better is unconscious and spontaneous obedi-
ence than any other kind.

Third: Better is even somewhat imperfect obedience
that nevertheless issues from admiration for the teacher
as one who never gets angry and is always patient,
reasonable and kind than outwardly perfect obedience
when in the soul of the pupil is the conviction that he
or she is only bigger, stronger and of higher authority
(as a grown-up) than the small person can be.

There are two ways to break horses. One is to let

the colt run the range until pretty well grown and then

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CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT

to "bust" him, — with lasso, curb-bit, rowel-and-spur,
nail-studded pigskin lash, loaded saddle, with thumbs
gouging eyes and straps suffocating the throat, with
ropes hobbling the feet, and straps circling the chest.
The colt can be broken so — sometimes it kills, often it
ruins the spirit forever. It is a quick process, with
immediate victory or defeat.

The other way to break a colt is to lead liim with the
halter when he is little, to pat and to pet him, to make
him slowly bridlewise, to befriend him with blanket in cold
weather, with a lump of sugar or bunch of clover, to
train him a little at a time regularly; in short, not to
break him at all, but to instruct and to educate him.
Most of our best horses come into harness or under sad-
dle gently. Voice and wliip to them are signals of pur-
pose, not commands of violence. Few horses ''school-
trained to the eight gaits" were ever taught by blows
to know their masters. Most good horses were brought
up, as it were, by hand; they were not allowed to grow
up and then smashed, beaten, broken into submission.
They learned their good manners from civilized, patient,
intelligent, kind and well-mannered men. In this re-
spect, many stock farms in Virginia, in Kentucky and in
Iowa are decidedly superior to some schools in our land.

Logic and literary custom, sound philosophy and
ordinary common sense require that, in most cases, one
should discuss the theory of a matter first and later
present its mechanical features. But such is the prej-
udice of many of our citizens and indeed of many of
our teachers that one who undertakes first to discuss
the virtues of our human nature and thereby to disclose
that the best means of developing those virtues are not
corporal punishments and other penalties can get little

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CONTROL OF THE CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL

or no hearing. But let us now proceed openlj^ and can-
didly to consider definitely what we wish our boys and
girls to become as men and women. What are the moral
aims of education? Let us consider this question con-
cretely with reference to individuals.

Evidently the moral aims of education may be stated
in pairs — viz.:

I. (1) To preserve the best natural qualities of each
individual.
(2) To develop other good qualities in him.
II. (1) To eradicate the worst natural qualities.

(2) To inhibit the development of other bad
qualities.

III. (1) To make him useful to himself.

(2) To make him useful to others and to society.

IV. (1) To make it safe for him to venture out into

life; i. e., to equip him to make a living.
(2) To make it safe for society to receive him;
i. e., to teach him a livelihood that is at least
not injurious to others.
V. (1) To teach him to respect himself.

(2) To teach him to think modestly of himself,
VI. (1) To develop in him self-reliance and freedom.
(2) To develop in him much respect and distinct
sympathy for others.
VII. (1) To make of him one who fears God.

(2) To make also of him one who loves God.
VIII. (1) To give him bodily health, when he has it not,
and to preserve it in him, when he has it.
(2) To give him wisdom.

This is by no means an all-inclusive or exhaustive
list; but it is of sufficient length to illustrate the point
that education seeks always a reconciliation between

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CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT

apparent opposites or at least unrelated extremes. It
is not so much "the golden means" of Aristotle, as the
unity of life, taught l)y Jesus. That golden means
aflSrmed things in this fashion — viz.:

One extreme is timidity, the mean is courage, the
other extreme is foolhardiness. One extreme is parsi-
mony, the middle is generosity, the other extreme is
wastefulness. Virtue is not the opposite extreme of
vice, but a moderation between reason and appetite,
the soul in man and the brute in him.

What Jesus saw was that in truth we get one of the
pair by seeking the other or to avoid the other, as the
case may be: who seeks health gets wisdom, who seeks
wisdom gets health: who loses his life saves it, who
would save it loses it. It is a doctrine indeed difficult,
to be understood only in parables. But it distinctly
concerns every educator of youth.

Part of the difficulty that our teachers encounter in
the work of educator proceeds from our failure to ob-
serve these several facts and principles of human
nature — viz.:

1. We take no merit of our qualities as such, though we
may indeed take demerits of them. One who is by nature
frank, open, and certain deserves no credit therefor: this
is a quality in him, and no virtue. And yet one who by
nature is secret, silent, uncertain deserves and gets censure
therefor. It seems illogical, but it is a fact. A quality is
no virtue, and yet may be a vice.

2. We may appear to take merit of our qualities when it
is labor and anxiety to maintain them. And yet in truth
the merit is not in the c[ualities but in the integrity or unity
of character, the force, the struggle against their overthrow.

3. Every quality has its defect: the equality may be good,

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CONTROL OF THE CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL

and yet the defect may be evil. Frankness is good, but the
defect of frankness is indifference to the feehngs of others.
Truthfulness is good, yet it works — how often! — ruin to
oneself and to others. Loyalty is the capsheaf of all the
virtues, yet one may be loyal to a false principle or to a
traitorous leader. Courage is the seed of all the virtues in
men, yet it has sent many to the deserved doom of properly
"lost causes."

4. We human beings would be in hard case were there
not some solution of the enigma. Aristotle found the solu-
tion in "the golden mean." Jesus found it in "seeking." ^
According to the Master Teacher, virtue is at the point of
strain. One deserves credit for making and enduring stress.
The strain and stress come at the focal point of the unity
between apparent opposites. You and the neighbor are
not one, but different. Treat him like yourself. You seek
the kingdom? It is within you. We owe debts to God
and to men: let us forgive the debts due to ourselves and
so be ourselves forgiven. The future appears worrisome:
consider the evil of to-day. In fact, men see nearly always
the wrong thing! We praise men and things for their
qualities that are good, and fail to condemn our own selves
for not getting rid of the c|ualities in ourselves that are
vicious; yet a good quality is not a virtue but only God's
gift. In getting rid of a bad quality, do it thoroughly. Be
born again. It is not enough to wash the outside of the
platter or to whiten sepulchres. Hypocrites are "as graves
that appear not."

It is a striking item of the evidence of the unity of
mind that all of us agree that to do right is virtue. Now
"to do right" involves what we must call intellectual

' " He that seeketh findeth." " Love your enemies." " The Son
of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

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CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT

operations, moral energy, and emotional relations. We
must know the riglit, will to do it, and do it joyously.
Nearly always to do right concerns others. And it is
a striking confirmation of the theory here presented
again, — for it is not new but the essence of liistoric
religion, — that to do right is never easy. When there
is no opposition within or without us, neither we our-
selves nor any others ever think of noticing that we are
doing right. In other words, one does right or wrong
always at some point of personal and inner or of social
and outer stress or strain.

It is a subtle doctrine, the outcome of which is con-
sidered educationally precisely this. — All the glory is in
the striving to overcome. " I have fought a good fight:
I have kept the faith"; and what is the crown? It is
a crown of more life, more opportunities to fight for the
faith, — that, not less, not other. It follows inerrantly
that much of the old familiar talk of our schools about
the virtues will not stand the test. We must sift the
things that are really good out from the rest; and every
one of these good things, be it known, is some mode of
endeavor, every one. In this scale, to the naturally
cheerful, good-natured boy comes not a word of praise
for his kindheartedness and sunshine; yet to the boy
who is naturally gloomy and unsympathetic but who
has set out to win a better nature, all praise. How
often the neat and tidy girl is conscious of the unkempt
and untidy! Her virtue is not in the neatness and
tidiness, but it may yet be in her effort to tliink kindly of
and to help those who are not like herself. That prayer
— " I thank God I am not as other men are!" is precisely
the most wicked of all attitudes. The thrifty should
pray for generosity, the courageous for caution; the

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CONTROL OF THE CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL

materialist for vision and the dreamer for good sense;
and all for charity.

And the place for inculcating all these endeavors to
change and to cleanse and to progress is in our schools.
In developing and testing virtue, we should set aside
in our minds these prescriptive hierarchies of the
qualities; — punctuality, regularity, promptness, silence,
obedience to teachers and to rules, kindness, self-reliance,
social sympathy, cleanliness, orderliness, neatness and
tidiness, accuracy, thoroughness, frankness, sincerity,
consistency, courage, fortitude, industry, justice, truth-
fulness, temperance, nobility, honor, loyalty, economy,
patriotism, foresight, prudence — there are two hundred of
them easily distinguishable — ; and fix our minds resolutely
upon the fact that all virtue consists in endeavor to attain
without hypocrisy such qualities as we do not yet
have, and to maintain those good qualities that the
" world" would destroy. How hard and base is the man
who has all the best of these qualities, — mth no desire
for yet more! And yet baser is one who surrenders his
integrity of soul when the battle goes hard against him.

In the light of this argument, it is plain enough that
we are not to be greatly concerned over incentives to
virtue. Prizes that lead us to seek knowledge and skill
not for themselves but as means to other ends; privileges
that lift us to special rank among our fellows; immuni-
ties for ourselves that mark our former equals as in-
feriors; fear of blows, of disgrace, or of other penalties;
desire of honors; hope of future good: — all these things,
it is now quite evident, can only thwart the true pur-
pose of school discipline, which is to make of the boy
something better than he now is and better than he
would probably be without that discipline. To attain

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CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT

such an ideal, there is but one and only way, — the
self-activity of the boy.

We may be compelled by some external exigency, for
want of time or more probably for want of patience in
ourselves or sometimes for want of sufficient intelligence
in the boy or otherwise, to induce him violently to sub-
mission and quiet, — for the sake of other boys and girls.
Not once in a thousand times do we punish his body by
blows or by detentions or his spirit by sarcasms or other-
wise — for the sake of that very boy. And yet the bad
boy who is satisfied with his qualities, good and
bad, — all such are bad and only such are bad — is the
very boy for whom all these theories and practices of
school discipline have been devised.

The skill-theory of school control involves knowing
one's boys and girls. With such knowledge, merely by
seating them with due relation to one another and to
the teacher, nearly all school-room disorder in an aver-
age class may be omitted. These are some of the prin-
ciples — viz.:

1. The vain boy or girl, who misbehaves in order to ap-
pear a hero or heroine before the schoolmates, should be
put into the rear corner seat. Such a pupil is usually ideo-
motor (with long, narrow face and slender body).

2. The sneaking sly pupil who renders eye-service but
misbehaves when "teacher isn't looking" belongs in the
front seat nearest to the teacher's desk. Such a pupil also
is usually of the nervous or ideo-motor type.

3. Never put a good girl in front of a bad boy, but
preferably at his back.

4. In mixed classes, it is usually best to put the sexes
in alternate files or rows; but the rule need not be rigid.

5. As the eye does not catch movements in the crowded

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CONTROL OF THE CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL

center of the picture quite so well as at front and sides, and
as there are more temptations to disorder at the center of
the room, it is usually wise to put the merely restless pupils
in the front row or in the side files.

6. Do not shame a bad boy by putting him where there
are four girls at front, back, and sides; but when possible,
isolate him with a vacant seat in front and good boys
around him. A bad boy does not yet clearly see himself
as he is but is secretly or openly self-satisfied. His curse
is pride.

7. Muscular-motor boys (with square faces and strong
bodies) may be presumed to be orderly boys in conduct.
The speculative boys (with triangular faces and slender
bodies) may be presumed to be thoughtful boys in conduct
but not very useful in stimulating other boys to loyalty to
teacher and school. Their day of personal leadership, if it
ever comes, lies years and years ahead. The vital, corpu-
lent, cheerful boys may be presumed to be indolent and in-
different. Do not put two of them in juxtaposition.

8. It is not wise to offer good seats as rewards of orderly
behavior. It is not right indeed to offer any rewards of
any kind for orderly behavior. This defeats virtue by
giving a false aim to endeavor.

9. While it is expedient not to seat in juxtaposition any
two pupils who cordially dislike one another or are mu-
tually antipathetic, it is equally inexpedient to set chums
in such contiguity as facilitates whispering, fond glances,
and the passing of notes.

10. Reseat once a month, "playing no favorites."
Whether each pupil should have a new seat will depend
upon many conditions. When all seats are well-lighted and
there is no "cold corner "in winter, with a class not troubled
with an exceeding number of disorderly boys and with girls
who whisper, such monthly reseating need not be complete.

11. Sometimes a beneficial change, not obvious to the

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CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT

teacher to whom the class-room scene is familiar, will be
discovered at once by the principal or by a fellow-teacher.
Let some one else by invitation look over the room. Per-
haps he or she will see a near-sighted or slightly deaf boy or
girl who belongs "up front"; or an overgrown pupil who
belongs in the rear of the room.

In order of consideration next after correct seating
of the pupils is their proper arrangement in the march-
ing lines. It is the custom to arrange the boys strictly
in order of height and the girls likewise, with the short-
est boy and girl leading their respective lines. Often,
this custom may well be ignored. Sometimes, the order
should be exactly reversed. Sometimes, the lines
should be broken into groups. But whatever be the
marching order, every pupil should know his niunber
and place; and report in it accordingly. It is desirable
to place the control of the lines as much as possible
under their leaders, for the teacher has many other
duties at the times before and after school and at re-
cesses besides seeing that the lines move promptly,
regularly, and smootlily.

For the control of the class in its movements in group
or as individuals when changing from one recitation to
another or to a study period, — putting books away,
handling papers, going to the blackboard, going on er-
rands to the teacher's desk, to the dictionary, to the
waste-basket, to the supply-closet or out of the room, —
it is expedient to discover the golden mean between too
many formalities and the freedom that in cliildren and
youth soon becomes license. How formal the teacher
should be depends partly upon temperament and upon
experience and yet mainly upon the class itself.

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CONTROL OF THE CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL

Two principles are, however, discernible: —

First: Begin with at least as much of formal system
as is likely to be reciuired at anv time later. It is
easier to relax from severity than to stiffen and to
straighten up from slovenliness and slouching. Especial-
ly should young and relatively inexperienced teachers
begin with sufficient rigorousness.

Second: Keep at least enough of the formalities to
train the pupils to orderly group-action. The habit of
working in step with one's fellows is, in itself, a valu-
able and educative acquisition especially in a relatively
free democracy such as ours.

Among the devices sometimes of value are such as
these — viz. :

I. Changing recitations (for class or section or group) .

1. One tap of bell (or similar signal). Close books.

2. Two taps. Put books away.

3. Three taps. Take out new books, place on desk and
set in order.

4. One tap. All attention, — recitation begins.

II. Errands out of room.

On leaving, pupil writes name on blackboard, with
time of exit. On returning, adds time of return — e. g.:

Charles Wilson 10:05 A.M. 10:09 A.M.

At the end of the school-day, the teacher then has a
record of all such cases.

Teachers should not go into details as to why the

child cares to leave the room. No two boys of the same

room should be allowed to be absent at the same time,

save in exceptional circumstances. But permission to

go should otherwise invariably be granted. In case the

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CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT

teacher suspects that this universal privilege is being
abused, inquiry may be made of parents; and upon
proof, the time lost may be made up after school double
or treble or be atoned for by some extra task.

III. Passing papers forward for inspection by the
teacher.

1. Order the pupils in each file to pass their papers for-
ward to the front.

2. Appoint the first pupil in one of the outside files of
desks as monitor to collect the papers, and to place them
on the teacher's desk.

IV. Blackboard work.

1. Count off nine pupils — 1, 2, 3, — 1, 2, 3, — 1, 2, 3, — and
assign to each pupil numbered "1" the first problem, to
those numbered "2" the second, etc., and have them place
themselves at the blackboard in due alternation. (Or
count off twelve pupils and assign four different problems,
similarly.)

2. Give the same problems to the pupils of the class re-
maining at their desks, appointing some to follow those
numbered "1" at the blackboard, others those numbered
"2," etc.

Straggling back and forth from desk to board should be
corrected, and a suitable time-limit set.

V. The fire-drill.

Twice in my immediate school experience, school
panics have been saved. Once, a fire actually broke
out, from a match thrown by a careless pupil under a
wainscoting. In this instance, the drill worked per-
fectly; and, by a telephone message to fire quarters,
the building was saved with but slight loss.

Upon the other occasion, four street gamins just be-

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CONTROL OF THE CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL

yond the compulsory school age came into a very large
building at night, with the assembly hall on the third
floor densely thronged. They put out all the lights on
the lower floors, rang the fire-gong, and yelled "Fire!"
intending to stampede the audience. They did stam-
pede some sixty adults; but the children duly formed
quietly in drill-lines, checked the other adults thereby,
and gave the principal of the school a chance to explain
in clarion tones that there was really no fire. In other
words, the cry of "Fire!" would have stampeded the
entire audience; but the very fire-signal, meant to
arouse the crowd to panic, automatically suggested
order to the pupils.

In preparing for fire-drifls, the following suggestions
may be useful — viz.:

A. Let every door of exit and on the way thereto have a
proper tender, — usually two tenders.