seeking accuracy in every situation, by trying to be thorough in every task, by being accurate and thorough rather than slipshod and mediocre whenever the choice is offered. No one becomes honest save by telling the truth or trustworthy save by fulfilling each obligation he accepts. No one may win the spirit of love and service who does not day by day and hour by hour do each act of kindness and help which chance puts in his way or his own thoughtfulness can discover. The mind does not give something for nothing. The price of a disciplined intellect and will is eternal vigilance in the formation of habits. Moreover, if special training does not give large dividends they are safe ones; if it drives a hard bargain it at least redeems every promise. No right thought or act is ever without its reward; each present response is a permanent investment for the future; the little things prepare for the great; the gain achieved by a teacher's efforts is never wasted. The only way to become an efficient thinker and a true man is to constantly think efficiently and act manfully, but that way is sure. Habit rules us but it also never fails us." The Spirit and Motives of the Trainer. Thus the teacher's work as trainer permeates the entire work of the school. There is a certain time for study, another time for recitation, another time for play, but the time for training is all the time. It is the one continuous function of the school. To quote from the rules of the School Board of Cleveland: "It shall be a duty of the first importance on the part of the teachers to be models in personal appearance and conduct for the pupils under their care. They are especially enjoined to avail themselves of every opportunity to inculcate neatness, promptness, politeness, cheerfulness, truthfulness, patriotism, and all the virtues which contribute to the effectiveness of the schools, the good order of society, and the safety of our American citizenship." The forms of training are many. Some school exercises are named physical culture, others are called recitations, drills, study lessons; still others are known as object-lessons, manual training, opening exercises; but the purpose of all of them is habit forming, training for health, for earning a living, for citizenship, for character-in a word, for complete living. Not all this training can be reduced to set exercises and drills. The finer and better part of it all may be in the spirit and motives of the teacher. The unconscious tuition of the teacher is one of the most important factors in school training. It is the alchemy of the teacher's influence that counts for most in giving pupils the desire to do better and to be better. It creates the atmosphere of the school. On the wall of a Swiss school-house are these words in memory of a man who transformed the schools of a nation by his spirit and motives: "Henry Pestalozzi, savior of the poor at Neuhof, at Stanz the father of the orphans, at Burgdorf founder of the common school, at Yverdun the educator of humanity; man, Christian, citizen. All for others, nothing for himself." SUGGESTED READINGS James, "Psychology," vol. I, chap. IV; Angell, "Psychology," chap. XXII; Salisbury, "Theory of Teaching," pp. 192-199; Sabin, "Common Sense Didactics," chaps. VII, VIII; Tompkins, "School Management," pp. 41-48 and 183-196; Barnett, “Common Sense in Education and Teaching," chap. II; Oppenheim, "Mental Growth and Control," chaps. I, VII; Baldwin, "School Management," pp. 49-53; Horne, "Psychological Principles of Education," chaps. XXVI, XXVII. PART V THE TEACHER AS RULER AND MANAGER CHAPTER XXIV SCHOOL GOVERNMENT The Old View of School Discipline.-Nowhere else is the difference between the old school and the new more apparent than in the treatment of the subject of discipline by writers on school management. The old books on teaching are largely given over to extended discussions of school government in all its phases of authority, rules, regulations, prizes, and punishments. Minute directions are given as to how and when pupils are to be reproved, reprimanded, deprived of privileges, suspended, expelled. There are long and learned discussions of corporal punishment, its dangers, its merits, the instrument to be used, the number of blows to be given, the particular portion of the anatomy to suffer. All this is a strong reminder of the fact that when the school course was entirely devoid of interest, teachers untrained in method and utterly ignorant of the laws of human development, the rod was the necessary emblem of the teacher's vocation. Henry Barnard cites the case of a German school-master who kept a record of the punishments he had inflicted during his career as a teacher. Among the usual punishments were 911,527 blows with a cane, 20,989 with a ruler, 136,715 with the hand, 10,205 over the mouth, 7,905 boxes on the ears, 1,115,800 snaps on the head. Why School Government Has Become More Humane.— (1) School government reflects the greater humanity of modern civil codes. In 1800 the criminal code of England recognized two hundred and twenty-three offences punishable with death. If a man shot at rabbits or cut down young trees or injured Westminster Bridge or stole property valued at five shillings or stole a piece of cloth from a bleach-field he was hanged. In 1816 sentence of death was passed upon a child only ten years old. In 1846 an English soldier was flogged to death, and wherever slavery existed punishments were frequent and brutal. As slavery gradually disappeared and civil codes became more enlightened, school government reflected the change in public sentiment. In most communities now the teacher will find the question of corporal punishment a matter of regulation by the school authorities. (2) The work of the school has been made more interesting. As long as the work of the school consisted largely of memorizing Latin grammar and of absurd parsing exercises, it possessed little interest for the average boy. Through an enriched course of study, providing for variety, well graded as to difficulties, and affording outlets for the pupil's instinctive love of physical activity, there is less need of compulsion and punishment. And as teachers have mastered the art of method, learned to understand the instincts of children, to discover their lovable traits, and to believe in their possibilities, instruction and training have more and more superseded government and punishment in our schools. (3) The whole spirit of the school has been transformed through the influence of educational reformers. Through the sacrificing labors of Pestalozzi, Froebel, Horace Mann, Elizabeth Peabody, Francis Parker, and hundreds of other noble men and women, the calling of the teacher has been uplifted and dignified, the laws of human development have been unfolded, and the attention of teachers has been turned more and more to the inner forces at work in the school-room and to the process of mental and spiritual growth in the child. Little by little teachers are discovering that school discipline cannot be separated from the other work of the school and pursued as an end in itself; that it is a matter of spirit rather than of mere external acts and forms; that training is better than punishing; that sympathy and love are stronger agents of reform than pain and hate; that the real source of discipline is the teacher's personality and influence rather than his authority and rules. School Government as Related to Discipline. This changed view of the nature of the teacher's work makes it necessary to distinguish between school government and school discipline. Of course government and discipline are inseparable in practice but they differ as to aim and method. The immediate purpose of school government is good order; that of discipline is good habits and character. Government aims to secure prompt obedience to commands and cheerful compliance with necessary rules and regulations; discipline seeks to render commands and rules unnecessary. Government implies restraints; discipline implies growth into liberty. Good order is the result of just government and wise management; discipline is the |