Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-03-23
s sHs VOL. 20, NO. ~.


The methods of school discipiu
are numberless. A lifetime of study
observation and experience eanno
exhaust the possibilities of this sub
Iject. When we consider singh
child, his hereditary nature, his hon,
education, received, it may be, under
antagOnIstic parental Influences, hi.
propensities, faculties, disposition,
tastes, habits, will, his out door sur
roundings; then multiply these by {
hundred or thousand, bring them
together into school; their wills be,
gin to cross, their dispositions TO
clash, their propensities to probe (, =
what complexity is herel vUuder be
m ost suspicious circumstances, is MT
the teachers task a difficult one?
A teachers character, his self-po4,
session, watchfulness, general bea :
ing, expression of the eye, tone OF
the voice, his sympathy, patience,
cheerfulness, charity, are all effect
i've instruments of discipline. He
should be just, if possible pre- emil
nently just reasonable in al his re-
quirements never arbitrary, but all
ways decided gentle, but unyieId-
ing; firm, but mild in short, the
more of the moral virtues he can
embody, the better disciplinarian he
becomes.
Love should be the main element
in the discipline Of every school. A
teacher who cannot secure the affec>
tons of very large majority of his
pupils is unworthy OF his position
There always will be some, however,
in particular localities, who cannot
in limited time, under the adverse
influences of the home and the street
be brought into subsection to the law
of love. When you ind the vicious
and morally depraved as a class,
praising their teacher, be assured
that he is neglecting his duty toward
them. When rowdies love police
men, and culprits prisons when evil
loves good, and Satan Christ-then
will the vicious, self-willed youth
love the restraints of the schoolroom.
Yet | have known teachers blamed
for not securing at once the affections
of all this class. They cannot do
this without compromising the truth
and their own consciences. How,
then, are these malicious, self willed
children to be governed in school ?
Must the divine law of love, in their
case be suspended? By no means ?
Let us rather initiate it, if we can.
and not ignore the element of force
inherent in it. If we make the way
of transgressors easy, we are not co..
workers with God.
i is difficult to enumerate all the
methods by which school should be
disciplined. Methods must vary in
different schools, and in different
teachers. Ask man how he would
play game Of chess, or a general
how he would fight a battle No
TWO battles are fought exactly alike
no two games of chess are Identical
Your movem ents must vary with the
varying elements and-tho ever>va-
ryipg movements Of your opponents
Discipline exists ia the man. He
must be equal to all emergencies
Hemust have brains to comprehend
all issues, ana energies to meet them
School discipline, as we'll as war, is a
science. Civilians did not succeed
upon the battlefield as generals nei-
tier could many who criticisc teach
ers so severely succeed in the school
room
Government must be fresh, spon>
taneous, outgusbing, always, bowev,
er, under the control of n sound judg
ment it must fit the man, the pupils,
the hour, the occasion, and all the
existing circumstances. No rule or
methods studied and memorized, will
ever make a disciplinarian. Each
teacher must study for himself the
the daily problems that arise. He
will find-at least in some schools
that the formula, "Moral suasion=
success" will not solve all the disci-
plinary problems that arise. He will
learn that he must have as many
equations as there arc unknown
quantities"