St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-09-20

his side is as much bound to obey as
the pupils are on theirs. The school is
now governed by the moral power of
law. Hence the extreme Importance of
having the law enforced by one who
has nice and refined sense of justice
and regard for it in his own conduct. l
believe that more pupils are set against
their teachers by a real or imaginary
sense of wrong received from them,
than by all other things combined. 1t
is sometimes astonishing to see how
much pupils will hear with good humor
from their teachers if it all appears to
them to be just and equal, and how
little will provoke rebellion if there is
suspicion of unfairness or partiality.
Let teacher create the impression
among his pupils that he is extremely
careful to have no one wrOnged, no one
slighted, that the rights of his pupils
are as dear to him as his own and he
may do almost anything with them.
For it is not the more or less one has TO
do or even to bear at the requirement
of a teacher which offends and gals
him, it is the touching of his pride, the
imputation upon his equality with
others. / do not mean to say that the
teacher is always unjust when the pupil
thinks him so, for ''nO rogue e'er felt
the halter draw with good opinion of
the law" or of the judge either, but
that it is great gain to teacher in
getting hold of his pupils to impress
them with his anxiety to deal fairly by
them, even though he must at times
deal severely. As rule, severe dis
ciplinarians are not unpopular with
pupils. Probably the teachers whose
discipline least hinders the admiration
have spoken of, are those who COM
bine inhexibility of authority with a
firm and true sense of justice. Let a
pupil understand on the one side that
the teacher means to enforce the law,
but on the other side that he personally
interests himself against any undue or
unequal enforcement of it, and the pu-
pill will be less inclined to try how far
he can go in disobedience with impuni-
ty, or to bear resentment for the neces-
sary punishment which sustains law.
Aud let me say that these remarks are
specially applicable TO teachers of very
young pupils. If you could hear the
story of schOol-day experiences told by
the little ones to their mothers in the
evening, you would be astonished to
know how critically your school gov
ernment is judged by your younger
pupils, and how clear a sense of their
rights, and of the rights of pupils, as
against those of teachers, you yourself
are helping to develop. 1t is of the ut
most consequence that you should never
put it into these little ones heads that
you care less to obey law yourself than
to enforce it on them or that you ever
stretch the law against them or that
you have some favorites whom the law
does not touch, or touches lightly. Un-
oubtedly this is the most fruitful Occa-
sion of disaffection, the suspicion OF
favoritism, suspicion which few
teachers wholly escape, and which many
merit. Indeed, in one sense, it is i'm
possible for the teacher not to have
favorites-not to have special admira-
ton and affection tor the bright, ardent,
docile pupils, over the dull, indolent
and turbulent ones. To expect pre-
cisely equal feelings and conduct toward
these two totally unlike classes-and
both are found in every schools
against human nature. In fact, good
teacher will not treat any two pupils
exactly alike; each is to be treated ac-
cOrding to the demands of his DISPOSE
ton, temperament, bias, capacity, at
tainments. One needs to be encOur-
aged by praise; another to be checked
by sharp censure another to be allow
ed to run on his own swift, willing
course, with only the gentlest touch OF
the reins now and then for guidance
You can afford to treat nine-tenths Ol
the complaints, if there are such, against
favoritism, as either unavoidable or un-
founded. But beware of the Other
tenth. That will work mischief.
mean beware of suffering your personal
like OF dislike of pupil to affect youl
administration of the laws of the school
in his or her case. Especially beware
of making justice more severe towards
the children of the poor and uninfiuen-
tial than towards those from the higher
ranks. Do not be vindictive or resent
full. Show pupil that you can treat
his wrOng-doing as an offence against
law and not against you, and therefore
that having punished in the interest OF
law, you can forget it in the interest Of
peace and goodwill. In brief, while
the ambition to be popular teacher i:
to be stunned as a weakness, both q
sense of duty and desire of the high.
est kind of success should lead the
teacher to covet the respect of his pu.
pills for dealing with them justly anG
hOnorably in all things. And unless
am mistaken, this purpose, and little
experience in carrying it into practice
will bring every teacher to adopt fOl
himself a few plain general rules which
| will protect him from mistakes and hi
| government from Odium, such as these
never to charge pupil with a faul
without strong evidence of his guilt
never to administer reproOf in public
unless in those rare cases in which afte
deliberation it is deemed best to max,
public shame part of the punishment
never to administer any kind of reproo
or punishment while under the influenc,
of anger never to dispense reproof in
Discriminatory or by wholesale to
class or an entire school never to pun
ish whole class, by OBTAINING them fo
instance, or increasing their task, fo
the offence of individuals whom yor
may not have been able to detect.
The qualification to which / should
attach greatest Importance is one whicl
L badly knoN how to designate by an,
word or phrase. l might call it knowl
edge OF human nature, if this phras,
had not come to mean a knowledge O
the means by which men may be LEI
by their weaknesses and evil desires t,
their own injury and other mems ad
vantage. l might call it an acquain
tance with psychology, if this woult
not be misunderstood as meaning al
acquaintance with the abstraction
written in books concerning the human
soul. What mean is an insight int
the mechanism aud working of a youn,
mind in process of unfolding; and