Osage Valley banner. (Tuscumbia, Miller County, Mo.) 1879-1881, 1881-01-06

marks cance,et y. and the lazy boys 10
have their recitation marks increased
lhelf comrades on the i0ries obeycd
their feliow-feeling rather than their
sense OF Justice. | protested against
many OF tie decisions as out.
rageously unjust, and warned them that
eontinued Injustice would necessarily
produce the downfall OF their whole
systeR. submitted. however, 10 all
the decisions OF The iiries, waiting pa
latiestls sgFasAe tislesto tar1, aud il did
| So had previously prepared theit
minds for This by conversations, the
drift of which they had not perceived.
! Beside this their own conscieuces whis-
/ pered to them of thoW injustice TO one
who submitted while no protested. and
the industrious buys began TO see
that the lazy fellows were getting Just
as high marks As themselves, without
the trouble OF wurking for them. MY
/ patient submission was rewarded The
I Judges began TO decide now in my fp-
vor @c1 against thv aey ones. Wncn
the latter grumbicd | said to them, with
junction: Protest, II you choose, but
! you must submit as did,
Our experiment succeeded, and for
more than twenty years my school has
been thus governed There is an
appeal from every teacher to the prin-
/ cipal, and an appeal from him 90 three
/ 1urymen, OF judges, rs they are more
commonly called
1t has proved an admirable method
OF training boys Judgments, and in all
cases where paniahty is charged
( against teacher il has proved a specif-
tsst,art hoo "a 4 L..
his comrades, all such charges fall to
the ground.
( Some very droll scenes have occurred
ut these triuls and there have been
some Very curious developments q
Character. Ono morning our ianitres
I reported that one Of the boys had ben
/ cryiag in the plarroom ON the preyous
! afternoon because some of the ther
scholars had forcihlv preypntef him
from going home She ~ not know
the boys name, but pcated hir out to (
me. On buihg askr3 he said that his .
mother had told Kim TO be at home by I
a certain time and some of the boys
had prevented him. AS 70 was ,cnBirG
tOffos Untf1s Tor uU 70 ASK or Tor him tn
tell who they were, waited till all were
in line, and, alter prayers asked
their hands. Six OF them promptly did
so. When asked why, they replied that
II was their turn to have their linn
ings' at the game they We're playing,
and that IL was not fair for him TO go
| decided that this was not a sufficient
reason for their preventing him from
obeying his mothers commands, and
condemned them all TO one weeks ex-
clusion from the playroom. AS this
was tine large room twenty-five feet
wide, eighty feet long aud thirteen feet
high, large enough for good game OF
football between two strong sides or
for queter game Of "old cat, the
penalty seemed rather severe, and they
appealed. When the time for trial
came the three judges sat ON one settee.
and the culprits opposite. | was called
away for moment. and on returning,
as | was near the judges, whose backs
were to me, | heard one of them,
chunky, spunky little fellow, and one
OF the best boys in the school, say 10
his neighbor, 81 say, Billy, do YOU
think we can lick those fellows II we
decide against them2'
Never mind, Gard" said l, "rn
back YOU"
He laughed, and the trial went on.
They did convict them, and imposed
the same penalty or dose that had.
| ought perhaps to explain that have
tried To get out of the habit of using
such terms as punishment or "pen-
atty, and 10 substitute for them the
words dose or "medicine.n boy
who is punished naturally eXcites
the sympathy OF his fellows and is apt
to be looked upon by them as n martyr
who is suffering from the same tyranny
TO which they are all subject but a
"sick boy" is rather an object of con-
tempt, and the more rugged and robust
the boy the greater is usually his con-
tempt for all sickness The effect upon
the culprit himself also seems better,
and as | usually consult my patients as
TO what is the best medicine for them,
this, too, may be made means of self
government.
In these trials on some occasions a
small boy has chosen big boy as his
counsel and the sitting OF evidence
and cross-eXaminaton OF witnesses has
been done at times with considerable
skill by embryo lawyers.
One OF the first lessons that seems TO
be required is that negative proof is no
proof at all.
A boy recently said, when three had
testified that they had seen him do
something, "Well, sir, / can bring
plenty more that didn't see me-
He appeared quite surprised when |
informed him that could bring ten
thousand that had not seen him do t.
As some were still dissatisfied after
the Judges had decided. a second APP
peal was allowed. which, however, was
to be attended TO on Friday (our day
for odds and ends), and in case Of a