The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1892-01-22
w. c. T. u. DEPARTMENT.
Diseipline In the school Room d.

al - E4L[22 - MT A6E - 49, " ~
wooDsTowx TEACHERS ASSOCIATION.
In the work Of the scho0lro0m there is
one yexed question that overtops all others
for difficulty Of solution. II only
10 the matter Of discipline We knew
exactly sha. to do, methods Of instFuc-
ton would. in most cases, suggest
themselves. The greatest hindranee
20 success il our work is the anxiety ard
worry caused By the boy whom We deem
anruly. or the girl with idle brain.
After years of teaching the writer feels
safe ia saying that in matters Of discipline,
our chief difficulty lies in ourselves. As We
look back upon the failures Of this year
and Of this day, we can. perhaps see how
tact-1h ich is only a combination of COM
mon sense and common patience-might
have tided oyer difficulties and made pupils
and teacher bright and happy. Without
doubt the first thing to be obtained in the
schoolroom is good order. But good order
is not necessarily military order, nor is it
the constrained acquiescence which comes
from the absolute presence and restraining
personal grip of the teacher, unless it be in
the case of very small children. Our
pupils. after a time IN school, should have
learned a degree of self-evntrol which will,
at least, help them and help US in main
tanning good order. This may seen ideal,
and yet ought We not TO attain something
Of the ideal?
The prime element of obedience is happy
heartedness. When pupils obey graceless-
ly and angrily we have scarce half obtain
ed our object. 1t is sometimes many and
many a year before We come to realize this
aud while we are learning the lesson .e
ave many 4 hard experience. A boy
comes to US who has always used all his
inventive geufns in deylsing instruments Of
torture for his teacher. We feel the at
mosphere and we meet him on his own
ground. We set our own ingenuity work
ing TO meet and match HIM at every point.
He is noisy and bolsterous. We are irri-
table and possibly reprove him in a way
which shows that We are ourselves ont Of
temper. Now the fight is up and tho boy
has all the winning points. He knows
well his ground; he fights c%heerfully, glad
IL and With all his soul; he is full Of yivaci-
ty aud good spirits, for he never had so
good a time in all his life. We are valiant
and stout-hearted, it is true, but our ankle
ty and worry are against US. We prefer
0 to fight and We lose our temper 10
the conflict. Perhaps we succeed by sheer
force of III or by some outside Influence
in holding our boy but there is continual
friction and ours is more or less a de-
feat. 1t is the old story OF misunder-
standing and injustice ID both sides,
and il ends in unsuccessful work
on the pant Of the pupil and in
suffering untold on the part Of the teacher.
When we, as teachers, look upon diff
cult cases without anxiety, when VIC relax
the grim system Of discipline and disarm
the spirit Of defiance in our pupils by a
quiet confidence in them, or an apparent
indifference to them, which shall assure
them of our determined confidence IN our.
selves and our co nsequent frarlessness, they
will cease to thrust ont their weapons, for
they will never find us standing at tie
point Of attack. If we can keep ourselves
blind to the disagreeable points in our
pupils it Will be easy to love them and
while We are in sympathy with them We
can request and persuade them to do our
will instead of being obliged to require
and enforce obedience.
The difficulty here lies in the fact that
we are human and not angelic. II cur
patience and good sense were uniailing tie
secret would be learned. While we are
of nerve and muscle and brain VI,
all classes of workers, need 10 make
BUR work systematic and economical. We
need, for ourselves and for our pupils, To go
lut Of the monotonous routine Of the daily
and devise ONE outing which
hall be as new air aud yitaliziug oxygen
all Oar work.