Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1906-04-14
70 IMPROVE MANKIND
Ohioan's Theory For Training
the Young.
IMPRESSED BY A TEACHERS RULE

Out of Her Injunction In school Days
a Pupil, Now Aged, Evolved system
by Which He Believes Humanity
Can BE Taught Voluntary obedi-
ence-Cites Its Good Results.
When Miss Flora Atkins, teacher in
small country school in the Wade dis
Tict, near Ashtabula, o., told her pu-
pills In 1888 that she would rely on
them to keep order voluntarily she lit
tie dreamed that the whole course of
life of half of her pupils would be in
huenced by her words, says Cleve-
land co. dispatch.
One of the pupils, Deacon Aaron
Pickett of Ashtabula has followed the
course of each member of the class and
has put his findings into manuscript.
He has gone further and has evolved a
system of parental, school and state
government based on the result of Miss
Atkins experiment seventy-two years
ago.
In the Wade district, so named from
the original home of the family of
United States Senator Benjamin F.
Wade, stood small log schoolhouse,
into which were crowded thirty pupils
ranging in age from six to twelve
years. Miss Atkins told them the very
first day that she would expect them to
keep order of their own accord. She
laid down one rule, and only one, but
1t was in scope so broad that 1t covered
all the many rules usually put in force
by teachers. That rule was:
DO nothing that will distract the at
tention of another pupil from his
work"
Simple, wasn't it? Yet 1t covered the
offenses of whispering, passing notes.
throwing paper balls, general restless
ness and all the deyiltry that school
boy can invent.
All Of the thirty were induced the
first day to promise to obey the rule.
At the end of the second day one boy
had broken the rule. He never again
by good department got over on the
side of the good pupils. At the end
Of the third day three had broken the
rule, and in a week fifteen were num-
bered among the unruly. A week was
long enough to test the staying pow
ers Of all in the cause of good school
government. Those who stuck to the
rule for a week were obcdient for the
entire term, The school was evenly
divided all the remainder of the term
70
Those who followed the customary
course of infant rebellion received the
usual modes of correction and plodded
along the usual way with their school
work. All of these pupils We're in
Miss Atkins school for four years, long
enough to form habits. As years rolled
along results were carefully watched
by Aaron Pickett, the boy who be-
came so intensely interested In Miss
Atkins plan of voluntary obedience.
The pupils left school. The young
man kept trace of them. Years rolled
by, and he became old, yet he still fol-
lowed his inquiries. At the end Of
fifty years he compiled a record of the
class Of thirty, and these were the re-
suits: OF the obedient fifteen there
were alive thirteen. OF the disobedient
fifteen there were only three surviving
The thirteen Obedient had splendid
records. All were educated, some high
ly. No one of them used profane Ian
guage or intoxicating liquor. Only one
had used tobacco, and one had become
involved In a lawsuit. They all bore
good regulations In the communities
where they lived and were numbered
among the best citizens, though not
among the wealthy.
The three disobedient could not claim
records of that kind. One was a law
yer, ruined by drink and often in iail.
Another was a small rated farmer fire.
quently in trouble. Nearly all of the
disobedient had been selfish-more anx-
ious to satisfy their own desires for IL
cense than to live for the good of them
selves and the remainder of the com
munity. AS a result they were disturb
ers, given frequently to quarrelsome,
ness, their habits being such as would
tend to shorten a human life.
AT the end of seventy years Deacon
Pickett took another census. Eight of
the obedient were living, but only two
Of the dlsobedient. From this record
the deacon has evolved theory of ed
ucation. He believes that the entire
human race can be taught voluntary
obedience not only to school rules, but
to the laws Of the land and the tenets
of health and morality
If the system were adopted in the
schools he believes its influence would
spread. At first only half of the pupils
might be willing to obey voluntarily,
and the only force acting to bring
about such obedience would be the
teachers. Soon this force would be in
creased by the pupils who had grown
to maturity and had children of their
own. The percentage of the obedleat
would then become greater, Deacon
Pickett believes, and eventually the
habit would become fixed in the entire
race. This would take some years, he
calculates, but at last it would become
a part OF human nature.