The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1914-03-12
EXPELLING CHILDREN FROM
SCHOOL.


There can be no doubt that occasions
arise when refractory pupils, by the
seriousness of their offenses, merit ex-
pulsion from school. If the school
management is what it should be, these
incidents are very rare because the
daily discipline is such as to instil
in the minds of the pupils respect for
law and willingness, if not a desire,
to comply with rules and to behave in
an orderly manner. Most grave Of
fences are not, as is sometimes mis-
takenly supposed, the sudden display
of hitherto unsupported viciousness on
the part of ordinarily respectful and
dutiful children These offences are,
on the contrary, most often the result
of a habit of INSTRUMENTATION, and of a
series of petty offences growing more
and more fragrant and eliminating
finally, and after longish period, in
one decisive misdemeanor so gross and
so dramatic as to make expulsion ap-
pear to be the only means by which
the case can be adequately punished
and the order and calm of the school
restored.
Even in those cases in which it is
admitted that expelling the child was
the justified procedure the necessity
for so drastic a measure betrays to the
ia, Cd tod,
ton of the school which is fundament-
ally bad.
The method of expelling a pupil CON
victed of a serious offense should not
be one calculated to harm the spirit
of both the culprit and the school. To
confront boy with the charge of a
grave misdeed and to address him in
terms of angry denunciation before the
whole school is to indulge ones temper
and lack of self-control at the expense
of the community one is paid to serve.
1t is the business of the public schools
to educate all the boys and girls, to
teach all the boys and girls right ideas
of conduct and of their obligations as
citizens, to deal with all the boys and
girls in so tactful and effective a way
as to bring them to the proper attitude
of Difference to authority and of hon |
est ambition to be honest studious,
and earnest. 1t is true that with some
boys and some girls this is a very
difficult task and so beset with dis
couragements and trials as to leave
the teacher at times heart-weary and
almost crushed. But unlimited pa
thence is peculiarly necessary to
school-folk, and it is partly for the
constant exercise of this virtue and
others like it that salaries are paid,
and that really good teachers are re-
vered 1t is true that some boys and
girls appear to be so depraved that
further tolerance of them in the
schools may become a menace to the
and good habits of their mates;
but in these rare cases the manner for
the guilty boy or girl from I
school should not in itself be an of
tense against propriety. A private dis
missal, a sincere, kindly, and great eff
fort to solve the expelled boys prob
lem, and a total abstaining from a
public attack is the only suitable
course to follow. The desire to teach
he rest of the school a lesson is no
4 reason or excuse for a public repri-
nand and dismissal, because all need .
I'd lessons in good conduct will be
otherwise daily taught in the we'll
disciplined school To attempt by pub
ic exposure and dramatic expulsion
@ brighten whole school into good
behavior or honesty is to confess ones !
elf totally ignorant of the true and :
highest functions of school admin :
strator and criminally ignorant of
he simplest and most elementary
principles of sound pedagogy.
Just one word further and we have
one. Although the power to expel
pupil from school may be vested
Exclusively in an employee of the board
f trustees, and although it may be
ntirely outside the province of the
GARD to pass on the merits of any
ase in which the extreme penalty has
cen inflicted, yet the board should
officially, and with due
rmality be notified of all the details
the entire episode. 1t is the board
Id not it's employee who is directly
sponsible to the citizens for the
'oper conduct of the school. 1t is
e board and not the mere paid serv-
It of tho board who will have to an !