The call of the North. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1923-1924, 1923-08-03
p0p 1IY[ Get the Lawless in St Pau!
| vi JAIlE Every Somrner Has It's Fall

commanding to do so and so and SC
but I will leave with you the PROPOSE
ton whether it is better on the on,
hand to have "Mike go wash" or Il
swing to the other extreme, and have
mike never wash" -
Moral suasion, perhaps, is tn,
proper thing to do. I know Of one o.
your moral suasion schools where ,
little girl went for the first time, ant
came home with one of her teetl
missing in front. Her father ques
toned her about it, and she said thu
little boy sitting in the front Of hel
reached around and struck her in thu
mouth, knocking the tooth out. Il
wasn't serious at all, for you know
Of course that another tooth woulG
grow there in time. And the father
said, "What did the teacher say to
that boy?" Why. what would q
teacher say to that boy? The little
girl said, 'The teacher said, Little
boy, do you consider that social
action?'"
What is the natural result? My
friends, let us be honest. What is the
natural results? That little boy is
growing up to be a man. Do you per-
ceive the psychology of it? There
first is the percept of.she tooth. Then
there is the concept, followed by the
execution. That is beautiful, accord
ing to pedagogical theory. The, boy
goes out into the street, and he sees
a tooth, and then he thinks of his
psychology again, and he knocks the
tooth out. But by that time, perhaps
a policeman will come along and he
uses moral suasion Of a different kind.
The policeman says you have commit
ted crime as old as Cain and Abel,
and you will have to suffer for it.
A Country Teacher Came
Now a teacher came from the
country to the city to see what there
was in these moral suasion schools.
When she reached the school house,
she had program Of the day, but
she had no watch. In fact, she was
about fifty years young in the teach
ing profession, and I believe I am safe
in saying that she had taught too
long to own a watch. She found a
boy out in the hallway. What was
that boy doing out there? He was
out there playing, playing on the win
dow glass, the window pane. Why?
Because the teacher didn't make it at
tractive enough for him in the school
room, to keep him there. She had no
right to tell him, command him to
stay there. So he chose to go out and
play in the hallway. That is the abb
normal boy. The normal boy of
course would prefer to stay in the
room and to study, and to do his work,
with his dear beloved teacher. The
abnormal boy was out in the hallway.
This teacher said, "Son, what time is
it," What did he answer? Mark
you well the results of this moral sua-
sion! See what originality! What a
beautiful thought it is, that comes
from his ruby lips and pearly teeth.
Out from those ruby lips and pearly
teeth came that beautiful original
sentence in answer to this gray haired
teacher, he said, "The same time that
it was this time yesterday" Oh
beautiful respect and originality, you
see! But what about the teacher?
She didn't know much about moral
suasion, but she knew great deal
about what we call discipline. And
she gazed on that lad with an eye that
pierced him through and through, an
eye that had quelled thousand in
cipient rebellions, and warded off ten
thousand strikes in her day, and she
said to him, "Son, you 60 in there
and ask your teacher what time it is,
and you come out here and tell me-"
Oh what a sad blow! Why my
friends, that delicate little creature,
that boy, had never known a harsher
tone than q flute note before that
time. Now he has gone inside. He
was told to do something and he did
it. There was just enough of the in
stinct of obedience in him, inherited
from his ancestors perhaps, to cause
him to obey. He did go in and find
what time it was. Whether he sur
vived or not, ! am not prepared to say.