Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-05-30

idealistic that he was constantly look
ing for the best qualities in his worst
pupils-and often finding them! A
child had only to present himself to
Mr.. HertZmeyer, poor and ragged or
generally unpreposSeSsing for him to
remind himself that there before him
sat an incipient Abraham Lincoln.
In his first year of teaching in
School Number Nine succession Of
convictions reliable and dependable.
But in his second year Mr.. Hertzmeyer
ran afoul of Minnie CAN'T. Minnie
came into the seventh grade with a
reputation already made. She was the
despair of the school board. She was
the thorn in the side of the grade
school principal, Miss WEIGH.
Miss WEIGH had encountered pre-
varicators before but never anything
in Minnie's class. Mr.. Hertzmeyer had
heard Minnie's name frequently as she
was an unfailing subject of discussion
at faculty meetings. In his heart Mr..
Hertzmeyer had felt a little scornful of
the teachers who had struggled in vain
with Minnie. They did not understand
child psychology they did not under
stand a child's need for attention, they
did not know how to use clinical meth
DDS of approach. He felt quite COM
petent to deal with Minnie Gantz. She
came from good decent people. She was
very bright, the best speller in School
Number Nine, wrote the best hand, was
always waving her arm aloft to re-
cite.
teacher couldn't do with such child!
She was also, Mr.. Hertzmeyer noted
extremely popular and even children
whose parents forbade them to play
with Minnie took their punishment
rather than forego the favor of her
company. So. as Grade Seven assembled
after the vacation period, Mr.. Hertz
meyer rather looked forward to Minnie
as mathematician might look for
ward to the pleasure of solving a diff
ficult problem others had failed to
solve.
1t would have been a blow to Mr..
Hertzmeyer if he had known that his
success with the seventh grade rested
much more securely on his appearance
and his athletic reputation and abil-
ity than it did on his psychology. Mr..
Hertzmeyer had played end for State
on championship team. He was six
feet two and he weighed 200 pounds
and he was a handsome young man
with smooth brown hair and bright
blue eyes and clean red and brown
complexion. Aside from these gifts he
had the look of a crusader
If his sense of humor was still some
what undeveloped the seventh grade
didn't know it. So was theirs. They
worshipped him and took his word as
law When he made a little joke they
practically went into commissions Of
laughter and when he was stern they
almost broke their hearts trying to
placate him.
He began with the well-established
technique, known to teachers long be-
fore there were psychiatric clinics, Of
making a pet of Minnie. He put her up
near his desk, he allowed her to gath
err papers and clean the blackboard.
Minnie loved this. She was almost Of
fensively important and intimate in
her manner to him.
They got on so we'll the first two
weeks of school that Lewis began to
wonder where Minnie had gained her
reputation as a liar. He had been told
by Miss WEIGH and Minnie'S former
teachers that you could not believe a
word she said. There was nothing prac-
tical or gainful about her lying. There
were people who thought she lied just
for the love of it but of course Mr.
Hertzmeyer could not believe anything
so simple as that. He decided to apply
a little psychology to Minnie before
she started telling him whoppers and
one evening when she was cleaning
the blackboard and he was grading
arithmetic papers he complimented her
on her perfect paper.
The reason you love arithmetic,