LB ilil^-''-' 
 30JI ill 
 
f ETfrHANGE 
 
 AUG 201913 
 
 The Evolution of the Modern 
 Concept of School Discipline 
 
 THESIS 
 
 Presented to the Faci lty of the Graduate School of the Uni- 
 versity OF Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the 
 Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 
 
 BY 
 
 QUINCY A. KUEHNER. 
 
 J913 
 
The Evolution of the Modern 
 Concept of School Discipline 
 
 THESIS 
 
 Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the Uni- 
 versity OF Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the 
 Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 
 
 QUINCY A. KUEHNER. 
 
 1913 
 

 d 
 
 I 
 
Abstract. 
 
 Thesis: The Evolution of the Modern Concept of 
 School Discipline 
 
 Chapter I. The Old Method of Discipline. 
 
 A brief account of the use of the rod in former times in the 
 Schoolroom. 
 
 Chapter II. The Factors Which Were Operative in Bringing 
 About the Modern Concept of School Discipline. 
 
 (a) Individuals. 
 
 Presents and sums up the arguments for milder discipline 
 found in the writings of educational thinkers belonging to peri- 
 ods prior to the latter part of the eighteenth century. 
 
 (b) Movements 
 
 Discusses briefly the influence of social and political changes 
 upon the spirit of the Schoolroom. Finds in Rousseau's writings 
 the foundation of the nineteenth century educational develop- 
 ment. Shows Rosseau's influence upon Pestalozzi, and discusses 
 the influence of Pestalozzianism, Herbartianism, the Froebelian 
 movement, the Child Study movoment, and other factors, upon 
 the treatment of the child. 
 
 Chapter III. School Discipline in the Ught of Representative 
 Educational Thinkers of Recent Times. 
 
 Presents, Compares and Summarizes views and suggestions, 
 on school discipline, of several prominent recent educational 
 thinkers, and relates them to the movements with which they 
 were associated. 
 
 Conclusion : Presents briefly what appears to be most 
 helpful in disciplining a school, as suggested by the educational 
 thinkers consulted. 
 
 Bibliography : Contains specific references to the works 
 and parts of works consulted. 
 
 263983 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept 
 of School DiscipHne 
 
 Introductory Note 
 
 No discussion of educational practice can be considered 
 complete if it fails to take into account the question of 
 School discipline. The belief is quite common, among those 
 who are engaged in the work of teaching, that this question 
 does not receive the amount of consideration it should, in 
 treatises on education, in institutes and in other organiza- 
 tions for the improvement of teachers. Probably more 
 teachers leave the profession because of failure in discipline 
 than for any other single reason. Many of the educational 
 leaders of our day speak very earnestly of the doctrine of 
 interest and ithe love of children, and it is well that these 
 highly important factors are properly emphasized; but we 
 must not lose sig*ht of the fact that, in spite of splendid 
 theory, practice brings us face to face with pupils who need 
 special treatment along the line of discipline. The teacher 
 who knows the practice of successful masters in dealing with 
 such pupils will, in many instances, be able to discipline his 
 school more successfully than he could without this knowl- 
 edge. These considerations justify a study of school dis- 
 cipline, and a presentation of the methods of discipline sug- 
 gested or employed by several recent and contemporary 
 educational thinkers. 
 
I 
 
.¥ 
 
 ;/ 
 
 ''^ Chapter I 
 The Old Method of Discipline 
 
 m 
 
 From time immemorial corporal puniishment wias the chief 
 means resorted to in disciplining 'a school. This was con- 
 sidered the proper kind of punishment, not only for breaches 
 of whatever general rules the master laid down, but also for 
 failure in studying the lessons assigned and in doing such 
 other tasks as the master required. The rod was the in- 
 strument by means of which the average master sought to 
 maintain discipline in his school/' Solomon says in Proverbs, 
 13 124: — "He that spareth his rod hateth his son : but he that 
 loveth him chasteneth him betimes." History discloses the 
 fact that thi-s maxim has been considered true in all ages. 
 Nations, who never heard of Solomon's maxim, made un- 
 sparing use of corporal punishment upon offenders, young 
 and old, in school and out of school. Nevertheless, from the 
 earliest times, even to our own day, the schoolmaster is rep- 
 resented as the "wielder of the rod." 
 
 We read that Homer used to be whipped iby his school- 
 master, Toilus, who~aTterward got the title Homeromastix. 
 In his Comedy, "The Clouds," Aristophanes makes "Just 
 Cause" speak of the old Greek education and discipline in 
 these terms : "In the first place it was incumbent that no 
 one should hear the voice "of a boy uttering a syllable; and 
 next that those from the same quarter of the town should 
 march in good order through the streets to the school of 
 the Harpmaster, naked, and in a body, icven if it were to 
 snow as thick as meal. Then again, their master would 
 teach them, not sitting cross legged, to learn by rote a song 
 — raising to a higher pitch the harmony which our fathers 
 transmitted to us. But if any of them were to play the buf- 
 foon, or turn any quavers like these difficult turns the pres- 
 
8 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 ent artists make, he used to be thrashed, being beaten with 
 many blows as banishing the Muses." 
 
 We have evidence, also, of the use of the rod by Roman 
 sc^hoolmasters. Horace says in the second of his Epistles : 
 "When I was little, Orbilius, my master, dictated to me the 
 poems of Livius ; he was fond of flogging me, but I am not 
 dead set against those poems, nor think they 'ought to be 
 destroyed ; but that they should be considered faultless and 
 beautiful and almost perfect, does astonish me." 
 
 In one of his Epigrams (Book IX-LXVIII) Martial ad- 
 dresses the master of a noisy school in his neighborhood as 
 follows: "What right have you to disturb me, abominable 
 schoolmaster, object abhorred alike by boys and girls? 
 Before the crested cocks have broken silence, you begin to 
 roar out your savage scoldings and blows. Not with louder 
 noise does the metal resound on the struck anvil when the 
 workman is fitting a lawyer on his horse ; nor is the noise 
 so great in the large amphitheatre when the conquering 
 gladiator is applauded by his partisans. We, your neigh- 
 bors, do not ask you to allow us to sleep for the whole night, 
 for it is but a small matter to be occasionally awakened; 
 but to be kept awake all night is a heavy affliction. Dismiss 
 your scholars, brawler, and take as much for keeping quiet 
 as you receive for making a noise." In another Epigram 
 to a Schoolmaster, Martial says (Book X-LXII) "Let the 
 Scythian scourge with its formidable thongs, such as flog- 
 ged Marsyas of Celaenae, and 'the terrible cane, the school- 
 master's sceptre, be laid aside, and sleep until the Ides of 
 October. In summer, if boys preserve their health, they do 
 enough." 
 
 ' From the time of the early Greeks and Romans up to the 
 nineteenth century the rod was used unsparingly in all coun- 
 tries and in all classes of schools. Discipline in the mon- 
 asitic schools was severe. During the middle ages it was a 
 universal custom for male and female scholars, without any 
 hesitation about sex, or respect to age, to be chastised for 
 school oiTences. The custom of the day led Abelard to use 
 the rod on his charming pupil, Heloise. She allowed herself 
 
 4 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 9 
 
 to agree to it so willingly that, as he himself writes, "not 
 schoolmaster's indignation but love often moved me to ad- 
 mmister correction." 
 
 ^ Until toward the middle of the last century discipline in 
 the EngHsh Secondary schools and in the charity schools 
 was very severe. Girls as well as boys were whipped, even 
 'on their naked bodies, for the most trifling offences. We 
 find numerous accounts of English ladies who visited their 
 Charity Schools in order to supervise, and even to give ob- 
 ject lessons in flogging the boys and girls. In many of these 
 schools the rules were so minute and strict that no day 
 passed without some violations ; and the proper punishment 
 for offenders was the rod.x 
 
 Some of the masters of Secondary Schools in England 
 have had a proverbial reputation for severity. A headmas- 
 ter 'of Westminster used to say that his rod was the sieve 
 which sifted the wheat of scholarship from the chaflf. The 
 master of another English school had a firm belief in the 
 utility of the rod. One of the undermasters told him one 
 day that a certain pupil appeared to show signs of genius. 
 "Say you so," replied the master, "then begin to flog him 
 to-morrow morning." Floggings have always been admin- 
 istered more or less frequently at Rugby. At Eton the 
 usual rod consisted of three long birchen twigs, bound with 
 string for about a quarter of their length, and a charge of 
 half-a-guinea for birch was made in every boy 'is bill whether 
 he was flogged or not. There was a time when the Eton 
 boys did not consider a flogging disgraceful. Some of them 
 even considered it to be a mark of distinction and got them- 
 selves flogged on purpose. 
 
 All classes had to submit to the rod. Samuel Johnson, 
 as reported by Boswell, studied under a hard master. "He 
 used," said Johnson, "to beat us unmercifully; and he did 
 not distinguish between ignorance and negligence; for he 
 would beat a boy equally for not knowing a thing, as for 
 neglecting to know it. He would ask a boy a question, and 
 if he did not answer it he would beat him, without consider- 
 ing w'hether he had an opportunity of knowing how to an- 
 
10 
 
 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 swer it." Yet Johnson, evidently, believed in flogging as a 
 spur to studying. For, when one of -his friends asked him 
 how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of Latin, he 
 answered, "My master whipped me very well. Without 
 that, Sir, I should have done nothing." We have said that 
 all classes had to submit to the rod. Johnson was a genius 
 from the poorer class of society. On the other hand, when 
 George III was asked by the tutor how the young princes 
 Avere to be treated, he replied promptly: "If they deserve it 
 let them be flogged. Do as you used to do at Westminster." 
 
 What has been said of the use of corporal punishment in 
 the schools of England is equally true of those in Scotland 
 and on the continent. The- instrument in use in Scotland 
 was more commonly "the taws," a long strap of tolerably 
 stout leather, with ends cut into strips. In Germany, not 
 only the boys, but youths up to the age of eighteen or twenty 
 years, were subjected to the rod; and there was a time when 
 few youths-eould boast, on leaving the gymnasium, of never 
 ha^nng received corporal punishment. 
 
 The following record was kept by a Swabian Schoolmas- 
 ter named Hauberle. It extends over fifty-one years and 
 seven months' experience as a teacher: 911,527 blows with a 
 cane; 124,010 with a rod; 20,989 with a ruler; 136,715 with 
 the hand; 10,295 over the mouth; 7,905 boxes on the ear; 
 1,115,800 snaps on the head; 22,763 nota benes with Bible, 
 Catechism, hymnbook, and grammar; jyy times boys had to 
 kneel on peas; 613 times on triangular blocks of wood; 
 5,001 had to carry a timber ware; and 1,701 hold the rod 
 high ; the last two being punishments of his own invention. 
 Of the blows with the cane 800,000 were for Latin vowels, 
 and 76,000 of those with the rod for Bible verses and hymns. 
 He used a scolding vocabulary of over 3,000 terms of which 
 one-third were of his own invention. 
 
 . In France also a rigid system of discipline prevailed. 
 Ravisius Textor, who was rector of the University of Paris, 
 in one of his epistles writes thus concerning the treatment 
 of boys: "If they offend, i,f they are detected in falsehood, 
 if they slip from the yoke, if they murmur against it, or com- 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 11 
 
 plain in ever iso little a degree, let them be severely w^^hipt. 
 And if they endeavor by mollifying speeches to disarm the 
 preceptor's anger, let all their words be given to the wind." 
 
 * The Jesuits had a system of lay punishment. By it the 
 priestly teacher was kept above the details of the rod, which, 
 with them also was the accepted medicine for human short- 
 comings in those cases where persuasion and argument 
 failed. In their Constitutiones, IV, i6, we have the follow- 
 ing: "Propter eos, qui tam in diligentia suis studiis adhi- 
 benda quam in iis, quae ad bonos mores pertinent, peccav- 
 erint, et cum quibus sola verba bona et exhortationes non 
 sufHciunt, Corrector, qui de Societate non sit, constituatur, 
 qui pureo'S in timore contineat et eos, quibus id opus erit, 
 quique castigationis hujusmodi erunt capaces, castiget." 
 
 It appears that several centuries ago pupils were sometimes 
 flogged in school, not for any offence or omission or unwill- 
 ingness or incapacity to learn, but upon the abstract theory 
 that they ought to be flogged. Erasmus, the great human- 
 Jst, says that 'this was the principle upon which he was 
 flogged. He was a favorite with his master, who had good 
 hopes of his disposition and abilities, but flogged him to see 
 how he could bear the pain. The result was that the rod 
 nearly spoiled the child ; his health and spirits were broken 
 by it and he began to dislike his studies. 
 
 * As has been already intimated, corporal punishment was 
 formerly administered even in Colleges and Universities. 
 We read that Dr. Potter, of Trinity College, flogged a col- 
 legian, though arrived at man's state and wearing a sword 
 by his side. Dr. Johnson in his Memoir of Milton says : "I 
 am ashamed to relate what I fear is true, that Milton was 
 one of the last students in either University that suffered 
 the public indignity of corporal correction." 
 
 . A century or more ago, school discipHne in the United 
 States was hardly less severe than in European Countries. 
 Indeed, the teacher, who in our day, should treat his pupils 
 like many were treated in those times, would be held up to 
 scorn by the press and might count himself fortunate if he 
 were not prosecuted by some society for the prevention of 
 
 '^^ wer< 
 
 L 
 
12 The Evolution of Ibe Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 cruelty to children. With us, too, most masters knew of 
 no way of imparting knowledge but by the rod. 
 
 The following quotation from the "Life of Josiah 
 Quincy/' gives a picture of school, such as it was often found 
 in our country, in the latter part of the eighteenth century. 
 Speaking of his experience as a pupil at Phillips Academy, 
 from the age of six to the age of fourteen years, Quincy 
 says : "The discipline of the Academy was severe and to a 
 child, as I was, disheartening. The Preceptor was distant 
 and haugthy in his manners. I have no recolleotion of his ever 
 having shown any consideration for my childhood. Fear 
 was the only impression I received from his treatment of 
 myself and others. I was put at once into the First Book 
 of Cheever's Accidence, and obliged, with the rest of my 
 classmates, to get by heart passages of a book which I could 
 not, from my years, possibly understand." He says, fur- 
 ther, that he had to sit four hours in the morning and four 
 hours in the afternoon studying lessons he did not under- 
 stand ; that he went over Cheever's Accidence about twenty 
 times before mastering it ; and that for the first four years 
 of his life at the Academy he was tormented with studies 
 not suited to his age. 
 
 In other lands discipline was just as severe as in those 
 already mentioned. A pedagogical maxim of the Egyptians 
 was, "A boy's ears are on his back; he hears when he is 
 beaten." Reprimands were also used as a corrective, and a 
 youth could be punished by confinement to the temple for 
 three months. In China the bamboo has always been ap- 
 plied frequently and mercilessly. Although, owing to the 
 unassertiveness of the pupils, discipline in India is somewhat 
 milder than in some other countries, yet pupils are frequent- 
 ly beaten upon the back with a rope or a split bamboo. 
 
 Discipline among the Jews was always rigorous, especially 
 with the younger children. This is proved by many pas- 
 sages in the Bible : "Withhold not correction from the child 
 for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou 
 shalt beat him with a rod and shalt deliver his soul from 
 
:^ 
 
 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 13 
 
 hell." Again, "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and 
 
 let not thy soul spare for his crying." 
 
 We have given sufficient evidence to verify what has al- 
 ready been stated, that in former times, corporal punish- 
 ment was the chief means by which the average master 
 sought to maintain discipline in his school. Such individual 
 examples as have been cited do, at least in some measure, 
 indicate the practice of the time in which they occurred. 
 The numerous protests against this harshness and cruelty, 
 which shall be presented, presently, serve still further as 
 evidence of the extent to which it was practiced. The reader 
 who is looking for additional evidence on the question of 
 corporal punishment will find it in Barnard's Journail 
 of Education, or in shorter works, such as Cooper's 
 "Flagellation and the Flagellants" and Compayre's "His- 
 tory of Pedagogy." 
 
 Chapter II 
 
 Some Factors Operative in Bringing About the Modern; 
 Concept of Discipline 
 
 (a) Individuals 
 
 Already in ancient—tiiofiSr we find some Yoici^s .a^raiasl. 
 severity Jn_5jah£LQl„discipline.. In the 'TDaws" Plato says: 
 "A free mind ought to learn nothing as a slave. The lesson 
 that is made to enter the mind by force, will not remain 
 there. Then use no violence toward children, the rather 
 cause them to learn while playing." In his "Discourse on 
 the Training of Children" EJutacch. says "Children are to be 
 won to follow liberal studies hjL>£2diQJDtatiiHis_aind rational 
 motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whip- 
 ping or any other contumelious punishments." He says fur- 
 ther that children are dulled and discouraged from the 
 performance of their tasks, partly by reason of the smart of 
 their stripes, and partly because of the disgrace thereby 
 inflicted. 
 
14 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School'Discipline 
 
 On the same subject, Quintilian, in his "Institutes of 
 Oratory," says : "But that boys shouW suffer corporal pun- 
 ishment, though it be a received custom, I by no means 
 approve ; first, because it is a disgrace, and a punishment for 
 slaves, and in reaHty (as will be evident if you imagine the 
 age changed) an affront; secondly, because, if a boy's dis- 
 position be so abject as not to be amended by reproof, he 
 will be hardened, like the worst of slaves, even to stripes; 
 and lastly, because, if one who regularly exacts his tasks be 
 with him, there will not be the least need of any such chas- 
 tisement." Quinjilian closes his discussion of corporal pun- 
 ishment with a sentence which would seem to belong to the 
 twentieth, rather than to the first century A. D. He says : 
 y*It will be sufficient to intimate that no man should be 
 allowed too much authority over an age so weak and so 
 unable to resist ill-treatment." 
 
 Anselm (cir 1033-1109), called the father of Scholasticism, 
 prptested against the harsh discipline in the schools of his 
 time. "Day and night," said an abbot to him, "we do noit 
 cease to chastise the children confided to our care, and they 
 grow worse and worse." Anselm replied, "Indeed ! you do 
 not cease to chastise them ! And when they are grown up, 
 what will they become ? Idiotic and stupid. A fine educa- 
 tion that which makes brutes of men! If you were to 
 plant a tree in your garden, and were to enclose it on all 
 sides so that it could not extend its branches, what would 
 you find when, at the end of several years, you set it free 
 from its bands ? A tree whose branches would be bent and 
 crooked ; and would it not be your fault, in having so unrea- 
 sonably confined it ? 
 
 Gerson (1363-1429) was, for some time. Chancellor of 
 the University of Paris. In his work, "De Parvulis ad 
 Christum Trahendis," he demands of teachers patience and 
 tenderness. He condemns corporal punishment and says: 
 "Above all else let the teacher make an effort to be a father 
 to his pupils. Let him never be angry with them. Let him 
 always be simple in his instruction, and relate to his pupils 
 what is wholesome and agreeable." 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 15 
 
 Vittorino da Feltre (i 378-1446) was one of the early 
 Humanists. After spending nearly twenty years, as learner 
 and teacher, at the University of Padua he opened a school 
 at Mantua. This school offered a striking contrast to most 
 of the other schools of the time. In his methods Vittorino 
 was influenced by the treatises of Plutarch and Quintilian, 
 from which we have already quoted. These two treatises 
 had just been discovered in their complete form and were 
 eagerly read by the scholars of the time. 
 
 Vittorino's school house was called I^a Giocosa — ^the 
 Pleasant House; and was decorated with frescoes of chil- 
 dren at play. Like Gerson, Vittorino definitely held him- 
 self the father of his scholars. There is some evidence to 
 show that it was this characteristic of Vittorino that later 
 attracted Pestalozzi. 
 
 Vittorino's singleness of purpose was felt in his school. 
 He lived a common life with his scholars in meals, games 
 and excursions. He shared their pleasures and interests and 
 thus harsh punishment among his sixty or seventy boys 
 was not needed. Corporal punishment was very seldom 
 resorted to, and then only after deliberation and as the al- 
 ternative to expulsion. 
 
 Vittorino always encouraged the healthy activity of 
 childhood and cultivated skill in games in all his pupils. 
 Regular exercise in all conditions of weather he regarded 
 as the foundation of health and health as the first necessity 
 of mental progress. In spirit and in practice the Mantuan 
 school of Vittorino was far better than the narrowed and 
 hardened Humanism which later aroused the scorn of Mon- 
 taigne. 
 
 A contemporary of Vittorino, and also one of the early 
 Humanists, was Aeneas Sylvius Piiccolominii, afterwards 
 Pius II. In the year 1450, he wrote a treatise, entitled *'De 
 Liberorum Educatione." In this treatise we find the follow- 
 ing with reference to school discipline: "A conceit of 
 knowledge in a master is only less injurious to his efficiency 
 than looseness of character. Bad example may easily lead 
 to habits which no efforts in later life will enable a man to 
 
16 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 shake off. The master, therefore, must be intellectually 
 aible and sincere, of wide experience and of sound morals. 
 In demeanor he should avoid austerity without falling into 
 vulgar familiarity. A master thus qualified will be com- 
 petent to fulfill his duty, which is to fence in the growing 
 mind with wise and noble precept and example, as a careful 
 gardener hedges round a newly planted tree. For in right 
 training of the boy lies the secret of integrity of the man. 
 However, this training must be enforced by friendly, but 
 effective, authority, and should require no recourse to the 
 rod. For as Quintilian and Plutarch taught, a boy must be 
 wonto learning by persuasive earnestness and not be driven 
 to it like a slave. For while pain must never degenerate 
 into flattery, so on the other hand correction which takes 
 the form of personal indignity gives rise to hatred for 
 teachers and subject alike. In fine the master, as Juvenal 
 says, does in reality exercise a parental function towards his 
 pupil and should not be satisfied unless he attract a corre- 
 sponding filial affection." 
 
 Another of the early Humanists, Battista Guarino, in his 
 treatise, "De Ordine Docendi et Studendi," says, concern- 
 ing discipline : "The master must not be prone to flogging 
 as an inducement to learning. It is an indignity to a free- 
 born youth, and its infliction renders learning itself repul- 
 sive, and the mere dread of it provokes to unworthy evas- 
 sions on the part of timorous boys. The scholar is thus 
 morally and intellectually injured, the master is deceived, 
 and the discipline fails of its purpose. The haibitual instru- 
 ment of the teacher must be kindness, though punishment 
 should be retained as it were in the background as a final 
 resource." 
 
 The views just given represent the thought and practice 
 (of some of the leading thinkers and teachers in the first 
 century of Humanism. We know that punishments were 
 savage in the common schools of Petrarch's day, and again 
 that they were hardly less so when Erasmus was a boy. 
 ^^etrarch said: "Let those teach who like disorder, noise 
 and squalor; who rejoice in the screams of the victims as 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 17 
 
 the rod falls gaily, who are not happy unless they can terrify, 
 flog and torture." Erasmus, to whom we have already 
 referred, and whom we shall presently have occasion to 
 quote, likewise vigorously denounced the stern discipline 
 common in his day. Nevertheless, the examples just given-^ 
 show that some of the early humanists not only contem- 
 plated, but actually exhibited, an educational practice in 
 which the capacity of the teacher and the inherent attrac- 
 tiveness of his subjects made the ideal discipline both pos- 
 sible and efifective. 
 
 Desiderius Erasimu^,.(i467-i536) was the most famous of 
 all the Humiamsts. His woi^Jtouche.d..-eY,ery phase of the 
 educational bearing of tHe new learning. His influence was 
 confined to no country. This influence was wielded, partly, 
 by his own personal activities, and to a greater extent by his 
 work as a publicist. Few men have published more, and no 
 man has seen his writings so widely disseminated in his own 
 lifetime. 
 
 At another place we have stated, when speaking of 
 Erasmus, that, in his case, the use of the rod almost spoiled 
 the child. The following is what he himself says in his^^ 
 tract, "Of the Education of Youth" : "You may kill some 
 children before you can make them one whit better by 
 beating; and yet at the same time with good words and 
 good usage, you may do what you please with them. Of 
 this temper I own myself to have been when a boy. And 
 my master of whom I was a great favorite, because he was 
 pleased to have conceived great hopes of me, having a 
 mind to get a thorough knowledge of my disposition, did 
 therefore make a trial how I could bear a sound whipping. 
 Upon this a fault was cooked up of which (God knov^) I 
 never so much as dreamed; and accordingly I suffered the 
 discipHne of the school. Immediately I lost all manner of 
 relish to my studies ; and this usage did so damp my spirits 
 that it almost broke my heart. From hence we may see 
 that these illiterate butchers (to give them no better term) 
 ruin many a hopeful lad. These conceited, morose, drunk- 
 en, cruel creatures, exercise this, their severity, as a piece 
 
18 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 of pleasure ; and from another's pain take great satisfaction. 
 They are indeed fitter for the businefss of a butcher or a 
 hangman, than to be instructors of youth. And it is an ob- 
 servation not ill grounded that the most ignorant school- 
 masters are generally the best at this exercise. For what is 
 done in their schools, and in what do they spend their days? 
 Nothing but noisy stripes and chiding^s." 
 
 Erasmus argued for the merciful and gentle way of edu- 
 cation. He judged of human nature according to his own 
 share of it; and therefore, stood for the milder and kinder 
 way of teaching. He advised a study of the child and in- 
 sisted upon the personal care and direction of his studies. 
 He recognized the function of the mother, the importance 
 of play and of exercise, and the necessity of keeping educa- 
 tion vitally in touch with the life of the times. Many of his 
 observations on method, and on other matters pertaining to 
 education, possess permanent value. 
 
 Another educational writer who deserves a place in this 
 discussion is the English Humanist, Roger Ascham (1515- 
 1568). His treatise on education, entitled "The Scholemas- 
 ter," from which we shall presently quote, was not publish- 
 ed until 1 571, three years after Ascham's death. The 
 ''Schoolmaster" contains reform ideas both as to the sub- 
 ject of method and as to the matter of discipHne. In Book 
 I, of this treatise, Ascham discusses the bringing up of 
 youth ; and here he speaks, among other things, of the gen- 
 eral manner and temper in which the instruction of youth 
 ought to be conducted. He wishes that "a gentle nature be 
 in a schoolmaster" and declares that "love is fitter than 
 fear, gentleness better than heating to bring up a child 
 rightly in learning." 
 
 He says : "With the common use of teaching and beating 
 in common schools of England, I will not greatly contend ; 
 which if I did, it were but a small grammatical controversy 
 neither belonging to heresy nor treason, nor greatly touch- 
 ing God nor the prince, although in very deed, in the end, 
 the good or ill bringing up of children, doth as much serve 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 19 
 
 to the good or ill service of God, our prince and our whole 
 country, as any one thing doth beside. 
 
 ''I do gladly agree with all good schoolmasters in these 
 points; to have children brought to good perfectness in 
 learning, to all honesty in manners ; to have all faults rightly 
 amended, to have every vice severely corrected. But for the 
 order and way that leadeth rightly to these points we some- 
 what differ; for commonly many schoolmasters, some as I 
 have seen, more as I have heard tell, be of so crooked a na- 
 ture, as when they meet with a hardwitted scholar, they 
 rather break him than bow him, rather mar him than mend 
 him. For when the schoolmaster is angry with some other 
 matter, then will he soonest fall to beat his scholar; and 
 though he himself should be punished for his folly ; yet must 
 he beat some scholar for his pleasure, though there be no 
 cause for him to do so, nor yet fault in the scholar to de- 
 serve so. 
 
 "These ye will say, be fond schoolmasters, and few they be 
 that be found to be such. They be fond, indeed, but surely 
 over many such be found everywhere. But this will I say, 
 that even the wisest of your great beaters do as oft punish 
 nature as they do correct faults. Yea, many times, the bet- 
 ter nature is sorer punished. For if one by quickness of wit 
 take his lesson readily, another by hardness of wit taketh it 
 not so speedily ; the first is always commended, the other is 
 commonly punished ; when a wise schoolmaster should rath- 
 er discreetly consider the right disposition of both their na- 
 tures, and not so much weigh what either of them is able to 
 do now as what either of them is likely to do hereafter. For 
 this I know not only by reading of books in my study, but 
 also by experience of life abroad in the world, that those 
 which be commonly the wisest, the best learned, the best 
 men also, when they be old, were never commonly the quick- 
 est of wit when they were young." 
 
 Montaigne (i 533-1 592) scorned the narrow Humanism 
 of his time. In his essays, "Of Pedantry" and "Of the Edu- 
 cation of Children" he anticipates some modern educational 
 
20 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 -ideas. One of these is that harsh methods of discipHne and 
 instruction do not produce the best results. 
 
 In the essay, "Of the Afifection of Fathers to Their Chil- 
 dren," Montaigne says, "I condemn all violence in the edu- 
 cation of a gentle soul that is designed for honor and liberty. 
 I am of the opinion that what can not be done by reason, 
 prudence and tact is never to be effected by force — I have 
 never observed other effects of whipping than to render 
 children more cowardly or more wilful and obstinate." 
 
 In his essay "Of Anger" Montaigne says: "There is no 
 passion that so turns men from their right judgment as an- 
 ger. No one would demur at punishing with death a judge 
 who should condemn a criminal on account of his own 
 wrath. Why, then, should parents and teachers be allowed 
 to whip children in their anger? It is then no longer cor- 
 rection, but revenge. * * * i^et us defer the business 
 (of punishment) so long as the pulse beats quick. Things 
 will appear otherwise when we are calm and cool." 
 
 In the essay "Of the Education of Children," Montaigne 
 proposes a method for training the understanding and the 
 judgment in stead of merely burdening the memory as was 
 done in the schools of his day. Concerning discipline he 
 says: "This method of education ought to be carried on 
 with a firm gentleness, quite contrary to the practice of our 
 pedants, who, instead of tempting and alluring children to 
 letters, present nothing before them but rods and ferules, 
 horror and cruelty. Away with this violence ! Away with 
 this compulsion! than which I certainly believe nothing 
 more dulls and degenerates a well born nature * * * 
 The strict government of most of our Colleges has always 
 displeased nie * * * They are mere jails where im- 
 prisoned youths are taught to be debauched by being pun- 
 ished for it before they do so. Do but come in when they 
 are about their lesson, and you shall hear nothing but the 
 outcries of boys under execution, and the thundering of 
 pedagogues, drunk with fury. A very pretty way this to 
 tempt these tender and timorous souls to love their book ! 
 leading them on with a furious countenance, and. a rod in 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 21 
 
 hand! A wretched and pernicious way! How much more 
 decent would it be to see their classes strewed with leaves 
 and flowers, than with bloody stumps of birch ! Were it left ^ 
 to my ordering I should paint the school with pictures of 
 joy and gladness, Flora and the Graces, as the philosopher 
 Speusippus did his ; that where their profit is they mig'ht 
 there have their pleasure too." 
 
 From the views of Montaigne, a social reahst, we turn to 
 Wolfgang von Ratich (Ratke), a sense realist. Ratke (1571- 
 1635) was the pioneer of the modern inductive school, the 
 predecessor of Comenius. He thought that the remedy for 
 many of the social evils existing in his time was to be found 
 in an improved system of schools — sl system improved in u-- 
 respect both of the substance and method of teaching. As 
 a result of this belief he stated and practiced a number of 
 reform principles of education. One of these principles 
 wais, "Everything without violence." He says, "The young 
 should not be beaten to make them learn or for not having 
 learnt. It is compulsion and stripes that set young people 
 against studying. Boys are often beaten for not having 
 learnt ; ibut they would have learnt had they been well 
 taught. The human understanding is so formed that it has 
 pleasure in receiving what it should retain; and this pleasure 
 3^ou destroy by your harshness. Where the master is skill- 
 ful and judicious, the boys will take to him and to their les- 
 sons. Folly lurks indeed in the heart of the child and must 
 be driven out with the rod ; but not by the teacher." 
 
 From Ratke it is in order to proceed to a discussion of 
 John Amos Comenius (i 592-1670). The subject of school 
 discipline he treats in Chapter XXVI of the "Great Didac- 
 tic." According to Comenius, the end of discipline is not 
 the punishment of a transgressor for a fault he has commit- 
 ted, but the prevention of the recurrence of the fault. The 
 master must execute punishment without passion, anger or 
 hatred, but in such a way that the boy under discipline will ^^ 
 recognize that it is done for his good. In the matter of 
 studies, discipline must not be severe ; in that of morals it 
 should be. Subjects, rightly arranged and taught, them- 
 
22 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 selves attract and allure the great majority of pupils ; and if 
 they are not rightly taug'ht, the fault is in the teacher, not 
 the pupil. The teacher who cannot allure to study by skill, 
 will succeed still more poorly iby the application of force. 
 Stripes and blows will not create a love of literature, but, 
 on the contrary, they will produce weariness and disgust. 
 
 Xa-oommand obedience and respect .the teacher- must 
 himself, in his own person and conduct, be an example of all 
 Tie requires from others ; and must have a genuine fatherly 
 concern for his pupils. He must carefully and patiently do 
 all in his power before utterly despairing of any pupil. If 
 gentler methods fail more violent remedies must be applied. 
 "Extrema in Extremis." 
 
 In speiaking of individuals who either by word or exam- 
 ple, or iboth, stood for a milder form of discipline and gen- 
 tler methods of teaching, mention must be made of St. 
 Cyran (i 581-1643), who was the founder of the Port Royal 
 Schools. Although the work of these schools and the 
 spread of their educational doctrines were due rather to 
 Nicole, Lancelot, Arnauld, Coustel, Rollin, and others, the 
 spirit in which they were conducted, as long as they existed 
 (1637-1661), w^as largely the spirit of their founder. 
 
 St. Cyran usually reduced all that ought to be done with 
 children to three things: to speak little, to bear much, to 
 pray still more : The teacher was to work more by the si- 
 lent forces of love and example than by precept. To gain 
 the affection of children it was worth while to share in their 
 amusement. It is a fact that the grave and austere St. 
 Cyran played ball with little ones of seven years old. Pun- 
 ishment, especially corporal punishment, was to be used 
 only in the last resort when patience and expostulation and 
 all gentler means had failed; and even then not without 
 fervent prayer. St. Cyran said that, to punish without pre- 
 vious prayer was to forget that everything depended upon 
 the blessing of God, and upon His grace, which we must try 
 to draw down upon the children by our patience. Both in 
 spirit and in practice the Port Royal Schools were singularly 
 in advance of their time. 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 23 
 
 We tjim.,3iow-4o~4iie -English philosopher , John Locke 
 (1632^704), According to him the process of education 
 consists in a thorough discipline of the body and of the 
 mind. His educated man is one who possesses "a sound 
 mind in a sound body." To attain this end, authority is re- 
 quired, either the authority of the parent or the master, the 
 latter preferably a tutor. But Locke was opposed to the 
 severity v^ith which this authority was commonly exercised 
 in his day. The following quotations taken from his 
 ''Thoughts Concerning Education," show his attitude to- 
 ward corporal punishment. 
 
 "The usual lazy and short way, chastisement, and the rod, 
 which is the only instrument of government that tutors 
 generally know, or even think of, is the most unfit of any to 
 be used in education. 
 
 "This kind of punishment contributes not at all to the 
 mastery of our natural propensity to indulge corporal and 
 present pleasures, and to avoid pain at lany rate ; but rather 
 encourages it ; and thereby strengthens that in us, which is 
 the root from whence spring all vicious actions and the ir- 
 regularities of life. From what other motive, but of sensual 
 pleasure and pain does a child act who drudges at his book 
 against his inclination, or abstains from eating unwhole- 
 some fruit, that he takes pleasure in, only out of fear of 
 whipping? He in this only prefers the greater corporal 
 pleasure or avoids the greater corporal pain. And what is 
 it to govern his actions and direct his conduct by such ac- 
 tions as these? What is it, I say, but to cherish that princi- 
 ple in him which it is our business to root out and destroy. 
 And, therefore, I can not think any correction useful to a 
 child, where the shame of suffering for having done amiss, 
 does not work more upon him than the pain. 
 
 "This sort of correction naturally breeds an aversion to 
 that which it is the tutor's business to create a liking to. 
 How obvious it is to observe that children come to hate 
 things which were at first acceptable to them, when they 
 find themselves whipped, and chid, and teased about them. 
 And it is not to be wondered at in them ; when grown men 
 
24 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline ^ 
 
 would not be reconciled to anything by such ways. Who is 
 there that would not be disgusted with any innocent recrea- 
 tion, in itself indifferent to him, if he should with blows, or 
 ill language be hauled to it, when he had no mind? or be 
 constantly so treated, for some circumstance in his applica- 
 tion to it ? This is natural to be so. Offensive circumstances 
 ordinarily infect innocent things, which they are joined 
 with. 
 
 "Such a sort of slavish discipline makes a slavish temper. 
 The child submits and dissembles obedience, whilst the fear 
 of the rod hangs over him ; but when that is removed, and 
 by being out of sight, he can promise himself impunity, he 
 gives the greater scope to his natural inclination ; which by 
 this way is not at all altered, but on the contrary heightened 
 and increased in him; and after such restraint, breaks out 
 usually with the more violence ; or, 
 
 "If severity carried to the highest pitch does prevail, and 
 works a cure upon the present unruly distemper, it is often 
 bringing in the room of it, worse and more dangerous dis- 
 ease, by breaking the mind, and then in the place of a 
 disorderly young fellow, you have a low-spirited moped 
 creature ; who, however, with his unnatural sobriety he may 
 please silly people, who commend tame inactive children, 
 because they make no noise, nor give them any trouble; 
 yet, at last will probably prove as uncomfortable a thing to 
 his friends, as he will be, all his life, a useless thing to himself 
 and others. 
 
 "Beating then, and all other sorts of slavish and corporal 
 punishments, are not the discipline fit to be used in the edu- 
 cation of those who would have wise, good and ingenuous 
 men; and, therefore, very rarely to be applied, and that only 
 in great occasions, and cases of extremity." According to 
 Ivocke obstinacy is probably the only fault which justifies 
 beating. 
 ^ After this somewhat extended quotation from Locks, it 
 / will be interesting to present the views, on corporal punish- 
 ment, expressed by Charles Hoole, an English Schoolmas- 
 ter in the time of Locke. These views are found in "School- 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 25 
 
 as'tic Discipline/' a book published by Hoole in 1659. He 
 says: "As for inflicting punishments, even upon the mean- 
 est and worst of children, it should ever be the most unwill- 
 ing piece of work that a master can take in hand ; arid, there- 
 fore, he should not be hasty to punish any fault whereof the 
 scholar has not been premonis'hed, except it be such a no- 
 torious crime as a boy can not but know beforehand that he 
 ought not to have done it." Then, after stating the merits 
 and demerits of such instrumemts of punishment, as the fer- 
 ule, the birchen rod and willow wand, Hoole continues, "In- 
 genuous and towardly scholars will not need so much as the 
 shadow of the rod. And towai^ds others that seem to ex- 
 tort a rod from the master whether he will or not, and (as I 
 may say) will enforce him to fight, he should generally use 
 such clemency in his hand as not -to exceed three lashes, in 
 the laying on of which he may contriibute more or less 
 weight, with respect to the demerits of the fault. But of 
 this he should always make sure, that he should never let 
 the offender go from him with a stubborn look or a stom- 
 achful gesture, much less with a squealing outcry or mut- 
 tering to himself ; all of which may be easily taken off with 
 another smart jerk or two; but you should rather let him 
 stand aside a little and see how his stomach will settle." 
 
 We may smile at the quaint frankness with which 
 Charles Hoole expressed himself in regard to the matter of 
 corporal punisliiment. But Hoole was a schoolmaster while 
 Locke was a Philosoplier and a tutor of two boys. If 
 Locke would have undertaken to teach a school of boys, 
 with the educational apparatus of the seventeenth century, 
 he too mig^ht have been inclined to make allowance for a 
 wider range of corporal correction. 
 
 From men engaged in various walks of life we find pro- 
 tests against the stern discipline existing in the schools sev- 
 eral centuries ago. The Rev. Robert South in a sermon 
 delivered in 1678, argued for reasonable discipline in the 
 schools. Among other things he said, "Let not the chas- 
 tisement of the body be managed so as to make a wound 
 whidh shall rankle and fester in the very soul" 
 
25 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 In Spectator, No. 20, is found an article on "Flogging in 
 the Public Schools," written by Sir Richard Steele, the man 
 who with Addison commenced the publication of "The 
 Spectator" in 171 1. In this article Steele strongly opposes 
 the harsh methods of discipline prevailing in the English 
 Schools of his day, and declares that this mode of discipline 
 was in vogue only because schoolmasters failed to observe 
 the natures and capacities o.f the pupils in their charge. 
 Considering the period when it was written this article is 
 Remarkable. The following quotations will be sufficient to 
 show the spirit of the writer. The article opens as follows : 
 
 "I must confess I have very often, with much sorrow, 
 bewailed the misfortune of the children of Great Britain, 
 when I consider the ignorance and undiscerning of the gen- 
 erality of schoolmasters. The boasted liberty we talk of is 
 but a mean reward for the long servitude, the many heart- 
 aches and terrors, to which our childhood is. exposed in go- 
 ing through a Grammar School. Many of these stupid ty- 
 rants exercise their cruelty without any manner of distinc- 
 tion of the capacities of children, or the intention of parents 
 in their behalf. There are many excellent tempers which 
 are worthy to be nourished and cultivated with all possible 
 diligence and care, that were never designed to be acquaint- 
 ed with Aristotle, Tully or Vergil ; and there are as many 
 who have capacities foir understanding every word those 
 great persons have writ, and yet were not born to have any 
 relish of their writings." 
 
 Steele ends the Article by saying : "Let the child's capac- 
 ity be forthwith examined, and he sent to some mechanic 
 way of life, without respect to his birth, if nature designed 
 him for no'thing higher; let him go before he has innocently 
 suffered and is debased into a dereliction of mind, for being 
 what it is no disgrace to be — a plain man. I would 
 not here be supposed to ihave said that our learned men of 
 either robe, who have been whipped at school, are not still 
 men o-f noble and liberal minds; but I am sure that they j 
 would have been much more so, had they never suffered ' 
 that Infamy." ^ 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 27 
 
 This must end our account of influential men who ex- 
 pressed opposition to the cruel methods of school discipline ' 
 common in their time. The list mig'ht be greatly extended. 
 The one thing which is demanded by most of them is a spirit 
 of love and of fatherly concern in teaching children. This 
 spirit is demanded upon various grounds. By Gerson and 
 the Port Royalists it is demanded upon rehgious grounds; 
 by Erasmus and Montaigne upon social and humanitarian 
 grounds ; by Vittorino, Ascham, Ratich, Comenius and oth- 
 ers, more particularly upon pedagogical grounds. It is, of 
 course, impossible to measure the influence of any one of 
 these men upon the educational practice of the times in 
 which he lived. But each of them certainly stimulated the 
 thoughts and actions of a greater or smaller number of 
 other men. We cannot believe that any man, whose words 
 on any subject have come down through the centuries, 
 spoke altogether in vain to his own age. No man is entirely 
 exotic ; he is still a product of his own times and environ- 
 ment ; he expresses what at least some others of his time 
 think and feel ; he gives voice to a more or less vague spirit 
 of the times in which he lives; he will have a following. In 
 view of these consideratio'ns the men, whose names have 
 been mentioned, deserve a place in a discussion of the evolu- 
 tion of our modern concept of school discipline. 
 
 (b) Movements 
 
 In the latter half of the eighteenth century the people, in 
 what are now the most highly civilized counitries, rapidly 
 emerged from their former condition. Old things passed 
 away. As a result of the growing spirit of freedom and of 
 democracy, a new man and a new society were born. The 
 new man was more free, the new society was more generous 
 than the previous systems of monarchy had ever permitted' 
 to exist. This change, which was brought about in the con- 
 dition of society at large, was also reflected in the school- 
 room. As early as 1790, Benjamin Rush, arguing against 
 corporal punishment in schools, said that such punishment, 
 
28 
 
 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 inflicted in an arbitrary manner, was contrary to the spirit 
 of liberty and should not be tolerated in a free government. 
 
 V The spirit of democracy, which brought about the revo- 
 lution of the latter part of the eighteenth century, was fol- 
 
 I lowed by a demand for education to perpetuate democratic 
 ideals. Thus there arose an increased demand for free pub- 
 lic schools. The educational movement for the sake of 
 democracy was prominently emphasized by educators in our 
 
 > country until about 1850. It is now taken for granted. As 
 a result oi this movement free common schools were multi- 
 plied very rapidly. New subjects were added to the curric- 
 ulum. This helped to make school more interesting than 
 it was, for example, under the old formal drill of Latin 
 Gramimar, parsing exercises and possibly a few other dry 
 subjects, 'and so aided materially in reducing the amount 
 of disorder in the school room. There can be no doubt that, 
 in addition to the spirit which opposed despotism in the 
 school room, as well as in society at large, the introduction 
 of new material into the curriculum had a marked influence 
 in lessening the severity of school discipline. 
 
 The general discontent which preceded the revo'lution in 
 political and social conditions, just referred to, was charac- 
 terized by a freedom of thought scarcely paralleled before 
 or since that time. The human mind respected no external 
 facts. It considered itself called upon to reform all things. 
 In France a group of philosophers arose who contributed 
 probably more than any others to the emancipation ol man 
 and the construction of a new society. These thinkers 
 preached the rights of man as they had never been preached 
 before. One of them, in his last and most influential work, 
 championed the rights of the child. This was Rousseau; 
 his treatise, the Emile. 
 
 It is because of the influence of the Emile upon all great 
 writers on education since Rousseau's time, that this treaut- 
 ise must be touched upon in the present discussion. The 
 ideas which dominate in education at the present time, such 
 as sense perception, self-instruction, mild discipline, the 
 sacredness of childhood, are all found in Rousseau's Emile. 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 29 
 
 The present discussion does not call for a complete presen- 
 tation ai the educational theory of Rousseau. That has 
 been done by a number of able writers. There are certain 
 ideas, however, in the teaching of Rousseau which throw 
 some light on the development of the modern concept of 
 school discipline, and ito point out these is a part of our 
 problem. 
 
 We have stated above that mild discipline and the sacred- 
 ness of childhood are two ideas emphasized by Rousseau. 
 Of these two, the latter, so far as Rousseau himself is con--^ 
 cerned, is the more important. The opening sentence of 
 the Emile contains the keynote to Rous-seau's theory of 
 education. He says : ''Everything is good as it comes from 
 the hands of the Author of Nature ; but everything degen- 
 erates in the hands of man." This conception makes child- 
 hood sacred. The child is originally good. It must be pro- 
 tected from the evils of society and from the evils of educa- 
 tion 'Such as it existed in Rousseau's time. It must, in the 
 first place, get its instruction from nature, which is pure 
 and ennobling. This requires great vigilance and skill on 
 the part of the teacher. Like St. Cyran and the Port Roy- 
 alists, though from an opposite standpoint, Rousseau 
 thought tihat the teacher's work consisted largely in guard- 
 ing souls. "A teacher," says he, "What an exalted soul he 
 should be." And concerning himself he says: "I have too 
 high an opinion of the magnitude of a teacher!s office, and 
 too keen a sense of my own incapacity for it, ever to accept 
 such an employment. * * * j once made a trial of this 
 employment which sufficed to assure me that I had no fit- 
 ness for it." 
 
 Rousseau recognized the importance of a mild disposition 
 in a teacher. In the "Confessions" where he gives an ac- 
 count of his trial and failure as tutor of several children, he 
 says: "When my pupils did not understand me, I raved; 
 and when they showed signs of ugHness, I could have killed 
 them." He felt certain that a child's soul could not be 
 guarded properly by a person having such a temper. Here 
 we have a high ideal of the teacher and his work. Teachers, 
 
^^^ 
 
 30 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 imbued with such an ideal, would never have resorted to 
 all the harshness common in schools at that time. 
 
 Rousseau spoke at a time when public sentiment was 
 thoroughly aroused by a sense of oppression ; when wrongs 
 and abuses were beginning to be keenly felt ; when the sen- 
 timents of his emotional nature were likely to make the 
 deepest impression. Le us bear ithis in mind as we read, by 
 way of illustration, the following quotations from the sec- 
 ond Book of the Emile. A large number of similar quota- 
 tions from this treatise might be given; but the following 
 will be sufficient to establish the point we wish to make : — 
 
 *'What must we think, then, of that bai'barous education 
 which sacrifices the present ito an uncertain future, which 
 loads a child with chains of every sort, and begins by mak- 
 ing him miserable in order to prepare for him, long in ad- 
 vance, some pretended happiness which it is probable he will 
 never enjoy? Were I even to assume that education to be 
 reasonable in its object, how could we witness, without in- 
 dignation, these poor unfortunates, subject to an insupport- 
 able yoke, and condemned, like galley-slaves to never-end- 
 ing toils, without any assurance that such sacrifices will ever 
 be useful to them? The age of mirth is passed in the midst 
 of tears, chastisemenlts, threats and slavery. The victim is 
 tormented for his good and we do not see the death we in- 
 vite, and which is coming to seize him in the mids't of this 
 sad preparation. Who knows how many children perish, 
 the victims of the misdirected wisdom of a father or a 
 teacher. Happily released from his cruelty, the only ad- 
 vantage which they derive from the ills which they have 
 been made to suffer, is to die without looking back with re-» 
 gret on a life of which 'they have known only the torments. 
 
 "O men, be humane ; it is your foremost duty. Be humane 
 to all ages; to everything not foreign to mankind. What 
 wisdom is there for you outside of humanity? Love child- 
 hood, encourage its sports, its pleasures, its amiable in- 
 stincts. Who of you has not sometimes looked back with 
 regret on that age when a smile was ever on the lips, when 
 the soul was ever at peace? Why should you take from 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 31 
 
 those little innocents the enjoyment of a time so short whidh 
 is slipping from them, and of a good so precious which they 
 can not abuse ? Why would you fill with bitterness and sor 
 row those early years so rapidly passing, which will no more 
 return to them than to you ? Fathers, do you know the mo- 
 ment when death awaits your children? Do not prepare 
 for yourselves regrets by taking from them the few moments 
 which Nature has given them. As soon as they can feel the 
 pleasures of existence, allow them to enjoy it ; and at what- 
 ever hour God may summon theni, see to it that they do not 
 die befor^ they have tasted Hfe." 
 
 Who can measure the influence of such words as those 
 just quoted, spoken when they were, in determining man's 
 attitude toward the child? What teacher or parent, after 
 reading the Emile, paradoxical and utterly impracticable as 
 it is, would not be more thoughtful in his treatment of chil- 
 dren? It may be seen why people, forgetting the faults of 
 Rousseau, were so deeply impressed, and aroused to action 
 by his book. A passionate appeal in behalf of childhood 
 for the sake of childhood and, incidentally, for that of future 
 manhood, was what received response. 
 
 So far as punishment is concerned Rousseau proposes the 
 doctrine of natural consequences. This doctrine was later 
 elaborated by Herbert Spencer and shall be presented in 
 our discussion of him. Rousseau says, "Keep the child de- 
 pendent on one thing alone, and you will have followed the 
 order of Nature in his education. OfTer to his indiscreet 
 caprices only physical obstacles or punishments which re- 
 sult from his actions themselves, and which he recalls on oc- 
 casion. Without forbidding him to do wrong, it suffices to 
 prevent him from doing it. Only experience or want of 
 power should serve as law for him." 
 
 One more idea emphasized by Rousseau, and far-reaching 
 in effect, must be included in this discussion. He argued for 
 knowledge gained by experience with things. He was op- 
 posed to the memory drill common in the schools of his 
 time. Indeed, in his plea for education according to nature, 
 he underestimated the real scope and value of memory. He 
 
32 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 saw that one reason why teac^hers were led to punish as 
 much as they did, was because there was very little in 
 school that really interested children. They could not 'be 
 interested in verbal learning which they did not understand. 
 The following paragraph, relative to this condition, ex- 
 plains his attitude. It is not altogether without application 
 in our own time. 
 
 "Teachers complain that the ardor of this age renders 
 the young unruly, and I see that this is true. Is not this 
 their own fault? As soon as they have allowed this ardor 
 to take its course through the senses, are they ignorant that 
 they no longer can give it another? Will the long and life- 
 less sermons of a pedant efface from the mind of his pupils 
 the image of the pleasures which he has conceived? Will 
 they banish from his heart the desires which torment him? 
 Will they allay the ardor of a temperamient whose use he 
 knows ? Will he not be irritated at the obstacles which op- 
 pose the only happiness of whic^h he has an idea? And in 
 the harsh law which we prescribe for him without being 
 able to understand it, what will he see except the caprice and 
 hatred of a man who is trying to torment him? Is it strange 
 that he rebels and hates him in his turn? 
 
 We have already referred to the effect of the general so- 
 cial change and of the movement for democracy upon the 
 spirit of the schoolroom. Of all the various factors which 
 made for these changes, the writings of Rousseau are 
 among the most important. But apart from this particular 
 consideration, it has seemed proper to say at least as much 
 as we have said of the Emile because of its influence upon 
 educational movements. Pestalozzi, of whom we shall speak 
 next, in connection with the Pestalozzian movement, was 
 directly influenced by Rousseau's Emile. Here is what he 
 himself says : — 
 
 "The moment Rousseau's Emile appeared, my visionary 
 and highly speculative mind was enthusiastically seized by 
 this visionary and highly speculative book. I compared the 
 education which I enjoyed in the corner of my mother's 
 parlor, and also in the school which I frequented, with wthat 
 
7^ 
 
 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 33 
 
 Rousseau demanded for the education of his Emilus. The 
 home as well as the public education of the whole world, 
 and of all ranks of society, appeared to me altogether as a 
 crippled thing, which was to find a universal remedy for its 
 present pitiful condition in Rousseau's lofty ideas." 
 
 Pestalozzi labored in making positive and concrete the 
 negative and general principles of Rousseau. So far as 
 sympathy with childhood is concerned, Rousseau, as we 
 have already seen, thoroughly emphasized it in his educa- 
 tional theory. Pestalozzi put this part of Rousseau's theory 
 into practice. Nowhere in the history of pedagogy do we 
 find a better spirit of love and self-sacrifice than was mani- 
 fested by Pestalozzi. Speaking of his experience as teacher 
 of about eighty orphan and destitute children at Stanz, he 
 says : — 
 
 ''I was alone with them from morning till night. It was 
 from me that they could receive all that could do them good, 
 soul and body. All needful help, consolation and instruction 
 they received direct from me. Their hands were in mine, 
 my eyes were fixed on theirs. We wept and smiled together. 
 They forgot the world and Stanz ; they only knew that they 
 were with me and I with them. We shared our food and 
 drink. I was with them in sickness, and in health, and when 
 they slept. I was the last to go to bed and the first to 
 get up. In the bedroom I prayed with them and, at their 
 own request, taught them till they fell asleep." 
 
 Pestalozzi acted toward his children like an affectionate 
 father. But like the best of fathers may, he, too, sometimes, 
 had recourse to corporal punishment when a child was ob- 
 durate and churlish, at least in his experiment at Stanz. 
 He believed, however that the rule of no corporal punish- 
 ment was good, and applicable under favorable conditions, 
 and sought to justify his practice at Stanz, by saying that 
 he was there dealing with an exceptional class of children. 
 He says: ''My punishments never produced obstinacy; the 
 children I had beaten were quite satisfied, if a moment af- 
 terward I gave them my hand and kissed them, and I could 
 
1 
 
 34 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 read in their eyes that the final effect of my blows was really 
 
 joy." 
 
 That Pestalozzi had a genuine love for children is shown 
 by the fact that the children in his school really loved him. 
 One of his pupils at Yverdun wrote later in life : "We all 
 loved him for he loved us all. We loved him so warmly 
 that when some time passed without our seeing him, we 
 were quite troubled about it, and when he again appeared 
 we could not take our eyes off him." Much that goes by 
 the name of Pestalozzianism can not be traced directly to 
 the work of the great reformer, but his permanent influence 
 on the general spirit of the schoolroom cannot be denied. 
 
 Pestalozzianism spread rapidly. To his Institute at Yver- 
 dun teachers came from all quarters. Some of them were 
 sent by the governments of the countries to which they be- 
 longed that they might get initiated into the Pestalozzian 
 system. Largely through the influence of the philosopher, 
 Fichte, Prussia early adopted Pestalozzianism. Other dis- 
 ciples carried the system to other parts of the continent. 
 Pestalozzian principles and methods were found in the 
 somewhat extensive system of training established in 1820, 
 by Samuel Wildespin, in England. Here, too, the "Home 
 and Colonial School Society," founded in 1836, carried out 
 the principles of Wilderspin and Pestalozzi. One of the 
 principles of this society was, that punishments should be 
 light, and that in dealing with an obstinate child you should 
 strive to foster gentle and kindly feelings in him by exhibit- 
 ing them toward him. Although Neef, one of Pestalozzi's 
 assistants, came, as a teacher, to Philadelphia as early as 
 1808, it was not until fifty years after this that Pestalozzian- 
 ism became influential in the schools of the United States. 
 
 Thus far we have spoken only of the influence of one 
 phase of Pestalozzianism, which enters so largely into the 
 development of education in the nineteenth century. The 
 spirit of love for the child, exemplified by Pestalozzi, has 
 done much toward making the life of the child at school 
 more pleasant than it was a century ago. But, apart from 
 this, Pestalozzian principles, as elaborated by his follow- 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 35 
 
 ers, have greatly lessened the burdens of the child, by caus-^ 
 ng instruction to be adapted to its capacities. The fact that^P 
 education is recognized as a process of mental growth with 
 observation, or sense-perception, as its basis, has led to a 
 schoolroom practice which at once makes the work more 
 interesting to the child. Especially is this true of primary 
 education. Generally speaking, the child is no longer com- 
 pelled to study abstract, rules which he can not understand, 
 and the meaning of which may, only perchance, some day 
 dawn upon him. Subjects are analyzed into their simplest 
 elements and then gradually increased in complexity as the 
 child's mind is able to understand them. This is largely a 
 development of Pestalozzi's ideas. He tried, in an empirical 
 way, to put education upon a psychological basis. He did 
 not, and could not, work out the problem involved. This 
 was done by Herbart. 
 
 Herbart gave scientific justification to Pestalozzi's ideas. * 
 According to Herbart's theory, the process of education I 
 consists in the assimilation of new ideas by means of ideas 
 already acquired. The psychological term used to desig- ' 
 nate this process is apperception; and the feeling side of the 
 process of apperception is termed interest. The theoretical 
 exposition of this psychological principle is Herbart's chief 
 work; its elaboration and application in school room prac- 
 tice is the work of his followers. 
 
 From the Herbartian point of view the function of the i 
 teacher is to impart knowledge in such a way that it can be j 
 most rapidly, securely and profitably assimilated. In order 
 to do this, he must know something of the child's previous 
 knowledge, so as to be able to make use of it; he must 
 carefully select his materials of instruction ; and he must ar- 
 range these materials with respect to what has preceded 
 and what follows. We do not need to go into the details of 
 Herbartian method here. What we have said is sufficient 
 to bring out the point we wish to make. It is this : 
 
 The Herbartian teacher has some knowledge of his prob- 
 lem. He works according to a definite theory. His teach- 
 ing instead of being aimless and lifeless, will be interesting. 
 
36 
 
 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 As a result of his own knowledge of, and interest in, the 
 teaching process, he will be likely to arouse interest in his 
 pupils. Indeed, to get his pupils interested in their work, 
 by properly guiding them in acquiring and assimilating new 
 knowledge, is the important part of his problem. If he ac- 
 complishes this he has to a large extent solved the question 
 of discipline. 
 
 The Herbartian is, probably, the most influential move- 
 ment which has afifected modern education. Books on gen- 
 eral method, and on special methods in teaching different 
 branches, have been written by the followers of Herbart. 
 Their influence in our country, at least, is on the increase. 
 That they are doing much toward bringing about an ideal 
 disciphne cannot be questioned. 
 
 In this connection the Froebelian movement must also 
 be mentioned. This movement is characterized by an em- 
 phasis upon the importance of the child. Froebers funda- 
 mental principle was that children are creative rather than 
 receptive. Education thus becomes a process of self-activ- 
 ity. The child must express himself in action based upon 
 his interests and experiences. Froebel's principles have an 
 influence upon important educational tendencies of the pres- 
 ent time. He himself applied them to the kindergarten. 
 Others are applying them to more advanced phases of edu- 
 cation. The kndergarten is now a very important institution 
 in education. It has done a great deal toward changing 
 the attitude of educators and teachers with respect to the 
 child. As a result of its spirit and its methods it has doubt- 
 less contributed largely toward a milder discipline. 
 
 The Child Saudy movement, which has much in common 
 with the Froebelian and Herbartian movements, and which 
 is contemporary with the latter, has contributed no small 
 share toward making the spirit and practice of the school- 
 room what it is to-day. The most prominent representative 
 of this movement in our country is G. Stanley Hall. The 
 study of the child has done a great deal for the welfare of 
 children. Among other things it has brought out and em- 
 phasized the fact that many children have either physical or 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 37 
 
 mental defects which are the cause of retardation in school. 
 It has shown the necessity of special schools for defective^ 
 children. It has made clear the need of medical inspection 
 in schools. It has emphasized the importance of play in 
 education. As a result of the careful study of the child 
 many pupils are now in special schools, who would have 
 'been flogged, a century ago, for failing to do what they 
 really could not. Child study has made many a teacher 
 careful and considerate in his treatment of children. To 
 give some idea of the extent to which it is pursued in our 
 day, mention may here be made of the fact that a ''Bibliog- 
 raphy of Child Study for Years 1908-1909," published by 
 the United States Bureau of Education, contains 1697 titles. 
 
 Some modern psychologists are engaged in the scientific 
 study and treatment of backward children. That this is an 
 important f\eld has been shown by Professor Witmer, of the 
 University of Pennsylania. He has been successful in treat- 
 ing cases of mental and moral deficiency, such as not many 
 years ago, would have been considered hopeless. His work 
 and influence will doubtless mean much for the future wel- 
 fare of certain classes of children, and of the school in gen- 
 eral. 
 
 The psychological, and the scientific tendency in educa- 
 tion, expressed by the various movements we have men- 
 tioned, gave rise to a demand for trained teachers. As men 
 began to see the magnitude of the problem of education and 
 to feel its importance, the work of the public school teacher 
 gradually ceased to be considered a trivial task which any- 
 body, who could read, write and cipher, was qualified to 
 perform. Schools for the training of teachers were estab- 
 lished, and these are continually increasing in number and 
 in efficiency. The training of teachers, as has already been 
 mentioned in discussing the Herbartians, helps them in 
 solving the problems of the schoolroom. They learn to im- 
 part knowledge in a way that it becomes more interesting to 
 the child. While making a plea for the study of pedagogy, 
 the superintedent of one of our largest cities recently said : 
 It is not difficult to-day to get Hi^h School teachers who 
 
38 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 know their subject ; the difficulty lies in getting teachers who 
 know how to impart knowledge so as to secure the interest 
 of their pupils. If they can not do this they will soon find 
 their pupils in wild disorder. 
 
 This gives us the modern attitude toward school disci- 
 pline. If the average class of pupils is disorderly, so as to 
 render effective work impossible, the fault is ascribed to the 
 teacher and not to the pupils. The teacher, it is claimed, 
 does not know how to impart knowledge so as to arouse 
 the interest and call forth the efforts of his pupils. This is a 
 high standard by which to judge a teacher's ability to disci- 
 pline; and the unfortunate teacher who does not possess a 
 certain kind of personaHty may, at times, despair of success. 
 Yet this ideal is making for a maximum of efficiency, with a 
 minimum of punishment in our schools. 
 
 At another place we have stated that the introduction of 
 new subjects into the curriculum, as a result of the demand 
 of education for democracy, made school more interesting, 
 and so lessened the occasions for disorder. This is to a still 
 larger extent true, as a result of the development of science. 
 The movement for the teaching of science, represented by 
 Herbert Spencer, Thomas Huxley and others, has resulted 
 in a great change in the curriculum of the public schools. 
 Much useful and interesting material has been added to it. 
 
 Modern school buildings, modern sclioolrooms, modern 
 school furniture, modern school books, which are, in many 
 cases, well adapted works of art, as compared with books 
 used but two or three decades ago, modern maps, modern 
 schoolroom decorations, all kinds of modern school appa- 
 ratus, shorter sessions, intermissions for relaxation and 
 play, playgrounds equipped with special apparatus — all 
 these things help to make school life incomparably more 
 agreeable than it was a century or more ago, and tend to 
 make school discipline milder. 
 
 Finally we must mention the influence of women upon the 
 spirit of the schoolroom. In 1900, 13 per cent, of the teach- 
 ers in Prussia were women, 55 per cent, in France, 13 per 
 cent, in England and 69 per cent, in the United States. From 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 39 
 
 90 to 95 per cent, of the teachers in our large cities are 
 women. This has an influence on the treatment of the child. 
 "Women are the natural teachers of the race. Nature has 
 given a w^oman a certain sustaining love of childhood, a full 
 measure of sympathy and a soul that responds to the needs 
 of childhood." 
 
 We have discussed briefly what seem to be the most im- 
 portant factors in the development of the modern concept 
 of school discipline. Some of these factors will be brought 
 out more clearly as we present the methods of discipline 
 suggested or emiployed by several recent and contemporary 
 educational thinkers. To this we now proceed. 
 
 Chapter III 
 
 School DiscipHne in the Light of Representative Edu- 
 cational Thinkers of Recent Times 
 
 While speaking of the introduction of Pestalozzian ideas 
 into the schools of the United States, we referred to the in- 
 fluence of Horace Mann. But Mann deserves more than 
 this passing notice in the present discussion. Probably no 
 other educator rendered as distinguished service to the cause 
 of popular education in America. He labored successfully 
 for "the education of the whole people" with "the consent 
 of the whole people," and is known as the father of the 
 American public school system. He made an appeal for the 
 training of teachers which resulted in the founding of Nor- 
 mal Schools in this country. He stood for knowledge most 
 useful to the masses. He pleaded for objective teaching, 
 oral instruction and milder discipline. He championed the 
 cause of higher education for women and of co-education. 
 In this discussion we are particularly concerned with his 
 views aiid suggestions on school discipline. 
 
 Horace Mann's attitude toward the child and its educa- 
 tion was to a large extent determined by his own experi- 
 
40 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 ence in early life. In his personal memoir he tells us that 
 his childhood was not a happy one; that he was by nature 
 elastic and buoyant, but the poverty of his parents subjected 
 him to comtinual privations. He says "I believe in the rugged 
 nursing of Toil, but she nursed me too much." He ac- 
 knowledges, however, that one benefit derived from this 
 hard struggle was industry or dihgence, which became sec- 
 ond nature to him, and which always led him to set about his 
 tasks like a fatalist. 
 
 In Mann's school days a love of knowledge meant love 
 of books. There was no oral instruction — something he 
 became anxious later in life that other children should have. 
 Books for children were few and their contents meagre and 
 miserable. His teachers, he says, were "very good people 
 but very poor teachers." They never taught things from 
 nature. "With all our senses glowing and receptive," says 
 he, "how little were we taught; or rather, how much ob- 
 structi'on was thrust between us and nature's teachings. 
 Our eyes were never trained to distinguish forms or colors. 
 Our ears were strangers to music. So far from being taught 
 the art of drawing, which is a beautiful language by itself, 
 I well remember when the impulse to express in pictures 
 what I could not express in words was so strong that it 
 tingled down to my fingers, then my knuckles were rapped 
 with the heavy ruler of the teacher or cut with his rod, so 
 that an artificial tingling soon drove away the natural one." 
 In these expressions we recognize the ideas of a Pestaloz- 
 zian. Take this account of what Horace Mann says he 
 missed at school and yxifU will know, to a large extent, how 
 amd what he thought children should be taught. "Oh !" 
 says he, "when the intense and burning activity of youthful 
 faculties shall find employment in salutary and pleasing 
 studies and occupations, then will we be able to judge better 
 of the alleged proneness of children to mischief. Until then 
 children have not a fair trial before their judges." No Amer- 
 ican educator labored more earnestly and successfully to- 
 ^ ward giving children this "fair trial." 
 
 Horace Mann's influence spread through the town meet- 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 41 
 
 ing, through his reports on educaticm, which have since 
 become classics, through current articles, pamphlets, and 
 the "Public School Journal," and through his letters. In his 
 Seventh Annual Report, as Secretary of the Massachusetts 
 Board of Education, he gives an account of ihis observations 
 made in the Schools of Europe. According to his views 
 the Prussian schools were superior to any others he saw. 
 As we have already stated, Prussia had 'before this time 
 adopted Pestalozzianism. Here, therefore, Mann saw 
 Pestalozzian practice. Among other things he states that, 
 in Prussia, he never saw a teadher hearing a lesson with a 
 book in his hand; he never saw a teacher sitting; and he 
 never saw a child either arraigned for punishment, under- 
 going it or having recently been punished. He did not in- 
 tend to imply by the last remark that corporal punishment 
 was entirely discarded, but that it was very seldom neces- 
 sary to resort to it. The earnestness and interest of teach- 
 ers in their work, their evidently strong affection for their 
 pupils, and the reciprocal affection engendered by this were 
 generally sufificient to produce obedience. The Seventh 
 Annual Report provoked a great deal of discussion among 
 the educational thinkers and teachers of the time. It is pro- 
 nounced, by such a competent judge as Professor Paul Mon- 
 roe, "one of the most influential educational documents 
 ever published in America." 
 
 In his Ninth Annual Report Mann says that the teacher 
 must not be a hireling. He must love children and love his 
 work. He should enter the schoolroom as the friend and 
 benefactor of his scholars ; should aim to secure their good 
 will; should lead, not drive. The teacher should not lay 
 down a code of laws; he should speak of the duties to be 
 done, of the reasons and rewards appertaining to thenv 
 rather than of ofifences and their punishments. Though 
 corporal punishment may be necessary in extreme cases, it 
 should be abandoned when higher motives can be brought 
 to bear upon the pupils. Fear is neither curative nor re- 
 storative ; it is at some times and in some cases preventive, 
 and hence should not be proscribed from the teacher's list 
 
42 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 of motives. But when boith teacher and pupil reach that 
 higher plane of action toward which we should always be 
 striving, we may hope to substitute love and duty for fear. 
 
 In an address on "The Teacher's Motives," published in 
 Barnard's Journal of Education, Mann gives some more 
 useful advice in regard to discipHne. He urges teachers to 
 be thoughtful in their treatment of pupils, and always to en- 
 
 ^avor to find out a pupil's motives before censuring or 
 punishing him for misconduct. For example, a boy appears 
 headstrong and obstinate on a certain occasion. The teach- 
 er should question him carefully. His obstinacy may be 
 founded upon the noble, though untrained, principle of 
 conscience and firmness; and, if managed rig^htly, he may 
 develop into a power for justice and righteousness. Here, 
 too, Mann exhorts teachers to be patient. While human 
 nature remains as it is now, we must expect much of incon- 
 siderateness and aberration in the young. This can no 
 more be changed in a day than the sun and the rain bring 
 harvest in a day. Thus we find Mann pleading for kindness 
 and considerateness in the treatment of Children. He felt 
 throughout life, as he thought, the evil efifects of his own se- 
 vere discipline, and earnestly labored that other children 
 might have a more pleasant lot than had fallen to him. 
 
 While the influence of Pestalozzianism and a resulting 
 milder discipline began to be felt in the United States 
 through the educational service of Horace Mann, it must 
 not be forgotten that Benjamin Rush argued strongly 
 against corporal punishment, and the prevailing methods 
 of school discipline almost half a century before this time. 
 Rush, to whoim we have already referred, was a patriot who 
 lived during the trying times of the American revolution, 
 and what he wrote on education was written largely from 
 the standpoint of democracy. In 1790 there came from his 
 pen an essay on "Amusements and Punishments Proper for 
 Schools." In some respects this is the most interesting dis- 
 cussion of school discipline we have found in connection 
 with this bit of educational research. 
 
 Rush argues that the amusements of our youth at school 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 43 
 
 sih'ould consist of such exercises as would be most sub- 
 servient ito their future employments in life. These employ- 
 ments are agriculture, mechanical occupations and the busi- 
 ness of the learned professions. In agriculture, he suggests 
 school gardens for amusement; in mechanical occupations, 
 he suggests a form of manual training; in the business of 
 the learned professions, to which he belonged he recom- 
 mends "the amusement derived from cultivating a spot of 
 ground." 
 
 It should be noted here that the ideas expressed by Rush, 
 on the above poin't, are as old as Plato. In the First Book of 
 the "Laws" Plato says: "Children should learn beforehand ] 
 the knowledge which they will afterwards require for their 
 art. For example, the future carpenter should learn to 
 measure or apply the Hne in play; and the future warrior 
 should learn riding, or some other exercise for amusement, 
 and the teacher should endeavor to direct the children's in- 
 clinations and pleasures, by the help of amusements, to their 
 final aim in life." 
 
 Under the discussion of punishments which are proper 
 for schools, Rush says, first, in a general way, that the spirit 
 of making punishments less severe had its effect in civil, ec- 
 clesiastical, mihtary and domestic society, bu(t that this 
 spirit of humanity and civilizations had not yet found its 
 way into the schools. "The schoolmaster," says he, "is the 
 only despot known in free countries." "This," he contin- 
 ues, "is, perhaps, because the little subjects of his arbitrary 
 power have not been in a condition to complain," "I shall 
 endeawr, therefore," he adds, "to plead their cause, and to 
 prove that corporal punishments, exce.pt to children under 
 four or five, are never necessary and always hurtful in 
 schools." Then he gives the following eleven reasons against 
 corporal punishment: — 
 
 I. School children feel the force of rational and moral 
 obligation, and may, therefore, be deterred from com- 
 mitting offences by motives less disgraceful than the 
 fear of corporal punishmertt. 
 
44 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 \ 2. By correcting children for ignorance and negligence 
 ~-^ in school, their ideas of improper and immoral actions 
 
 are confounded. 
 
 ,^3. Parental anger may sometimes produce violent ef- 
 fects upon a child — much more the teacher's anger 
 ■in which there is no admix^ture of parental affection. 
 
 ::^ 4. Injuries are sometimes done to the bodies, and some- 
 times to the intellects of children by corporal punish- 
 ments. 
 
 ^ 5. Corporal punishments, inflicted at school, have a ten- 
 dency to destroy the sense of shame, and thereby to 
 destroy all moral sensibility. 
 
 6. Corporal punishments, inflicted at school, tend to be- 
 get a spirit of violence in boys towards each other, 
 and hatred toward their masters. 
 
 7. Corporal punishments, inflicted at school, beget a 
 hatred to instruction in young people. * * * 
 They are some means by which the devil seeks to keep 
 the world in ignorance. 
 
 8. Corporal punishments are not only hurtful, but un- 
 necessary, in schools. * * Some celebrated and 
 successful schoolmasters get along without them. 
 
 9. Fear of corporal punishment debilitates the body and 
 contracts the capacity of the mind for acquiring 
 
 \ knowledge. 
 
 ^- 10. There is not the proper ratio between ofifence and 
 punishment. Corporal punishments level all capaci- 
 ties and tempers. 
 II. Corporal punishments, inflicted in an arbitrary man- 
 ner, are contrary to the spirit of liberty and should 
 not be tolerated in a free government. 
 I Rush says : "Had I influence enough in our legislature to 
 obtain only a single law, it should be to make the punish- 
 ' ment for striking a boy the same as assaulting and beating 
 f an adult member of society." 
 
 The following is the method which Rush suggests for 
 governing a school : In the first place the teacher should ac- 
 quire the confidence of his pupils by a prudent deportment. 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 45 
 
 He should learn to command his passions and temper at 
 all times in his school; should trea.t the name of God with 
 reverence ; should exact respectful behavior toward himself. 
 He may join in the amusements of his pupils ; and, to secure 
 their affection and respect more perfectly, he should give 
 them prizes once or twice a year for proficiency in learning 
 and for good behavior. If these things fail, then the follow- 
 ing modes of punishment should be adopted : 
 
 1. Private admonition — like the Divine Being in the 
 still small voice oi conscience. 
 
 2. Confinement after school hours are ended; but with 
 the knowledge of the parents. 
 
 3. Holding a small sign of disgrace of any kind, in the 
 middle of the floor in the presence of the whole 
 
 school. 
 
 If these punishments fail, the pupil should be dismissed 
 from school so as to prevent him from corrupting his school- 
 mates. '*It is the business of parents, and not of schoolmas- 
 ters, to use the last means for eradicating vice and idleness 
 from their children." The following sentences seem quite 
 modern, though written, in our own country, one hundred 
 and twenty years ago : ''We should let the divine principle of 
 love extend to the schools. Children are capable of loving 
 in a high degree. They may, therefore, be governed by 
 love." 
 
 We turn now to Robert Owen, an Englishman, who had 
 some good views on education. The period of his promi- 
 nent educational activity falls between the times of Benja- 
 min Rush and those of Horace Mann. Owen's service to 
 education was the attempt to show that it is the one thing 
 lightening the lot of the laboring classes. It was his great 
 desire to see the question of education taken up by the 
 English nation in the truest and most liberal spirit. He was 
 convinced that a higher sense of justice would come through 
 a higher, better, and more general instruction. He saw that 
 the factory system and child labor, such as it was found in 
 his time, was unjust, and detrimental to the formation of 
 character. He believed that the children of manufacturing 
 
46 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 as well as of other communities should remain longer in 
 school. He stood for a national system of education for all 
 classes, and insisted on at least seven years of training in 
 school. To carry out his ideals on education he founded a 
 school at New Lanark, in Scotland, where he had charge of 
 some factories. In this school, system was added to the 
 spirit of Pestalozzi. It was a marked success until Owen be- 
 came unpopular on account of his social and religious views. 
 / As already intimated, in Owen's opinion the rundamental 
 
 /object of education is the formation of character. The 
 teachers at New Lanark were chosen for their good temper, 
 patience and a strong love for children, not for their intel- 
 
 1 leatual acquirements. Owen insi'sted that his teachers 
 should make due allowance for the varied natural character 
 of each child. He was especially interested in his "infant 
 school," which was attended by children of from one to six 
 years of age. He had some difficulty in getting teachers to 
 carry out his ideas in this school. He says, *'It was in vain 
 to look to any old teachers upon the old system of instruc- 
 tion by books." They could not and would not attempt to 
 adopt his fanciful and ''new fangled" mode of teaching. He 
 continues : "I had therefore to seek among the population 
 (of New Lanark) for two persons who had a great love for 
 and unlimited patience with infants, and who were thor- 
 oughly tractable and willing unreservedly to follow my in- 
 structions." The two persons whom he got as teachers in 
 his rational infant school were "the simple-minded kind- 
 hearted weaver, James Buchanan, who at first could scarce- 
 ly read, write or spell, and a young woman, about seventeen 
 years of age, known familiarly among the villagers as Molly 
 Young." The first instruction which Owen gave these two 
 was, "That they were on no account ever to beat any one of 
 the children, or to threaten them in any manner in word or 
 action, or to use abusive terms; but were always to speak 
 to them with a pleasant countenance and in a kind manner 
 and tone of voice. That they should tell the infants and 
 children that they must on all occasions do all they could 
 to make their playfellows happy, — and that the older ones, 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 47 
 
 from four to six years of age, should take especial care of 
 the younger ones, and should assist to teach them in making 
 each other happy." Owen adds: "These instructions were 
 readily received by James Buchanan and Molly Young, and 
 were faithfully adhered to by them as long as they remained 
 in their respective situations." 
 
 The infants and young children in Owen's school at New 
 Lanark, besides being instructed by sensible signs, — the 
 things themselves, — or models or paintings, — and by famil- 
 iar conversation, were from two years and upwards daily 
 taught dancing and singing, and the parents were encour- 
 aged to come and see their children at any of their lessons 
 or physical exercises. Owen says that while these children 
 were at school they were by far the happiest human beings 
 he ever saw. In addition to the infant school there were 
 day schools for all under twelve years old, after which age 
 they might, if their parents wished, enter the works at New 
 Lanark either as mechanics, manufacturers, or in any branch 
 of work. The school hours were daily from 7 to 9; 10 to 12 
 and 3 to 5. In the infant school one-half of the time was 
 spent in playing. '''The children were not to be annoyed 
 with books." 
 
 We need not here go into details of the work of instruc- 
 tion at New Lanark. Our purpose is to show the spirit in 
 which this work was conducted and to show the attitude of 
 Owen toward the child and its education. His schools at- 
 tracted practically world wide attention.. From 181 5 to 
 1825, 20,000 persons visited the New Lanark schools. This 
 is a larger number than those who visited the schools of 
 Pestalozzi. Owen saw the bad influence of the poor home 
 surroundings of the children in his community. His schools 
 were designed to overcome these influences and to be prime 
 factors in the formation of character. For this reason the 
 children were admitted to school as soon as they could 
 walk; were there treated kindly and taught rationally. He 
 was the first man to work earnestly for the laboring classes. 
 His conception of education was national and just. As 
 
48 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 previously stated, he failed because of his social and relig- 
 ious beliefs. 
 
 Robert Owen, Benjamin Rush and Horace Mann each 
 stood for the education of all classes. Rush and Mann saw 
 the need of educating all classes in order to perpetuate the 
 spirit of democracy ; Owen, moved by a spirit of social jus- 
 tice, felt the need of education among the laboring classes 
 who were sorely neglected in his time. The three demand- 
 ed knowledge most useful to the masses, and pleaded for a 
 humane spirit in imparting this knowledge. Eadi had in 
 view the making of good, happy and useful citizens, and each 
 saw in the careful and kindly training of the young the 
 means to this higher end. When we come to Thomas Ar- 
 nold, whose method of discipline we shall presently discuss, 
 we find a man of a different type, a man who was not demo- 
 cratic in his views on public education. Nevertheless, as a 
 great disciplinarian, wihose work and influence completely 
 transformed the Secondary Schools of England, Arnold 
 must occupy an important place in our present discussion. 
 
 Thomas Arnold was appointed head-master of Rugt)y in 
 1828, and it was in this position that he became famous as a 
 ruler and administrator. He had an oppressive sen^e of the 
 difficulty of his task as head-master, and also of its possibili- 
 ties. "The management of boys," said he, "has all the inter- 
 est of a great game of chess, with living creatures for pawns 
 and pieces, and your adversary, in plain English, the devil, 
 w!ho truly plays a tough game and is hard to beat." 
 
 When Arnold came to Rugby the state of morals was dis- 
 heartening. Drunkenness and swearing were common 
 vices. There were combinations for evil; the bad ridiculed 
 and persecuted the good and the pupils in general were ir- 
 religious. In fact, this was a state of affairs common in Eng- 
 lish Secondary Schools of the time. 
 
 Arnold tried first to accept and turn to use whatever good 
 there was in the system at Rugby. Next he began to mod- 
 ify and improve the system as far as experience enabled him 
 to make sure of his ground. He first sought and won the 
 confidence of the older boys. "I want you to feel," he used 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 49 
 
 to say to them, "how enormous is the influence you possess 
 here on all below you." He believed that one way of mak- 
 ing a boy a gentleman was to treat him as one. He always 
 took a boy's word, hence it came to be the current opinion 
 of the school that it was a shame to tell Arnold a lie, for he 
 always believed it. 
 
 Arnold felt the need of a moral basis for all school work. 
 With him mental gifts and moral principles had to go hand 
 in hand. He did not hesitate to expel a boy if he was sure 
 his influence tended to degrade the public opinion of the 
 school, or that he was seriously detrimental to his oompan- 
 ions. The confirmed idler he expelled without scrupple on 
 account of his influence upon other boys. Parents and boys 
 at first protested against expulsion. Arnold silenced them 
 by firmly declaring : *'It is not necessary that this should be 
 a school ifor three hundred, or even one hundred boys, but it 
 is necessary that it should be a school of Christian gentle- 
 men." 
 
 Arnold's aim was to give a Christian tone to Rugfcy, yet 
 he did not resort to definite dogmatic teaching. His school 
 sermons were filled with inspiration for the boys. He 
 preached as to boys and not as to men. Of all the evils he 
 sought to expose and denounce in his sermons, probably 
 the worst was the cowardice which made boys succumb to 
 the public opinion of tihe set in which they happened to live. 
 
 Arnold insisted constantly on mental cultivation as a re- 
 ligious duty. Throughout his school sermons there is much 
 less of theological teaching than an endeavor to illustrate 
 the bearing of Christianity on the daily practical life of the 
 school boys. From the testimony of the boys we know 
 that these sermons did probably more than anything else 
 to reform Rugby. 
 
 Thomas Arnold did not profess to be much in advance of 
 his age in regard to school punishments. He resorted to 
 flogging, especially among the younger boys. As he gained 
 experience he inflicted it with increasing reluctance. He 
 confined it chiefly to moral offences such as lying, drinking 
 and habitual idleness. He regarded it wholly unsuited as 
 
50 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 the penalty for intellectual weakness or dullness. He did 
 not, however, like Benjamin Rush, consider it as degrading. 
 In his opinion corporal punishment answered to the natural 
 inferior state of boyhood, and, therefore, conveyed no de- 
 gradation. 
 
 On this latter point the German philosopher and edu- 
 cator, Rosenkranz, a contemporary of Arnold, expresses a 
 similar view. Rosenkranz says : "The view which sees in 
 the rod the panacea for all the teacher's embarrassments is 
 reprehensible, but equally so is the false sentimentahty 
 which assumes that the dignity of humanity is affected by a 
 blow given to a child, and confounds self-conscious human- 
 ity with child humanity, to which a blow is the most natural 
 form of reaction, when all other forms of influence have 
 failed." Numerous other educators and teachers have ex- 
 pressed, and are still expressing, a hke view on this ques- 
 tion. 
 
 The following are some of the reasons for Arnold's in- 
 fluence over the boys of Rugby: He knew the individual 
 characteristics of his boys. He knew every boy in school, 
 — his appearance, his habits and his companions. He was 
 not always genial in manner and the younger boys regarded 
 him with awe. He encouraged games and sports, but did 
 not emphasize athletics unduly. He emphasized the intel- 
 lectual rather than the physical. His influence showed it- 
 self among the boys of Rugby who went to Universities. 
 These boys had a more serious purpose in life than was 
 found among ordinary school boys. 
 
 According to Arnold, as well as according to Ro^bert 
 Owen and others, a school was, first of all, a place for the 
 formation of character, next a place for learning and study 
 as a means to this higher end. Such a place he succeeded, 
 to a large extent, in making of Rugiby. To accomplish this, 
 under existing conditions, required the power of effective 
 discipline, and to-day there is hardly a more stimulating 
 character for study as a disciplinarian than Thomas Arnold. 
 
 Another practical English schoolman of the last century 
 was Robert H. Quick. His main educational service was 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 51 
 
 to bring teachers in touch with educational literature — 
 with educational leaders and reformers. In this respect he 
 performed for England a service similar to that performed 
 by Henry Barnard for America, and by Gabriel Compayre 
 for France. 
 
 Quick was also a teacher, and as such, he gives us some 
 interesting observatioms on school discipline. In his educa- 
 tional practice he represents a reaction against formaHsm 
 and toward Pestalozziani&m. He was against stern disci- 
 pline. He was a sworn foe to all methods of repression, 
 such as absolute silence in the classroom, keeping a tight 
 hand on boys, especially at tne close of the term, allowing 
 no shouting on the playground, and so on. In his earlier 
 career as a teacher, he resorted to corporal punishment ; in 
 his later career he was opposed to it. 
 
 An experiment, which he performed on himself, helped to 
 determine his attitude toward corporal punishment. He 
 ispeaks of it as follows : ''When I was a Hurstierpont we all 
 used the cane. It occurred to me that we could not well 
 judge of the amount of pain inflicted, and I experimented 
 on myself by giving myself a sharp 'pandy.' Of course, the 
 experiment could not be quite satisfactory for I could not 
 take the attitude toward myself that the boys took toward 
 me." As a result of this experiment Quick's practice in the 
 future was decidedly modified. 
 
 One of his old pupils, writing of Cranleigh, where Quick 
 taught for some time, said, years after, that he remembered 
 Quick, the man, not the subject studied under him. This 
 same pupil said that he remembered Quick only once angry. 
 ''Of course," this pupil adds, "he did not strike." 
 
 Although opposed to corporal punishment Quick felt 
 that certain "mala prohi'bita" had to be kept under by some 
 form of punishment. "Simulated anger," says he, "can 
 never be effectual and the master employing it only risks his 
 own good temper by endeavoring to spare the boys." The 
 teacher ought to distinguish between offences. For exam- 
 ple, lying should be punished more than whispering. You 
 ought to annex certain penalties to trifling, but growing 
 
52 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 offences and exact these penalties with a mechanical and 
 feelingless precision. The boy who does not think he is 
 'spited' will not feel angry. 
 
 ''Forbear threatening," says Quick, "is a good rule but 
 hard to stand by." It is a question whether the first offence 
 should be forgiven. At all events threatening to do 'so and 
 so' next time is a bad plan in a school. Here is another 
 quotation from Quick: "The reformers say, 'cease to make 
 the work unpleasant and you may give up punishing.' This 
 is a 'non sequitur.' The pleasure of school work must be 
 compared with the pleasure afforded by other things the 
 boy Hkes." 
 
 The following are some more of Quick's views on disci- 
 pline : A boy will need repression at times no matter how 
 well the school runs. If no punishment is given, careless- 
 ness becomes unmonded. If given, it brings the master in 
 contact with boys in a disagreeable way. The master must 
 not let his spirits give way; if he does, "all is up." Every- 
 thing he has to do becomes a bore, and he himself becomes 
 a bore to those under him. He loses his hold of boys and 
 vainly endeavors to get it again by setting impositions. 
 
 Impositions, says Quick, are not of any great use. Too 
 often they are set rather as a vent for annoyance felt by the 
 teacher than for the good effect on the boy. "To be re- 
 spected like a wasp is, because it can sting, is destructive of 
 good feeling." 
 
 Be as impersonal as possible, is Quick's advice. Let cer- 
 tain transgressions be sure to bring certain punishments. 
 Certainty is more important than amount. A boy is not 
 deterred from whispering in class by the risk of a hundred 
 lines, but he is by the certainty of thirty. "Don't give col- 
 lective punishments," says Quick. Chesterfield's advice is 
 good : "Never attack whole bodies of any kind. Individuals 
 forgive sometimes, but bodies and societies never do." 
 
 We have already seen that Thomas Arnold made effective 
 use of appeal to honor as a means of discipHne. We may 
 suppose that R. H. Quick also realized the value of this 
 means of discipline. That he saw its dangers and defects 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 53 
 
 is apparent from the fact that he declared the vain appeal to 
 honor to be hurtful because it lessens its appreciation as a 
 virtue. He also says that you cannot prevent 'ponying' by 
 an appeal to honor. 
 
 Robert H. Quick was not a really great disciplinarian like 
 Thomas Arnold. There is more frankness, more of the 
 really human, vv^ith its limitations, in Quick than in any oth- 
 er schoolman we shall discuss. The advice he gives on the 
 subject of discipline is thoroughly good; and the honest, 
 straightforward manner in which he expresses himself can- 
 not fail to appeal to the average teacher. 
 
 From the two practical schoolmen, Thomas Arnold and 
 R. H. Quick, we turn to Herbert Spencer, a prominent the- 
 orist on education. We have already referred to Spencer, 
 while discussing the influence of the introduction of science 
 into the school curriculum. We know that, under the dis- 
 cussion of what knowledge iis of most worth, 'he presents 
 the claims of science in a masterful way. However, we are 
 concerned here, not so much with his discussion of what 
 knowledge is of most worth, nor with his discussions of in- 
 tellectual and of physical education. We here wish to in- 
 quire into his essay on Moral Education. In this essay 
 Spencer nearly always refers to the discipline of one child, 
 or of several children, in the home. Sometimes he says 
 parents and teachers do, or fail to do, thus and so ; but no- 
 where have we found him saying anything specific with re- 
 gard to disciplining a school. He does say, in a general way, 
 that discipline in schools is often misdirected, and too se- 
 vere ; and that better results are obtained in schools having 
 a milder form of discipline than in those where pupils get a 
 beating for almost every kind of misdemeanor. 
 
 The theory of punishment which Spencer proposes and 
 seeks to defend in his usual clear and brilliant way is that 
 of natural consequences. This theory, as we have already 
 seen, was suggested by Rousseau. According to Spencer, 
 children, who are at all old enough to understand, should, 
 as far as possible, 'be made to sufifer the natural conse- 
 quences of their faults or shortcomings. Experience is 
 
54 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 the valuable teacher it is known to be, only because it rests 
 upon knowledge of consequences. The .man who, for some 
 reason or other, is late will, as a result, have the displeasure 
 of missing the train or steamer which he may have wished 
 to take. So the child, who is never ready when some one 
 wishes to take his brothers and sisters for a walk into the 
 country, instead of being scolded and waited for, should be 
 made to suffer the consequences of his actions by being left 
 at home. The boy who carelessly loses his penknife, instead 
 of receiving a scolding, and then a new knife from an indul- 
 gent parent, should be obliged to go without a knife, or to 
 buy one out of his own spending money. In short, children 
 should be made to feel the consequences of their faults and 
 errors in the same way that adults are. The more consist- 
 ently this can be done the better it will be for them. 
 
 The following are some of the arguments which Spencer 
 presents in favor of this doctrine of natural consequences: 
 In the first place, rigfit conceptions of cause and effect are 
 early formed. Such conceptions are essential to proper con- 
 duct in life. Secondly, it is a system of pure justice and will 
 be recognized by every child as such. Thirdly, it makes pun- 
 ishment impersonal and, therefore, is not likely to cause an 
 unnatural feeling between parents and children. The child 
 receives its penalties through the working of things rather 
 than at the hands of the individual, and so its temper will be 
 less disturbed ; while the parent, occupying the compara- 
 tively passive position of taking care that the natural pen- 
 alties are felt, will consequently, be more composed. As a 
 result a much happier, and a more influential state of feeling 
 will exist between parent and child. 
 
 After discussing some of the graver faults of children, 
 such as 'lying and theft, in relation to the theory of conse- 
 quences, Spencer gives the following rules and maxims: 
 I. Do not expect from a child any great amount of mor- 
 al goodness. During its first years the child passes 
 through the stage of life of its baiibarous ancestors. 
 Therefore be content with moderate measures and 
 moderate results. 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 55 
 
 2. Do not seek to behave as an utterly passionless in- 
 strument — Your own approbation or disapprobation 
 is also a natural consequence. 
 
 3. Be sparing of commands. 
 
 4. Whenever you do command, command v^ith decision 
 and constancy. 
 
 5!^ Remember that the aim of your discipline should be 
 to produce a self-governing being; not to produce a 
 being governed by others. 
 
 6. Do not regret the exhibition of considerable self- 
 will on the part of your children. The independent 
 
 boy is the father of the independent men. 
 
 7. Remember that it is a complex and extremely diffi- 
 cult thing to educate rightly. 
 
 The theory of natural consequences is suggestive, and it 
 has no doubt 1)een productive, at least indirectly, of good re- 
 sults. Its mterits and demerits have been pointed out by a 
 number of educational thinkers since the time it was elabo- 
 rated and emphasized by Spencer. The Essay on Moral 
 Education, in which the theory appears, was published in 
 1858. In 1871, Joseph Payne, an English educator, who in- 
 sisted that there is a Science of Education, who popular- 
 ized this idea and who said many excellent things on educa- 
 tion, wrote what may be considered as one of the best criti- 
 cisms of Spencer's theory. Payne says that nature's art of 
 teaching is, in a general way, the archetype of the educa- 
 tor's ; yet nature must not be implicitly followed. So in dis- 
 cipline, nature is relentless. "She takes no account of ex- 
 tenuating circumstances. To disobey is to die. She not 
 only punishes the offender for his offence, but often makes 
 him suffer for the offences of others. She involves him in 
 all the consequences of his actions, and often gives him no 
 opportunity for repentance. The educator, on the other 
 hand, while allowing his pupil to be visited by the conse- 
 quences of his actions, is to prevent ruinous consequences 
 — ^to give him room for repentance, to love the offender 
 while punishing the offence, and to allow for extenuating 
 circumstances." Alexander Bain, as we shall see later, also 
 
56 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 objected to the theory of natural consequences. Among 
 present day writers, who discuss Spencer's theory, may be 
 mentioned Bagley, who calls it the most thorough going 
 theory of discipline that has yet been elaborated, and says 
 that "it has had a profound effect upon educational prac- 
 tice." 
 
 We now proceed to Alexander Bain. In his "Education 
 as a Science," published in 1879, ^^^^ have the monumental 
 \ work of a great thinker. He takes the greatest step in the 
 \Science of Education of any thinker before or since his 
 time. The subject of school discipline he discusses accord- 
 ing to the analytical method characteristic of his writings. 
 Referring to this subject first in a general or summary man- 
 ner he says : "By degrees we have become aware of various 
 errors that ran through the former methods of discipline, 
 in the several institutions of the state, as well as in the fam- 
 ily. We have discovered the eviil of working by fear alone, 
 and still more by fear of coarse, painful and degrading in- 
 flictions. We have discovered that occasions of offence can 
 be avoided by a variety of salutary arrangements, such as 
 to check the very disposition to unruly conduct. We con- 
 sider that a great discovery has been made in regard to pun- 
 ishments, by the enunciation of the maxim that certainty is 
 more important than severity; to which should be added 
 proportion to the offence. We also consider that by a suit- 
 alble training or education the dispositions that lead to dis- 
 order and crime can be checked in the bud ; and that, until 
 there has been room for such training to operate, the mind 
 should not be exposed to temptation." 
 
 Bain's discussion of the subject of authority is suggestive. 
 Authority first appears in the family and is thence trans- 
 ferred, with certain modifications, to the school. The par- 
 ent's authority is associated with sustenance, and has an al- 
 most unlimited range. It is tempered by affection and sup- 
 poses a limited number. The teacher's authority has, as a 
 rule, nothing to do with sustenance. Because of the large 
 number under his charge the teacher's authority cannot. 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 57 
 
 g-enerally, be tempered by the same amount of afifection as 
 the parent's. 
 
 On the other hand, Bain points out some important 
 agreements between the family and the school. They both 
 deal with immature minds for whom certain kinds of motives 
 are unsuitable. They cannot appeal to consequences in the 
 distant future for children do not realize a remote effect. 
 Neither can the reasons of a rule always be made apparent 
 to immature minds. Where they can, however, parents and 
 teachers should do so as an important aid to obedience.. 
 
 Among the important points of agreement in the exercise 
 of authority in every sphere — ^family, school and state — 
 Bain mentions the following : — 
 
 1. Restraints should be as few as the situation admits 
 of.: 
 
 2. Duties and offences should be definitely expressed, 
 so as to be clearly understood. 
 
 3. Offences should be graduated according to their de- 
 gree of heinousness. 
 
 4. Punishments, if given, should outweigh the profit of 
 the offence. 
 
 5. Trust voluntary dispositions as far as they can go. 
 
 6. Organize and arrange in such a way as to avoid occa- 
 sions of disorder. 
 
 7. Exercise authority with a certain degree of formality. 
 
 8. Let it be understood, wherever possible, that author- 
 ity exists for the benefit of the governed. 
 
 9. Avoid vindictiveness. 
 
 10. So far as circumstances allow, assume a benign char- 
 acter, using instruction and moral suasion. 
 
 11. Make the reasons for repression and discipline intel- 
 ligible, as far as possible. 
 
 Bain mentions a number of aids to discipline. Among 
 these are, first, good physical surroundings. These he con- 
 siders to be "half the battle." A spacious and airy building; 
 room for the classes to come together and to depart without 
 confusion or collision ; these he calls prime facilities and aids 
 to discipHne. Organization, or method and orderly ar- 
 
58 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 rangement in all the movements of classes is another im- 
 portant aid to discipline. To these conditions should be 
 added due alteration and remission of work so as to avoid 
 fatigue. 
 
 "^i he methods and arts of teaching require consideration 
 as aids of discipline. The most important condition is 
 clearness of explanations. If to this, interest can be added 
 so much the better ; but it must not be at the expense of 
 clearness, v^hich is absolutely essential to make the subject 
 comprehensible. 
 
 Another important factor in discipHne is the personaHty 
 of the teacher — Here are considered such qualities as a win- 
 ning voice, a friendly expression, a likable exterior. Also, 
 on the other side, as commanding respect for authority, a 
 stately, imposing and dignified bearing, without display of 
 self-conceit. 
 
 The teacher who would discipline successfully musft have a 
 lively and wakeful sense of everything that is going on in his 
 school. Hie should be able to read his school like a successful 
 orator reads his audience. He should have a quiet manner, 
 which does not give an impression of weakness but of re- 
 serve power. \ He should secure the collective opinion — , 
 create a good class opinion — if possible. On this last point 
 Bain says : "It is easier to deserve success in this than to 
 command it. The fear is that, till the end of time, the sym- 
 pathy of numbers will continue to manifest itself against au- 
 thority in the school. There will be occasions where the in- 
 fection of the mass is a stronghold of order ; as when the 
 majority are bent on attending to the work, and are thv/art- 
 ed 'by a few disturbers of the peace ; or when they have a 
 general sympathy with their teacher, and merely indulge 
 themselves in rare and exceptional outbursts. While a 
 teacher's merits may gain for him this position of advant- 
 age, more or less, he is never above the risks of an outbreak, 
 and must be ready for the final resort of repression by disci- 
 pline or penalties." 
 
 We now proceed to give a brief statement of Bain's dis- 
 cussion of rewards and punishments. He finds fault with the 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 59 
 
 principle of emulation, with the awarding of prizes and with 
 place-taking. He admits that emulation, is a powerful in- 
 centive to intellectual application ; but he declares that it is 
 anti-social, that it is apt to be too energetic, that it is limited 
 to a small number and that it makes a merit of superior nat- 
 ural gifts. 
 
 The greater prizes and distinctions afifect only a very small 
 number. Place-capturing afifects all more or less, although 
 in the lower end of the class, position is of small co'use- 
 quence. "A few contesting eagerly for being first, and the 
 mass phlegmatic," says Bain, "is not a healthy class." Prizes 
 may be valuable in themselves, and also a token oi superior- 
 ity ; but the schoolmaster's means of reward is chiefly con- 
 fined to approbation and praise. Marking, which Bain ad- 
 vocates, is another means of reward. In Bain's opinion there 
 should be no commendation in pubhc which does not reflect 
 the sentiment of the school body. 
 
 "The first and readiest, and ever the best form of punish- 
 ment," says Bain, "is censure, reprobation, dispraise." 
 These must, however, be used with the same care as praise. 
 Strong terms of reproof should be sparing, in order to be 
 more effective. Public reproof should not be given unless 
 in special or extreme cases. Simple forms of disgrace Bain 
 does not entirely condemn ; although he sees a danger of a 
 lessened sense of shame. Detention from play he considers 
 to be an effective punishment. Likewise tasks and imposi- 
 tions. Corporal punishment must be administered only as 
 a last resort in extreme cases. It should not be repeated 
 more than two or three times on the same pupil. If such 
 repetition is ineffective the pupil should be expelled.' 
 
 Bain also discusses Spencer's doctrine of natural punish- 
 ments, and distinguishes between these and Bentham's 
 characteristical punishments. The characteristical punish- 
 ment of a boy for throwing things on the floor is to oblige 
 him to pick them up; the natural punishment would be to 
 let such things accumulate until it would become impossible 
 for the boy to hve in the room. Bain's objection to natural 
 punishments is, that they are too severe, and that the pu- 
 
60 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 piis probably cannot see how the punishment is a conse- 
 quence of the offence. 
 
 A paragraph from the chapter on Moral Education in 
 ''Education as a Science," shall conclude our remarks on 
 Alexander Bain. We hear a great deal nowadays about 
 morality in the public schools. In the paragraph which I 
 am about to quote Bain points out a truth which is recog- 
 nized by educational thinkers, and which can hardly be em- 
 phasized too strongly. He says: "The schoolmaster, in 
 common with all persons exercising control for a particular 
 purpose, is a moral teacher or disciplinarian; contributing 
 his part to impress good and evil consequences in connection 
 with conduct. For his own ends, he has to regulate the ac- 
 tions of his pupils, to approve and disapprove of what they 
 do as social beings related to one another and to himself. 
 He enforces and cultivates obedience, punctuality, truthful- 
 ness, fair dealing, courteous and considerate behavior, and 
 whatever else belongs to the working of the school. Who- 
 ever is able to maintain the order and discipline necessary 
 to merely intellectual or knowledge teaching, will leave 
 upon the minds of his pupils genuine moral impressions, 
 without even proposing that as an end. M the teacher has 
 the consummation of tact that makes the pupils to any de- 
 gree in love with the work, so as to make them submit with 
 dheerful and willing minds to all the needful restraints, and 
 to render them on the whole well disposed to himself and to 
 each other, he is a moral instructor of a high order, whether 
 he means it or not." 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 We have pointed out a number of factors which enter 
 into the evolution of the modern concept of school disci- 
 pline, a concept which no longer finds in the rod the panacea 
 for all evils, but which involves, as we have seen, a number 
 of important considerations. We have also discussed 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 61 
 
 briefly the theoriies, as well as .the practices, of several re- 
 cent educational thinkers with reference to the question of 
 discipline. In the Hght of some of the views and suggestions 
 that have been presented, let us, in conclusion, add a few 
 thoughts on the subject under consideration. 
 
 As pointed out by Benjamin Rush, Alexander Bain and 
 some other thinkers, whom we have mentioned, the success 
 of the teacher, both in imparting knowledge and as a disci- 
 plinarian — ^for the two go hand in hand — depends largely 
 upon his personality and upon the spirit with which he is^ 
 imbued. The teacher who, like Thomas Arnold, feels that 
 education means something to those under his charge; who 
 is convinced that mental cultivation is a sacred duty; will 
 naturally assume an attitude toward his work, which goes a 
 long way toward making him respected by his pupils. If, 
 with this spirit, he remembers Bain's observation that clear-^ 
 ness of explanations is absolutely essential, and deveilops* 
 skill in realizing this latter point, his problems of discipline 
 will be still further solved. Or he may be a Herbartian and 
 proceed according to the theory of apperception and inter-/K 
 est ; nevertheless he needs some of the spirit of Arnold, or, 
 probably better still, of Pestalozzi, of Mann, of Owen, the 
 spirit which sees in the child, a lovable soul, and in educa-A 
 tion, the welfare and happiness of the race. ^ 
 
 If, though imbued with these high ideals and skilled in 
 methods, the teacher finds, some difficulties and discourage- 
 ments, which he almost certainly will, let him remember 
 Mann's advice, and be pajtient with inconsiderateness in the 
 young. He will find slow children. Let him remember, as >^ 
 Ascham says, not to punish nature ; or, better still, let him 
 bear in mind some of the lessons which modern child study 
 has brought to light with reference to the backward child. 
 If he finds, as he likely will, that penalties must be imposed 
 for certain forms of misconduct, let him follow R. H. 
 Quick's advice on certainty instead of occasional severity. ♦ 
 And, finally, if he finds a deliberately 'impudent or unreason- 
 ably obstinate boy,, as he may, occasionally, sooner than ex- 
 pel him, let him, wherever allowed by law, follow G. Stanley 
 
62 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 Halfs advice and, without much delay, g^ive him such a 
 flogging as may be necessary to make him humble enough 
 to respect authority. For, after all that has been said, our 
 experience leads us to believe with Hall that, ''The better 
 nature of some obstinate ,impudent, vicious boys fairly cries 
 ^ out for the rod, so gre'at is their need of it." We know 
 only too well that the rod has been shamefully abused ; bult 
 * we believe that it o^n still occasionally perform a good func- 
 tion in the school. 
 
 Bibliography 
 
 The Arnolds, by Sir Joshua Fitch. Charles Scribner's Sons, 
 New York, 1897. Chapter 5 contains an account of 
 Thomas Arnold as a disciplinarian. 
 
 Arnold, Thomas. Barnard's American Journal of Educa- 
 tion. Vol. 28, pp. 770 ff. Gives Arnold's views on disci- 
 pline. 
 
 Arnold, Life of, by Dean Stanley. Best work on Arnold. 
 
 Ascham, Roger, Scholemaster. Edited by Edward Arber. 
 Boston D. C. Heath & Co. 1898. 
 
 Ascham, Roger. Barnard's Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 57 ff. 
 Quotes Asc'ham's views and suggestions on discipline. 
 
 Bagley, William Chandler, Classroom Management. The 
 Macmillan Co., New York, -1907. Chapter 8 contains a 
 discussion of Spencer's doctrine of natural punishments. 
 
 Bain, Alexander. Education as a Science. D. Appleton & 
 Co., New York, 1879. See' latter 'part of Chapter 3 and 
 Chapter 12, for his discussion of discipline. 
 
 Barnard, Henry (Editor). American Journal of Education. 
 31 volumes. Invaluable for reference. 
 
 Barnard's Journal, Analy^tical Index to. U. S. Bureau of 
 Education. Washingtipn, 1892. S^e discipline — vtiews 
 and suggestions on. 
 
 Colgrove, Chauncey P. The Teacher and-the School. New 
 York, Chas. Scribner's Sons, 191 1. Chapter 24 states 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 63 
 
 reasons why school discipilne has become more humane. 
 
 Compayre, Gabriel. History of Pedagogy. Translated by 
 W. H. Payne, Boston, D. C. Heath & Co., 1886. See 
 Corporal Punishment and Discipline in Index — 54 ref- 
 erences. 
 
 Comenius, Great Didactic. Chapter 26. Of School Disci- 
 pline. 
 
 Comeius,John Amos. By S. S. Laurie. Cambridge, Uni- 
 versity Press, 1884. See pp. 128 ff, for discussion of Co- 
 menius' views on discipline. 
 
 Cooper, Rev. Wm. M. Flagellation and the Flagellants. 
 London, Rieves. New Edition 1896. See Chapters on 
 
 /School punisihments. Contains extensive but unsaitisfac- 
 tory bibliography. 
 
 Erasmus. Concerning the Aim and Method of Education, 
 by William Harrison Woodward. Cambridge, University 
 Press, 1904. Gives Erasmus' views on Education and dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 Erasmus. Barnard's Journal. Vol. 16, pp. 680 fif. Gives 
 quotations showing Erasmus' attitude toward corporal 
 punishment. 
 
 Godfrey,Elizabeth. English children in the Olden Time. 
 London, Methuen & Co., 1907. Vide Chapter 9, Con- 
 cerning Pedagogues. 
 
 Graves, Frank Pierpont. A History of Education. The 
 Macmillan Co., New York, 1909. A brief account of 
 education and discipline before the Middle Ages. 
 
 Gill, John. Systems of Education. D. C. Heath & Co. 
 Boston, 1889. Consulted in tracing the spread of Pesta- 
 lozzianism. 
 
 Plall, G. Stanley. Educational Problems. New York and 
 London. D. Appleton & Co., 1910. 2 volumes. See vol- 
 ume I, pp. 246 ff, for Hall's views on corporal punish- 
 ment. 
 
 Hoole, Charles. Barnard's Journal. Volume 17, pp. 3^3 
 ff. Contains quotations from Scholastic Discipline, a 
 book published by Hoole in 1659. 
 
 Hughes, R. E. The Making of a Citizen. Charles Scrib- 
 
64 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 ner's Sons, New York, 1900. Quoted on influence of 
 women in education. 
 
 Index to the Reports of the U. S. Commissioner of Educa- 
 tion; 1867-1907. United States Bureau of Education, 
 Washingiton, 1909. See references under Corporal Pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 Johnson, Samuel. Life by Boswell. Edited by Mow'bray 
 Morris. New York, Thomas P. Crowell & Co. pp. 13-15. 
 
 Locke on Education, by R. H. Quick. Cambridge, Univer- 
 ''Some Thoughts Concerning Education," from which 
 we havie quoted. 
 
 Mann, Horace, by B. A. Hinsdale. Charles Scribner's Sons, 
 New York, 1900. From this book I gleaned some of my 
 information on Mann. 
 
 Mann, Mrs. Mary. Life and Works of Horace Mann. 5 
 volumes. 
 
 Mann, Horace. Barnard's Journal. Vol. 5, pp. 611. Con- 
 tains personal memoir and sketch of his life and works — 
 valuable. 
 
 McMaster, John Bach. History of the People of the United 
 States. Vol. i. Pages 24-28 contain an interesting ac- 
 count of education in United States in latter part of i8th 
 century. 
 
 Monroe, Paul. Text book in the History of Education. 
 New York, The Macmillan Co., 191 1. Vide especially 
 Chapter XL The Psychological Tendency in Education. 
 
 Monroe, Paul. Source Book of the History of Education. 
 New York, The Macmillan Co., 1901. Contains the 
 more important ideas of the Greeks and Romans con- 
 cerning education and discipline as they are found in 
 their own literature. 
 
 Munroe, James Phinney. The Educational Ideal. Boston, 
 D. C. Heath & Co., 1896. Traces the development of the 
 ideal of a ^'natural education" from Rabelais to Pesta- 
 lozzi and Froebel. Contains a good bibliography. 
 
 Montaigne. Education of Children. L. E. Rector, New 
 York, D. Appleton & Co. Contains the various essays 
 in which Montaigne discusses education. 
 
The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 65 
 
 Montaigne. See any editfion of his complete works for the 
 Essays from which we have quoted. 
 
 Owen, Robert. Life written by himself. London, Effing- 
 ham Wilson, Royal Exchange, 1857. ^ volumes. See 
 Vol. I, pp. 134 ff, for Owen's own account of his work in 
 New Lanark Schools. See also Essays on the Formation 
 of Character, pp. 265 fT, and address pp. 337 fif. 
 
 Owen, Robert. Life, Times and Labors, by Lloyd Jones. 
 New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905. Chapters 12, 
 13, 14, 15, contain an account of Owen's work in Educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Payne, Joseph. Lectures on the Science and Art of Educa- 
 tion. Boston, Willard Small, 1.884. For Payne's views 
 on discipline see Lecture on the Practice or Art of Edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Pestalozzi, Leonard andOertrude. Translate d and abridg- 
 ed by Eva Channing. Bos-ton, D. C. Heath & Co., 1892. 
 See Chapters 25, 31 and 32 for some of Pestalozzi's ideas 
 on instruction and discipline. 
 
 Pestalozzi. In R. H. Quick's "Educational Reformers." 
 New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1890. pp. 290-383, con- 
 tain a valuable account of Pestalozzi. 
 
 Plato. Laws, Book i, Jowett's Translation. Discusses ed- 
 ucation in play as a preparation for later hfe. 
 
 Quincy, Josiah. Life of, by his son, Edmund Quincy. Bos- 
 ton, Ticknor & Fields, 1867. pp. 24-25, quoted. 
 
 Quick, R. H. Life and Remains. F. Storr, Editor. The 
 
 ~ Macmillan Co., New York, 1899. Consulted throughout 
 to get Quick's views on discipline. 
 
 Reports. U. S. Commissioner of E^lucation. Consulted to 
 find out the regulations regarding corporal punishment^ 
 in the principal cities of the United States. For specific 
 references see Index to same. 
 
 Rosenkranz, J. K. F. Philosophy of Education. New 
 York, D. Appleton & Co., 1903. For discussion of pun- 
 ishment see par. 38-45. 
 
 Rousseau. Emile. Abridged, translated and annotated by 
 William H. Payne. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1893. 
 
66 The Evolution of the Modern Concept of School Discipline 
 
 Read, to get Rousseau's professed attitude toward the 
 child and its education. 
 
 Rush, Benjamin. Essays. Printed by Thomas and Samuel 
 F. Bradford, Philadelphia, 1798. See Essays, entitled 
 "Thoughts upon the Amusements and Punishments which 
 are Proper for Schools,'' "Of the Mode of Education 
 Proper for a Repubhc," and "Thoughts Upon Female 
 Education." 
 
 Sears, Charles H. "Home and School Punishments." Ped- 
 agogical Seminary, Vol. 6, 1898- 1899, pp. 159 ff. Con- 
 tains a good bibliography. 
 
 St. Cyran. Barnard's Journal. Vol. 28, pp. 5 fif. A brief 
 account of St. Cyran and of the spirit in which the Port 
 Royal Schools were conducted. o 
 
 Spencer, Herbert. Education. Any Edition. Four Es- 
 says. The Essay on Moral Education contains Spencer's 
 doctrine of natural consequences. 
 
 Steele, Sir Richard. Barnard's Journal. Volume 33, pp. 
 345 fif, contains reprint of an article on school punish- 
 ments which appeared in Spectator No. 20. 
 
 Strumpell, Ludwig. Die Padagogische Pathologic oder 
 die Lehre von den Fehlern der Kinder. Verlag von E. 
 Ungleich, Leipzig, 1899 and 19 10. Shows modern atti- 
 tude toward child. Enumerates defects found in children 
 and says the teacher should study his pupils like the doc- 
 tor studies his patients. 
 
 Vittorino Da Feltre and other Plumanist Educators, by 
 William Harrison Woodward. Cambridge: At the Uni- 
 versity Press, 1897. Consulted throughout to get the at- 
 titude of the early Humanists toward the child and its ed- 
 ucation. Contains translations of several works on edu- 
 cation from which we have quoted. 
 
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