WM^^^^^^^W: (9 CHOOLf anacTement TOMPKINS LB 3011 cop.l Tompkins - The phi 1 o s o phy of school management \ Southern Branch of the University of California Los Angeles Form L 1 3011 T59 cop.l PEC 2 4 1952 DEC 2 RECO Fonn L-9-lo»']ii.''J.'> y^ THE PHILOSOPHY OP SCHOOL MANAGEMENT BY ARNOLD TOMPKINS AUTHOR OF "the I'HILOSOPHY OK TEACHINQ " AND "THE SCIENCE OF DISCOUKSB" /38sS The School is an organic, spiritual unity. — W. A. Jones GINN & CU.Ml'ANY BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON STATE NORMAL SaUii. liOS HJSCEUSS, CETj. Copyright, 1895, By Arnold Tompkins. AU rights reserved. G9.9 1E.\)t atftengum jgceg»t GINN & COMPANY • PRO- PRIETORS . BOSTON • U.S.A. PREFACE. The nucleus of the ibllowiiig discussion appeared as a eliap- ter in tiie first edition of " Tlie Piiilosopiiy of Teacliing." It is now expanded into a companion volume, with a more I'luulamental setting than at first given ; and tluis with a scope extended to inchide management from tlie kindergarten to tlie universitj. Those who wish the easier and the more practical discussion will find it beginning on page G7. It is thought, however, that a patient development from the lirst will be most satisfactor}' in the end. The spirit of the book is clearly traceable to contact with \V. A. JoxKS, first president of the Indiana »State Normal School. Had it not been for the influence of his class work and his dailj' practice in management, this book would, per- haps, not have been written; and I can but wish it were a more worthy monument to the memory of the man whose potent ideas stimulated so many to earnest effort in planting fundamental educational doctrines. For wise counsel in the general treatment of the subject I am ever grati'ful to L. II. Jones, Superintendent of Schools, Cleveland, Ohio. ARNOLD TOMPKINS. Chicago, Ti.i.inois, May 10, 1895. C O N T E :n" T s. PAGE INTRODUCTION vii THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW 1 FouikI within tlie Organism itself 1 Found witliin the Organism a,s a Siiiritual Process .... 3 Found within tlie Spiritual Unity of the Teacher and Pupil . 15 Found within the Spiritual Unity of the Pupil 21 THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM 35 U.VIFYIXG QiALITIES I.V THE TeACHER 38 Freedom in the Vocation 41 The Pupil's Ideal 44 Professional Spirit 43 Self-forgetful Entiiusiasm for the Pui)irs (iood .... 54 Definite Sense of tlie Process of Self-Healization ... 57 Cousciousness of Organic Unity of Suhjcct and Ohject 59 Sensitiveness to Unity in the School Organism .... 64 Unifying Conditioxs of Teachek and Plmls 67 Personal Contact 69 The School-room 72 Commniiicalile Relation of Teacher and Pupil 73 Economy of Energy in Teacher and Pupil 75 Energy not diverted from Suhject to Self 7ti By Uncomfortahle Seats 76 liy Improper Temperature of Room 77 By Bad Ventilation of Room 77 By Bad Ligliting of Room 77 Energy not diverted from Suitject to Otlier Things . . 78 Tlirongli Touch 78 Throngli Siglit 79 Thrtingii Hearing 79 Througli Prepossessing Trains of Tiiought .... 80 VI CONTENTS. PAOB Instruments of School Work 81 Apparatus 81 Laboratory 81 Library 82 Text-books 84 Unifying Qualities anu Conditions secured. — School SuPEUviaiON 84 Supervising Instruction. — Superintendent 80 Functions and Quail ticat ions 87 Selecting Teacher 90 Aiding Teacher 92 Supervising Conditions of Listruction. — Director ... 97 Relation to Teacher and Superintendent 97 Professional Character and Responsibility 98 Basis and Limitation of Supervision 99 THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW 103 The Organism in the Process of Instruction .... 104 Unity in the School as a Whole 105 Organization of the School 108 Classification 109 Gradation 114 The Program 130 Pupils in Active Unity with Teacher 132 Unity in Class studying 133 Conditions of Pupils before set to Work 134 The Assignment of the Lesson 134 Certainty of Class understanding Assignment . . . 136 Needs for Work supplied ; Unnecessary Things removed 137 Class set to Work 137 Class to hold to Work assigned 138 Unity in Class reciting 141 Proper Condition of Pupils 141 Preparation of Lesson by Teacher 141 Attitude of Attention . 143 The Forward Movement of Class 143 Directions 143 Questions 146 Explanations or Lectures 150 Obstacles in Forward Movement 152 Weak Pupils 152 CONTENTS. Vll PAGE Intrusion of Foreign Elements 15.3 Personal Attack of Teacher on rupil 156 Restoration of Broken Unity 157 The Law of Restoration 157 Application of the Law 162 The First Step 163 The Second Step 165 Effect of Application of Law on I'njiil 175 Effect of Application on Teacher 179 The True Point of Skill in Mana<;emcnt 181 Ethical Training within the Ouganism 183 Harmony of Means and End 185 The Law against Artificial Incentives 185 Per cents 185 Examinations 189 Prizes and Honors .193 Emulation and Uivalry 194 Influence of Social Combination 196 Politeness 198 Order 202 Trutlifulness 203 Industry 205 Justice 207 Altruism 209 Katioual Freedom 212 INDEX 219 SIATE NORMAL SCHOOL, itos fljjcsiias, CEis. INTIIODUCTIQ]^. The teaching process having l)een considered in "Tlie Philosophy of Teaching," it is now in order to consider the school as an organized means in making that jjrocess effective. To make this discussion of the most practical service, it must reduce the complex scliool process to the unity of a single principle, to a universal law of management; hence the "Philosophy of Management." It is impos- sible, as well as undesirable, to prescribe a complete list of specific duties. The wisest economy is to make clear the one principle which has power to take care of all in- dividual cases; and the deeper the principle, the greater the power and the economy. Pesides, specific rules deaden and enslave, wliile a universal law guides and inspires with a consciousness of freedom and power. A catalogue of "do's" md "do not's " may serve the mere operative in a factory, wliere the material conditions remain iixcd; but the teacher, with whom the conditions are perpetually varying, must be gui(U'd b}' a principle which tact and ingenuity may apply to each new case as it arises. Thus only can the teacher move with certainty X INTRODUCTION. and precision; while the application of unvarying rules to varying conditions is the prolific -source of error and confusion. A fundamental principle — that is, a prin- ciple inherent in all the facts under consideration — has not only the greatest economic breadth of application by including the whole system of facts, but insures the greater certainty in dealing with any one of the facts in the system; because universal truth is also the essential truth. The teacher, therefore, who would seek skill in the art of school management, must ground himself well in the underlying princij)le; for skilful practice implies sound theory. It is unsafe, as well as illogical, to set theory over against practice, as if the more of one the less of the other. School management is a process, and the theory of it is the theory of a practice. The two are organically one, — two sides of the same process, the process in thought and the process in external realization. Theory is practice in thought; practice is theory emerging from thought. The one is the process in idea, the other the idea in process. The idea cannot go forth in process till it is first formed in mind; hence every one who practices must have a theory of some kind ; and, other things equal, the practice will be good to the degree of excellence in the theory. The more perfectly the school is held in mind as an organic process, the more perfectly may the process be realized in the school. And the most j)erfect form of the school process in thought is that of philosophy, — the form which holds all the INTRODUCTION. xi complex elements of the process iu the grasp of a uni- versal law. But soun &so' A SCHOOL is quite a complex object, for it includes teachers, pupils, parents, officers, tax-payers, funds, houses, and apparatus. Tliese diverse parts exist in unity, since they co-operate to one end under the moving force of a single idea. All tlie diverse acts of the several factors focus themselves in the one single act for which all the acts are performed. Hence the school is an organic process. It is this process which is to be man- aged, and for which there must be a fundamental law, — a law which gives unity to the diversity of functions in the manifold parts, — the Law of Unity. This is obviously tlie law of any organism whatever. An organism can have no other ; but this law needs detailed specification to appear as the working power in school management. In defining the law to this end, it must first be observed that the law has its sanction : — Within the Organism Itself. — The law of the school is inherent in the school, and not externally imposed. The botanist may discover laws of growth in tin- blade 1 2 SCII(X)L MANAGEMENT. of grass, but he cannot legislate for it. The physiologist may announce laws for tlie circulation of the blood, but he cannot dictate those laws. Tlie law of an organism is its own inherent energy moving forward, l)y variety of functions in unity, to realize the end which called forth the organism. Laws cannot be imposed upon it; external legislation cannot control its action. The solar sj'stem moves on in the way appointed by its own constitution. This is all plain enough, but it does seem, in the case of social organisms, — objects of man's fixing, — that laws are injected from without b}' those who set up the organi- zation. A second thought will reveal here also the in- herence of law, and that what man does is but external manipulation in obedience to inner law. However much man may fix up plans for any form of social regeneration, things plod on in tlieir own seemingly stubborn way, in obedience to their own nature and destiny. All the learning and legislation of a nation cannot change at will the current of life in a single city; and all helpfully done must be done in obedience to its own inherent law of development. The State itself proclaims what laws to write in the books for its own governing ; and it is obedient to them because they are its inward laws out- wardly manifested. There is, however, a widely ex- tended theory to the contrary, — a theor}- which Herbert Spencer combats in the following paragraph from his "Social Statics": — "Practically, if not professedly, they (the disciples of Bentham) hold, with Thrasymachus, that nothing is in- THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 3 trinsically riglit or wrong, but that it becomes either by tlie dictum of tlie State. If we are to credit tliem, government determines wliat shall be morality, and not morality wha,t shall be government. They believe in no oracular principle by whose yea or nay we may be guided; their Delphi is the House of Commons. By their account man lives and moves and has his being by legislative permit. His freedom to do this or that is not natural, but conferred. The question. Has the citizen any elaim to the work of his hands? can be decided only by parlia- mentary division. If 'the ayes have it,' he has; if' the noes,' he has not." Man may discover, and formulate in statutes, laws in organizations, but the laws are still in the organizations, ready to challenge the fictions of man's ordaining. Laws and statutes are not the same; they may even be antago- nistic, and the law compelled to disown the statute. The law of the school which concerns us here is not the school law found in the statute books, but the inherent nature of the school as legislating for itself; as giving law to all factors and functions, even to school law itself. But within this large and complex organism all parts and phases are not eijually authoritative. The law which binds in unity does not inhere in the external, objective, and fixed parts, but must be sought: — Within the Organism as a Spiritual Process. — Tlie fundamental law of the school is implied in the state- ment that "the school is an organic spiritual unit}'." It is not merely the co-operation of objective and appar- 4 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. ently fixed factors, but a movement of life through exter- nal forms back to life again. The law is not to be found in the material, obtrusive, objective, and stationary factors in the process ; but within the inner life wliich moves the organism to the realization of its purpose, — in the spirit which makes alive to its work the apparent organism, but not in the apparent organism. Everything exists in idea, in life and thought, before it can exist in objective reality ; and the function of such objective thing is to realize the idea which created it. Such is the circle of its life and the law of its being. The idea rapid transit brought forth the railroad, and the railroad in turn must bring forth rapid transit. The railroad must relieve the pressure of life which creates it; but this pressure is a constant force, and the railroad is being perpetually created and held to the work of relieving the pressure. Tlie idea by which it is realized must in turn be realized by it. Hence the railroad is not a fixed, dead, objective something, but a constant going out and returning to life; it is life. The objective thing cut loose from the life process is not a railroad; it vanishes into nothing when cut from its spiritual moor- ings. A railroad is not merely the external organization of material parts, but a circle of life, which is its reality and its law. The idea of developing the child by a systematic teach- ing process brings forth the objective school; and this in turn must bring forth the development of the child. The objective school must answer back to the life which THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 6 supports it. It stands as the middle term in a series, — between an idea and its realization; but it takes the whole series to constitute the school. The objective, lixed something called the school, is only a phase in the process, and is nothing apart from that process. It exists in and through realizing the idea by which it itself is realized. The real school is the whole process, not merely the objective phase of it; it is the constant outgoing of life through an external mediating agency back to life. This circle, again, and not merely the external organiza- tion of fixed parts, is its reality and its law. And this school process is still more complex. The idea which originates the school has two phases, — one that of a felt need for sonietliing to remove the limita- tions of life, and the other that of Instruction as a means of removing the limitations. The idea originating the external organization purposes the freedom of the indi- vidual through instruction. These are the elements of the school in idea; neither can be omitted, nor can they arise in any other order. Instruction cannot be conceived without the idea of an end to be realized; and the idea of an external school cannot arise except under the thought of instruction. Each may exist in thought without the succeeding, but not without the preceding; which shows that the subjective school is a movement in the direction named, — puri)()se, instruction, external organization. The foregoing elements of the school in idea reverse themselves iu the process of realization; for then the 6 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. external organization comes first, after which instnirtion is given, and then the purpose is realized. Neither can this order be reversed. Tlie purpose cannot be realized without instruction, and the instruction cannot be given without organized means to that end. And these three phases of school can exist only on the foregoing three as a basis. Besides, they must exist in the reverse order, — are logically conditioned in that order. The first in idea is last in objective reality. An idea always reverses tlie order of its elements in the process of becoming external; the beginning becomes the end; "the first shall be last, and the last shall be first," as appears in the following diagram of the school process: — The The f 1. Purpose, or Need. Idea -| 2. Instruction. School y 3. Organization — Management. School i becoming Process, j The [ 4. Organization — Management. Eeal ■{ 5. Instruction. ^ School. [ 6. Purpose, or Need, Realized. Thus the objective school organization, both as idea and as objective reality, is the hinging-poiut on which the ideas, purpose, and instruction fold back upon them- selves as actualized instruction and purpose. The ideal purpose and method of instruction form the subject-matter in "The Philosophy of Teaching." The hingmg-point, through which purpose and instruction are turned back realized, is the subject-matter for " School-Management ; " THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 7 and tlie fuiKlameutul law of school inanageineut is dis- closed in the fact that the subject to be treated is a hinging-point in the school process, and not a thing in and of itself. Thus we are brought to the fact of supreme practical importance; namely, that the fundamental law controll- ing the school as an external organization cannot be dictated by that organization, but has its origin in the process taken as a whole. While the law must arise from within, as shown at the outset, yet the law does not get its authority from any part, but from the school as a whole, taken in its entire circle of activity. The part, sueli as tlie external organization, with which manage- ment has to do, receives its law from the whole. The law of the school is its informing life, its inherent nature, wliich finds expression in the objective something witli whicli school management has to deal. All the organic factors of the external organization, incluiliiii,' the school law itself, must be tested by an idea which is antecedent to, and wliich logically conditions, the external and objective school The external organization, instead of dictating the law, may even be in oi)positi()n to the law. Even the statute embodying school law may be antagonistic to the law of the school. School directors, under a false sense of economy, sometimes lower the tax levy and shorten the school term. This is done by permission of the school law but in opposition to the law of the school. In faith- ful execution of the school law, it may be necessary to 8 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. crowd sixty pupils into the care of one teacher; but the idea which creates the school has not its freedom under such conditions. Under sulistantially the same condi- tions different States have different laws regulating the supply of books to pupils. These laws cannot all be best; and in so declaring we recognize something inherent in the school by which the school law itself is to be tested. Without such recognition school questions could not be argued. While never agreeing as to what is best in school organization and law, we do tacitly agree always that there is a best, if we could but discover it, and that this best is determined by something inherent in the nature of the school underlying external organization. It thus appears that the established order is not the ethical order. The fugitive slave law is rendered null and void by the inner law. History is a record of con- flicts between the ideal and inner truth of things, and external forms which were fixed by custom and law. There is a perennial strife between those who are loyal to forms as against the idea, and those who are loyal to the idea as against the form. There are those who seem to think that the external condition of things is the law, and therefore unassailable. Especially prone to hold this view are those who are a part of the fixed system. It seems to be the order, when a school system becomes fixed and crystallized, for those who form a part of the system to plead the fixed order as the ethical order, and to brand as iconoclasts or anarchists those who hold that the idea must not be violated. THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 9 *' Hence every moral and social advance has to fight its way not merely against the bad who oppose all order, but against the traditionally good, who believe that the social order is constant, and that what has been the ideal adjust- ment in the past must remain the ideal of conduct for all time. These conscientious but short-sighted conservatives are always more bitter and powerful opponents of the new ideal than the unprincipled rabble. The worst enemy of the better is the good. It was the constituted authorities, the conservative aristocracy of Athens, not the lawless and irreligious masses, who condemned Socrates to drink the hemlock. It was the Scribes and the Phai-isees and the chief priests and the principal men of Jerusalem who crucified Jesus. . . . "The higher form of this struggle comes between the law as the representative of the existing order, — or rather of the order which existed when the law was framed, — and the individuals who see the vision of the better order tliat is about to be, and demand institutions, customs, standards, duties, liberties large enough to meet the requirement of the social order that has come into being since the law was made, or stands ready to come as soon as the hard crust of the old order can be broken so as to give the new life room. Here society is behind the individual, and is trying to hold him back. Thus the average good man is equally at war with the bad man who is below him, ami the pro- gressively good man who is above him. The reformer and the criminal are about equally obnoxious to the man of average goodness and intelligence. The prophets and the 10 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. betrayers of their country are equally odious, and promis- cuously stoned. The Saviour is crucified between two thieves." ^ The forms through which life realizes itself, whether school, family, society, church, or state, tend to fix them- selves, and to check the life which grows through them. This is natural and inevitable. A considerable part of man's effort must be spent in readjusting tlie forms of life to the growing conditions of life. Man lives in advance of the customs of society, the laws of the state, the creeds of the church, and the methods and statutes of the school. When the tension becomes too great, as it does naturally and periodicuilly, the old forms must be readjusted, or new ones substituted. It will be evolution or revolution. To avoid conflict and bondage, forms should grow with the growing life. The radical sunders old forms before the life is ready for the new; the con- servative clings to old forms after they are outgrown; the serpent shows more wisdom in shedding the old skin through forming the new. One of the serious problems of school management is how to shed modes, forms, and customs through forming the new, that no violence may be done in the transition. The iconoclast would not have to break our idols, and with them our faith, if he would spend his time in preparing us to worship better things. The wisdom of the serpent in these matters would be the harmlessness of the dove. But in making the change from the old to the new, 1 Social Theology, — Dr. Hyde. THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 11 what is and what has been in external organization, while serving as a basis of action, can never be the advancing light — can never reveal what ought to be. The history of education is usually justified in a teacher's course, on the ground that in knowing what has been, it is known what ought to be. But the history of education cannot be read except in light of the unrealized ideal. History shows how far the idea has succeeded in realizing itself, and this is vital to the teacher; but to learn what has been, in order to find in such external a standard for imitation, is the servitude of form, and not the freedom of an idea. The best text-book on a given subject cannot be made by averaging texts already made; and the best one existing cannot be excelled witliout recognizing an ideal beyond anything accomplished. To study school systems with a view to finding a standard in the average best tiling, is to keep the standard from advancing. If progress is to be made, the standard must be created and set up in advance of anything realized. Kot what is, but what ought to be, is the paramount question. The law of the school requires that the teacher struggle against environment and existing forms to a fuller reali- zation of the idea than has yet been attained. The strongest tension possible must be maintained up to the risk of breaking with the forms and environment in which the life is rooted. This law of school life is tlie universal law of living, which holds that the real must continually yield to the ideal as it presses onward to realize itself. 12 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. This tension between the real and tlie ideal reveals itself clearly in the two classes of educational theorists and practitioners: those who construct the system a priori, and those who construct it a posteriori, — from the causal force of an idea, and from experience. The first, in the extreme type, ignore the concrete conditions, and build an educational Utopia; the second, in the extreme, see nothing but the concrete fixed conditions, and sink below the best already attained. Of the first type there are very few; and even their mistakes are inspiringly helpful ; of the second, and of those tending that way, is the great body of the profession, and with them rests the professional crimes against childhood. The crime of all crimes, so frequently committed by teachers and super- intendents, is that of comfortably and safely adjusting to existing conditions and prevailing sentiments among those for whom they labor. Whether a teacher be in- spired by the idea, so that he presses onward towards its realization, or whether simply wise in harmoniously fitting into prevailing modes and opinions, determines, more than any other one thing, whether he bless or blight the life he is supposed to save. It is worthy of note that those teachers put down in the world's history for eminent service have been inspired with an idea which pressed firmly and constantly against existing conditions; while others have gone into hibernation to spend as securely and comfortably as possible the winter of their professional lives. Of course one must not break with his environment, for to do so would be to lose his useful- THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 13 ness; but if he levels to it, he has no usefulness to lose. What needs to be insisted on is the presence of an inner law, which must constantly re-shape and mould the external condition of things, on the. basis of the existing condition of things. Every ideal must rise upon the real to which it is in bondage. Outer forms and laws arc but stepping-stones of the living idea, which constructs for itself new stepping-stones as they are needed. Thus the broadest requirement made by tlie funchi- mental law of the school is that tlie organization be adjusted to the demand of the ideal; that it never be regarded as fixed and an end; but that it be a perfect means standing between ideal purpose and instruction on the one hand, and realized instruction and purpose on the other, — the teaching process in idea, and the teaching process in objective realit3\ A school organization is tested by ascertaining how fully the thought and purpose of those in whom the organization rests has been realized by its agency. Of course it is of first importance to have a high ideal in the teaching process; but this ideal belongs to the philosophy of teaching, and Ave are here concerned only with its ade(piate realization through the school as an external means. Thus the real school, from wliich law emanates, is. mind in effort to unfold mind; and not the school-house and appliances, school officers and school law. This effort binds into a school, citizens, parents, officers, teachers, and pupils. These minds may not be actively making such effort in order tliat there be a school, but they must 14 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. be permanently disposed to make it. The school exists during vacation. A university does not vanish at com- mencement. A state university is a certain disposition in the minds of the state, — a spiritual power to act through external agencies in a specified process of instruc- tion. The whole external organization falls to pieces in a moment when such disposition is withdrawn. Then the school-house is no longer a school-house; a trustee no longer a trustee; the teacher ceases to be a teacher. Thus again it appears that the objective school, cut loose from its spiritual moorings, vanishes. This cannot be too often insisted upon, for we are so much accustomed to feel that the external, objective, and perhaps material something is the reality; and that therefore laws and principles of operation inhere in it, and are to be deduced from it. We are quite strictly materialists in school management; setting objective and fixed forms and rules hard and fast over against a growing and pulsating life. Thus the broadest aspect of the law of unity requires the circle from the ideal through the external organiza- tion to the real — the life circle — to be kept intact; that everything in the external organization be kept in move- ment to the realization of an ideal; that the end always dominate the means and never be dominated by it. In closest statement the unity is that of the ideal and the real; and the meaning of the law is that the external organization must be true to this unity, and not set up one of its own. But the school conceived merely as "an organic spiritual Till-: FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 16 unity" is too vague and general to liave working value, and must be reduced to lower terms : — In the Spiritual Unity of Teacher and Pupil. — This seems to be the spiritual centre out of which issues all law, and to wliicli all instrumentalities co-operate; for it is here that the miracle of changing the ideal into the real is wrought. The co-operation of these two factors accomplishes the end for which the whole system exists. Teacher and pupil, in co-operative touch to the end for which the school exists, of themselves constitute the school. A thumb-bell may be a ])art of the organiza- tion ; but the change from the ideal to the real is not in its co-operation with any other organ. The change can take place, and the school can exist without it. A clock and a blackboard may be parts of the school machinery; but the teaching process can go on witliout them, and the school is not destroyed by their removal. The co-operation of the school-house is not the tcacliing process, and the school can exist with a Mark Ilojikins on one end of a log and a Garfield on the other. Drawing more nearly to the school, and yet the teaching jtrocess can exist without gymnasium, laboratory, or library. The co- operation of neither of these with any other constitutes the process, and the efficiency of tlie organization cannot be tested therein. Director, trustee, county superintendent, state superintendent, and national commissioner of educa- tion are useful members, but the school can exist in idea, as it has done in fact, without them. The co-operation of either of them with any other factor is not the teaching process, 16 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. and a school system cannot be tested in the work of either. It would at first seem that if the public fund and tax-payer were removed , the bottom would fall out of the institution; but it is not so. School must keep; the sentiment is too deeply rooted to be baffled by trifling inconveniences through lack of organized fund, or hie- rarchy of officers, or school-house with all the wealth of modern appliances. Even if the parent were removed, the school would still operate; for a time, at least; as long as necessary. But the process vanishes if either teacher or pupil be dropped. These two in co-operative unity constitute a school, and the law is to be tested in their organic unit}-. All other parts of the organism work their way down to this unity through these tAvo factors. The prolonged and heroic effort States have made in organizing a school fund is to bring teacher and pupil together under the most favorable conditions of co-operation. The Commissioner of Education must find his way through the long line of forces down to the touch of teacher with pupil. Library, laboratory, and gymnasium are but unifying agencies between teacher and pupil; and the value of thumb-bell or clock, eraser or wall map, is tested by the influence exerted on the unity of teacher with pupil. Thus the school is quite a complex, but closely integrated, process. Every act performed, however remote, finds its way to the unity described; and is there tested. When the director fails to supply good fuel, or the trustee a good blackboard, the unity is weakened. When the county THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 17 superintendent gives license to a teacher, or a trustee selects one, the value of the act will be tested in the unity of teacher and pupil in the teaching act. The State Superintendent renders a decision, and it ultimately shows y itself in the concrete teaching process, — in the unity of "> mind with mind in the teaching act. The teacher fails to prepare the lesson, and the detrimental result is found when his mind fails to come into unity with that of the pupil on the topic under consideration. Behavior or conduct in school, whether on tlie part of the teacher, parent, pupil, or school officer, is the way one bears himself in reference to this vital touch of mind with mind in the act of instruction. A right act in school is one which secures, or tends to secure, unity between the mind of the teacher and the ]iui)il in the teaching process; while a wrong act is one which destroys, or tends to destroy, such unity. School management is the process l)y which all the acts of all tlic agents con- stituting the organism are brought into the unity of the one act above described. The law of the school, there- fore, as an external organism, requires unity to the vital centre of its manifold and complex parts. Thus, besides the school process as a whole, as at first described, and of which the external organization is a link, there is another organic process in the objective school, — a work- ing together of all its complex parts to a point in the school process as a whole. The character of the unity between teacher and pupil further specifics the law. The two art- imh- in tlir tt ai-li- 18 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. ing process; for in teaching, whatever tliought, sentiment, or resolution the teacher would stimulate in the pupil's mind, he must first have in his own consciousness. While causing the pupil to think the colors of the rainbow, tlie teacher must think them; and if the pupil's heart is to leap up when he beholds "a rainbow in the sky," the teacher's must leap with it. And the resolution and tendency to higher life expected in the pupil from the rainbow study m.ust be the resolution and tendency of his own life under that study. Thus, in all teaching there is a point of identity of consciousness between teacher and pupil. This identity of consciousness is the centre of the system, and it is this which management is to secure. Suppose the teacher, in teaching "Paul Kevere's Ride," be in the inspired mood to which his pupil is to be brought, good management will bring the pupil into unity with the teacher's inspiration; and the extent to which the pupil falls short, barring the question of his ability, must be put to the score of bad management somewhere in the system. At the moment of that effort on the part of the teacher, the whole school system, out to its remotest limits, stands pledged to the unity of inspiration of teacher and pupil in the poem under con- sideration. The tax-payer is toiling for it; the Com- missioner of Education is issuing his report to that end; the State Superintendent is interpreting the law to strengthen the work in hand; the county superintendent is issuing orders for the good of the cause ; and the school-house, with its library, gymnasium, wall-map^ THE FUNDAMKNTAL LAW. 19 blackboard, crayon, pointer, and eraser, marshals all its forces to the issue. The stove, the desks, the table, the curtains at the window, — all are focusing their energy at the moment to bring the pupil's inspiration up to that of the teacher's. Even the Governor and tlie President of the United States stand in constant and vital touch with the effort to arouse the pupil to the level of the teacher. Thus, at any moment, the school consists of the active, imrposed influences which combine to draw tlie pupil into unity with the teacher in tlie teaching act. Again the school appears not to be a fixed some- thing, but a living, moving thing in the process of realizing an idea. The school is a complex of functions, bringing teacher and pupil into co-operation. ]^)Ut while in the teaching act tliere is a point of identity between teacher and pujjil, there is the import- ant difference which makes the act of one teaching and that of tlie other learning. They are really thinking about different things. The point of subject-matter in which the two are to unite is ohi to the teacher; and at the time merely repi'0(lnn'(l in idea in order to awaken the same in the mind of tlie pupil. The teacher in the act of teaching is really tli inking of the pupil's experience, while the pupil is tliinking about the subject under con- sidei'ation. The subjcot being old to tlie tcadu r, and merely reproduced in idea to guide in stimulating the pupil to realize the same, the teacher turns his effort to the experience of the pupil in the act of learning; and with this further dilTerence, that the teacher is conscious 20 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. of the value of the experience of the pupil in terms of his unfolding life. What the teacher should be really conscious of is the process of growth on the part of tlie pupil in the act of fostering it. In teaching, the true teacher lives in the life of tlie pupil. If each lesson does not change the life of the pupil, no reason can be assigned for giving it; and if this be true, the teacher must be conscious of the change made in the act of mak- ing it; or the blind will be leading the blind. Hence the teacher must hold the pupil's life in his grasp in each act of teaching, — his whole life, for each lesson touches it from its centre to its circumference. Now, this good of life, immediate and remote, the pupil cannot be conscious of; if so, he could be his own teacher. In teaching, then, the pupil puts his effort on the subject- matter, while the teacher puts his effort on the growing life of the pupil, through his experiences with the subject- matter. The teacher holds in idea the aim, and the experiences by which the aim is realized; and at the same time the pupil has the real experiences and thus realizes the aim. Thus we have reached the point where the miracle is wrought, — the change from the ideal to the real, for which the organized system stands. And thus, too, while drawing differences between teacher and pupil, we have reached a more fundamental likeness, — a likeness in purpose and effort, which combine the two into the unity which makes the school. We have already seen that these two factors are the essential ones in the school process; that they really constitute the school. THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 21 They form the school in the unity of jmrpose and effort to realize the life of the pupil. Consciously or uncon- sciously, the pujiil is making an effort to realize his pos- sibilities, and tlie teacher is uniting with him in tlie effort. In this unity of effort of the two we liave the school in its simplest and most concrete form; but in tlie larger sense, the school consists of all the minds making effort with the pupil in his development. Thus it appears again that the school is a spiritual unity, consisting of minds in effort to unfold mind. Minds permanently disposed to make such effort is the school, in repose or quiescent; but when the effort is active, we have the school in process. But in all this the teacher, while not vanishing, as did the thumb-ljell, is reduced to the secondary position of instrument; and in last analysis we are forced to locate the law simply : — Within the Spiritual Unity of the Pupil Himself. — This is the unity of the pupil's real and ideal self; or rather, the school is the tension between the two. Reach- ing inward through all the forms and process of the com- plex school system, this tensit)n is found as the last and the abiding force; and moving outward from this centre, it may be seen determining and drawing all instrumen- talities to the infinite work of releasing the tension, which is constantly renewed. The student, direc^tly oi- in- directly, consciously or unconsciousl}', creates the school as external organization. This is quite obvious in the case of mature students. The first schools were made 22 SCHOOL MANAOKMENT. by the students themselves. Schools for children came later, and were created in sympathy for them, — created as they would have done for themselves, had they been conscious of their needo. In any case it is the student who virtually organizes instrumentalities for his own development. Those who join with liim in effort are only instrumentally connected; they are not the primary motive in the process. When a university is founded, it is on the assumption of a basis in the purpose, latent or active, in a number who are striving for improvement. Students might create, support and manage the institu- tion by which they themselves are taught, as is done in a church by its members. In this case it is evident that the spirit of the student is the basis of the school; but it is no less so when they accept agencies prepared on the assumption that they will make those agencies their own. And here we have come upon the most specific and vital principle of school management, — one which must be carried forward throughout the discussion. A school is firmly grounded when it is conscious of itself, if we may think of it so. — that is, when the objective school is held by the pupil as arising out of his own life; when seen as truly himself, and not the will of another; when he does not feel that it is something set over against himself, but that it is hiuiself projected in that form for his own self-realization. This means that school adminis- tration should be entirely democratic; that is, no arbi- trary will must displace the pupil's obedience to himself as objectified in the school. At first, of course, he may THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 23 not be able to see liiinself as the law, except in detail; but to gradually reveal the fact to him that he is the school, to which his conduct must conform, is the very triumph of management. The school is never stable unless it rests in the pupil's adoption of it as his law; in tliis the school has its fullest and firmest reality. It is obvious from the foregoing that the worst stroke of management imaginable is one which assails the reality of the school; and it usuall}' takes this shape. Tlie teacher, or it may be those administering affairs, says to pui)ils, in W(n(l or bearing, "I am running an institu- tion here, of wliich you are members by grace. Yes, come to think of it, I am really glad of your presence, and will take it as a personal favor for you to patronize my establishment, for by this I gain my livelihood. Of course, I will expect to recompense you with whatever favors I maybe able to bestow, — such as securing posi- tions in store or workshop; and it may be that if you remain long enough, and make the obligation great enough, I may reward you with a position in my school, to which you will have been so disinterestedly loyal. But if there is disorder here, — if you- in any way inter- fere with the smooth running of my business, — beware of my right arm. All rights, privileges, and immunities are vested in me; I make and execute the law. \\'lien you touch tlie school, you touch my personal affairs. Beware, I say; vengeance is mine." In this attitude r school may be crushed into seeming good order, but h is the worst of disorder; not only because students and 24 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. teacher are sundered, but because the organization is shifted from its real basis, and tlie unity of the student's life with it is broken. From this it must not be inferred that the management of the school must be turned over to the whims and caprices of the students, but that all things be done from the standpoint that the student, constantly setting up ill thought the organization for his own development, is the school. Hence, negatively, manageinent must do nothing to forbid the pupil from projecting his own rational nature as the school; and, positively, must do everything possible to enable the pupil to see the school as his own life, and to render obedience to its laws as to the laws of his own nature. The citizen reads the enact- ment of the state against theft, and discerns in it nothing but the requirement of his own nature, and renders obedience to it as his true self objectified. In this atti- tude he is free, for he renders obedience only to himself; whereas, if the law is something foreign to him, and thus imposed upon him, he is a slave to external requirement. The free citizen, the free state, the free country, mean only the freedom of self-obedience of the subject, — the obedience of the self to the larger self, — the state. Every individual in the state must come at last to say, with more commendable pride than Louis XIV., "I am the state." The best state policy is not that which adjusts the tariff, but that which makes every individual conscious of statehood. And thus the student reads the law of the school against THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 25 truancy and the like, and should see these as nothing but the requirements of his own nature, as his own school life, and render obedience to them as his own true self. It may be good, but it cannot be best, for a pupil to obey his teacher. It is a false assumption that he is predis- posed to disobey the requirements of the school, and that external authority must enter at once on the work of suppression. The main line of work running through the management of a school is that of developing in the thought of the pupil the laws which are in the school because of his membership in it. This does not require a logical exposition of the theory of the school, but the laws are to be made to appear through the concrete situa- tions of school life. Consultation, formal or informal, on special interests and phases of conduct, is the effective means, even with a class of youngest students. Tlie mere compliment of recognition forestalls opposition and outbreak. But tlie best result is not the mere matter of order, but the ethical value to tlie student: he becomes a student of conduct; he is finding the law of conduct in particular cases, and gradually, as he is able, generalizes them into the law of school conduct; and tlirough this the laws of conduct at large will be revealed to Iiim. And more, it is not merely a perception of law, but tliere is an habitual practice under the law; not merely his expanding theory of ethical conduct, but liis expanding free and virtuous life under tliat tlieory. He is imme- diately and directly involved in every case; and it becomes a question of his own practice, and not a sclieme to apply 26 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. to others. No amount of moral teaching in school can be as effective as a rational practice of school management. By it the school is not only made more real and secure, and the immediate condition for instruction provided, but the pupil is thereby brought to the habit of rational self- control, the end of all ends in school work. We should expect, of course, that, if the thing be done fundamentally right, harmony must reign throughout; and that in thus securing one end all other ends will be added. Instead, therefore, of all the agencies in the school system simply co-operating to the unity of teacher and pupil, the co-operation centres in the pupil, — in the unity between the pupil's real and his ideal self. Hence the teacher, who even stands in vital touch with the pupil, cannot give law to the school. It has already been de- veloped and stated on page 7 " that the fundamental law controlling the school as an external organization cannot be dictated by that organization; " and now it seems that the teacher is a part of that external organization. Teachers, principals, and superintendents, stand in such immediate and vital relation to the process that it is dangerously easy for them to assume arbitrarily the law- giving function, and difficult for them to subject themselves as means to the child as an end. This is the law of justice in the school, and is based on the same distinction as that which Plato, through tlie character of Socrates, urges on the sophist in searching for the nature of justice. The sophist had declared justice to be the interest of the stronger; but Plato urged that justice always considers THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 27 the interest of the weaker. He olainied that a shejilierd, in the character of a shepherd, conducts himself with reference to the Avelfare of his sheep, and not in the interest of the shepherd; that a physician, as a physician, is guided by the welfare of his patif^nt, and that in so far as lie is guided by money interests, lie is a business man and not physician; that a governor of a State, in the character of governor, must act with sole reference to the welfare of his subjects. The teacher, too, has a business sid(^; but in so far as he is teacher, his conduct must be regulated entirely b}- the welfare of his pupil, and the welfare of the same pupil must control wholly the C(-)nduct of su])eriutend(Mit and trustt>e, in the character of super- intendent and trustee. This ti'uth is so obvious that it seems useless to discuss it; yet this is the criminal jioint in practice, and the law quite commonly violated, for the motive of self-interest on the part of the teacher or officer, confronts the interest of the impil. The self-interest of those in the organization to whom the welfare of the child is intrusted is the most formidable obstacle to the law of the school. When some township trustees used school money for their own private ends, they were pro])erly branded criminnls; and they fled before the hot wrath of an outraged publir to the cooler and more con- genial clime of ("niiada. I'.ut their crime consisted in nothing mor(> Mian in sliortening the school term, and thus preventing so nnich o])portu!iitv on tlie part of the child. Was there anytljing more in this crinu- than the preference of self, as trustee, to the child? Then what 28 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. an alarming host of criminals in scliool work! Have you forgotten that other trustee, who, to wield local influences to his own interests, dropped a true and tried teacher of valuable experience for the doubtful and untried one? In both the child was not consulted, and its interests were ignored; both robbed the child. The latter may even have done so much more effectively than the former, through incompetency and the dwarfing influences of bad teaching. Yet the form of their crime was so different that one remains an honored citizen, while the others are the subjects of contempt and ignominy. Both robbed the child, and in this were equally criminal. AVhat we need is a quickened school-conscience to see it so. When- ever a city superintendent chooses the poorer of two teach- ers because of friendship, or to stand in with certain influences, he could not rob the child more effectively by putting his hand into the treasury, and ought to be hooted to Canada to keep company Avith his brethren. And so ought the teacher who, for selfisli reasons, forgets the child in his eagerness for popularity, that he may control influences which make his calling and election sure. When Lincoln, at a critical period in the war, desired to make a call for soldiers, he was reminded by the politicians that he was a candidate for re-election to the presidency, and that such a call would weaken his prospect. With characteristic devotion, he replied that it was not necessary for him to be re-elected to the presi- dency, but that it was necessary to save the Union unbroken to the next man who filled the presidential THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 29 chair. Such must be the spirit of the true teacher, — self-forgetful devotion to those whom he serves. The other danger is that of forgetting the child in the movement of the complicated machinery. The central process in the pupil must command all the external and remote appliances and processes; but it is uniformly true, and it seems necessarily so, tliat the teacher, before reaching his freedom in the central law of the school, must pass through some form of bondage to the machinery which conditi(jus his labor. All in all, the school is quite a complex piece of machinery. There are manifold processes to be performed aside from the central one. Teachers must be examined, the coal bought, the house cleaned, the record kept, classes called, and questions asked, — a manifold process so absorbing in variety and interests of detail, so overshadowing the little silent process wherein the miracle is wrought, that the external means become an end in the consciousness of those wlio teach and manage. Machinery there must be. There must be laws for raising revenue, a school system, school officers, and similar instrumentalities. The record of our early struggle to secure a school fund and a school system is a most worthy one; but it sometimes seems that the greater emphasis given to the system, the more danger there is of forgetting the child. It sometimes becomes a question whether the cliild can survive the machine. We have just i)ridc in our success in grading schools; but who has not been pained by tlie fact tliat the grading often becomes the end, and the child crushed in the 30 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. process. It often liappens that more discussion turns about grading than about the thing really to be done. There cannot be good schools without good grading, but a very poor school may be found Avliere tliere is good grading. Scarcely anything pertinent is said in boasting of such things. If the contrivance is good, let it be spoken of in terms of the teaching act. No appliance is good so long as it is used as an end. All appliances are good when subordinated to their proper relation and work. One of the most interesting and difficult prob- lems for the superintendent of a school, or a system of schools, whether city, state, or county, is to find his way to the pupil through the complex machinery with which he necessarily labors. The teacher finds liis way directly, the superintendent indirectly; but he must find his way, or he is not a superintendent. His life must touch the child, notwithstanding the many agencies that intervene. The long line of appliances and forces standing between him and the child are there only as a means by which he can reach the many; and if he gets himself tangled up in the machinery, he may not reach the child till too late for the rescue. Thus W8 have reached the simple but potent truth that the general law of unity of the organism which controls the whole complex school sj'stem reduces itself in last analysis to the unity of the pupil's ideal and real self. This is the unity which must never be violated, and which the whole system stands pledged to maintain. In all questions of school organization and management this is the court of ultimate appeal. THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 31 This ultimati' l;i\v of tlio school api)oars the more authoritative when we reflect on wliat has been imjilied throughout, and incidentally suggested many times; namely, that the law of the school organization is the law of all organizations wliatevor, whether spiritual or physical. The law applies to the i]lant and tlie animal, to the church and the state, as well as to the school. Of course the nu^chanism, as the watch, differs; for in such the law is externally imposed. But a mechanism is but a means, a })hase, in an organism, and is contrived and operatt'd under the same law, — which law W(»rks from without. In all cases the law ruling the world is the tension of the ideal ami the real, — the striving for unity, peace, and harnuuiy. The real gives the law of tiaitli, and we affirm what a thing is; the ideal proclaims the law of duty, and we affirm what a thing ought to be; having the unity of the two, we announce the thing beautiful. ]>ut a thing really is not until it is what it owy/i^ to be, and then it is beautiful; hence truth, beauty, and virtue are phases of the woi-M's movement under the tension of the real and the ideal, — the ultimate energy to wliicli tliought can penetrate. All institutions arise under this strain of ethical im- pulse which, reduced to its lowest terms, means the unity of the ideal and the real self; all are processes of self- realization. Tlio many-sidedness of life rnrpiires different methods of work, and hence different organizations; but whatever the variety of leverage required, the ultimate aim and law of all institutions, whether industrial or 32 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. sacred, is the same. All days are lioly, all work sacred., all institutions divine. Whatever difference there may be between a book on school management and one on the management of any other organization is only a difference in details. Wliile we often try to define the school as distinct from the other institutions, it is much more helpful, because more fundamental, to see how it is in unity with every other. A difference is always at least one remove less fundamental than a likeness. From one standpoint the school is an offshoot and enlargement of the family, seeking by more effective means to accomplish the same result, — the nurture of the child into the highest type of man or woman. As such, its law must be the same as that of the family. From another view the school is but a specialized function of the industrial world, — an effective means to physical comfort and happiness through the knowledge and virtue which form the basis of the industrial system. But the industrial world seeks more than mere animal welfare? — it is moved by blind impulse or conscious law to the spiritual good of man; and in this the law of the school is the same as the law of the shop. In still another aspect the school is a function of the state, whose sole aim is to harmonize in justice the aggregate efforts of all organizations in their working to realize the supreme good of life. The school, by developing intelligence and ethical virtues, grounds the state firmly, and in return is organized and supported to make its contribution to the common cause of human welfare. It gives and it THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW. 33 receives J it supports and is supported; but all this is but one complex effort to realize tlie ideal of life. Self- realization is the law of both school and state. The church organizes its forces about the relation of man to his Maker, and strives to make man perfect, even as his Father in lieaven is perfect; but it has always made the school its intimate ally in every work of regeneration. The problem of both church and school is to bring man ultimately into unity with his destiny, — the ultimate ideal of the human soul. The school is a religious insti- tution; certainly so in its historical origin, and no less so in its ultimate aim.* And thus all institutions arise out of the same truth; namely, that man seeks another self. Xo one gives law to the others; they are all ways of working out the same problem, — ways growing out of the many-sidedness of the individual. All institutions arise out of the nature of the life of the individual, and must return to that life; all are but methods of realizing the value of human life in the individual. This is the simple law of the great complex social whole. Social science seeks but the formula by which the complex forces in the aggregate of human life best work in unity to the end of righteous- ness in the individual, — how the whole makes perfect the individuals which constitute the whole. The whole social machinery is but a complex school system, to bring man out of his present real world into the world of higher truth and reality. In fact, we should * See rhilosopliy of Teaching, pages 270-275. 8 34 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. • scarcely pass the limit of literal language if we should say that the universe itself is such a system; for what do we know of the universe but a nature, an energy, striving through, and by means of, outer forms to a more perfect manifestation of itself? And this energy, so far as man presumes to officiate, or even to comprehend, is what has been stated as the law of the school, and which appears authoritative in having universal validity for all organizations. Even the universe is but a striving after the unity of the real and the potential, of appearance and ultimate reality. THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. Having moved inward through the organism to find the law, the way is prepared to move outward, and study the organism in light of its genesis under the law. Thus the parts and their functions can best be made to appear in their true relations, and the conditions prepared for the active process to be described in the next chapter, — '' The Organism in Executing tlie Law." The law of unity between the individual's real and ideal self lies back of tlie formal school organization; and, as before stated, is common to all organizations. It shapes the school as the vital iiriiicij)le shaj^es the ])hysical organism. Tlie scliool is the imincdiatt' L 57 recently, said to an acquaintance, * Oh, he 's nothing but a teacher!' Under similar circumstances, a professor in another well-known college was overlieard to use nearly the same language, referring to a colleague wliose name is almost a household word among teachers and scholars : * He 's a mere teacher.' So far liad tliese eminent gentle- men adopted the view that scholarship and enthusiasm for research are tlie supreme essentials to success and superiority as professors, that they could em[)l()y the unwarranted assumption not only without attempt at proof, but in terms of sincere contempt for eminent col- leagues. Could the speakers know the frequent com- parisons, highly unfavorable to themselves, made by some of the best students of their respective colleges between tliem and the colleagues they tried to belittle, they might be greatly surprised and chagrined." 2. But professional spirit is much more tlian a suscepti- bility and eagerness to respond to the pupil's need, — more than blind enthusiasms for what the pupil's life holds in prophecy. In addition, there must be conscious- ness of skill in aiding the pu[)il to realize the highest ideal of human life. The teacher must feel confident, througli a knowledge of the nature and laws of spiritual growth, of safe and certain guidance to the end s(mght. Professional spiiit is thus a sense of the power to accom- plish an end by a rational process, — a process b}' Avhich every step in detail is felt in relation to the ultimate end. The teacher must rise above tlie consciousness of the external means, and of the mental processes involved in 58 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. teaching a particular lesson, to the consciousness of the universal value to the child of every teaching act. A teacher may be conscious of the external means by which to teach a cube to a child, and m-aj have analyzed the process by which he forms his concept cube; but unless he can state and feel the value of the cube-experience in terms of the pupil's unfolding life, lie has no intelligent reason for, and no professional spirit in, producing the experience. He may know the material means and mental process by which the pupil forms his picture of the earth, but he can have no reason for causing its formation, and cannot rationally and with professional spirit do so, unless he knows how such a process and product is to aid the pupil in the solution of life's problem. Every lesson the teacher hears alters in some way, and permanently, the pupil's whole after life. A pebble dropped in the Atlantic disturbs all its waters, the waters of the Pacific, the solid parts of the earth, the air above, and through these the cosmic forces of the universe. Every lesson re-shapes the pupil's entire life; gives it new motion, new current, new tendencies, and, through the wonderful alchemy of influences, it modifies the spiritual forces of the world. Ordinarily, the teacher's conscious- ness does not go beyond the here and the now of the lesson. Yet every time the pupil's life is touched, the waves circle out to the other shore, and the teacher should keep his eye on the other shore. The teacher must never be satisfied, and never can be professional in the highest sense, until he becomes conscious of the ultimate end in THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 59 the process of its realization. And this must be taken in no abstract and general sense; it means that this teacher, here and now, in this particular First Reader lesson, is vividly conscious of its full life-meaning in the act of con- ducting the lesson. In general propositions we admit all this; but what needs to be insisted on is the necessity that the teacher in his daily, concrete teaching experience, be stimulated and guided by the largest meaning which the lesson has for the child. All tliis is but an aspect of the law of unity; for this law requires the teacher to keep liimself in unity with the future self of the pupil, in order that the pupil may reach that self. Fusing now the first and second elements of professional spirit, we have the consciousness of realizing ideals by rational procedure, — procedure through organized steps to a clearly defined end. 3. If we draw more completely under tlie law of unity, we sliall lind professional si)irit to be a still fuller exjipri- ence tlum yet indicated. The self which the pupil is to become, and with which the teacher must be identified, is the thought and spirit of the world objective to the pupil. The teacher must compass in his own life the organic unity of the pupil and the outer world ; stated in a superficial way as knowledge of the pupil and of the subject-matter. But this must be a knowledge of the two as one; for the pu])il — this solf to be taught — includes science, literature, liistory, etc., either really or poten- tially. These are his ]iresent, and are to be his future, experiences, connected by one whole of life activity. The 60 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. teacher is the connecting instrument between the ohl experience and the new, having brought both into terms of his own life. The branches to be taught are only processes of thought or forms of experience by which the pupil iinds his life in the infinite life about him. Therefore, when it is said that the teacher must be the other self to the pupil, it is implied that this objective world to the pupil is already made the teacher's own. He must know from experience the relation of the thought and spirit of the world to the growing life of his pupil. The little flower has whispered to him of the inflnite, and he must know what message it has to his blindly craving pupil. The lily has spoken to him its thought, plan, and purpose; its innocence, purity, and beauty; and he feels by sympathy how much the more limited life of his pupil needs such experiences. He has felt the strength, self-sacrifice, and heroism of Socrates, and knowing that his pupil must grow in firm- ness of virtue, brings Socrates' life into the pupil's experience. The teacher must see to it that the heavens declare the glory of God to the pupil, but they must first have declared it to the teacher. Thus the soul of the objective world is transformed into the life of the pujiil through the experience of the teacher. Professional spirit thus involves a consciousness of subject-matter as connected experience in the process of spiritual growth. It cannot be urged too often that a teacher must know his subject in and of itself; that he cannot teach what he does not know ; and that he cannot THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. \ 61 teach evea what he does teach without knowing vastly more than the pupil is expected to learn. The wealth of experience one has had in a suhject is the largest deter- mining factor in his professional preparation, for this experience is the spiritual medium by whieli the pupil comes into unity with the life of the objective world, which is his larger self. But we often hear that knowl- edge of subject-matter alone is not sufficient; that there must be knowledge of methods of instruction. The sharp opposition i;sually drawn between these two seems to be unfortunate; yet it will serve to enforce the truth. In a convention of teachers, some of whom are trained in the normal school and some in the college, we expect to hear from one side the imputation of a laek of professional training, and from the other the sneer at method in an empty head; because, perhaps, both are somewhat empty, — one in not seeing that the subject has the method within itself, and the other in failing to note that method must find itself in the subject; it cannot dangle in the air. Whatever it may be called, the teacher must see his subject as an unfolding experience in the life of the pupil, and not simply as a system of thought having its own logical coherence. Knowledge of subject-matter is a system of thought, organized about some central principle announced l>y the subject-matter itself; but the teacher must organize the subject-matter about the life of the pu[)il ; it is moans now to tlio child as end. It is not a question of logical coherence wholly, but also of chronological experience in the learner. At any rate, the subject, in the most 62 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. fundamental view, is a mental process, rather than a product; and a process has method. A consciousness of the process of a subject in becoming the realized self of tlie learner is^ by the law of unity, an essential element in professional spirit. This last requirement, more than any other, puts the greatest strain upon the teacher; and is therefore the liighest test of professional preparation. It not only requires a knowledge of the psychology of the learner, and of the logic of tlie subjects by which he is taught, but of the unity of the two in an educative process. This process is bewilderingly complex, because of the many- sidedness of the learner's life, and of the world which administers to the interests of that life; and this if life is considered only by cross section, but much more when viewed in its on-going, with new needs, interests, and aspirations at every turn. This introduces the most com- plex and baffling conception with which the teacher has to deal, — the Course of Study. This is made up of co-existent (practically) and successive experiences with the objective world of thought as formulated in the branches of the school course. The needs of child life at any one period can be satisfied only by touching the most diverse lines and phases of subject-matter; and with every stage of progress these assume new divisions and varied aspects. What lines of work fuse most naturally and helpfully into a present life experience, and what phases of each follow in a natural order of growth, is the greatest of all problems for the teacher. The emphasis THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 63 given to this problem at present is a hopeful sign. " Cor- relation " and " sequence of studies " are capital words in the teacher's vocabulary ; especially so if not taken to mean the stiff and formal program of parallel columns, with yearly cross sections for mere convenience of school machinery; but in the true and inward sense of variet}', unity, and volume of experience, moving by steady progress to full -orbed manhood and womanhood. A course of study is a statement of the process of self-realization in terms of subject-matter; it is growing subjective experience put in objective form, determined not by logic but by the interests and necessities of life. For practical purposes the whole course of study must be worked out in quite minute details. No matter if a teacher teach but a single grade, that work cannot be done intelligently without a sense of its organic relation to the wliole. Nothing is more fatal to professional spirit than for a teacher in a graded school to passively accept a course planned by the superintendent. The teacher must feel himself to be in harmony with the whole course, which requires a sense of the whole; besides, the harmony and rhythm of the whole course requires intelligent adjust- ment to the whole by each who conducts a part. Such a detailed statement as required cannot here be even sketched, for this would require a special treatise on a course of study. Nothing further can here be done than to emphasize the necessity of a clear conception of such a course on the part of every teacher. The underlying principles T have tried to present on pages 246-260 in "The Philosophy of Teaching." 64 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. And thus professional spirit has grown to be eonscious- ness of the unfolding life of the learner in forms and processes of subject-matter. 4. Having brought the teacher into this elevation of professional life, it seems at first that nothing more coiild be desired. But it will be remembered from the first chapter that the teacher comes into unity with the pupil through the elaborate machinery of the school organiza- tion. Much of this at best he has to wield as a means to the teaching process. If his care be limited to his own school-room, there is much of manipulation indirectly related to the teaching act; the teacher must bi'ing all the conditions and forces into the central process above described. And this reijuires that, along with his own sense of immediate unity with the life of the pupil, there be sensitiveness to the unity of the whole organism which conditions his success in the act of instruction. Lack of sensitiveness to the unity of the organism is the chief source of failure in school management. The teacher who does not at all times feel that the school is a whole with focused energy, will necessarily permit the dissolution of the organism. If, for instance, the sense of unity is so obtuse as not to be disturbed by the young lady who does fancy needlework in the recitation, or as to permit the teacher to pass to the back of the room to engage in a private conversation with a pupil, nothing i^ to be expected but disorder and confusion throughout. This sensitiveness to unity arises from the form and habit of organic thought, — of grasping diversity into unity. THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. Go It requires a great stress of conception to hold into unity such a complex object and process as the school. ^Vll;lt the teacher needs is a severe course of mental training to grasp complex functions into a single process. This training is not peculiar to school management, but is secured by the })roper form of thinking any subject. To think rigidly the human body as an organism secures the proper habit and form of thought for grasping the school as an organism. To see all the parts in the great panorama of history as co-operating to tlie single issue of a great principle is to prepare the mind for the complex conception which is the basis of practical school manage- ment. Any discussion of scliool management which yields only a loose aggregate of topics and rules counteracts in habit of thought more than it contributes by its generous supply of precepts. All this suggests the important principle that a teacher must not liave too much faitli in immediate, short, and direct jn-ocesses of preparation ; but must know that whatever trains the mind to its perfect work gives the needed special preparation for any situa- tion and duty of school life; that tliere is no way to prepare himself, or his pupils either, for practical duties, but to train himself to fundamental forms and habits of thouglit and life. Hence the teacher who would bring his school into unity and harmony of process must come to the work with a keen sense of unity and harmony, grounded in thorough training in organic forms and habits of thought. To make the school in form of unity, the teacher must first have lijduced himself to that form,— 66 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. into an abiding consciousness of unity in presence of the school organism. This is the final element sought in professional spirit. Professional consciousness has now grown to be quite complex and organic. First, there appeared the self- forgetful sympathy and enthusiasm for the pupil in the general interests and aspirations of his life; second, the pupil's ideal was clearly grasped in the process of its unfolding, giving rise to a definite sense of the process of self-realization; third, the objective world appeared in organic relation to the subjective process, giving rise to the consciousness of organic unity between the subjective and the objective self; and fourth, there arose the con- sciousness of the unity of the external organism with the process of unity between teacher and pupil. These are the elements of professional spirit in the order of evolu- tion, under the force of the law of unity discovered in the first chapter ; and, taken altogether, form the attribute in the individual denoted by the word teacher. These elements, therefore, in their organic order, suggest a definite scheme for the examination of the teacher. It is not proper here to make out in detail the questions and directions for such a test, but it might be well for the reader to do so; and, after comparing with those currently used, imagine the result in substituting the new for the old. We hesitate and falter before such ideals ; yet the only manly and helpful thing to do is to face them fairly and hopefully. We may not reach our highest ideals, certainly not the ideal of ideals, which THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 67 would be God Himself; but there is no high and worthy effort except in faith of the ultimate reality of ideals. Falter before them we may, but we cannot escape living ami acting under them. Unifying Conditions of Tkaciikh and Pupils. Let it be constantly held that the primary unity sought is that between the pupil's real and ideal self; that every teaching act should bring the pupil into unity with his next best self. By this unity as a standard, the qualities of the teacher have been outlined in the preceding chapter. But that these qualities may be eifective, the teacher must come into living touch with the pupil. We are now con- cerned, tlierefore, with the conditions of unity between teacher and pupils, — a secondary unity as a means to the primary. The unifying qualities in the teacher needed develop- ment, but the unifying qualities in the pupil must be assumed as the basis of the whole process. The school arises out of the impulse of the student to unity with his higher life, and hence his impulse to unity with Jiis teacher. We must admit, as a basis of the school pro- cess, the fact that the pupil is naturally inclined to learn, and to join with one who will t^niide him. This is the fundamental premise in the argument that a school is defective Avhen pu]iils are adverse to attendance. If the school-house is a house of life, and learning a process of living, how can school work be repulsive, except on the 68 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. assumption that it is antagonistic to the interests of life. If the pupil must think of the school as a task and imprisonment, instead of joyous, free life, something must be wrong with the school rather than with the l)upil. Barring the question of perverted habits and tastes, the teacher can have no liiglier criterion for his work than the joyous and eager school-going which results from his instruction. Since the school arises from the student's impulse of growth, and is a process of that growth, his own consciousness of growtli, witli the accom- panying satisfaction, must be the ultimate standard of testing efficiency. If students cease to elect the work of a professor, this evidence ought to convince the president of the professor's inefficiency ; and if all professors were thus abandoned, it would be attributed to worthlessness of the institution, rather than stubborn perversity in the students. The student's desire to go to school, when the conditions of true living are supplied, is the ultimate fact and test of school work. A compulsory school law is compulsory to parents rather than to pupils; it is to protect the pupil against the invasion of his rights by parents and others. This law is an enactment by the needs of the pupil's own life, and sanctioned by his more developed reason as embodied in others; it is nothing more than a legalized expression of the student's school- going desire. In the case of the teacher it is found necessary to offer inducements to enter the vocation; but the Yery nature of the pupil's life craves being taught; so much so, that THE LAW P:V0LVING THE ORGANISM. 69 he pays for tlie opportunity of co-operating with the teacher in forming the school. Hence we cannot speak of securing qualites of unity in the pupil, as was neces- sary in the case of the teacher, but only of the pupil's conditions of unity. The jmpil denuinds, besides certain qualities in the teacher, the conditions by which he may enter into concrete and living unity with the teacher. Whatever his qualifications, the teacher standing apart is of no service to the pupil. The iu'st and most general condition is that which secures: — Personal Contact. — Teaching cannot be carried on in absence of the pupil, although a faint attempt is some- times made through correspondence. Since the pupil is tO' enjoy the general elevating influence of the teacher, he must be brought within the atmosphere of the teaclier. Personal toucli is al)solutely essential to tlie influence of the life-giving principle. The teacher, as the unconscious ideal of the pupil, has no power in the absence of the pupil; the radius of the charmed circle is measured by the distinct intonations of the voice, the sparkle of the eye, and the beaming of the soul in the countenance. And the same condition is no less rigidly required by direct instruction. Such, when possible by corres})ond- ence, lacks vivacity, flexibility, and power. Except in the living presence of the pupil, the teacher cannot adjust himself to the varying moods and unexpected movements of the mind in the process of learning. Esitecially exact- ing is this law in teaching children. On account of the child's inability to hold a continuous line of thougiit, the 70 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. process of teaching would be instantly obstructed by its withdrawal from the school-room. The longer a pupil can hold himself to a proposed line of investigation, the more may he free himself from the presence of the teacher; and complete freedom is gained on condition of complete self-control. This law is clearly marked in practice; for while the primary pupil does his work wholly in the presence of the teacher, the university student works most in liis absence, hoping soon to discharge him altogether. By teaching, tlien, we are to understand the immediate, direct, face-to-face stimulus of one mind on another. The fact already announced, that in teaching the two minds move as one, requires personal contact. Hence the first step in operating the external machinery is to bring pupils and teacher together at a given time and place. The law of obedience to the requirement of time and place derives its authority from the fact that without this particular form of obedience the co-opera- tion of teacher and pupil is impossible. The law against absence and tardiness does not derive its validity from the school board or the legislature, but from the nature of teaching. Truancy is wrong because it renders impos- sible the oneness of mind between teacher and puj)il necessary to instruction. The pupil or the teacher who is wilfully tardy or absent, does that which, if done by all who have the same right, would completely destroy the school organization, because it blocks the machinery at the working-point. And the same right is extended to all by the law breaker, from the fact that he assumes such THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANLSM. 71 privilege. Thus the tax-payer and chikl are robbed by the mere fact of absence or tardiness. This requirement of time and place is sacred, and teacher and pupils should feel under the strictest obligations to keep it inviolate. There should be the most rigid adherence to exact time in opening and closing the day and its sessions. The ethical value of such obedience is to be discussed under the general heading of ethical value of school management. I speak here only of such obedience in relation to the organic unity of teacher and pupil in the act of instruction ; in relation, therefore, to the organic unity of the whole system. This law of personal contact determines the size of the class or school to be put in charge of a single teacher. That individual needs may be satisfied, there must be opportunity for intimate ])ersonal acquaintance. The more helpless the student, the smaller must be the classes and the school; although in practice this is usually re- versed, crowding more of smaller than of larger pupils in a given space. So much depends on general conditions, especially in the training and power of the student, that no definite statement can be made as to the proper number. A primary teaclier does well to manage a class of ten or a school of twenty; while in the upper grades management ought to be no more difficult, so far as the number is concerned, with classes of twenty and a school of forty. AVhen tlie conditions are definitely known, the principle which requires the closest personal influence and necessary individual assistance, is the sufficient guide in practice. 72 SCHOOL MANAGEMRNT. This law of personal contact in teaching requires tlie school-room, with its api)ointinents as a mere dwelling- place. Thus there arises out of the- preceding a second external condition of unity; namely: — The School-room. — Considered as a place of residence, the school-room must be made a positive influence in securing unity between teacher and pupil. It must be more than a secure, quiet, and comfortable meeting-place for teacher and pupil; it must have a positively elevating influence, bringing the pupil, by its active toning power, into the higher life and mood of unity with the teacher. The pupil comes at once under the combined influence of the presence of the teacher and the more indefinable presence of the school-room. The school-room must be homelike and cheerful, pleasing and attractive. It should not be bare, hard, and repulsive, but filled with sunshine and delight, which makes it more attractive and cheering than the home of the average child. This does not require up- holstered furniture and elaborate decorations. Clean walls, with here and there a well-chosen picture, which can speak to the mind and heart of the child; neat window-curtains; a few flowers; some carjjeting, — the more the better; and whatever little matters good taste would suggest. The tone of the school-room, aside from inducing the mood of mind favorable to unity of thought, is one of the powerful unconscious influences shaping the character of the child, and should receive as careful atten- tion as the multiplication table. Court-houses are often THE LAW EVOLVING THE 0I^GA^•1S^L 73 quite expensively carpeted, to be bespattered by coarse men whose formative period is passed; while school- houses have bare walls, floors, and platforms, to be occu- pied the whole day by pure, susceptible childhood. A more refining power in the school-room, and the court- room becomes the less useful. The court-house is not overdone; the scliool-house is under done. The teacher must not wait for the trustee or director to do expensive things; with no expense, except the free contribution of pupils, in articles and in labor, the school-room can be made quite cheery. The will finds the way. The general relation of presence of teacher and pupil in a properly toned school-room must now assume definite : — Communicable Relation of Teacher and Pupils. — The immediate condition of unity is that which makes pos- sible the exchange of thought through speech, look, and gesture. Hence, securing communicable relation, to the end of unity in the act of instruction, requires more tlian the mere presence of teacher and pupils in the school-room at a given time. Teacher and pupils must be brought face to face as in tlie act of communication. This requires pupils to be seated in a compact form, so that the teacher can seize the entire group in one view; and so that each pupil in the group is in easy conversational relation with the teacher. The seated portion of tlie room should not be so wide from right to left, or so long from front to back, that all the pupils cannot be equally distinctly addressed by eye and voice. If classes are to be heard in their seats, say in tlie left, middle, ur right uf tlie room. 74 SCHOOL .managem?:nt. the Avidth of the room from right to left would be in- creased by what it should be for convenience in grasping the school as a whole. In such a case there should be a compromise between the two requirements. If the school is to be addressed always as a whole, as often the case in a high school, the seated portion should be about square; if two grades are to be in the room, the seated i)ortion should be about one third wider from right to left than from front to back. The avidience room of a modern church, with its settees circled about the pnlpit as a centre, and elevated in the rear, is a recognition of the principle here to be enforced. It is not well to have the body of the school separated by stoves or wide aisles; the external form of unity should be maintained. The rows of desks should be placed with perfect regularity, and the whole should be made to look well as a body. When there are only a few pupils for the number of desks, these pupils should not be scattered so as to give the whole a ragged appearance. Compactness and external form of unity furthers the mental unity sought. It is wise foresight to visit the school-room before opening school, and make sure that the seating is in proper form. This law of seating so as to secure easy communicable relations, requires the teacher to keep himself in front of the pupils. He should not, for instance, go to the back of the room to aid a pupil ; he should be where he can see and be seen, hear and be heard. Not that he may watch for mischief, but that he be always in convenient position TUE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 75 for communication, — that he may constantly grasp the whole in unity, and avoid the school's falling to pieces by breaking the lines of unity between himself and each individi^al pupil. Teacher and pupil being now placed in definite position of unity with reference to each other, a further necessity arises, which must be met by adjustment of external con- ditions. The foregoing conditions confine and constrain both teacher and pupils, and consume energy which should be expended on the teaching and the learning act. Thus arises the third problem touching external conditions, that of : — Economy of Energy in Teacher and Pupils. — Teacher and pupils have but a given amount of energy for the work in hand; and the amount wasted because of unfavor- able conditions incident to school-room confinement is so much subtracted from unity in the teaching process. Tlie law of unity requires all the mental energy of the teacher and the pupil expended on the subject under considera- tion. Therefore, the conditions must be such as not to divert a portion of their energy to something aside from the line of discussion. The school-room conditions neces- sarily divert some energy from the effort for which the school-room exists, just as a part of tlie force generated for a given jnirpose by a machine is destroyed by the machine itself. This friction must be reduced to the minimum ; and to do so the ways in which energy is wasted must be ascertained. Of tliesc there can be but two: (1) uncomfortable bodily condition may divert the 76 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. attention to self; or (2) attention may be diverted to some other object aside from the line of discussion. 1. The physical condition of teacher and pupil must be such that they are not conscious of themselves; or, better, such that their mental energy will be intensified by physical vigor. The conditions cannot supply red blood, or prompt the rhythmical pulse, but much can be done by way of conserving energy and securing comfort to the body while in the school-room. And for liimself, wliile out of school, the teacher must guard his physical con- dition, and keep in good trim for the school-room. The law of the school forbids late hours and dissipation, and enjoins the utmost care in preserving the physical and mental vigor for the strain of teaching and managing. While in the school-room, the teacher must avoid undue exertion, — must sit when at all convenient, and avoid vexation and worry. The teacher should be relieved of the unjust burden of rejwrts usually imposed, and the work of teacher's meetings made as light as possible. The exaction of boards and superintendents in reports from teachers, by way of keeping the system well articu- lated, often tends strongly toward the dissolution of the organism altogether, in diverting the energy of the teacher from the vital point of the organism. Under the first point of economizing energy, the follow- ing specific conditions must be secured : — a. Seats should be so comfortable that the body is kept rested, — should be the shape of the body, and neither too high nor too low. Much is properly said on hygienic THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 77 grounds against the high desk for small pupils; but I wish here to emphasize the fact that such is also detrimental to the act of instruction. The old split jmncheon seat without back was very uncomfortable, and thus very nuich opposed to mental unity of teaclier and pupil. We find here also the grounds for intermissions and for frequent physical exercises. The pupil must be kept rested and invigorated, not only as a matter of preserving health, but of securing undivided attention. b. The air should be kept at the proper temperature. If a pupil is chilled, liis attention is directed to himself; and in a room of forty chilled pupils there are forty unities instead of one. It would be difficult to over- estimate the waste from inefficient heating apparatus. With a small stove in one corner of a large room on a cold day, unity is impossible, and the day wasted. The air must be kept at a uniform and a proper temperature all over the room, or the efficiency of the teaching act is impaired, — impaired just in that proportion in which the attention is directed to the self. c. The effect of bad ventilation on tlie mental activity is obvious. Drowsiness and depression weaken and divert mental energy, and prevent the fullest co-operation of thought in the line of discussion. Hence the teaching act, as well as health, requires a perfect system of ventilation, and the care of tlie teacher as to the constant supply of pure air in the school-room. d. Since the process of unity is partly carried on through reading and writing, the lighting of the room 78 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. must be such that no eifort is required tlirough the sense of sight. Just in proportion as seeing becomes difficult or painful, is tlie teaching act obstructed, as well as the eye injured. This means that there must be sufficient light, and from tlie proper direction. Thus all these points, — seating, heating, ventilating, and lighting, — so properly urged as matters of health, are the conditions to receive attention in securing unity in the act of instruction; for bad seating, heating, ventilat- ing, and lighting inuke the body so uncomfortable that the pupil necessarily thinks of himself instead of the subject being treated. These, and all other points in the external conditions which divert the attention from the topic under consideration to the self, must receive careful attention; and this not only in a negative way, for these conditions should be made to stimulate the energy required in teach- ing and learning. To remove obstruction is not sufficient; the light, and the air, and the restful position must exhilarate the mind, and urge the unity which they nega- tively condition. 2. If the attention is not diverted from the lesson to the self, it may still be attracted to some other object aside from the line of thought. This may be occasioned through one of the senses, especially through touch, sight, or hearing; or by some preceding train of the thought in which the mind is absorbed. a. Because objects which the pupil or teacher may touch are apt to attract attention, all objects, other than those required in the immediate work, should be removed THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGAXLSM. 79 from the desk. Let there he an apple, a ball, a knife, or a pen on the desk, and it seems almost impossible for the pupil to refrain from handling it; and thus having other thoughts awakened than those desired. The advantage of single over double desks arises at this point. Every experienced teacher knows how much less is the strain to keep order with pupils seated single than when seated double, — so much less that it is wise economy for the trustee to buy the single desk at a nuich greater cosb. b. Since attention is apt to be attracted through the eye, all unnecessary movement about the room should be avoided, and all the objects in the room be orderly bestowed. Pupils passing in and out during school sessions; getting drink; coal bucket out of place; one curtain down and another up, etc., etc., — all confuse the attention through the eye. c. ]\[ost effective of all means of diverting the attention is that of noise. Silence nuist be the law of the school- room. The noise of whispering, studj-ing, fixing fires, walking, loud talk of teacher, etc., must be gotten rid of. It is quite common for the teacher to make more noise than all the pupils together. A teacher should spenk in subdued tones, and move about too quietly to attract notice. He should so address a class during recitation that the pupils studying are not compelled to listen. Pencils should be sharpened at recess; and slate frames covered, or slates abolished for note-books. I know it has been often Tirged that a noisy school-room ia a sign of energy and activity, of industry and hard 80 SCIKJOL MANAGEMENT. work; that the working beehive miist hum. This sounds very well till we reflect that it is physical energy and activity that makes the noise; there is no m(;ntal analogy. Rather it is the reverse; for the greater the mental activity the greater the silence. The boy who thinks is not necessarily noisy, but necessarily silent. All profes- sional students seek a silent retreat as the best condition for mental labor. This doctrine of a noisy school arises from two classes of teachers, — those who cannot secure silence, and seek an escape through the theory ; and those who champion in good faith the plea for freedom on the part of the pupil, — or, as it seems to some, a plea for license. d. Little can be said to free the mind from prepossess- ing moods and trains of thought. The opening exercises have a value at this point. Pupils gather in the school- room in the morning, bringing with them their diverse interests and thoughts born of their multifarious duties, amusements, and associations. The opening exercise draws their minds to a centre; the music brings them into a common mood; and the Scripture lesson recalls them from their ramblings, and tones the thought for the labor of the day. I believe that opening exercises are justified on the score of school management, as well as on account of religious culture. Having now brought teacher and pupils into the tonic atmosphere of the school -room, and having secured defi- nite communicable relations in face-to-face position ; and further, having made the conditions such as not to divert THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 81 energy from tlie self to other objects, but ratlier such as to stimulate energy in the direction desired, teacher and pupils must now be supplied with: — Instruments of School Work. — At first the school-house appears as a convenient, comfortable, and homelike abode; and second, with such added furniture and arrangement as necessary to bring teacher and pu})ils into definite rela- tion for the interchange of thought. Certain ai)pliances must yet be added to complete the outfit of every well- furnished school-house. These are blackboards, with accompanying instruments; maps, charts, and devices for illustrating subjects; laboratories, library, and text-books. The blackboard is the constant means by which the teacher and pupils exchange thoughts through demonstra- tion, outline, and graphic illustration. Maps, charts, and illustrative devices, as globes and mathematical forms, are the more perfect and fixed forms of com- munication; while the work on the blackboard, though more crude, is the more pliable and more immediate to the teacher's necessities. The laboratory differs from the foregoing in not being grajjliic and illustrative, but in providing for the manijiu- lation of the actual material studied. It is a means for multiplying the powers of observation ; both by way of supplying material for observation, and also through instruments which multiply the jjowers of the senses ; with others which alter the conditions of the object to be observed. Laboratories are quite a conspicuous part of a college or university outfit; but high schools are just 6 82 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. beginning to realize their value, and to supply themselves accordingly. Their indispensable service to grammar and primary grades is yet to be recognized. The teacher in the primary school who values truly the study of nature must feel hindered in a school without some chemical and physical appliances. The laboratory, or at least some means of experimental study, has not been called for more earnestly because tlie study of nature so far has been forced in the back-ground by the more conventional studies. When observation and experimental studies assume their proper place in primary and elementary education, then the laboratory will be a prominent part of the common-school outfit. The child's education begins in the great laboratory of nature, and his studies should be continued unbroken, but in a more rigid and systematic way. He must be trained to observe more accurately and thoroughly, and by the use of instruments to persuade nature to reveal the mysteries which she will not volun- tarily disclose. The necessity of a library is better understood ; but iu this, too, we find the same decreasing importance attached in descending to primary instruction. It would be diffi- cult to state how largely a university in these days con- sists in a library. Class-room work is reduced to a minimum, students spending their time in the library investigating subjects under the direction of the teacher. As in the case of laboratories, high schools are beginning to understand the value and use of libraries, and the library is gradually taking its place in every well-regu- THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 83 lated high school. Wlien teachers in tlie lower grades understand the science and the art of teaching, and thus gain freedom from the conventional school drill for definite, ponderable products in the dogmatic form of text-books, the library will be as much demanded there as in the university. Of course the organization of such a library and the use of the books will be different. For instance, multiple copies of the same book would be needed, so that the teacher could use it with the class as a whole. Instead of the regulation reader, the teacher who did not work by the page would be truly happy to have in the library copies enough of Hawthorne's "Tanglewood Tales" to supply liis fourth grade, and in a few weeks be able to substitute Whittier's Poems, etc. The child in the |irimary grade has the right to a supply of the best juvenile literature. Are not nature, history, and mythological stories as necessary to the child's culture as science, history, and philosophy are to the university student? And if so, is it not the business of the school, as much in one case as in tlie other, to supply the neces- sary books? Forces are already moving strongly to the fornuition of libraries for primary and gruiiiinar grades. Never before was there so much stir about young people's literature, and tlirough agencies at work many common schools now have a nucleus of a library. When the convic- tion couK^s tluit a library is an essential ])art of the outfit of every school, then the library will come as a matter of course, as does the school-liouse and blackboard. And when it does come, it will do more than all other agencies 84 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. to infuse with fuller and richer life the hard pedantic drill of the school-master. With all that has been said against text-books, they are still essential instruments of school work. The library may supplant some, and render others less necessary, but its main effect on text-books will be that of forcing to their intelligent use. We cannot refuse all things which are abused. The abuse of the text by following it so slavishly as to make the pupil feel that the form and compass of knovvledge are bound therein, cannot be too strongly condemned. But the text-book, used as a con- venient guide to the discussion, and re-enforced by wide reading in reference books, must ever remain an efficient means of instruction. Unifying Qualities and Conditions Secured. Efficient co-operation, involved in the process of instruc- tion, requires a teacher having the qualities already named to face the pupils under the conditions specified. Such is the condition of instruction demanded by the nature and need of the pupil. Yet this is not usually a conscious demand on his part. But his unconscious need gives law to the school with as much authority as though he advo- cate his own wants in logical form ; yet public sentiment must voice his needs for him. All that has been outlined must be in the thought of the public, and brought into reality by some agency beyond teacher and pupil. These of themselves could not secure effective conditions of TIIK LAW EVOLVING THE ORGA^^SM. 85 co-operation. After the teacher is enthroned in the school-room, he does much to secure and maintain con- ditions of unity; but up to that point, and continuous with his duty, society must secure and maintain the teacher in his place under conditions of successful labor. Schools are not detached from society, but are constantly conditioned by the educational thought and sentiment of the public. If the school goes wrong, it must ultimately be charged to public intelligence and purpose; but not immediately, for society realizes its thought and wish through executive agencies. What this thought and wish should be 1 have tried to deduce in the two preceding chapters. After these conditions have been clearly defined in thought and purpose, it yet remains to realize them; therefore the next step in the evolution of the school is to secure executive agencies to institute and maintain the school, giving rise to the problem of school supervision. From the two factors in the school process, discussed in the two foregoing chapters, it is obvious that school supervision has two quite distinct phases, — one, that of supervising the conditions of instruction; the other, that of supervising instruction itself. The first is chiefly a business function, but it has also a professional asi)ect; for the conditions of instruction must be interpreted in order to supply them intelligently. The second requires strictly expert, professional skill. Wliilc these two functions have usually been performed by a single person called superintendent, city or county, it is hoped that, in due course of differentiation, there will arise soon SIAIE NORMAL SCHOOL 86 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. distinct agencies for the distinct functions. But whether these two functions be exercised by one, or located in separate agents, they must be kept quite distinct in thought, both for clearness of discussion and efficiency of action. Supervision of Instruction. — The aim of supervision of instruction is to secure the proper qualities in the teacher. The true teacher requires of himself the qualities the pupil demands; but, until he is a true teacher, he has not the knowledge and the spirit to make such requirement. Considering the weakness of human nature, it would not be safe to trust those interested to decide for themselves the question of fitness for admission into the profession. There must be some one competent and trustworthy to voice the unconscious demands of the child, and check, as would the child, the admission of the unwortliy and incompetent. This becomes less necessary as the pupil approaches maturity; college and university students can largely be trusted to defend themselves. Under the elective system they starve out the indifferent teacher; yet protection here would be timely, in preventing the student's starvation along with that of his teacher. Neither can the public, who create and support the school by a strong educational sentiment, specif}^ the needs of the student definitely enough to guide in securing the proper qualities in the teacher. The general theories of the public are too crude and indiscriminating to specify exactly what is needed. And if this were not true, function must be located to be executed. THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 87 This one, to stand tor the pupil as over against the teacher, and to define and voice the intelligence of the public, must be selected out of the ranks of the teachers themselves; for there is required of him the high- est degree of the same kind of qualifications as that already described for the teacher. He must secure the qualifications in the teacher required by the growing life of the pupil; and for this he needs the same sympatliy for the pupil, and the same insight into his life, as required of the teacher. He has the function of the teacher raised to the second power. He teaches through the teacher; and from the fact that he can test and guide many teachers, his influence on the pupil is multiplied many- fold beyond that of direct instruction. In the process of evolution the superintendent's function becomes entangled with business which does not belong to a teacher. But he is always properly classed as a teacher; and when evolution lias done its perfect work, he will be restricted to the supervision of teachers. The fact that so large a number who are called superintendents devote themselves cliiefly to the business and political interests of tlie school is incidental to the situation; and no indica- tion that such is the normal and final condition of things. The business side of the school must receive atttention; and since the superintendent is not always full}' dilVer- entiated in his preparation, he devotes himself to the business phase of school work, it being more tangible and less rigid in its requirements. At present the super- intendent has combined in him both functions, giving 88 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. most emphasis, perhaps, to business, — such as looking after supplies, or inspecting attendance and promotion records — the business-educational part of the program. Since there must be a business man, those wlio have more taste and skill for the external affairs of the school should be restricted to that department of work, leaving to those who have the more highly specialized professional skill the work of supervising instruction. Such differentiation is rapidly going on, and in man}- schools, although not yet legally recognized, it has virtu- ally taken place. Superintendents, overburdened with business alfairs, or feeling unsafe in assuming to direct scientific instruction, are securing supervisors of primary work and of special subjects, and also the aid of an assistant superintendent who exercises general super- vision over instruction. While law can do but little to hasten any form of social progress till that progress becomes largely an accomplished fact there is a stage in the process when legal recognition gives instant relief to the struggling forces. This relief has been felt in the school of Cleveland, Ohio, which recently took the final step, the superintendent receiving the legal title, Super- intendent of Instruction, the business management being intrusted to a Director. These receive equal salaries, and have absolute power in their respective functions, the superintendent being appointed for life, or during good behavior. It seems reckless to give a superintendent absolute power. Without a check, is there no danger of his THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 8'J becoming autocratic, and defiantly independent? The • system, however, instead of being autocratic, is strictly democratic. Every child, parent, and educational interest stands in direct touch with the superintendent. He must shape his conduct from the standpoint of the child, as reflected, it may be, through the parent; he must justify his theory and his practice before the highest court of public appeal, — the })eople themselves. A superintendent who serves a board may, knowing its personal make-up, ingeniously fasten himself on the system in many ways other than by efficient service ; but when he comes before the educational public, he must address himself to the business in hand. The unlimited superintendent, with man's natural love of power, might become intoxicated if it were not for the sobering fact of fearful responsibility. It would seem that such a position would be eagerly sought; but indeed, he is a bold man Avho makes the venture. Kesponsibility is always commensurate with liberty and opportunity; and fear naturally arises with the tliouglit of absolute authority, which has to be justified by him who enjoys tlie authority. If the child has a poor teacher, the child, parent, and public can say, "You did it." When the teiuii'c of office is conditioned on good behavior, coupled with personal responsibility, the situation is such as to put the superintendent on good behavior, because he must always face his own deed. If his deed justifies his oppor- tunity, life is too sliort for such service; if not, he makes his own cause for remuval. 90 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT While the situation requires all the pluck and self- assurance a superintendent can muster, he will still have a large balance of joy in the opportunity of realizing cherished ideals. When ideals disturb, there is no elation of life so great as that arising from opportunity to realize them; and the ecstasy which accompanies the labor is the sustaining power and sufficient reward of the laborer. A superinteudent who does not feel deeply the burden of responsibility, does not comprehend the requirements of his vocation, and is not qualified for the duties before him. But if the hesitancy thus produced is not overcome by confidence founded in a firm conception of the educa- tive process, and by the hope of realizing his educational ideals through the opportunit}' offered, still more should we suspect some fundamental defect in his professional character. The first step in securing the proper teaching qualities is that of: — Selectinfj the Teacher. — This, aside from the act of teaching, is the most critical function of the organism. The one held responsible for this duty must know, in a scientific and professional way, the necessary qualifica- tions of a teacher; and besides, must have that devotion to the pupil which makes him firm against the importunities of the unqualified, Avhether tlie}' be relatives, friends, or home or foreign talent. There is but one law, and this requires that the best available teacher be secured, else the superintendent robs the tax-payer, and murders the child. Under the most favorable conditions, the supply THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANLSM. 91 of well-prepared teachers is always much too small; and to further limit by irrelevant bases of choice is an out- rage on the pupil and tlie public. The greatest ethical strain of the system occurs at this point, and the appoint- ing power must be located in a superintendent of rigid integrity and uncompromising educational convictions. Of all the functions strictly belonging to the superin- tendent, that of selecting teachers is yet prominently shared by the board, just as the business of the board is shared by the superintendent. However, the long con- tention of the superintendent with the board for his professional rights has left with the board, generally, only tlie privilege of formal approval of the superin- tendent's actions. This satisfies the board, as they may still claim the power: while the superintendent is com- fortably screened behind the board assuming his action. The superintendent may desire the evolution to go no further; but this would be to permit him to lescape still tlie responsibility which the nature of the organism requires. He must exercise the appointing power un- disguised, if he expects opportunity for the highest pro- fessional effort. The first test of a superintendent, city or county, or of a president of a college or university, lies in the kind of teacher i>ut in and kept in the school. Xowliere can he show better, or worse, judgment ; and nowhcn-e else more, or less, of earnest educational conviction and downright honesty of purpose. Of course the embarrassment is great ; for always the supply of tcaclicrs, of the kind 92 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. demanded, falls far short of the demand. Hence the earnest plea for professional schools. Such schools are doubly grounded : first, in the necessity for the individual to prepare himself for the profession; and second, in the necessity of the superintendent in securing trained teachers. These complementary forces are yet to work together more effectively in establishing more numerous and more efficient schools for elevating the professional status of the teacher. The purpose of such schools being to train teachers, the discussion under the " Unifying Qualities in the Teacher " suggests the general character and scope of their work. At this point we are interested only in their organic place in the system. After the superintendent has made the best possible selection under the limitations, he will have to exercise still another function, that of: — Aiding the Teacher. — Wliile the function of helping the teacher "belongs to the superintendent, this fact ought not to encourage the policy of employing cheap teachers and a high-priced superintendent, expecting him to reach the pupil through inferior instruments. Since the most efficient superintendent may exhaust his efforts through the most skilful teachers which can be secured, the fore; going policy necessarily lowers the standard of school work. If direct and immediate help to inefficient teachers could be eliminated, the superintendent still has the problem of the continued growth of those teachers who were very desirable at the time of selection. An ideal teacher is THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 93 not one who has reached perfection, but one at the upper limit of the profession pushing vigorously for better things. Such a one is most dissatistied witli present attainments, and presses most eagerly for assistance. At any rate, with all grades of teachers the superintendent's best service is not in direct suggestion, but in general guidance and stimulus to higher professional life. Tliere must be constant unsettling through the revelatitm of liiglier ideals and more scientific processes. The teacher's work will improve only under rational insight into educa- tive processes, and not by direct advice and authority of the superintendent. Teachers are too prone to seek what a superintendent desires, in order that tliey may conform to his wishes. This may arise from lack of definite con- ception of the work in hand, or from a desire to stand well witli authority. And superintendents understand too well how to manipulate this weakness. The obedience which the superintendent should cultivate in the teacher is that of obedience to the reason in the educative process. The superintendent should completely obscure himself as authority, but become conspicuous as a leader of thought. As the pupil looks to the teacher for the higher life of culture, so should the teacher look to the superintendent for the higher life of the profession. The unity between the teacher and the superintendent slioulil be as organic and sympathetic as that between tlie })upil and the teacher. But it must not be inferred that a superintendent is superior to the teacher; liis knowledge and skill .are 94 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. different in kind, but not necessarily in degree. A super- intendent may serve wisely teachers who excel hini in the details of their work; in fact, they should be ex})ected to so excel him. Surely, in the ideal condition of things, there will be as much general culture and professional knowledge and skill in th(! teacher of a grade, as in a superintendent ; but the special preparation will be dif- ferent. The preparation of a college president is different from that of a member of liis faculty; but this does not require on his part a higher degree of culture or profes- sional attainment. The unjust discrepancy between the pay of a superintendent and the grade teacher, and that between a president and member of his faculty, cannot be justified wholly by the difference in the qualifications required; the great advantage given to one must be partly accounted for by the mere accident of occupying a con- spicuous and authoritative position. This accident, too, often persuades the mediocre superintendent to assume an unbecoming superiority. Under this delusion he moves about with an air of omniscience, making wise, common- place remarks; and negative, cutting, personal criticisms. In the intervals he looks after the condition of blackboards and school-rooms, and inspects records and programs, and does whatever easy work he can pick up to keep himself busy. His professional criticisms suggest surcharged wisdom, but only wound and embarrass those he should help. All of this is a violation of the law of unit}-, which forbids the superintendent to stand over against the teacher, but which requires the closest sympathetic co- THE LAW EVOLVIxr. THE ORGANISM, 95 operation between them. As tlic teacher operates by fusion with the pupil's life, so the superintendent must become one with the teacher, and through the teacher with the pupil. The superintendent's function is to bring the teacher into unity with the pupil; and this, since tlie teacher must become one with the pupil, he cannot do except by unity with the teacher. To supervise instruction is to find the way through the teacher to the pupil. It must be as if the superintendent taught the pu})il himself, having the practical skill of the teacher added to his broader concep- tions of theory. Whatever higher conceptions he may have of the life-giving functions of the subjects to be taught must, through his agency, come into the life of the pupil. While the superintendent teaches at long range and through multiplied instrumentalities, he must touch the life of each individual pupil. It is too common to find a superintendent with good theories of the process of instruction in a given subject while none of the better things are seen bearing their fruit. A superintendent is not a superintendent unless his best conceptions of educa- tive processes find tlieir way through the teacher into tlie life of tlic pupil. This docs nrtt mean that the teacher is to become a mere instrument of transmission, but must yet remain a potent personal originating force. Here, as before suggested, the superintendent can di» harm by pushing liis tlicorics (into the teacher more rapidly than they can be organized into an originating force of the teacher's own. While the teacher is the superintendent's leverage of reaching the mass of pupils, and of doing 96 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. more effectively the direct work than he himself could do, this instrument must be taken in no mechanical sense; but as an original throbbing life, charged with its own message to the pupil. Ultimately, what the superin- tendent is held for is the kind of work the pupil is re- ceiving, — not his elaborate reports and published theories. The test is, whether his own best thought of teaching reaches the pupil through the teacher as if the teacher himself originated it. He must make the teacher the active force and applier of his own best educational conceptions. Thus the same law of unity between teacher and pupil holds for the superintendent. But with him it is much more difficult to fuliil ; for many more instrumentali- ties intervene between him and the pupil. Kot only the teacher, but also the material conditions of the teacher's labor, and often the political machinery of the school, intercept his movement toward the pupil. One of the great problems of educational reform is that of con- serving supervising energy - This consists first in remov- ing the temptation for the superintendent to spend his days and nights in securing the election of members of the school board who will serve his personal ends, and after election to redouble his diligence to manage them instead of the school. The next step is that of relegating to business men and clerks the business and routine side of school Avork, so that the superintendent must justify himself by bis own special work, rather than by a multi- tude of indefinite duties cleverly performed. And lastly, THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISiL 97 there must be selected a superintendent with a clearl_y defined educational character, rather than a man of hetero- geneous and conflicting elements required in dealing with the concrete situations of business and polities, while managing the educational interests of the school. Thus might we hope to find more uniformly men of commanding eminence filling the school position, of all others most potent for good, because widest and most searching in its influence. Supervising Conditions of Instruction. — Wliile the business agent is supposed to be skilled in providing the necessary conditions, the teacher and superintendent must specify them; for one Avho does not know the educa- tive process cannot specify the conditions of that process. Thus the business agency of the school, which selects and authorizes the teacher and superintendent, in turn becomes subj(^ct to the direction and authority of that teacher and su{)erintf'ndent. Tlirough the organic relation of condi- tions to the teaching act, the teacher must keep before the board the conditions next most needed, that school funds may be most effectively distributed. Boards waste muoli in buying and contracting at random, and under the per- suasion of interested agents. A board acts ill-advisodly in buying six tellurian globes, when a dictionary lias ni)t been su})plied. The (piestiou is not what is a good tiling for a school, but wliat is now most needed. Only the teacher and the superintendent can be expected to know this; and it is their duty, through a knowledge of the conditions as organized and working to the teaching act, 98 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. to keep before the proper authorities the most effective ways of expenditure. But while the teacher knows what is needed, he cannot be expected to procure it. He should know the ajipoint- ments of a school-house, and tliat it should be kept in a cleanl}' and orderly condition; but he cannot be expected to act as, janitor or architect, or to enter into business relations with them. At this point arises the need of special business knowledge and skill, and calls for a new organ in the system. The differentiation of this function and that of super- intendent has already been discussed. The business side of the school process, as well as that of the supervision of instruction, is one of the professional aspects of school work, and should be dignified by a salaried official. What has been said touching the opportunity and responsibility of a differentiated superintendent, holds with as much force for a differentiated school director. If money is wasted or a contract fraudulently filled, the responsible source can be directly located. A man whose profession is to supply conditions of school work is apt to use all diligence in keeping his trust; but if he serve incidentally, as a citizen with other citizens, interest and responsibility are at lowest tension. In this and the previous discussion of the differentiation of the supervising forces, and the separate location of functions in superintendent and director, I have not, of course, described the actual conditions of things, but only the ideal order of evolution, which is already indicated THE LAW EVOLVING THE ORGANISM. 99 in advancing types of the system. Only by speaking to the ideal can the discussion be practical. The principle of guidance for the director of a country school, the town- ship trustee, or the school board of a village or city must be found in their ideal relations to the teaching process, whicli requires the distinct embodiment in a specialized officer. AVhether things are so or can now be made so, is not the question; but what is the ideal requirement of the law of the school, so that the duty nuiy be clearly discerned, and as fully performed as entangling relations permit. If the genesis of the organism under the law moves inevitably to the differentiation of the supervising function into tliat of superintendent and director, we have the most significant fact for the immediate guidance of all school officers, and for giving future trend to the organism.* Basis and Limitations of Supervision. — Tublic opinion is both the basis and limitation of supervision. The director, appointing the superintendent by the approval of a board who represent the people, is the immediate connecting link between the school and public sentiment. But when appointed, the superintendent shares the medi- ating function between the school in its concrete reality and public opinion. These special executive agents serve ^ Since completinf:j this discussion, the Report of the Committee of Fif- teen lias appeared, coutaininf^ a sub-report^ on " Tiie < >rgani/.ation of City School Systems." This sul)-report is a more comprehensive statement and a stronger enforcement of tiie ideal here presented than I liave been able to make. 100 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. under the legislative action, which emanates from society as a whole. While insisting that executive function mast be centralized in a single officer, it is also recognized that a widespread and intelligent school sentiment, from which may come wise school legislation, is, after all, the real basis of the school. The more people who take an active interest in scliool the better. Diffusion of educational sentiment is as necessary as definite location of executive function. Wide diversity of intelligent con- viction, focused in unity of action, is the only means to certain, permanent, and valuable results. The executive officers, being limited by the conditions imposed by the public, cannot be held responsible beyond the limits of opportunity furnished. Aside from lack of general encouragement and recognition of worthy service, the limitations are of two specific kinds. Society may fail to supply a sufficient number of competent teachers, and thus force the superintendent to choose inferior ones; or fail to supply funds sufficient to secure the best talent when found, or to furnish the proper conditions for effec- tive service. The superintendent is doubl}^ limited over the business agent; for he cannot find so easily what he wants, or secure it when found. Besides, it is much easier, it seems, to secure funds to supply the material . conditions of the school than to secure the best profes- sional service. The former is more tangible and con- spicuous. A teacher i& supposed to be a teacher, and that is the end of the matter. The distinctions in finer qualities, which are vital to the pupil, are not patent to SCHOOL MANAGEMKNT. 101 the public gaze, or discernible by the unskilled eye. The old wooden school-house can easily be replaced with a brick structure, with turret and bell; while the wooden teacher remains undisturbed. Public sentiment must be educated, if not into a clear discernment of professional qualifications, into a faith that there is all the difference in the world between a scientific teacher working under proper conditions and just anybody teaching under any conditions. Schools are uot good just in proportion to the money expended on them, — not at all; but the Avisest supervision cannot make a good school without ample provision of funds, nor unless society furnishes a sufficient number of well-trained teachers. Public sentiment must be so quickened that it will not tolerate poor schools, and at the same time be made to feel responsible for the conditions which may produce good ones. The school cannot progress out of touch with the life that supports it. Ultimately, what is good in the school must be accredited to society; and there, too, must rest the blame for its shortcomings. And now we can retreat no further. If the student is not realizing himself daily, we look at once to the teacher, primarily; and then to the conditions under which he labors. Having located the evil in one or the other of these, we then turn to hold the proper supervising agency responsible. He must correct the evil, or show that the conditions imposed on him by the public make the remedy impossible. If the latter, nothing is left but to educate public sentiment and wait for the course of time to bring 102 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. the remedy. In this it appears the duty of every educa- tional man to be diligent in moulding educational senti- ment, and in giving trend to educational thought. His professional duty is not circumscribed to the school-room or the office ; lie must face about and voice to the public their own latent ideas and purposes, and crystallize their convictions into active educational forces. THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. While the organism extends out to tlie limit of the school consciousness, and includes tlie whole of society, the focal centre of the organism is in the unity of teacher and pupil; and the work of the organism is executed in this active unity, for wliich we have been preparing. The teacher, witli qualifications as before enumerated, now confronts pupils under the conditions as before speci- fied; and the school wliich existed only in the thought and purpose of society becomes a coi'crete, living, moving reality. The school is now in the active process of realizing the instruction for which it was organized; but in tlie process it secures an end not in the idea which gave birth to tlie organism. "Wliile the school, as does a machine, consumes much of the energy which it is supposed to apply, yet it makes good the loss in being an educative force in and of itself. In this case the instrument is not something apart from the material on which it operates. The pupil to be taught is a part of the instrument by which he is taught; the institutional life is his own life, and he is necessarily trained into certain forms, habits, and prin- 104 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. ciples of ethical conduct. While the school is primarily organized to give instruction in all that pertains to human life and human welfare, including morals, it happens that the power of the school in ethical training, inherent in the organism itself, more than compensates for the friction of the organism; and this must be taken into the account when estimating educative forces. The organism, then, in executing the law, does so by serving as a means of instruction; and, while doing so, it trains the pupil in rational self-control and in the spirit and forms of institutional life. While ethical teaching belongs to the regular course of instruction , and not to the subject of school management, the ethical training which comes from eflficient school management must be given due prominence. Both results — instruction and ethical train- ing — are secured in the same process ; and the manage- ment which is best for one is most efficient for the other. While for clearness of discussion they must be treated separately, and, therefore, one before the other, the co-existence of the two processes must not be forgotten. Since instruction is the initiative force and the basis of the movement, it is proper to consider first the organism as executing the law through instruction. The Organism in the Process of Instruction. In this process the teacher moves in unity with the school as a whole, or in sub-unity with parts; as, with class studying or reciting. THE UKGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. lOo Unity in School as a "Whole. — Many things the school, as a whole, join in doing, — such as devotional exercises, gymnastics, passing in and out of school-room, etc. In all such the pupils should be required to act and think as one. In all general exercises too much care cannot be taken to have, at the outset, the attitude of attention; everything else must be put aside. The desks should be cleared of needless books and articles, and the whole room assume the appearance of unity. When an announcement is to be made, or a direction is to be given, the teacher should not utter a word of it till sure that every one is attentive. The combined movement of putting books in desks, in turning, standing, marching in and out of the room, is conducive to both order and discipline, as well as being a great economy of time. But caution is here needed. IMachinery should not be introduced for its own sake; it is always an inner unity that is desired, and formality is destructive of this. The outer form must be a necessity of the inner spirit. The teacher must rationally decide, having all the circum- stances and conditions of the particular school at hand, just what mechanical combinations result from the inner necessity. The teacher cannot take this from imitation, or from any statement that might be made; for special conditions would give a new form to tlie law of unity. A country school with all grades must be managed ditfer- ently from a room of two grades in a city school, or from a high school or college. All that is needed is the prin- ciple, and common-sense. 106 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. But while warning the teacher against machinery foi its own sake, danger also lies in the other direction, — too little attention to the military side of the school. It is sometimes urged that putting away books, moving in and out, etc., by signals, interferes with the pupil's individuality. We ought to think twice before being alarmed at this. This so-called individuality is just what needs breaking into. The child will be a member of society after a while, and then will have to fall into line, and march to the music of the social order. Caprice and wilfulness cannot be interfered with too much; and the requirements of strict combination take square issue with these. The child lacks the power of self-control, and cannot bring himself into harmony with others. This of itself would be ground for the most rigid requirement of unity, to say nothing of facilitating school work and making instruction effective. But this anticipates the ethical value of school management. It must not be supposed that when a teacher passes to class work, he leaves the school as a whole; in dealing with the class he must not drop out of sight the Avhole of which the class is a part. Securing unity in the school as a whole is a continuous process, and requires constant tension in the teacher. Hence the teacher needs to be well reinforced by that element of professional spirit called sensitiveness to unity in the organism. All the conditions enumerated may be perfect, but they will go for naught unless the teacher who stands before that school has the sense and habit of organic unity in thought. THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 107 He must constantly grasp the school into unity as the work proceeds; and this requires, as already discussed, a power of a definite kind, — the power to hold all the details of the process without losing sight of the main issue. The teacher must have a potent ideal of unity, — an ideal which really orders everything into an harmoni- ous system. Unless this be true, the school goes loose all through, and the teacher, while he may feel vaguely that something is wrong, cannot discern definitely what it is. With this feeling of unity there must be the power to grasp the classes and the individuals as parts into the unity of the whole. The curtain must be adjusted, the room ventilated, the temperature regulated, the pupil answered, the recitation heard, and Avith these the whole school move forward in the mind of the teacher. And now, in the presence of tlie pujjils, the teacher must not only think and feel the school as a unit, but must draw the pupils into unity with himself by the power of sympathy. The teacher may grasp intellectually the school as one; and yet, in doing so, may hold inipils off at arm's lengtli. Be it remembered that the unity desired is that between mind of teacher and pujiil; and this can be secured only when tlie teacher's symiialhy readies out and ilia ws the ]Mi|iil in himself. The warnilh of the teacher's life nuist be felt by the impil; tliere jinist be no cold atmosphere l)etween them. The teaelier's heart must yearn for the ])iii>irs highest g<)0(l. If the teacher is really interested in tlie lives of his pujiils, — all aglow 108 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. with s^'mpathy in their struggles, — they, by the law of sympathy, will be quickened into new life by the vital touch of mind with mind. This is the unity sought, and can never be realized by any except by the sincere and true-hearted teacher. And thus, as the teacher moves forward from moment to moment, and from hour to hour, with the complex organism, and with multifarious duties, he must have at all times an abiding consciousness of the unity of the whole, and be in constant, rigid exercise of unifying power. The pupils before the teacher, and who are now to join with him, have, through difference in age and training, quite diverse abilities. All these must join with the teacher in the act of instruction; yet the difference in ability may be so great that all cannot join in the same act, thus requiring the teacher to perform different acts in adaptation to different classes of pupils. This introduces the most distressing problem, especially in the country schools, with which the teacher and superintendent have to deal, — namely, that of classification and gradation, which, together, constitute, in the restricted sense, school organization. Hence there must be, preparatory to the actual teaching, and continuous with it, the: — Organization of the School. Organization has, primarily, reference to the relation of pupils to teacher, and not to the relation of pupils to SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 109 each other; the resulting secondary arrangements among pupils is of little or no consequence. This, like grasping the school as a whole wliile conducting the recitation, is a process continuous witli instruction. A school organ- organized does not remain so, but from day to day needs constant re-adjustment. The yearly paroxysms of ex- aminations and promotions do not indicate the contin- uous and healthful re-adjustment required by the law of unity. A school is organized when pupils are classed and graded, and when the movement of the whole is programmed. Classification. — All pujjils who join with the teacher in the same act at the same time form a class; when this class is thought of as joining with the teacher in a series of acts in the development of a subject, it is called a grade. Thus a grade and a class are one and the same thing, differing only in the view taken; in the class the learning acts are viewed as simultaneous, while in the grade, learning acts are viewed as successive. The same group of pupils, viewed in the two relations, forms both the class and the grade. A class is the result of an organization, and not itself an organization. Organization is the co-operative rela- tion between teacher and pupil. Several pupils may co-operate — be organized — with the teacher at the same time. These, having the same attributes of co-operating, form a class, — just as birds having the same attribute, blue, form a class, blue birds. Class unity is thus inci- 110 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. dental, and of no direct educational service further than that of indicating the organic unity between teacher and pupil. The latter is primary and must be secured, at whatever cost to external uniformity in classification. The ignoring of this distinction, and forcing external class unity, is the source of all the evils of the class system. Organic unity may prevent the uniform constituency of a class as the teacher changes from one subject to another. A pupil is a member of a class by virtue of his unity with the teacher; his connection with the particular members of the class is a matter of indifference. The first is vital; the second formal. Therefore such pupils as can join with the teacher in a given line of thought should constitute a class. These are determined not only by the qualifications of the pupils, but by the number the teacher can grasp in the process of instruction. The teacher has come to instruct more than one at a time under the force of economy, and not under the command of an educational principle. Whatever gain there may be in class association, this is not taken as a determining principle of instructing many at once. Certainly the overcrowded condition of classes can only be explained on financial grounds, as illustrated by the difference between the size of classes in an endowed university and in a private school supported by the tuition of students. The difficulty of instructing by classes, both because of number and inequality of pupils, and by further reason of the abuse of the class system, has caused a reaction in THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. Ill favor of the old plan of individual instruction, — as, for instance, in I'ueblo, Col., where the pendulum has made its complete rebound. Individual instruction is the newest current topic touching the question of classifica- tion. The assumption is that classification necessarily opposes efficient instruction. Since no two pupils are exactly alike in knowledge and power, wlien the teacher adjusts his mind to one it is not exactly adjusted to the other. Hence perfect organization seems to destroy the class altogether; but this is only a seeming. The practicability of individual instruction is question- able, and closer analysis makes it appear undesirable. The reaction against class instruction comes largely from the abuse of the system, ami not from objections inherent in the system itself. When classification and gradation were new features of the school system, naturally they were exalted into ends to which the pupil was means. Mechanical system compressed the free life of the pupil, and classification was censured for the sins of uniformity. The abuse of the systeni must not condemn it, and its inherent difficulties may be offset by its inherent advantages. The assumption that class instruction is not individual instruction insinuates itself through the opposition of terms, — class and individual. All instruction must be individual instruction. To teach a class is to teach the individuals composing it, and not some substituted abstrac- tion. It is possible to form a class so that the needs of each member may be as fully met as if each had his owd 112 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. teacher. Quite a wide range of ability, especially in upper classes, is consistent with individual instruction in classes. Absolute uniformity is necessary only for those teachers who force pupils to square-inch text-book results; but the teacher who puts flexible and living problems to the class may engage strong pupils to their utmost capacity, while the weakest work to advantage. In a town school of five hundred pvipils, a class, as large as any class should be, can be formed of pupils so nearly equal in ability that the teacher who properly assigns work will experience no inconvenience in teaching them; but rather will feel reinforced by the enlarged complex life and spirit of the class. The Pueblo plan, as described in the "Educational Review," February, 1894, while challenging discus- sion in its details, and in the principle assumed, sounds the true keynote of organization in the following para- graph : — "The fundamental characteristic of the plan on which the schools are organized is its conservation of the indi- vidual. The pupil is placed purely with reference to where he can get the most good for himself; he works as an individual, progresses as an individual, is promoted as an individual, and is graduated as an individual. The ordinary nomenclature of schools is continued for con- venience; but the school system is one of flexibility, per- mitting pupils to pass' from working-section to working, section as may be expedient. The perplexities relative to class intervals have disappeared, because there is no THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 113 mechanical classification. In appellation the term junior or senior may be used ; but such term does not locate the individual any more than the name of a division of a railroad locates the exact position of a particular train. For working purposes the pupils are grouped in working- sections; but the members of a working-section are not necessarily doing the same work, or rather they are not doing the same work simultaneously. In brief, the school is both graded and ungraded, — graded in so far as applies to its plan of work, but ungraded in its accommodation of the individual." This is new and refreshing in contrast with tlie stifling system of mechanical uniformity. Yet let it be noted that this cannot be a rude jostling and misplacing of the old. The new is generally, if not always, a return to that which is older than the old with wliicli it is in conflict. Since there is nothing new under the sun, the new is really the old. The "I'ueblo plan" is both new and old: it is new in being a protest and a reaction against the abuses of the graded system; it is old in tliat the plan is one of individual instruction. Some thirty years ago the " 'Possum Kingdom School " was tauglit on the Pueblo plan, — pupils without classification re(!eiving individual aid. I speak of no fictitious school, but one named, in those days innocent of methods and terminologies, not after its cliaracteristic mode of instruction, but after tlie characteristic animal of the dense forest in which the school was located. If the teacher of that school should chance upon tlie Pueblo plan, he would exclaim: "What 114 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. have you teachers been about all these years? Haven't you known all tlie time that you must teach the pupil, — the individual pupil? Sorry, indeed, that I did not write up the 'Possum Kingdom plan thirty years ago, and hasten the arrival of the great doctrine of individual instruction. From the individual plan, through gradation and classi- fication, back to the individual plan, — from 'Possum Kingdom to Pueblo, — what does it mean? Certainly it means a check on the abuses of the graded system; and it ought to mean much more; namely, that class instruc- tion, with all of its merits, is harmonized with the needs of each individual in the class. It should mean class instruction and individual instruction at the same time. The Pueblo plan must not be too literally a return to the 'Possum Kingdom plan; but must bring a contribution from years of experience with the graded system. Pupils may be taught in classes without interfering with the rights of the individual; and thus, indeed, really further the interests of the individual more than can be done by individual instruction. So that, while we protest against the abuses of arbitrary gradation and classification, we must be careful to add what is good in it to the old plan of individual instruction. The new must return to the old with increase, for "through the ages one increasing purpose runs," and the old must be "widened with the process of the suns." Gradation. — While classification requires unity of each individual in the class with the teacher at a given THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 115 moment in the act of teaching, gradation requires unity of each iudiviclual with the teacher in successive moments through the course of instruction. The first is a simul- taneous unity; the second a successive one. The same pupil that joins with the teacher at a given moment may be unable to do so in successive moments; because pupils relatively vary in ability in different subjects, and from time to time in the same subject. Gradation thus con- flicts with permanence and uniformity of classification; but not, however, with true classification; for true classifi- cation requires constant re-adjustment of class member- ship as much as does gradation. As a school is truly classified when the members of a class can join with the greatest profit in the same act of instruction, so a school is truly graded when each pupil in his forward movement follows the continuity of ideas determined by the natural growth of his mind. A graded school is not a school consisting of two or more rooms in the same building; but a school moving over a system of ideas graded by the pupil's law of development. Each class must be graded {gnuhis, a step); must move by an organic series of steps. The possibility of grading country schools used to be questioned, forgetting that it was impossible to do any- thing else. This was not questioned in the town schools, because the different rooms of the school building made it necessary to block out the school in parts, called grades. This is the most superficial and mechanical sense of gra- dation. Closely allied to it is the notion of grades aa 116 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. being the time distances between classes. I^ot the school- xoom now, but the almanac, make the gradation. Grades were supposed at first to be classes a year apart in prog- ress of studies; and later this distance was shortened to a half or a third of a year, the essential idea all the time being that regularity of distance in the course if essential to the graded system. From this resulted the evil practice of forcing and checking the natural speed of the class; feeling that all system is destroyed without adherence to mathematical measurements of space and time. Thus the calendar and the pages of the text usurp the rightful authority of the law of development. Since the pupil's growth is not endogenous, and by joints, gradation by the periodical joint system must be a viola- tion of the pupil's law of growth. Whatever limitations may arise from practical necessity, these must not give law to gradation, but themselves must be adjusted to that law. The distance between classes is but an accidental result; and, taken as a law of guidance, can but work mischief. The only safe working conception is that of a single class, or pupil for that matter, thought of in continuous process of growth through the course of instruction. The first step in gradation is to arrange the elements of subjects into naturally developing series in the experi- ence of the pupil. Certain ideas of the earth, and of all other subjects, are adapted to the child in the first period of his course; and, because of the acquired ideas and increased abilities of the first period, other ideas are THE ORGANISM EXECUTES'G THE LAW. 117 adapted to liim in the second period; and so on to the close of school life. Such an arrangement of ideas in all the subjects — an arrangement from a small centre at the beginning of the school course, out to the circumference at the close of the course — constitutes a graded course of study. The development of such a course belongs to the subject of instruction rather than to management ; and has been discussed in "The Philosophy of Teaching," under the topic, "The Process as a Complex Whole." The course of study is nothing but the process of teach- ing taken in its entire complexity, — the length, breadth, and depth of the educative process. Gradation of pupils assumes that such a course has been developed, and re- quires of school management only the adjustment of j)upils to that course. Since the course of study has both length and breadth, — both warp and woof, — pupils have to be adjusted to both, making the problem of gradation doubly difficult. The pupils who may move forward together in one line may not always be the same pupils who can best move together in another line. Thus the lateral movement in the course may re-adjust the longitudinal movement. And here, for the sake of class uniformity, violence is most frequently done to the individual. Not gradation, but uniformity, requires pupils who recite together in one subject to recite together in all; or, the classes in one part of a city or county to do at the same time just what those in another part are doing. No educational reason can be given for the external uniformity of two schools; or,. of 118 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. the corresponding successive classes of different years in the same school. The class, because the individuals are to combine in the teaching act, must be uniform in time and in the general preparation of the lesson; but that another teacher should be, at the same time, moving a class over the same part of the same subject, is not required by the law of organization; and may be prohibited by that law. Even uniformity of text is not, except to a very limited extent, required or desirable. The teacher who is free from the text, being possessed by the subject, will find diversity of texts quite desirable; except when examples for drill are needed, as frequently happens in arithmetic, grammar, and reading. The inherent diffiealties of classification and gradation are great enough without imposing mechanism and uni- formity on the system. The teacher will have enough to do to see that all the pupils in a given class, in a given subject, without reference to any other subject or any other class, are so nearly of equal ability as to join profitably with the teacher in the same discussion. The problem is thus reduced to the question of the number of classes, and of having strong and weak pupils in the same class. In many cases it is only a choice between two evils. It may be imj)0ssible to secure the condition required ; but the ideal to be striven for is that stated, as against mere external uniformity, which is always in conflict with true organization. The inherent difficulty is much less in city schools; but these do not always make the most of their opportunity THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 119 for close classification. It often happens, for instance, that all fifth-year pupils are held to the same work, even when there are so many of them that two or more classes have to be formed. If there are seventy-five pupils in a fifth-year grade, so that tliree classes must be formed, it is far better to gradually collect the strong pupils in one class, the weak in another, and those of medium ability in a middle class. And then each of these classes should be required to move up the inclined plane only so rapidly as the strength of pupils permits. There should be no straining after mile-posts. No matter whether a class reach a prescribed station; let the point reached by the close of the term or year be noted by the teacher, and the march be resumed from tliat point at the opening of the next session. This somewhat interferes with the exter- nally beautiful system, but it favors the internal unity sought. Besides, a pupil may recite in different classes within the limits of an ideal organization. Unity and proper classification may require a pni)il to recite read- ing in a fifth-reader class, and arithmetic with fourth- reader pupils ; even should such interfere with the external system. While a course of study may be graded apart from any giv^en school, the external gradation — the adjustment of pupils to the course — cannot be made till the particular school is given, and all the conditions are known. When the number of pupils is small, and distributed over all the common-school grades of work, the distribution of pupils differs from the arrangement required by a school 120 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. having double the number of pupils on the same course of work, and taught by two teachers. And still more will the variation be when passing to a village school of three hundred pupils, taught by eight teachers. Thus the arrangement of pupils with reference to the course of study must be figured out when all the determining facts about the school to be graded are known. To show the method of doing this, I may be permitted to insert an illustration from "A Graded Course of Study," published in 188.3, which was prepared for a school in a small city. The determining facts were these: The course of study comprehended twelve years, — from primary to high school inclusive. The attendance was about six hundred and fifty pupils; and these were taught by fourteen teachers. After spreading out the course of study as a basis, and hav- ing the foregoing facts in mind, the following sketch is given: — "Now, imagine the pupils in this school, in an un- broken procession from the bottom to the top of this inclined plane, toiling upward, each doing the work best suited to his ability, and you will have a picture of a perfectly graded school. But, for purposes of efficient instruction, this unbroken procession is broken into groups, or sections, of about twenty or twenty-five in a group. Of the six hundred and fifty pupils in this school, there are twenty-six such groups ; each but a short distance and a short time behind the other. At the bottom of the inclined plane the groups are nearer THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 121 together than at the top; because the number in the procession decreases upward, and the groups would be too small for practical purposes; and because, also, pupils of a wider range of ability in the upper grades than in the lower can be taught in a class, A few weeks' difference between the progress of a pupil and of a class in the lower grades is sufficient to prevent the pupil from working with the class, while this would not be true in the upper grades. "For convenience these groups are collected into still larger groups. Since it takes the average pupil about twelve years to finish the course, the course is divided into twelve e(|ual parts; and the twenty-six small groups are made into twelve larger ones. This gives the twelve grades as usually spoken of. Each of the first six of these years, or grades, is composed of three of the smaller classes above described; the seventh and eighth of these grades are each composed of two classes; and the last four of one class each. "On the basis of the kind of knowledge gained and faculties exercised, these twelve grades are made into three larger groups, called departments; each consisting of four grades. " For all of these divisions we have this diagram of the school. Read from bottom upward : — 122 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. / 3. Higrh School o o o y2 '4. Twelfth year or grade. 3. Eleventh -year or grade. Department. | 2. Tenth year or grade. 1. Ninth year or grade. f . ^. ■, , -, ( Section 2, 4. Eighth year or grade. ■, ( Section 1. Intermediate Department. 3. Seventh year or grade. ( Section 2. Section 1. (Section 3. Section 2. Section 1. (Section 3. Section 2. Section 1. f rSection 3. 4. Eourth year or grade. J Section 2. I Section 1. fSection 3. 3. Third year or grade. Primary Department. 2. Second year or grade. 1. First year or grade. Section 2. Section 1. Section 3. Section 2. Section 1. Section 3. Section 2. Section 1. THE UKGAMSM EXECUTING THE LAW. l'S6 "The sections, or classes, doing a year's work are not necessarily doing the same term's work, as befors indi- cated; but may be one term apart. This is to give flexibility to the system. Usually, ull tlie pupils of any year are required to do the same work; but this forces very unequal pupils into the same classes, and makes promotions and demotions less practicable; since, if a pupil is demoted, he must fall back a 3'ear. or it' promoted, he will have to skip a year. Besides, this plan is entirely unnecessary, except when a grade is only large enough to make one class. Then, we are to think of each section of each grade working independently of the others, and doing the work best suited to it. This gives threefold greater opportunity for classing each pupil correctly, than if all the classes of one grade were required to do the same work. "Each class should be rcMpiired to stay on a year's work till it is done. It often hapiteus that a slow class will need a year and a term, or a year and a half, in Avhich to do a year's work. Such a class ought to remain on a year's work till the work is done, but need not remain in the same room. A strong class may finish the work in less time than assigned, and should not be held back for slower classes. A pupil should be transferred from one class to another at any time when it is best for the pupil. "In describing each class, the term and tlie year should be given, tlius: third term, 4's; lirst term, 5's; meaning, respectively, the highest class in the fourth 3'ear, and the lowest class in tlie fifth year. Thus should a class be entered on the class-record; and this, witli tlic state- 12-4 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. ment of the work of that class in this course of study, will enable any one to know just where a class belongs, and what work it has clone. When a parent receives a card stating that liis cliild has passed on a certain term's work, and is promoted to the next, by reference to this course he may have a definite idea of his child's progress. This will enable him to measure that progress, not by the rooms, nor even by the grades passed through, but hy the field of knowledge covered." The foregoing is- not given as a plan for any one to follow, but to emphasize the principle that the organization of the -school must be kept mobile to its inner life. To one who is accustomed to wind up the machine, and to trust it to run itself for fixed periods, this constantly shifting con- dition of things will seem unsafe and troublesome. And troublesome it is, for no fixed plan can be followed ; no two schools are alike ; and the same school is continually shift- ing, requiring constant vigilance and nimble judgment on the part of the superintendent. New problems are ever arising, whose solution cannot be anticipated. For in- stance, by the foregoing scheme of organization it appears that, in passing from the sixth to the seventh grade, three classes must be combined into two ; and in passing from the eighth grade to the high school, two classes must be combined into one. Now these combinations may have to be made at other points in the movement, sooner or later. But whenever they have to be made it will ever be a recurring question as to the best way of doing it. It might happen that the most advanced of the two classes to be THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 125 combined into the first year's work of the high school could best spend the time in a general review, while waiting for the lower class — not necessarily the weaker one — to com- plete the requirements for liigh school admission. Or, this most advanced class might, say at the beginning of the eighth year's work, check tlieir speed by pushing out fur- ther into details of their subject than is regularl}- required ; thus checking movement to reach the higli school at the same time as the lower class. Or, it might be advisable for the class, or some members of it, to have a vacation for whatever time is required for the other class to reach the high school ; giving to such members of the class as desired directions for lines of private reading and investigation, or special studies in school. It might happen to be best for the lower class — which may be the stronger of the two — to push work more rapidly, and join the other class, even if some points in the work had to be skipped. Or, some- thing of all of these might have to be done. There is no end to tlie possible solutions of the problems which may arise under a flexible system ; and the superintendent must be constantly in the movement ; he cannot retire, having fixed the system to run itself for a stated period. Of course it is much easier to manage an organization fixed in straight and hard grooves. It is a simple matter to require uniformly all classes, or groups of classes, to keep one year apart, and to promote yearly by examinations. And it all looks well, too, — so regular, so uniform, so systematic ; no tinkering with a machine which is constantly getting out of order. But life is not mechanism ; the school is not a 126 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. machine ; and the superintendent is not a stem-winding attachment. It is obvious how the simple fact of the size of the school modifies the foregoing scheme. If the school should be considerably larger than the foregoing, consisting of two or three ward schools tlie size of the above, the three sections might continue through the liigli school. If this larger school should be in one building, with the three sections in the high school, then there would be more than three sec- tions in the lower grades ; and tlie problem of combinations would arise again ; having disappeared with two or three wards, having one high school. It is evident also that had the number of pupils in this school been twice as large, and yet taught in the same building, there would have been twice as many divisions in each year's work, making it possible to have classes only one-half a term apart. But this would yield no great gain in flexibility of grading, because it will be found that when classes are only one term apart, the members of a class are of such even ability that the teacher will find no difficulty in satisfying individual needs. If the school had been twice as large, and divided into two wards, no change would be made in the arrange- ment of classes. It thus seems that a Avard school con- sisting of about five hundred pupils below the high school, and taught by ten or eleven teachers, comes close to the ideal. A system of city schools is onl}^ a multiplication of such school units, organized into the centre of the sys- tem, — the high school. THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 127 If there had been only two-thirds as many pupils in this school, and taught by eight teachers, classes would have been one-half a year apart, — which would have been good, but not so good. Especially not so good if the two classes had been forced, as is generally done, to do the same work, siiu[)ly because they belong to the same year. Passing below this attendance and teaching force, the difficulty of classification increases rapidly j and becomes greatest when a single teacher has charge of all grades covering the public school course to the high school; which often happens; and sometimes advanced classes are added for good count. Tliis is the most abnormal and stubborn condition with wliich the teacher has to contend in organizing iind instructing a so-called ungraded school. Tlie foregoing standard applied will accomplish all that can be accomplished; and the teacher must not reproach himself for not being able to do the imjiossilile. But tlie i'oi-egoing standard is just as necessary for a teacher in such unfavorable conditions as if serving under ideal ones. The whole problem is to secure the best compromise between number of classes and diverse ability in each class. As to the number of classes for a teacher, two seems to be the ideal; for each class moves by alternations of study and recitation; and while the teacher is waiting for a class to prepare work, he may be hearing another class recite. No problem of organization is more easily solved, theoretically, than the proper number of classes for a teacher; but none more difficult of practical solution. 128 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. And the two classes should not be doing the same work; not only to secure better classification, as already indi- cated, but for reasons found in the process of instruction. The repetition of a lesson before a class who have heard it dulls the zest of both teacher and pupils, besides interfering with the best preparation on tlie part of pupils. But any number above two classes is an inter- ference and a burden; in the case of young pupils, because the teacher cannot return to them as frequently as they need attention. The preparation time is longer than they can profitably use. It is a very great evil for a primary pupil just entering school to receive attention for only four short periods per day, the teacher each time hav- ing been engaged one hour with three or four other classes. And with mature pupils the evil is also great, because it is impossible to consider the subject in the time allotted. In one case the time for study is too great; in the other the time for recitation is too short. Thus, in many waj^s, the number and diversity of classes is the perplexing and unsurmountable difficulty in sparsely settled rural dis- tricts. In a city the fault is not in the number of classes, nor lack of opportunity to classify properly, but in the size of classes. The ideal is to have two classes of proper size, and a short distance apart in subject-matter. While insisting that they should be apart, the distance must not be great. A teacher could not easily adjust himself alternately to a primary and a high-school grade. After the pupils are classified and graded, they must be continually re-adjusted as instruction proceeds. This THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAU'. 129 is accomplished by promotions and demotions, either by classes or by pupils. A class progressively and imper- ceptibly promotes itself, and the formal act is nothing more than change of name; but the single pupil is put back or forward with another class. The old question of when to promote or demote a pupil is solved by the foregoing discussion. Undoubtedly a pupil should be changed from one class to another just as soon as his interest will thereby be subserved. There is no edufa- tional reason for consulting tlie almanac in this matter. Not the moon's phases, but the most effective unity is the criterion; and let the step be taken as soon as the need is discerned. The necessity for promoting or demoting a pupil becomes apparent to the teacher in the regular daily ■work, without any test by special examination. That the formal, fearful, periodical examination to determine fitness for promotion should be abolished, and that in its stead should be substituted the test of daily work, is a foregone conclusion. Frequent written recitations, along with oral work, should constitute a continuous examina- tion. Nothing is a better test than a regular recitation ; un- less value is attached to a long-impending crisis to secure desperate application, and heroic effort in the last onset. The school is not completely organized and ready for movement without a systematic program of exercises. This cannot be made out till the preceding steps have been taken; and it cannot be delayed longer, for it is the last step which conditions active school work. 9 130 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. The Program. — Tlie severest strain put upon the teacher is that of keeping himself in constant unity with all the classes composing the school. To this end there must be a systematic time gchedule for the move- ment of the whole; without which there will be delays, collisions, and wrecks. The teacher must know in advance just wliat movements and connections are to be made during each session. This, more than anything else, brings that confidence and ecjuipoise in meeting new situations and changes of movement which enthrones the teacher as master of the situation. Each class and each pupil must be so well provided for beforehand that all may be kept constantly emjiloyed; and without any confusion or seeming effort on the part of the teacher. It is dangerous to trust to the spur of the moment; for the moment may come with- out a spur. To provide fully for new situations, many things must be anticipated which do not have to be met. Too many provisions can do no harm; too few may be fatal. Especially is all this true on the first day of school, when a special program is required. This day is not more trying simply because the exercises are irregular, but because the teacher is new, and on trial before the public sentiment of the school. The teacher who can hold the fort on this day has achieved a victory which promises success throughout. This victory comes by the teacher quietly keeping the whole school moving in unity, while organizing parts for permanent work; and THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW 131 this can be secnrfd only bj- fixing precisely in niiiul tlie successive and simultaneous steps of all the parts during the session of organization. It is not sufficient merely to write out the program; the first day's work must have been lived tlirou,i,di in idea so fretjuently tliat the teacher moves through the work with the custom and ease of life. It is said that a criminal wlio is to be executed walks up the scafTold so constantly in idea while in his cell that, wluMi he comes to walk in reality before the awe- stricken spectators, his tread is firm and steady. Thus men prepare for trying situations, and the first day of school is one of them. If the teacher has not lived the first day in idea more than what is required to write out its program, expecting to turn to the desk to see what is next to be done, he cannot move with unruffled confidence and steady power. Hence the first day of school, in all the details which bring the whole into constant unity, must become a part of the life of the teacher by antici- pation, prolonged thought, and meditation. For instance, the teacher must have decided, and must have gone through the performance in idea many times, just when and liow he is to secure the names of the pupils; whetlier to jiass around, as of old, and write down each name as the jnijtil gives it when called upon. Or, Avould such a jjrocess, engaging but one pupil at a time, jienuit dissolution of the school; and be fatal to that business dispatch wliicdi begets confidence in pupils and sense of power in the teacher. If the teaclier expects to develop a lesson, and assign work to a class, he nmst be very sure that he has 132 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. some good employiuent for every member of every othet class. Such precautions neglected, embarrassment is sure to follow ; and the teacher becomes a Zekle in " The Courtin'," who "... stood a spell on cue foot fust, Then stood a spell on t' otlier, An' on which one he felt the wust, He could n't ha' told ye uuther." With such lack of poise and precision of movement, the pupils will feel by the close of the first day that the school is in weak hands; and so would the critical observer, for this is the real keynote of the teacher's managing ability. But, after the school is well started, the systematic movement by regular program is essential to order and dis- patch of work; unity of the whole being the constant and absolute requirement. The problem is to keep every pupil of every class at work all the time, wasting no time and energy, whatever the teacher may need to turn to. This is more than the problem of class unity; it is that of the unity of all the classes in the school movement as a whole. To this end the teacher must move systematically by a daily program; not necessarily by the same, perhaps necessarily not; but the exact written program must be the basis, from which variation may be made when occa- sion requires. Hence, however varying the life and movement of the school may be, the teacher must fix a scheme of class movements. In this he must be especially careful to provide for the THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 133 study period, the class reciting being sure of engagement. Until recently the teaclier gave little attention to this point; tliinking that teaching is hearing the recitation, he left pupils to shift for themselves while out of it. But now we understand that the teacher shows at least as much skill, and serves the pupil as efficiently, in provid- ing employment as in hearing the lesson. So that what the pupils are to accomplish during study time must be as definitely put into the program as the topic of recita- tion. Tlie written program, however, can show the employment only in general; the program for each day, as well as for the first day, must be made out daily. Nothing can so much insure success for any day's work, as time spent on the evening or morning before each day, in setting up for guidance and inspiration the ideal per- formance for the day. Thus only can be insured precision of action, and certainty and force in execution. Pupils in Active Unity vlth Teacher. Whether or not there be one or more classes in cliarge of a single teacher, the work moves by alternate periods of study and recitation; and the teacher must strive as carefully to secure unity with pupils in the preparation of work as with those reciting. Unity in Class Studying. — The ideal to be secured in the class, or classes, studying is the undivided and the greatest possible stress of attention during the study period on the thought assigned to be worked out. This 134 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. is unity, not primarily of pupils among themselves, but with the teacher; although the teacher may at the time be studying, or conducting a recitation. 1. The first matter to receive attention is the condition of pupils before they are set to work. These conditions have already been enumerated, and are supposed to be supplied iu general; but they must be continually re- adjusted at every breathing space in the work; especially at the beginning of tlie study and the recitation periods. All immediate physical wants of the pupils must be relieved, by attention to the condition of the room, and by recreation through rest and gymnastic exercise. A song before beginning study is a most potent means of reviving the spirits and toning the mind for the study hour. The teacher cannot afford to neglect any means which brings comfort and vigor and unity of mood to pupils before turning them to the preparation of the next lesson. The brief, spirited exercise and song more than compensate for the time consumed. The teacher who aspires to skillful management must not tire of little things, but must be alert to every detail of conditions which focuses energy on the work in hand. 2. The condition and attitude of pupils now favoring work, the assignment of the lesson is in order. Since teacher and pupils are to be one in the preparation of the lesson, the teacher, before it is possible to assign the lesson effectively, must have traced out all the thought relations in the subject assigned, which he wishes the pupil to trace out. If the teacher assigns the lesson by THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 135 pages, without being conscious of tlie thought effort re- quired in mastering what is assigned, there can be no unity. Without such preparation on the part of tlie teacher, it wouhl be a mere accident if the lesson were assigned so as to secure efficient effort on- the part of tlie pupil. ■* Let it be noted again that the unit}^ desired is pri- marily, not that among pupils, but that between pupils and teacher. If the pupils focus their attention on the thought which the teacher has planned for tliem, unity among themselves will be incidentally secured. The unity essential may be secured by pupils studying at different times and places, as is done with college students. The only reason for requiring tlie pupils of common-school grades to stiuly by program, at a given time and place, is that they have not the power to impose their own limit of time and place. This is the principle involved in the discussion of whether high school students should study at home. This question does not arise with the primary grade, nor with the seniors in a college; because the first without question cannot limit themselves to their task, wliilc the seeond can do so. The primary pupil is to be trained into the power of self-limitation by imposing limits upon him. Since we scarcely know what to do with high school pupils in this respect, they must be in the transitional phase. The decision turns on whether they are so disciplined tliat tliey can self-impose their own task. But the unity to be secured in the class studying 136 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. whether by strict requirement of time and place, by program in the school-room, or by independent self- direction as to time and place, is the unity with the teacher in the thought to be Avorked out in the lesson. This brings our attention to one of the essential condi- tions of unity in the class studying, which is, that the lesson must first have been fully experienced by the teacher before assigning it for study by the class. Teachers have learned fairly well that the preparation of a lesson is necessary in the recitation ; but there is yet great need of conviction that careful preparation of a lesson is also essential to its proper assignment. This error arises, as do most others, from a false conception of the process of teaching. When teaching is conceived as a mechanical process of imparting results measurable by some special standard, as length of paragraph or page, then the lesson can be assigned by length and breadth of printed matter, and without any previous prepara- tion other than eye measurement. But to measure the thought to be compassed by the pupil, requires a detailed preparation of the lesson as a condition of intelligent assignment. 3. The lesson should be so clearly and definitely assigned that the pupil can neither mistake nor escape what is to be done. It is well to have several pupils state just what is to be worked out during the study time; or, a better form, to require each of several to state just what he expects to Avork out during the time. Often a written assignment of the lesson on the board will hold the pupils thp: ohoaxism exkcitixo tiik law. 1:^,7 to more definite study, and the teacher to more definite assignment. Tliis is a vital point in securing order; and the teacher must not feel that time is wasted in causing the pupils to put clearly and fully before themselves a specific toj)ic, and a problem concerning it, wliich they are to work out. This guards the pupil against supposing tliat the prep- aration of his lesson consists in mastering the form of what is said; or tliat it is limited to the outline of thought as tlie text must necessarily put it. He will thus be inthienced to the use of reference books and library, and have his views enlarged and liberalized concerning the topic under discussion. The study period, as well as tlie recitation, is the teaclicr's opportunity to train |iu}iils to jiniper habits of tliought and investigation ; and the teacher must recognize and ini]uove the opportunity as much in the one case as in the other. 4. After each pupil has decided just what he is going to do, he must note whether he has all things needed for the work, and whether anything about him is not needed. All unnecessary things must be removed, and the pupil supplied with all that lie may chance to need in the preparation of his lesson. If he is cold or thirsty, now is the time to attend to his wants. He must know that after the class has begun the lesson, he cannot get a pencil, fix the fire, or borrow a knife; tliat he must speak before the signal for work, or ever after hold his peace. 6. When each mind is made clear as to the work to be done, and all the wants have been supplied, some quiet 138 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. signal, as a nod, — all the pupils attentive to the teacher, — should be given for work to begin. The teacher should now pause before the class till he feels that all are in firm tension with the lesson. It is waste of time to be in nervous haste to pass to the recitation. A moment's pause and a quiet withdrawal strongly favor continued attention during the absence of the teacher. 6. While the teacher is conducting a recitation, no pupil in the class not reciting should be permitted to change work, speak to any one, get anything which should have been be- fore supplied, fix the fire, ask the teacher about his lesson, etc. If the teacher has carefully provided for all the pupil's wants there can be no necessity for giving him attention now. To stop the recitation to answer his question is to give the time of the twenty in the class to the one. He has no right to break the unity between the teacher and the class. If he finds now that he needs a pencil, to supply him would cultivate a want of foresight; and by to-morrow he will want both pencil and book. He cannot get the pencil during the study time without breaking up the whole school, for a moment, at least. If he should pass to get a drink, or fix the fire, all work must stop for his convenience. His study time will, perhaps, continue not over thirty minutes; and if the teacher has attended to all Avants, as he should have done, the pupil will not die for any- thing in so short a time, however warmly he may plead his cause. I do not mean that there are no circumstances under which the pupil may move and accommodate him- self to his work. If the stove becomes too warm, oi THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAAV. 139 if he needs to consult reference books, he sliouhl move from his desk without asking the teacher. It is a great gain in discipline and self-control for the pupil to take himself in charge so far as possible. We must not have foolish notions about obedience, and give the pupil to understand that he must not breathe without permission from liead- quarters. Freedom of the pupil under liis own judgment as to what is proper is the only way to secure the unity desired, and to cultivate the power of self-control. It is not quite so clear that the pu[)il sliould not change his work during the study time of a given lesson. Sup- pose a strong pupil gets his history lesson in half the time assigned, should he not turn to some other les- son? This is better than for him to sit idle, or be stir- ring up fun. The fallacy is in the supposition. He has not his lesson, if it be well assigned. If so many para- graphs are given to learn, he may commit them, and, hav- ing a watch with stop attaclnuont, may note the second and fraction of a second in which he made the course. r>ut I have in mind a real teacher, who gives the class a problem to work out; and a problem is elastic. Suppose he is to work out the battle of B.unker Hill; to create a full and vivid picture; to note its purpose and results, immediate and remote; to mark its parts, and their rela- tions to each otlier; or something of this sort. Where is the end to this lesson? Tliis ])attle may be treated in two paragraphs, which he might commit in half the allotted time. In suoh a case, he ought to change his work; and the sooner the better. This battle has enough 140 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. to engage all the power of the historian for thirty minutes or thirty days. Why not put it to the class so that the strongest might exhaust his time and strength, and yet the weakest have something he can profitably do? It is easy for a pupil to persuade himself tliat he has his lesson, and dangerous to indulge him in tliat direction. What he needs, more than history, is power to fasten his thought on a given problem. The strict requirements of the study period should confer this power. One of the best disciplinary opportunities in the school is just this furnished by the study time, in which the teacher can help the pupil to hold himself continuously to one object of thought. His untrained mind moves to its work con- fusedly, and leaps from one thing to another without method and continuity. The strict requirement of unity is essential, not only in learning the assigned lesson, but to the more valuable end of continued and concentrated attention on whatever he undertakes to master. To keep interesting story books on the teacher's desk, that a pupil may interest and busy himself after he thinks he has done his lesson, while better than flogging for mischief, does not favor order and good discipline. This indulges his caprice, and encourages him to persuade himself that he knows what he does not know, and defeats discipline in power of concentration and continued effort; certainly a quality as much to be desired as the knowledge to be gained in the study period. No; the more one thinks of it, so far as the lower grades of school are concerned, the more rigid does the law appear THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 141 that the pupil must not change his subject of study during the program lued time for class-study. When such a recjuirement becomes useless to hi in, he no longer needs to study under the immediate direction of the teacher. Let it be concluded, therefore, that, unless the house is on fire, pupils in the class studying must stick, without wavering, to the question set for that time. Unity in Class Reciting. — The ideal to be secured in the class reciting is, that all pupils fuse with the teacher in an unbroken effort to grasp the problem under con- sideration. Again, let us insist that the unity of one pupil with another — a mere external unity — is not the unity desired. Such a unity will be secured as a result of the essential unity of pupils with teacher. The skill of the teacher in the recitation will be summed up in the degree of undivided effort secured. The greater the amount and intensity of mental activity aroused in con- junction with the thought of the teacher, tlie higher should be our estimate of the teaching skill. 1. The first point to receive attention here is the same as that already' discussed for securing attention in the Jilass studying, — namely, the comfortable, buoyant, and spirited condition of pupils; and since, if more than one class, the recitation and the study begin practically together, the conditions are secured at the same time. 2. The other general condition essential to unity is that of thorough preparation on the part of both teacher and pupil. On the part of the pupil, this has been provided for in the study hour. No source of failure is so 142 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. fruitful as the lack of preparation of the lesson by the teacher. The teacher must have so mastered the lesson tliat he feels his freedom in the thought to be presented. Vague and partial knowledge cannot guide and strengthen. Tlie thought of the lesson must have been so mastered that the teacher will feel perfectly at home in whatever new and unexpected turn the discussion may take; and such turn it is sure to take. The lesson must be thoroughly prepared, not only to enable the teacher to guide with steady hand the various activities of the pupils to the end sought, but also to draw all to himself by the law of unconscious sympathy. A teacher has no right to hear a lesson until he has become inspired through a deep study of it; and then, approaching the class filled and thrilled with his message, the pupils unconsciously bend forward, and are fused into one by the heat of his thought. Skill in teaching can never be cold and mechanical. Whatever the thought to be presented, it must be so wrought into the teacher's being, that it will glow with warmth of life. And note that this is not merely an interest in the matter of the lesson, but an interest in the result to be produced in the pupil by means of the lesson. The preparation of the lesson is the study of the matter in relation to the life of the pupil. The teacher's problem is, "What change can I make in the pupil's life by the means now at my com- mand?" This problem thoroughly entered into, and the teacher becomes burdened with a message to his pupils. Seeing clearly his means, and feeling deeply his oppor- THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 143 tunity, he ap^troaches his chass with tliat flush and glow of interest wliich kiniUes the thought and warms the heart of those he instructs. It is all a question of downright earnestness and sincerit}^ of purjiose; a burning desire to quicken the soul of the child into the highest good of life. 3. The next step is to secure the outer form of unity, and the attitude of attention. The desks should be cleared of everything not needed in the recitation. The class sliould be seated in a compact form; and all lines straight from front to back, and from right to left. There should be no vacant place within the compass of the class. The class should look well as a body. The teacher cannot think straight in the presence of a crooked and ragged form. The question often arises: "Ought classes to re- cite in their study forms, or be called to recitation seats?" This cannot be answered till all the conditions are given. The place should be chosen wliieh will best secure unity under the conditions. The question of removing the class to prevent disturbance of others is a determining factor. The ideal is a neatly and compactly formed class, re- moved, if necessary, so as not to disturb, or be disturbed by, others. Xow, with the eyes of the pupils fixed on the teacher, in obedience to some noiseless signal, all are ready for the thought movement of the lesson. 4. The thought of the class will move forward by means of directions, questions, and explanations or lectures. Directions. — In giving directions, the golden rule is 144 yClIooL MANAGEMENT. to give the direction so tliat all pupils will do the same thing at tlie same time. Tliere may be exceptions — but they are rare — permitting one part of the class to do one thing, while others are diiferently engaged. Nothing, for example, could be more inartistic and less effective than to announce in turn different sentences for tlie members of the class to pass to the board and diagram. Each one is concerned with his own little affair, and as soon as a pupil has written his sentence he may turn his thoughts to mischief, or prop himself up against the wall, waiting patiently for his slow turn. Without passing to the board, wasting time and chalk, all minds might be riveted on the same .thought concerning the sentence, allowing no time for dozing or dissipation, Tlius each j)upil is required to put forth his most intense activity for the entire time, avoiding the half-asleep kind of thinking so fatal to intellectual life. This, however, according to some theories, may be all wrong, as it interferes with the pupil's freedom and individuality. Here is a picture taken from life: School-room of two grades (seventh and eighth), of about twenty pupils each. Good teacher, as the world goes; lesson in denominate numbers by the seventh grade. Teacher directs one boy to pass to the board and solve the first problem; another, the second; and so on till the ten problems are used. Then, commencing again with the first problem, re-assigns the ten problems severally to the next ten pupils. A few pupils still remain without work, and these are given selected problems to work at desks, the board all being THE OKGAXISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 145 occupied. The teacher now steps Lack to talk to tlie visitor while waiting developments. Things always develop rapidly under such circumstances; and soon the teacher is needed by a girl working at her desk, where teacher and pupil discuss the problem. Note here that it is all right for teacher and pupil to talk during recitation, because the teacher makes the rules : two pupils must not talk; except to help each other, as they say. And this tliey soon do, for the bright girl points the way to tlie dull boy. The lirst boy has done his sum; and, rather tlian waste time, punches the lire, which is already too hot. Another bright lad cultivates the fantasy and freehand drawing; while some laggards toil on, with and without help, hopeless, and despairing of victory before time is called. The first boy explains to those who have done their work, while otliers toil on. Fill out the picture at your leisure. In all it was a splendid display of self-activity, free thought, and free speech. What would that teacher have gained if he had required all the problems to be put in neat form of process on slates or note books; so that at the recitation he might have done something like this: Called on the class as a whole for the first step in the problem, permitting one to speak for the class; then have said, "Take tlie step," calling on one to speak for tlie class again. And thus moving rapidly till all problems were solved. With pujiils neat, prim, and orderly in their desks, each i)upil niiglit have been compelled to think each problem through, and «o have multiplied immeasurably the amount and intensit3- 10 146 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. of thought for the given time. The recitation is not the time to wait for a pupil to solve a problem. All must be ready to pull together, and the teacher must see to it that the highest combined energy of thought is secured. Such recitations as the above do not only require no effort in recitation, but require no effort in preparation. Each pupil, knowing that he has but one problem to solve, is apt to take his chances without definite preparation. He will read the first problem, and decide that he can solve it on the spur of the moment. If he finds one that is peculiarly difficult, he knows that twenty chances to one it will come to some one else. If he is a farmer's boy, and trained to bind wheat all day under a scorching sun, he may know no better than to work away with all his might; but sucli industry does not come from the teaching. Questions. — This is a unique method of instruction, based on the assumption that knowledge is born in the mind, — is of the mind, and not something to be put into it from the outside. Teaching by giving directions partakes somewhat of the same nature, but not so exclusively. The question is a clear recognition of the fact that knowl- edge is a process in the mind of the learner, — a favorite doctrine of Socrates, on which was based the Socratic question. The chief merit in his method of instruction was not so much in the fact that he used an ingenious form of questioning, as in the due recognition of self- activity in the process of learning. With him instruc- tion could not deliver ideas by conveyance from one to THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 147 another, but must stiuiulato self-activity into processes of knowledge. The new education dates back at least to Socrates. In thus stimulating self-activit}' the questioning of Soc- rates took a surprising turn. Usually questions are asked to obtain information. The one addressed is assumed to know tlie answer, while the questioner is supposed to be ignorant of it. Wlien you ask a man the way to town, he is supposed to know, but you are not. On any other assumption he would ordinarily feel that your question is impertinent. The vexing thing about the questioning of Socrates was the fact that he asked questions of people not supposed to know the answer; and not for the purpose of gaining information, as he ironically pretended to do. People were not used to such impertinence, and sometimes talked angrily to Socrates, and refused to answer his iron- ical questions; which, while bringing Socrates no infor- mation, made other ])eople so unpleasantly conscious of ignorance. After all that has been said about the Socratic question, I suppose the unique thing about it was the reversal of the ordinary movement of thought in a ques- tion. The Socratic question is simjjly the teaching question. His exceptional skill in the use of it could not have given rise to a distinct species of questioning. He may have made excessive use of pretence to be asking questions in the customary way; hence the ironical feature; but the chief point is the use of tlie question in teaching as different from that in gaining information. The foregoing suggests the true nature and princijde of 148 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. questioning. The question causes a tension between the mind and an object, and challenges the mind to cancel the tension. The mind, quiescent, is made conscious of ignorance ; then the tension arises, which tends to release itself in knowledge. The teaching question makes the mind conscious of limitation, but requires the removal of limitation in the acquisition of knowledge. Thus it is clear that that question is best which sets up the strongest tension between the mind and the unknown object. The differences in the art of questioning are finally tested at this point; and if the teacher will recall his experience in questioning, he will discover that his effort and his dif- ficulty have been to secure the required stress on the part of the pupil. The law, therefore, requires that the ques- tion secure the highest possible tension of thought on the point under discussion ; that it be put so that the pupil must think ; not dream, guess, or answer automatically. Turning now to questioning classes, the law must have an additional emphasis, — that of forcing every member of the class to think the answer. This is the fundamental truth in all directions as to how, and how not, to question. For instance, it is properly said that the question should be asked before designating the one to answer. If the teacher should say, " John, you may stand now ; I wish to ask you a question. Which is the longest river in the world ?" the other members of the class are excused, and each may engage in his own line of thought. But if the teacher should say, " Which is the longest river in the world ? " and then, Tin: ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW 140 after a short pause, and without any indication as to whom the question would fall, say, "John," all must have thought the answer in expectation of giving it. No matter if only one has answered, all have recited. It is said that a teacher should not call on pupils in regular order. This follows from the fact that a i)upil may anticipate his question, and withdraw from the line of thought till his turn comes. A teacher should not indi- cate, by naming, by gesture, by look, or by regular order of procedure, the one who is to answer until all are think- ing the answer. We are told not to ask questions which can be answered by yes or no. Such questions can be answered without thinking; and pupils say yes and no automatically, while thinking of things other than the subject under considera- tion. Such questions are easy to ask; and, since in one chance out of two the pupil hits the perfect answer, many fall into this loose form of questioning. Verbose questioning is a serious and common error against unity. "Now, Mary, I wish, if you please, you would answer me this question: Who is the author of ' Snow Bound '?" All of this, except the question, is not only useless, but dissipates the energy of the class by not giving them something to do. Still better to put it in this form: "Author of 'Snow Bound' ?" This is quickly done, and perfectly clear. Many such can be dropped out and answered, while a single one, like the first, would drag its slow length along. As a rule, one-half the words used by the teacher may be omitted, and the effect multi- 150 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. jilind. We like to hear oursolves talk, and keep the air ruUing with sound, thinking that there must be highly charged thought with so much runabliug noise. A pas- senger at the Terre Haute station says to the agent: " Good-morning, sir. Can you wait on me now ? Will you please give me a ticket to Indianapolis ? " Why not say, " A ticket to Indianapolis " ? Better this : " To Indianapolis." Best this: "Indianapolis." It will be perfectly clear, if the word is accompanied with a five dollar bill ; and, besides, the passenger may hope to take the first train. So in teaching: the polite, formal, and verbose deliverance may often be reduced to a monosyl- lable, and avoid leaving passengers behind the train of thought. Explanations or Lectures. — In giving pupils directions, or in asking them questions, they are supposed to be able to put things together, and to reach conclusions them- selves; and these methods put the subject-matter before pupils so as to stimulate them to make such original constructions. There may arise conditions which require the teacher to give aid in explanations, and sometimes, in the more formal lecture. This method assumes that pupils have already arrived at an active, anxious state of mind touching the subject of discussion. If pupils are indifferent, or relaxed in mental attitude, talk will not reach them ; they themselves must be put to work on the problem. Students know well how easy it is to take a course by lectures in university work ; and even the best student will relax his effort when put- in the reeeptiye THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW 151 rather than in the constructive attitude. The lecture method is an excellent one for the professor ; for he must thus initiate, construct, and investigate systems of thought. The value of this to himself ouglit to convince him that it would be best to direct the student to original investiga- tions and constructions, and require the student to deliver the lecture to the patient and long-suffering professor, rather than cultivate such virtues in the student. Yet the teacher must explain, and sometimes lecture; but tliis must be done warily, because the pupil so easily relaxes mental energy when the teacher assumes the responsibilit}'. Such method is needed and proper only when pu[)ils are brought to such firm tension witli their subject that no risk of relaxation is assumed. Only then will talk from the teacher reach its aim. There are classes and audiences in such attitude as not onl}'- to justify, but to require, continued discourse from the in- structor. Such method, when tlu' conditions permit, secures rapidity in development of thought. Develop- ment by directions and questions is a tedious process ; and when the teacher is sure that the development will go on in the pu[)irs mind by merely listening to discourse, he should use the more expeditious method. So that the lecture method, like any other method, cannot be praised or blamed in itself; it is all a question of adaptation to known conditions in the mind of th(> learner. Wliile its use is most efficient when the conditions justify, it can be rarely justified ; and as rarely in the universit}- as in the kindergarten. So rare indeed is its proper use, tliat the 152 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. ideal of the teacher should be that of keeping as nearly silent as possible during the recitation. No fault of the recitation is more obstrusive than that of too much talk from the teacher. The beautiful recitation is marked by the quietness and seeming lack of effort on the part of the teacher, accompanied by mental strain and stress on the part of pupils. The recitation is for the sake of the pupil's effort and not the teacher's ; and whatever display of energy there may be must come from them and not from him. Quite often the brilliant performance of the teacher in the recitation puts under suspicion the value of his work to the class. The artistic teacher will obscure himself as much as possible, and make as prominent as possible the effort and products of his pupils. Anything else, since the class is the end and the teacher the means, is distortion. Obstacles Id forward Movement. — A chief obstacle in maintaining the movement of the class in unity is that of diverse ability in its membership, and the necessity of helping the weak pupil. The temptation in snch cases is to give personal help ; and the question often arises as to how far the giving of special help is permissible during the reci- tation period. In this matter the principle of unity is the sufficient guide. We have seen that in the very nature of class work it is all individual help; but that it must always be the help of all. This principle of helping all in every act of instruction must not be violated; but its application is so elastic as to permit much aid to the weak pupil while continuing the activity of the strong. THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 153 Suppose a pupil fails to follow the development of an idea in class, the teacher must begin at the first and redevelop with the whole class. This process may be repeated up to the point of risk in losing attention of other members of the class through a sense of familiarity and useless repetition. It is always probable that a con- siderable repetition of the process is good for all; but when it passes this point, the weak pupil must secure the ser- vices of the teacher out of session hours. Instead of keep- ing the pupil in, it seems much nicer to the pupil to keep the teacher in; and if the teacher understands his relation to the pupil, and desires a quiet and a happy household, he will ingeniously and cheerfully shift requirement and responsibility of keeping in after school to the side of the pupil. A cheerful offering of service after school hours, when the pupil has been made to feel the need of that service, releases tlie teacher from further responsibility. At any rate, if the pupil does not feel the need of the assistance and thus desire it, the friction caused by his forcible detention renders useless the service of tlie teacher after school hours. In the process of recitation, the teacher must avoid thrusting anything between the thought on the point uiuler discussion and the minds of tlie class. A prominent form of this is that of requiring pupils to recite in words of the text, as if the text were a collection of memory gems. The recitation is a movement of thought on a given theme, and whatever requires straining to conform to language, when the form of language is not essential, checks the 154 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. free movement of tlioiiglit. Tlie memor'iter recitation may be very beautiful in outer form, but, closely inspected, it reveals distortion. The pride of tlie teacher in the prim and so-called perfect recitation leads to formal and mechanical work, wliich defeats tlie object of the recita- tion. This prevails to such an extent that it is well to beware of the pretty and perfect recitation. When a history class, seated ever so correctly, with arms folded, say off in order, eacli in turn, the paragraphs of the lesson, and repeat by ingenious distribution till all show perfect preparation, it is not beautiful, because not the freedom of the inner life. Yet teachers have com- manded exceptional salaries for skill in neat, ingenious mechanism. Two kinds of recitation in geometry are often heard. In one each member moves through the demonstration without a halt, and triumphantly; follow-- ing the figures and letters precisely as given in the text. In the other, the members struggle, stumble, and fail in the effort at original demonstration; but in this case there is intense and free demonstrative activity, while in the former there is but the pretence of demonstration ingen- iously obscured by the perfect form of it. The recitation is beautiful just in proportion as it secures energy of thought, however struggling and halting it may seem; and the beautiful external form may be secured at the expense of this. The neat, prim form of recitation is to be desired; all things should be done decently and in order; but the beauty of form should be discriminated from the beauty of life, and not permitted to crush out the life it is to serve. THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 155 Another very effectiTe method of shackling the move ment of thought, is tliat of constraining pupils to think and express in conformity with the teacher's thought and expression. This is a most subtle form of the cramming process, and practiced mucli by those wlio condemn that process. They would not for the world force pupils to the acceptance of ready-made products of the text; l)iit they manage to bring pupils around exactly to their own forms and conclusions. The guessing, or developing, lesson is a very popular mode of obstructing the free movement of tliouglit. We are told that we must not tell the pupil anything wliich he can find out for liimself ; and straightway we infer that he can find out everything, and that it must be developed out of him. Often Avhen we think such has been accom- plished, it comes either from a sly hint from the teaclier, or from a statement of a member of the class. In most cases wlion a class throw up hands, and the teaclier exclaims, "Behold it has been developed 1" it has only been surmised and guessed at by many wasteful efforts. The time wasted in the over-developing process is alarm- ing. WlifMi the teaclier knows that he must virtually give the point to the class, as will often hapi)en, he sliould do so at once; and not stop to practice developing, and to play with his art. Guessing lessons are not thinking lessons; and the pupil ought never to be put in the attitude of guess- ing at Avhat is in the teacher's mind. Again, to sit with class-book and pencil, noting the exact weight of the thought delivered, ia pwt. and gr., is 156 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. fatal to the fullest and freest activity on the part of the pupil; and, for that matter, the teacher also. Especially is tliis objectionable when the teacher threatens the pupil with his poor marking. "There goes another zero for you; you will have this work all to do over if you do not begin to make a better record soon." This leads me to speak more broadly of the law of sympathy between teacher and pupil as the great secret of unity between the two. Unity is mainly secured by the law of sympathy between the mind of the teacher and the pupil in the activity of thought. It has already been noted that the teacher should become inspired with the lesson before attempting to hear it; and when the recitation comes, the class will be unconsciously drawn into his thought, and without conscious means on the part of the teacher. What I wish especially to emphasize here is that the teacher must not, by personal attack of any kind, interrupt the flow of good feeling between himself and pupils. While warmly personal, the teacher must be impersonal. There must be no personal conflict. Suppose the boy fails to recite, the teacher should not say: "You have been trifling your time away; I heard you were loafing last night instead of getting your lesson. You will have to do this work all over, if you do not mend your ways." I know of no circumstances under which a pupil should be berated in the presence of the class. He must be treated politely, — that is, as if he were an ideal student. Teachers often complain of the impoliteness of pupils; but teachers are THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW, 157 much more frequently guilty of this offence. Personal reproof in class is a most common practice, from the primary grades through the college. The pupil who' does poorly should be privately interviewed by the teacher; and then the case should be approached with symi)athy, as if there were some reason for the poor preparation, — bad health, too much work to do, visit from distant rela- tive, etc. It is easy to make a grave blunder by off-hand charges. It is safest at the time to suppose that the failure is excusable, and then privately press it to the real reason, commencing with excusable ones. So far the attempt has been to illustrate the doctrine of unity in school-management, when all minds are favorably disposed. Through ignorance, thoughtlessness, or wil- fulness, unity may be broken; it must then be restored. This brings us to the delicate and important question : — Restoration of Broken Unity. This topic has, in general, the same significance as that of correction, or punishment; but the wording is prefer- able, especially to that of punishment, because it does not convey so ^jrominentl}^ the idea of inflicting pain, Avhich is not essential to restoration of unitv. We need first to search out, in light of the law of unity: — The Law of Restoration. — 'I'liis must be found in the spiritual unit^' of tlie organism; for it is this, and not the external form of unity, that is to be restored. When pupils bolt the recitation, the mati'rial and external side 158 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. of the unity is broken; but this is only the result of the broken spiritual unity. What the law requires is not a spatial unity, nor even a unity of forced consent; but the cheerful purposed co-operation of pupils with teacher. We are so accustomed to think of this matter under the name and law of punisliment, tliat it may be most easily approached from that standpoint. When rightly inter- preted, the law of punishment is well stated in saying: Punishment must naturally folloiv the offence, and he pro- portioned to it. This has, however, been most viciously applied. Suppose a boy has played truant a quarter of a day; then, by the nature of the offence, it is thought he should remain in after school to make up lost time. And to make it mathematically proportionate, he should remain in just the length of time lost. The girl whispers, and thus annoys the teacher; it is but just that she be equally annoyed by the teacher. One boy blacks the eye of another; and, in turn, he must be bruised in equal area. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Pupils show that they understand this mathematical system of justice by insisting that the same number of lashes should follow the same offence. When offences are equal, it would not do for the teacher to give one boy four lashes and the other five. This idea of the law above stated must be put aside as a dangerovis one. The thought of getting even with the offender must never guide the teacher. Retribution must have \io place in punisliment. It is external means applied to the external side of the offence; it can never THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 150 reach the offence, but always aggravates it. During the trials and worry of the day the teacher is in a mood to "pay up" for everything that annoj'S him; but he must crush every suggestion of the so-called even-handed justice. Let it not be forgotten that punishment, or correction, is for the purpose of restoring unity, and that the above law is a statement of the means to that end. The trouble in applying tlie law is in not noting carefully the nature of an offence. The offence is in the will, the choice, of the pupil, and not in his external deed. In itself it is not wrong to stay out of school. If the pupil has the measles, it is even right to remain out. To be absent a Aveek is right, when, by so doing, means are secured to attend school two more weeks than would otherwise be possible. Wliispering in itself is not wrong; under certain circum- stances it is deliglitfully proper. A pupil may whistle in the bounds of duty and propriety; there is no offence in the nature of the act as such. It is only wlien the pupil, by such means, consents to break tlie unity of the school that liis act liecomes an offence. The offence is in the intention. His deed is in liis mind, A wrong act, or an offence, is a choice against the spiritual unity of the scliool. Tlie pupil may remain out of school entirely against his will; then he is spiritually at one with the school. Though absent in body, he is present in mind. Were he present in body by force, willing to be elsewhere, he would still be an offender. The pupil who wills to remain out of achool has done that which, if generalized, would destroy 160 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. fclie organization, and tluis defeat its purpose. An offence in school is always a choice in a line of action which will destroy, or tend to destroy, the school. The end of the school cannot be attained if whisjjering be chosen as a practice. The pupil who whispers, in a way, consents to that which tends to defeat the purpose of the school. The offence is in his mind, and not in his outer deed. And this offence does not consist in the mere fact of con- senting to whisper in school. One may whisper in school or other organized body with perfect propriety. Suppose a political speaker or a minister in his sermon makes a good hit, an auditor might well nudge his neighbor and whisper, " That 's good, that 's good ! " And when the fervor of the occasion waxes warm the shout of an " Amen " might further the interests of the occasion. The evil lies only in the consent to do that kind of whispering which if genera- lized would defeat, or tend to defeat, the purpose of the organization. It is that whispering which one would desire to conceal from the will of the organization as embodied in the ruling officer; it is that consent which has its universal setting in a disposition to destroy the organization of which the individual is a part, and for whose good the organization exists. Let this distinction be clearly impressed; for a failure to distinguish between the pupil's outer deed and his inner spirit is a fruitful source of bad management. The pupil must purpose, must will, in harmony with the end of the school of which he is a part. It is a spiritual unity. The pupil is a spiritual member, and is in the THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 161 spiritual unity, when he desires and purposes the good of the whole. He spiritually severs his connection with the school when he gives his mind to that which disintegrates the school. It thus appears that a pupil, and the jmpil alone, has the power to sever liis connection with the school. In the best sense, he alone can suspend himself. Wycliffe said that you cannot excommunicate a man from church unless he first excommunicate liimself. That is, if a man is a true Christian, and the church vote him out, he is not out, but the church is out; and if he is a bad man, and the church still claim him, he and they are both out. An offence, then, is the action of the will, on the part of either pupil or teacher, which negatives the will creating and sustaining the school, — the will as embodied in, and interpreted by, the teacher and school officers. It is the individual's purpose set counter to the whole. This makes the application of tlie law clear. If correction, or punish- ment, naturally follows the offence, it is by an action of the will in the offender; and if it be proportioned to the offence, it must completely reverse the wrong action of the will. The pui)il who breaks the spiritual unity of the school by choosing against it, must reverse that choice before he has cancelled his offence. This makes his punishment follow naturally the offence, and proportions it to the offence ; for he simjdy undoes his wrong act, and thereby restores himself to the institution. The pupil alone has the power to sever his connection with the school; and he alone has the power to reinstate himself 11 162 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. when once out. Xo mechanical process can restore the pupil whose mind is at variance with the institution ; he must reinstate himself by changing his spiritual attitude. Thus briefly we have suggested how to restore the unity when broken: The pupil who breaks the unity must, by his own act of mind, restore it. And the law of punishment stated at the outset means just this: the deed being in the will, the punishment must be there too; and when the will has cancelled its own deed, the punishment is exactly proportioned to the offence. Anything beyond this is gratuitous on the part of the teacher, and an aggression on the rights of the pupil. The idea of retribution is thus excluded. School punishment is not the application of external means; it is the struggle the pupil has with himself in order to subordinate himself to the purpose of the school. To bring this struggle to pass is the business of the teacher; knowing, however, that the work is essentially done by the pupil himself. This puts the responsibility where it belongs, — with the wrongdoer. He must wrestle with his own deed. Whatever pain is suggested by the word punishment should be that of mental pain. And there is nothing more severe than for the pupil to bring himself to take his stand against his former action and disposition. Application of the Law. — The first practical inference from this law of punishment is this: The teacher must at all times conduct himself as if it were the pupil's business to correct his own deed, and not as if it were the teacher's THE ORGiVNISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 163 business to adjust the case for liim. Teachers talk among themselves, and with pupils, as if it were tlie teacher's work to adjust tlie pupil's mischief. If a boy in the liigh school plays truant, the question is not what the teacher is going to do about it, but wliat is the boy going to do about it. Pupils sent from the grades to the superin- tendent for correction su})pose that he is to do something with tliem that will Sfjuaro the account. In such cases tlie superintendent should be passive, only witnessing what disposition they make of their own deed. He should aid, of course, b}' whatever suggestions and directions he may find helpful; but the pupil must feel that he alone can make right his own wrong. Nothing done by any one else can reach the case. This does not mean that the teacher is to do nothing, but only suggests the attitude in his doing. Just what he is to do may also be inferred from the nature of a wrong deed. The pupil, to correct his deed, must see its relation to the school, and then must decide to act in harmony with the school. For the sake of clearness, suppose that a young man in college bolts the recitation. B}^ so doing he has given his consent to break up the institution; for he has done that which, if done by all, would defeat the purpose of the school. His act tends to destroy the organization. Now what is to be done with him? No; what is he to do with himself? He must see the meaning of his act; and, in the light of what he sees, must choose to co-operate to the end for which the school is established. This was his contract when he entered, by the very fact of his entrance. 164 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. If he should remain out, the case is settled, for he has a right to withdraw. But if he should present himself for admission, he should be informed that he is no longer a part of the institution. At this .point the burden of cor- rection rests with the student. If he manifests a desire to reinstate himself, he should be asked to explain why a pupil should not desert the class. This reason he should work out in a clear, logical, and convincing argument. It could be made a splendid exercise in demonstrative rea- soning, and would be more valuable to the young man than to prove the Pythagorean proposition. Suppose he says that he cannot see clearly why a student should not bolt. In this case he should drop his regular studies and become a specialist on the subject of bolting. He should have kind and sympathetic help while struggling out of school with this problem; he should be asked to present his solution as soon as he has it worked out ; but he should not, under any consideration, be permitted to work with the school until he is clear on the point of bolting. I do not mean that he should not be permitted to remain in the study room while working out his problem; but that he should not be included with other students in the regular school work. He should not par- ticipate in any of the regular school exercises; yet his presence in the school-room, where he can receive sugges- tions, and so that he will not be delayed in making his report as soon as he has it ready, is desirable. It would be a rash and dangerous mistake to thrust the pupil out of the school-room, proclaiming a suspension or an expul- THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 165 sion. Although the pupil is really out by his own act, he is out of the spiritual unity, and not necessarily out-of- doors. He miglit, for a time, at least, be entertained as a polite visitor, or assisted as a student taking a special course. When the young man shows that he sees his duty clearly, that ends the matter, for the present at least. Most cases of disorder arise from lack of clear perception of the pupil's relation to the school; and the teacher must rely on bringing the pupil to a realizing sense of this rela- tion to remedy disorder. Besides, it is unsafe to question the pupil's motive by making further requisition till ne- cessary. To take a step that might not be needed would undo all that had been done, and incite to worse conduct in the future. On second offence, the teacher might remark, "I thought you understood the matter clearly." If he ad- mits that it was not so clear as he had supposed, he must be put to work out his relations to the school as before; but if he proves that he does understand the nuitter, then the teacher is to take the last step, appealing to the will, and that is to ask him what he is going to do about it. If he says that he does not know, he should be asked to return and report as soon as he has his mind made up. This is a very serious process, and he should be given time to make it up well. But usually the first step is the most difficult. Whfn the nature of the wrong deed is seen clearly, the choice readily follows, except in cases of stubbornness. To awaken thought on the question is usually sufficient to correct the evil; but this is not neces* 166 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. sarily so. The pupil should not be reinstated until he affirms his intention to do nothing except that which furthers the work of the school. Note this: it is not enough for him to resolve against truancy; he must resolve to preserve unity. He might pledge himself against truancy and have a mental reservation to substi- tute some other form of evil. He may thus invent faster than the teacher can correct. If pupils flip shot in time of school, and this particular offence be corrected, they will surely flip beans next; and this being corrected, they will at once resort to paper wads; and so on ad infinitum. The correction to be effective must be universal. The particular form of evil is a matter of no consequence; we are concerned only with that disposition in the pupil which can develop forms of evil infinitely. The particular evil which the teacher detects must be taken only as a sign of a constitutional trouble which must have constitutional treatment. This, and not the form of vice, the teacher must remedy. And to this end it matters not what form the offence may take; the teacher must press these two questions: Do you see? What are you going to do about it? But what if he break his resolution? This is no proof that he was insincere in making it. He should then repeat his former process. It may prove finally that he is not honest in his effort. Then the way is clear; for he should have no further opportunity to reinstate himself. But so long as he is honestly striving, he is gaining strength, and should not be excluded from school. It is not safe to accuse a pupil of falsehood simply because he THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 1G7 fails to cany out his affirmed intention, !^^uoh pati«'nce must be exercised, and the process with the pupil rei)eated so long as he is gaining strength thereby; unless the welfare of the school is too much endangered, — tlie loss to the school greater than the gnin to the pupil. In the foregoing case of correction there is more or less of authority exercised over the student, inasmuch as he is not permitted to choose freely for liimself in the matter. A change in this respect takes place in passing from the college to the university student. The university student is supposed to have brought himself under tlie rule of reason, — to be able to think things under universal rela- tions, and to regulate conduct by universal principles. He practically gives law to the university. He largely deter- mines its general policy, and chooses to do as his own reason may dictate, within the limits of general morality, and his fitness to do certain work, wliieli must be deter- mined by others. IJut whetlier the student attend a particular lecture at a particular time on a particular point must be left to him. The teacher holds him only for the general outcome of his work, knowing that the student is able, or should be able, to best guide liimself in the details of his progress, free from the minute supervision which must be imposed on the more immature student. The teacher in the university has only to pronounce judgment on the attainment of the student as to the subject in which the teacher gives instruction. What a university student may properly do would not be proper for the kindergarten student, the primary student, or even the high school or 168 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. college student. External authority decreases in moving upward ; the possible points at which law may be violated increase in passing downward. This suggests that one thing ought to be made clear to the student from the begin- ning, and as rapidly as possible ; namely, the reasonableness in obeying authority, — those who interpret and apply the law. And further, the change here indicated in passing from the kindergarten to the university student, ought to suggest to the teacher that, in making corrections, he take the development of the pupil into the account. The treatment of the college student, as in the case supposed, is somewhat simplified by the fact that he is supposed to be out from under home control. The case of the high school student is different; for parents have something to do in shaping his school conduct. The steps in correction are the same; but there may be cases in which it is necessary for the parent to assist the student, to see his relation to the school, and to strengthen his resolution to keep in harmony with the general good. If the young lady whispers, she must first show why such conduct defeats the purpose of the school, and therein is highway robbery of the taxgatherer. If she cannot readily work this problem out, she should drop all other studies until her deficiency is made up. She has really suspended herself; but it is no use to be harsh, and have her pack her books for home. Simply change her work for a more important line of investigation, — for some- thing really practical in life. She may go to church some time, and it will be worth everything to all parties THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 169 concerned for her to know the ground of silence in organized assemblies. Her religion depends upon it. The teacher must be patient in giving assistance; and when lie finds that his suggestions may not be sufficient, he should suggest that she ask for help at home; for certainly her parents know Avhy silence is the law of the school. I am supposing here, for the sake of the illustra- tion, what is not likely to happen; for a high school girl can easily make clear the law against communication in school. A teacher does not yield his authority in bringing parents into such discussions. Nothing is lost; every- thing is gained: a clear, mutual understanding all around, with the co-operation of the parents. It is all firm, fair, calm, and just dealing. Let us say again to the teacher that such a course is no condescension from the throne of authority; for the authority is not in the teacher, but in the nature of the school and the work to be done. On the other hand, the parent has no right to shirk duty, and inform the teacher that if he cannot manage the school he had better give way to some one who can. The pupil is his child, and he is, in a sense, responsible for her con- duct, and should be glad of any opportunity afforded by the teacher to help form it. When the reason against communication has been clearly worked out, then the case may be dismissed as before,' confidently expecting improved conduct in the future. If the offence should be repeated, and perception of duty tested as before, then she is ready for the question, "What are you going to do about it?" She may not 170 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. know at fii'st; but the teacher must keep cool, anrl give her time to find out. If she cannot decide to desist from communication, she should not re-enter school. This is suspension by her own act. I have often been asked what the teacher would do if the school board should sustain the pupil. I cannot conceive of such a case. What school board would ever support the student who has taken his stand in favor of any evil line of action? The trouble with the teacher in such cases is that he does not bring the matter to the square issue. Let the teacher ask the pupil in the presence of the board what she intends to do in respect to the matter under question ; and in the case supposed the board cannot say, "Let her communicate;" for the fearful results from such an order from the school board would be too obvious to need discussion. The same steps in punishment for the high school pupil are required for the grade below; the difference is in the manner of treatment. The primary pupil can make clear the reason against all the general forms of bad conduct. Through his instinctive obedience he will do what he thinks the teacher desires; yet the teacher must sub- stitute, as rapidly as possible, rational self-control for natural obedience. Pupils must be led to see wh}' certain conduct is beautiful and good, aside from the will of the teacher, and should be exercised in freedom to follow their own insight into duty as revealed by their relation to work being done. The most troublesome cases will appear in the inter- mediate grades. These pupils have passed the stage of THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 171 natural obedience, and have not yet arrived at rational self-control. They are becoming conscious of will power, and are beginning to assert their individuality against everything else. This is the young American who knows no law but his ow:\ caprice. But the process in punisli- ment, except in details, must be the same as before de- scribed. He will need more frequent applications of the process, and a more patient working out of details. The teacher who reads these suggestions must not sup- pose that tlie law will apply itself; or that all cases of bad conduct will be satisfactorily rearhed l)y it. There may be some cases that nothing will correct; and then, too, there is a world of difference in the tact of the teacher in applying the law. Every case has its peculiarities, and the details of correction must shape tliemselves in the process of correction. Let the teacher who finds this law to fail him — and there are such — announce the law under which he succeeds. The two foregoing steps move inevitably either to the correction of the pupil, or to his exclusion from school. The latter end is to be deplored. But what can be done ? Is there no third step to apply to those whom moral suasion will not reach ? None of universal application. When the pupil's will proves to be firm and resolute against the law and order of the school, nothing but the application of physical force could be suggested, — some way of reaching the mind through the body, — corporal punishment in its various forms. But it is obvious at once that such means applied to a university student would make matters worse ; 172 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. the college student could not be persuaded thereby; .and there is something in tlie personal pride and dignity of the high school pupil that would resent such treatment. We cannot speak thus positively in passing from the eighth grade downward to the kindergarten ; and yet are we not willing to exempt the eighth grade ; and perhaps the seventh also ? And below these would it do at all to apply corporal punishment to the large number of refined, sensitive, and well-meaning children ? It thus appears that corporal punishment is not a uni- versal mode of correction. No one believes in its general application ; and many deny its virtue altogether. Even laws have been passed prohibiting the teacher from laying hands on the pupil by way of punishment. Yet there are those who would not spare the rod, lest they spoil the child. This may be one of those questions which have two sides. Do not those who condemn it altogether do so because it is an improper method for the great mass of students, and only suitable to the exceptional few ; and because, moreover, when it might otherwise be proper, it is applied in anger, and so as to injure the body of the pupil? For these reasons it is thought much safer not to use it at all, than to do so indiscriminately ; and with the further risk of its being used by the high-tempered and reckless teacher. In this the law forbidding corporal punishment seems well grounded. And yet cannot any one point out in some community a wrong-headed, tough urchin who would not be degraded by chastisement with the rod, and who would be improved thereby, — one who, all par- THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 173 ties would agree, must be managed by such method at the hands of somebody ? Are there not pupils whose integument is the only avenue to the mainspring of con- duct ? Some appeal must be made ; and if no other mo- tive to action is available, sensations must be resorted to. This, therefore, is not a new mode of punishment, but only one of the methods of appeal made necessary because ol the absence of higher motives to action. The disgrace is not in the fact of such punishment being a painful physical operation, — if so, amputation of a limb would be still more disgraceful, — but in the degradation implied in assuming the absence of anything but animal sensibilities. The pupil must be taken on the plane of his present life, in order to elevate him above his present life. Punishment, as well as instruction, must follow the law of apperception. The whole question is this : The instincts, passions, and motives of some pupils being as they are, can an effective appeal be made without some form of corporal application? Can any one show that it is improper under all circumstances for a teacher to lay hands on the pupil ? Suppose an intoxicated and enraged pupil break boister- ously into the school-room and assault a pupil against whom he is enraged, should not the teacher extemporize a police force at once, and exclude him from the room ? A teacher can readily imagine a hundred instances in which hands must be laid upon the pujjil. All of which may be most improbable, but it serves to prove that the application of physical force is a proper thing in itself. But aside from such special outbreaks, are there not cases now and 174 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. theu among young pupils in wliich a kindly corporal chastisement might save society from having to inflict more barbarous punishment later in life ? Suppose in all such cases the teacher is forbidden to use physical persuasion : somebody must do it. Society has yet found no way to avoid laying hands on some individuals. However squeamish we may be about the matter, the indi- vidual must yet have corporal punishment by some author- ized agency of social welfare. The moment a school board forbids the teacher to lay hands on a pupil by way of pun- ishment, the need arises for some one outside the regular teaching force whose duty it is to perform the objection- able task. Just now, in one of our largest cities, the board are being brought to consider the establishment of "pa- rental schools " 5 where, it is the presumption, the teacher may inflict such punishment as the law permits the parent to inflict. If the board had kept quiet on the question of corporal punishment, trusting to the selection of a proper teaching force as the best means of solution, they would not have been brought to the humorous situation of having to legalize the practice of corporal punishment. And if the board shirk the duty of providing for pupils who must be appealed to on the physical plane, the civil authorities must take care of them. If a boy is not decently switched in school by the teacher, he may have to be indecently cudgelled by the police after expulsion from school. The last thing the public school should permit is the with- drawal or the expulsion of the pupil from school. The welfare of society requires that all children should have a THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 175 public school education. Along witli the spread of the doc- trine of compulsory education — the logical conclusion from the doctrine of a free public school supported by the taxa- tion of all — must follow the corollary requiring that some means be provided to the fullest extent possible for holding the badly-behaved element in school as long as possible, whoever may have to discharge the police duty. But if the law and the sentiment against corporal punishment are not wholly correct, they will serve to cor- rect the outrageous abuses of the once prevailing system by limiting corporal punishment to the exceptionally few cases to which at most it is applicable ; and by causing teachers to be more artful and patient in the use of the proper and universal methods of reform. In fact a teacher sliould not expect to use corporal punishment, — should even be resolved not to do so, if you wish, — but that he may render the most efficient disciplinary service, no school board should tie his hands by publicly forbidding its use. The application of the law of unity to punishment carries with it many vital consequences. In the effort to restore unity through punishment, the teacher too often widens the chasm. This arises from the fact that he bears himself as if he were the law of the school. He is the author and executor of the law; whereas the law is in- herent in the school, and he, as well as the pupil, is amenable to that law. The procedure which has been suggested would force on the attention of the pupil the fact that the law of the school is given in the purpose and nature of the school, and that neither teacher nor board 176 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. can legislate beyond the law imposed by the end sought. The pupil must feel that tlie teacher regards matters thus, and not that his personality is set against that of the pupil. The teacher must step aside and let the pupil wrestle with the law which he himself expounds as arising from the work to be done in the school. Many of the serious difficulties of management arise from the bearing and words of the teacher, which pro- claim that he is " boss " of the institution, and has the power in his right arm to quell any riot that may occur. This attitude will always break the fundamental unity, — the unity between teacher and pupils. The two parties thus formed each strive with the other for the mastery; and from the larger number and the industrious ingenuity on the part of the pupils, it is no wonder that the teacher is so often out-generaled. If it is a personal fight, why not? If the teacher would keep his personality out of the question, and aid the pupil to interpret and apply the law to which both must render obedience, the pupil could not but admire the dignity and firm justice of the system, and esteem the teacher who so patiently and emphatically aids him to see the ground of the law, and to render obedience thereto. There is no reason why a teacher who has common sense and sympathy, and who proceeds in a busi- ness-like way in correcting the evil-doer, should drive the pupil from him. Such a procedure would correct the false sense of honor among pupils, of which we hear so much. A pupil will generally screen his fellow and baffle the teacher in pursuit THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 177 of an evil-doer. I find that teachers generally consider this honorable conduct on the part of the pupil; and as things are, I suppose it is so. When the teacher sets his personality against the school, who blames the pu})il for standing by his friend as against another person? When the teacher asks him to bear witness against a pupil in favor of order, he refuses to do so, feeling that his first duty is to his boon companion. Teachers claim that it is not right for a teacher to ask a pupil to report the bad conduct of another; and they must claim this on the ground that such a course violates the pupil's proper and strong attachment to his fellow-pupil, to serve the teacher's personal gain. The teacher has inculcated the thought that the school is his school; and the pupils properly think, "Let him take care of it; we shall not help him to manage us." If the pupils feel that it is their school, and that the teacher is simply to lielp tliem to make it beautiful and good, the sentiment of lionor would change from the feeling of honorable conduct towards a comrade as against a teacher, to that of lionor- able conduct towards the school wliicli is for the good of all his comrades. Now it is not only proper but obligatory on a pupil to report anything that tends to destroy the successful work- ing of the school. Courts of justice act on this assumption, and imprison the man refusing to give the information. Tf a pupil should see a stranger set fire to the scliool building, the fact would instantly be proclaimed; and the same would be expected should tlio incendiary be a friend 18 178 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. of the pupil He would certainly deny the incendiary to be liis friend. What is tlie difference between the pupil's setting fire to the building, and doing anything else that would defeat the purpose of the scliool? A pupil cannot wilfully screen any wrong-doer without taking his stand against the essential law of the school. It is a choice to favor the one against the whole number constituting the school, and not against the arbiti-ary will of the teacher. No, it does not encourage tattling, for tattling has malice in it. 1 do not mean that, as a rule, the teacher should use this method of finding out what is going on, but wish to emphasize the. relation that should exist between the teacher and the pupil. They should be in such close partnership, and on such good terms and fair understand- ing with each other, that the teacher can get whatever it is necessary for Inni to know. He should not embarrass pupils by asking for evidence, unless it is absolutely essential; nor should a pupil be made to feel that it is his business to inspect other pupils' conduct, having enough to do to attend to his own. The teacher himself ought not to assume the function of a spy; he should mingle with pupils in an open and business-like way, and not be con- tinually exercising his authority miscellaneously. For instance, it is not proper, in meeting a pupil on the street, to assail him with questions of conduct, even though the pupil may then be playing truant. At such times the pupii must be met on the social plane, and the conversation should run on general matters of the pupil's interest. The teacher should always mingle with pupils on the THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 179 plane of polite society, and when more rugged duties come, let there be a time and place where matters are dis- posed of iu a business-like way. It is often urged that a pupil should receive his corporal punislunent before the school, to deter others from offence. This is vicious doctrine. If corporal punishment is ever ])roper, it should be given in secret. The teacher then maintains the bond of resj^ect between himself and the [lupil, because the pupil's personality is respected in the punishment. Another vital consequence of the application of the law of unity to punishment is the relief from the worry and nervous strain of the teacher. The teacher, instead of putting liiniself in conflict with the pupil, puts the pupil in conflict with himself. The pupil cannot be helped except by self-conflict; and the teacher who assumes the pupil's trouble breaks his own nerve, and defeats moral discipline iu the pupil. The principle of correction insisted on throughout requires tlie teacher to fi.x it up so that the pupil must wrestle with his own deed. This requires skill and ingenuity, but no more worry than the performance of any other duty or tlic solution of any other ditticult problem. It must not be understood that the teacher is to take indifferent ease in the matter, — not at all : it requires patience, careful study, and wise generalship; l)ut this is not worry and vexation at wrong-doing. Can there be any reason why a patient, faithful, conscientious teacher should have the dear life worried out of him by a saucy boy or girl? Why should a teacher who is faith- 180 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. ful not be happy, instead of fretting himself because of evil-doers? Xo, it must be fixed so that the pupil wrestle with his own deed. Remember the advice which one guest gave to another who broke the quiet of the niglit by walking the floor because his debt was due on the morrow without a cent for payment : " Go to bed and let the other fellow walk the floor ! " So should the teacher shape up business that he may go to bed and let the other fellow walk the floor. Rather than worry, is there not some reason for rejoi- cing in finding evil manifested? Suppose the boy desire to cut the desk, should not the teacher be pleased that the symptom should appear? If the cut is in the boy, let it come out, that he may be helped to face his deed now, and escape being a vandal when grown up. Let the teacher, in calm patience and joy of opportunity, give such sym- pathetic counsel as the pupil may need in making the desk and himself whole. There should be no excitement; the teacher should not throw the pupil and the desk out-of- doors, nor disfigure the body of the pupil as a fair offset to his disfigurement of the desk. There should be no haste; the pupil may well consume a week in home con- sultation and private meditation between sessions, plan- ning the best solution of the difficult3\ And all the time the teacher should rejoice in the purifying turmoil; and sooner or later the desk and the boy are made sound and ready for service. If the boy desires to write his auto- graph on the floor in ink, the teacher should be pleased to have him do so; the problem of rubbing it off can be THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 181 made so purifying and tonie to his blood. Such exjjeri- ence in erasing sin ought to be one of the most delightful studies of tlie teacher. Why should he have to resort to fiction to find types of people whose conscience is wringing a sinful heart, wlien, with such opportunity', it is his busi- ness to conduct the conscience-wringing process. After wliat has been said, tlie teacher must not suppose that the piime art of school management consists in the restoration of broken unity, but rather in preserving the unity intact from the outset. The best government is not that which quells the mob, but that which prevents the occurrence of one. The highest ambition of the teacher must never be to display power and ingenuity in bringing order out of confusion, but in avoiding the confusion by perfect adjustment of conditions and skilful instruction. This is the ounce of prevention once more. Hence the skill in management to which the teacher should aspire is that of rendering skill useless. This suggests the scientific princijde for testing school management, — the test of the beautiful. An object is rated beautiful wiion the moving energy in it is felt not to be liindered by tho nl)ject. A train is beautiful when the forward-moving energy is felt not to be in bondage to the train. Wlien a train is felt to be lieavily laden, the engine puffing and tlie wlieels slii)])ing, awakening in tlie observer a consciousness of strain, it is thought to be ugly. Any instrument or organization designed to do a given work, and stored with energy in that direction, is 182 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. beautiful wheu the instrument or organization does not limit its own energy. A plant or an animal is beautiful wlien the vital force is triumphant over bodily organiza- tion. The school is animated and moved by a scliool energy, whieli, as we have seen, is ultimately located in the pupil. For the school to be beautiful, — well- managed, — this energy must not be in bondage to the organization ; but the energy must seem to move freely to the end set up. When there is application of external force, the school energy moving out from its centre in the pupil is felt to be interfered with, and tlie school said to be ugly. Hence a scliool is beautiful and well-managed when the external force resident in tlie teacher, or any other external agent, is not felt as a factor controlling the energy which ought to move freely from its inherent source in the pupil. The right conduct of pupils must seem spontaneous under the vital energy of the school, — a free, joyous manifestation of the learning life of the pupil within the organism. Thus we have clear emphasis of the true point of skill in school management; namely, in securing such conditions, and making instruction so vital that external applications to restore order are rendered unnecessary. Such is the ideal to be sought; but because of weakness in both teacher and pupil, it cannot be realized fully. Hence attention must still be given to restoration of broken unity; wliich, too, out of relation to school management as a whole, may be reduced to the same laws of the beautiful. And the foregoing discussion on restoration of broken unity is an attempt to so reduce THE ORGANISM EXIXUTING THE LAW. 183 it, in the principle that the pupil moves to self-rt forma- tion, witli the teacher seemingly aside. Ethical Tkainixc within- the Organism. As already pointed out, the organism lias an incidental, special value in ethical training, wliile accomplishing the work for which it is directly designed. It must not be inferred from this that the organism has other tlian ethi- cal value. Being designed to stimulate the process of growth in the pu})il, the entire work of the sfliool is ethical. AMiile its direct purpose is tliat of giving instruc- tion, this must be taken to include not only intellectual activities, but emotional and volitional experience as well. Wlien a school is properly organized, the emotions and the will are as systematically exercised as the intellect; and this not by separate pur[)Oses and processes, but by the organic nature of the teacliing act. The term instruction covers the systematic exercise of all the powers ; and not by different methods, for by virtue of the unity of the mind and of the subject-matter, all activities arc but jihases of one life movement for which the school is organized; which movement, taken as a whole, being by tension between the lower and the higlier self, is ethical. Rut the organism has an iidierent secondary ethical value in tlie process of accomplishing tlie end for which it is primarily designed. Unlike most other agencies, the material worked upon is a part of the agency. While being taught by the school, thp pupil is a part of the 184 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. school. The pu[)il is educated through his environment; and the school instituted to do tliis work becomes at once an immediate and influential part of that environment. So that while tlie school is organized to give instruction in the broadest sense, it is no sooner put in operation than there appears an ethical value inherent in the life of the organism as such. According to the superficial view, econ- omy requires that all the teacher's effort should be devoted to instruction, feeling that energy expended on manage- ment, in order to give instruction, is wasted. Better consid- ered, school management, as a means of cultivating ethical virtues, is worth all the time and energy it costs. The process of managing must be grasped with that of instruc- tion into a total process of reaching the final end in character, and must not be slighted by the feeling that it simply conditions instruction. It is a question of getting the total value out of the organism; and this must include the ethical training involved in the inner working of the organism, as well as the good it objectively seeks. We must not suppose, however, that there are two kinds of management, — one to secure instruction, with another to secure ethical training. Since all things done right are in fundamental harmony, what is best for instruction is most efficient in ethical training. This harmony of ends at once appears on recalling the fact that the school organization is based in the unity of the pupil's present and future self, and that instruction is also based in the same unity. The organism through instruction brings the pupil into unity with his better self; and the pupil's THE ORGANISM EXECUTIXG THE LAW. 185 experience within the organism as such — liis experience incident to school organization — must be an experience of unity with his better self. This is the law of unity reappearing in a new form, as : — Harmony of Means and End. — There must be no con- flict bewecu the end sought by instruction tlirough the organism, and the result of experience in the organism as such. The organism must not contradict itself, — must be in unity with itself in all its influences to the supreme end sought. The purity and integrity of the organism must be maintained in the interest of Avholesome school experi- ence, as against any undue pressure in tlie interest of mere instruction. Instruction being the primary purpose of the organism, flagrant violations of this law are often committed under the stress of making instruction effective, especially when the true spirit of instruction is wanting. For instance, to force to the highest effort in learning, appeal is quite generally made to the pressure of the per cent sy.««tem. Admitting for the moment that this end can thus be accomplished, it is ol)vious tliat such a course subverts the ethical life of the pupil. The ultimate law of ethics requires that self-activity should not contradict itself; should not play false with itself; that positively it should be consistent with itself. When some artificial stimulus is substituted for the natural tension of thought which the subject, if properly adjusted, will -adequately set up, the pupil is caused to practice deceit with his own process of thought. Improper relations to problems of thought 186 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. are just as immoral as improper relations to one's fellows, and for the same reason; for in both there is breach of integrity in the life process. When a pupil works for per cents he is working for selfish ends, and not for a dis- interested object which only can have his true self in it. Just in proportion as a pupil becomes self-conscious through the stimulus of per cents — becomes interested in per cents instead of his subject — to that extent he is in an immoral state of mind. .The use of such means necessarily kills the desire to know; which is immoral because killing the soul itself. When a teacher, in good faith that the natural process of learning is its own sufficient reward, begins to instruct pupils who have been under the artificial stimulus of the per cent system, he finds them to be indifferent to legiti- mate appeals, and ready to affirm that school life is not worth living without the usual excitement and strife for per cents. What hope for such pupils after the days of formal instruction! The severest criticism that can be made on school work is to show that students after grad- uation have not a burning desire to pursue a systematic course of study and improvement. The use of false in- centives is not the only reason for this ; but it is largely chargeable to formal methods of instruction which neces- sitate artificial incentives, which further render instruc- tion dead and formal. By this process the pupil, if not becoming positively averse to study, feels satisfied and self-sufficient ; and having no foreign incentive now offered, be is under no compulsion to further labor. If study means THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 187 a contest witli ponderable, percentable packages of knowl- edge, how play the game when there is no one to estimate and umpire? If the school is to determine to a future life of study, the motives appealed to and cultivated in school must be the same as those employed in the natural, healthful course of life out of school. And, furthermore, instruction, while supposed to require the percenting system, prohibits the use of that system as positively as does the ethical law inherent in the organism. The intrusion of a foreign element between the pupil and the object of his thought not only perverts his ethical relation to the subject he studies, but is an outrage on the learning process itself. The mind learns by direct tension with the subject, and insulating non-conductors are fatal to the process. The use of per cents as a means of instruc- tion shows either that the teacher has no faith in the passion of the mind for knowledge, and in the power of the subject to gratify such passion; or it is a confession of lack of skill in so adjusting one to the other as to utilize the natural and most powerful motive in study. AVhen teaching .is poorest, the need for per cents is felt to be greatest, and the most thoroughly and damagingly are they used. It is not at all strange that, in the childhood of the profession, before the teacher had found the centre of his sphere in the unity of pupil and subject-matter, he should resort to mechanical leverage to force the in- struction which his crude art could not otherwise secure. Nothing to this end has seemed so practical and powerful as the per cent system ; and so universally and thoroughly 188 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. lias it been used, that it has assumed tlie role of a legiti- mate and necessary function. Let those who think that pupils must have other motives to study than the desire to learn, observe the zest with which the unperverted and wisely guided kindergarten or primary pupil labors. Observa.tion proves that the argument for tlie use of arti- ficial incentives has no force except in case of perverted appetite for knowledge; and certainly one should not wish to argue for the continuance of the system which so perverted the appetite as to make the system necessary. Even after suffering long abuse of the system, let the mind of the pupil be brought into living touch with the thing he studies, and there is instant regeneration, and bounding forth with alacrity to further explorations. No, it is faith in the exhilarating touch of the mind with living truth that saves both teacher and pupil from the quackery of superficial and temporizing devices as against natural and constitutional procedure. The foregoing criticism does not apply to the use of per cent records for the convenience of teachers ; iyet it must be remembered that nothing lies like figures when used to indicate mental attainments. Especially so when per cents are used as motives to study, and become an object of attainment by the teacher. The work thus assumes a formal character, and the higher the per cent the more questionable the qualification. The more vigorous, origi- nal, and inquisitive the mind, the less capable and willing is it to do routine, percentable work. A good class will make a poor record when examined by a mechanical THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 189 routine teacher; while under the same conditions a poor class will make a good record. Class-honor men are not the men who take the lionors in tlie real conflict of life. It is not the highest order of talent that consents to work for artificial ends by percentable products, nor sucli talent as most likely to succeed under such conditions. For this reason the comparative attainment of jjujiils, either in the same class or in different schools, cannot be ascertained by a study of per cent records. Before per cents can reveal tlic truth, it nuist be known how jjupils liavc been taught, the kind of (questions by which they have been tested, and the kind of teacher wlio makes the estimate, lint let the teacher make the most of this unreliable arithmetic, so tliat it never be made tlie motive to study. And in the same way examinations have their use and abuse. They may perhaps be properly used to ascertain the condition of a pupil's mind as a basis of instruction, but never as an impending danger to tlie caiudcss and easy- going pupil. Yet the need of the examination as a test of knowledge is greatly overestimated. It is strange if the teacher who has taught the class does not. in so doing, learn their mental condition. Certainly tlie written recita- tion and the preparation of pa]iers out of recitation time are an exact, searching, and sufficient test; all of which the natural course of instruction requires. If it be desirable to call this an examination, then let it be admitted that examinations arc proper for purposes of instruction. After a class is well taught under normal conditions, it would be a serious confession on the part of the teacher 100 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. to claim that an examinatifju is needed to ascertain the condition of pupils' minds touching tlie subject taught. It seems that college authorities have found no other solution of the distressing examination problem than that of surveillance or student-honor, as appears from an article by Professor Stevens in the February " Forum " of '95. It seems not to have occurred to them that the examina- tion might formally disappear in the i-egular and matter- of-course daily work, and thus avoid its objectionable feature. When an examination has any other than an educa- tive value, which reduces it to regular class work, it is the subtlest irony to speak of putting pupils on their honor; the fact of the examination is the challenge of honor, and is only a more refined surveillance, while purporting to be its opposite. The entrance examination might seem to be an exception to all this, since there has been no recitation to test qualification. But if the professor should state to the student Avhat qualifications are necessary for suc- cessful work in the department, the rest may be left with the student; for he undertakes the work at his own peril, under the coming and all-sufficient test of ability to carry the class work. Students who would desire to de- ceive in this matter are too rare to justify imposing rules on the mass, and such are sure to be caught in due course of instruction. But suppose examinations are needed: they cannot be relied on as anything more than a very inaccurate and partial test. This fact is well emphasized by Fitch. "Nevertheless we have to postulate here that there are THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 191 certain very valuable qualities which are not revealed in a written examination, and which the habit of exclusively relying on sucli examination does not encourage. Except in so far as diligcnf-e and obedience are concerned, exami nations do but little to test moral qualities, or active power. They do not tell yon whether the action of the mind has been rapid or sluggish, nor how far the pupil has been influenced by a sense of duty or by strong interest in his work. Still less do they help to gauge those attributes on wliieh success and honor in life so much depend, — sympathy with human beings, deference for superiors, the power of working with and influencing others, address, flexibility, manner. Let us once for all acknowledge that for cither educiitioiuil purposes, or for testing or selection, with a view to the requirements of a university or of the public service, the best examinations do not test the whole man, but leave some important ele- ment of character to be ascertained by other means; and we have still to ask, within what limits are examinations valu- able, and how we can get the maximum of good out of them." Be this as it may, there can l)c no question of the evil effects of the examination system as a means of enforcing industry and diligent perseverance in well-doing. The method of examination by which the student is induced to risk all on the last fearful moment, is vicious and demor- alizing in the extreme; and for such a test there can be no apology, except that by a kind of military enforcement of work, study can be secured which clumsy teaching fails to realize. Some abnormal condition of things, such as 192 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. large, diverse membership of classes, may suggest the need of testing by formal examinations j but certainly in a well-ordered system no such necessity can arise. Then shall we have examinations? Yes, continually. How? As a regular organic part of the instruction, both oral and written; and as a matter of course, pupils being uncon- scious that anything new or unusual is happening. Cer- tainly never with the idea of external pressure to study, entailing fear, dread, and nervous strain, — the very ele- ments which have perpetuated the system. The matter of breaking health through nervous strain is not an insig- nificant part of the account ; but still worse is the moral strain, often too great to be borne. How frequently in college work, where there is the most diligent detective practice on the part of the professor, do we hear the student chuckle at his exultant story of superior general- ship in the war where cheating and lying are fair ! But all this is gradually passing, and the danger lies in a more subtle form of evil. This is the same as that pointed out in speaking of per cents, — namely, the dis- turbance of the natural and healthful tension of the mind with the world of life and thought which it is to master. It is the intrusion of foreign elements between the pupil's present real self and his future ideal self, as found in the world he is to study. If the elements of anxiety, fear, the venturing of chances, and the temptation to deception could be eliminated, and one still think of the examination as a motive, it could not be used without turning the pupil back upon himself; whereas the motive and the method THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 193 of tlie pupil's work must bring self- forgetful activity on the subject for consideration. Self-realization is by the process of self-sacrifice. Self-activity is the striving to be the otlier self, which is the thought and spirit of the world objective to the self. Tliis is the organic unity of consciousness which must be kept inviolate. Self-activity must not be taught to i>ractice deceit; the object acted ou must be the motive iu the action. The teacher cannot use the examination as a motive to study without breaking faith with the mind's craving for unity with the world about it; nor without weakening the tension for that unity. The hungering and thirsting of the soul for the righteous spirit of the world is the supreme ethical virtue; and it is this desire in some form to which every teaching act must appeal for its motive. To make any other apjieal is a perversion of the ethical relation of the pupil to the world in which he lives. All other artificial stimuUmts are to be disposed of by the same argument as that used against per cents and examinations. When a prize is offered the assumption is that the subject of stud}- has not in itself sufficient induce- ment to its study; or that the teacher lacks skill iu bring- ing the subject into stimulating touch with the mind of the learner. Properly treated, the subject is its own prize; and to substitute any other is a subversion of the true method and motive iu Icariiiiig. Tin' prizes so gener- ously offered to college students by well-meaning people, and distributed from the platform at commencements, are antagonistic to the spirit of true education. It cultivates a 194 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. longing and vain striving for ignoble things ; and this in an institution pledged to liberal culture and the higher life of thought and sentiment. Emulation, a much-praised motive to study, is likewise prohibited both on ethical grounds and by the true method of learning. The pupil has only so much of total energy to expend on the sub- ject ; and why should some other fellow be thrust in the way to consume a part of that energy ? The pupil ha.s all he can do to rise above himself ; and the standard of his achievement should not be located in another for the sake of excelling the other. He certainly should make a legitimate use of the other as a standard for himself; but rivalry, which has in it the desire to excel another for the sake of excelling him, needs to be refined out of the pupil rather than cultivated in him. Self-emulation is the only worthy emulation. Any other cultivates '* The low desii'e, the base design, That makes another's virtues less;** and also " The strife for triumph more than truth." The use of such a motive may secure, through strife and contentions, a great display of animation and effort; but these are only feverish, fitful spasms from a disorder in the school organism, and not to be taken for genuine zeal and aspiration. Thus always the ethical character of the organism is tested in the sitpport given to the unity of the pupil with himself in the subject he studies. It must contain no element which stands counter to self-realization. What- THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 195 ever be the pressure to make instruction effective, the organism must preserve its integrity, so as to secure wholesome living within it while the end of instruction is being sought. It permits no appeal to low desires and base motives; allows no insult to the pupil's rational desire for knowledge, nor to the world of life and reason which are sufficient to gratify that desire. In order to the growth and health of the body, the appropriate activities are piompted by the unerring desire for food, air, warmth, light, and action. Is it not fair to assume that the growth of the mind has been equally well insured by some impulse which prompts to acts appropriate to its growth? The abiding passion of the soul is for knowledge, and all the teacher can properly do is to take this fact fairly and at its worth. This passion he may stimulate, make definite, and attach to the proper objects ; but he cannot introduce a substitute without weakening the life-giving connection between the pupil learning and the object being learned. This duty of appeal to proper motives is well enforced by Thomas Davidson in the "Forum,'" on '"The Ideal Educa- tion of an American Boy." "In all his teachings, moreover, he [the tutor] will take the utmost care never to let his pupils think that they are studying merely in order to pass an examination, but always to make them feel that the only end of study is complete autonomous manhood, lie will do his best to show them how, and in what degree, each study contrib- utes to this end, so that they may never feel, as so many boys do at present, that they are studying merely because 196 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. some one else wishes them to do so, and consequently, that their work is a slavish, unprofitable task. . A boy who does not feel that every hour he spends in study is spent for the sake of the highest end he knows and desires, is in an immoral frame of mind, and by no means on the way toward moral autonomy. The greatest triumph as a tutor is to make his pupils feel that what he requires of them is the very best thing they could be doing. If he fails in this, he has virtually failed altogther; for every hour that a self-conscious being spends without feeling that it is bringing him nearer to the goal of his aspirations is an hour slavishly and unrighteously wasted." Influence of Social Combination. — Having guarded the purity and integrity of the organism by rejecting all harmful agencies, it is free to enter into positive ethical training. School life is the transition from the family to the larger complex social life of the world. In the pupil's little school world he is trained to the forms and habits of life which fit him for the larger social world of which he must soon be a member. Society is infinitely complex, yet a closely integrated whole; and the fundamental law of social life requires that the individual conduct himself so as to preserve intact the social whole : not in a merely negative sense, but in that of active co-operation to worthy achievements of the race. The great obstacle to proper social conduct is the inability of the individual to grasp adequately the bewildering complexity of society into a closely integrated system of human effort for personal welfare. Concrete experience THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 197 in family life, tlie most elementary social unit, develops in the child the germ of the organic conception, which is to be finally expanded, by the school and other agencies, into a comprehension of the complex life of the social whole. In school, wliicli carries over into itself much of the family spirit, tliis germ of social conception becomes definite and complex tlirough the more varied and exacting requirements of school life. The school, as tlie pu[iil meets it, is a concrete, comprehensible social world, — an object both to be observed by him and of wliicli he is a living part; and, if i)r()perly managed, becomes a most potent influence in forming proper habits and sentiments of social life. Whatever training the school gives preparatory to social life, is based on the fact that each pupil pursues his work in association with others. This fact is the basis for a criticism frequently made against public scliool education, — namely, that of evil associations and corrupting intiu- ences of vicious pupils. But this has the counter-balan- cing benefit of bringing the evil under the infiuence of the good; and from the standpoint of the whole tlie standard of virtue may not be lowered, leaving ground for com- ])laint only witli those jiurents wliose children are, or are thought to be, above the average. However this may be, the school society, under proper regulations, is certainly better than what the child will probably be thrown into as he approaches maturity. With a well-regulated system, and proper vigilance on the part of the teacher, the social tone of the school may be made elevating even to the 198 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. average pupil. ]>eing alainied at certain specitic forms of contagious vice, we are too prone to leave out of the account contagious forms of virtue, as well as the general toning influences of a well-ordered school. At any rate the school is not at fault, for the life of the school as a whole is as good as the material sent to it, and out of which it is made. All that need be urged upon the school as an institution is that it be so thoroughly organized and managed to the end of higher life and conduct, as to be above the general standard of social life, in which the pupil, while out of school, would probably be moving. People must come in touch; it is impossible to save by secluding and stowing away in pure corners of the earth. To hide from the world till evil disaj)pears is a poor way to attain to the crowning glory of virtue, — the overcom- ing of evil. Holiness is not the absence of evil, but the victory over it. A school may be so managed as to corrupt morals and manners, and to foster a sense of dis- order, injustice, and anarchy; but this only suggests a potency for good in the opposite direction, both of which facts make doubly strong the necessity for the teacher keeping clearly in mind the leading social virtues which a well-managed school cultivates. The first of these virtues, which arises from the mere fact of school association, is that of : — Politeness. — Society , in its popular sense , is only a general expression for the recognized kinship and com- munity of life among individuals. In some degree the world as a whole is a sociable world; for man recognizes THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 199 man in every form of human life, and expresses the recog- nition in customary social forms. In no situation in life is man relieved from acknowledging that every other ** is a man for a' that." Thus society, in its most intangible unity, is bound together by the universal sentiment of community of life in the race. This mere feeling of unity finds expression in the social amenities and courtesies of life. Such recognition, not the outer form but the inner spirit, is true politeness. This is a chief social trait, because it is that quality of one's actions which acknowledges the ideal, potential self in another; and from which arises the unity of the social whole. Impoliteness is tlie treating and greeting of another by reference to his shortcomings; and the true test of politeness is found in the adjustment of actions to the ideal and potential when these are obscured by vice and degradation. It is easy enough to be polite to kings and queens, — to real kings and queens in spiritual virtues; but true politeness discerns the king and queen in every one, — even in the loathsome leper begging before the castle gate of a knight-errant. There is a vast difference between the true recognition of the ideal worth of another as man, and the mere formal and conventional use of politeness; yet the two are one in being based on the acceptance of the brotherhood of man. In any form, politeness is a means of maintaining social unity. Inuigine each speaking and acting with reference to the real character of liis associates, and at once society is dissolved into atoms — perhaps with bruises and bloodshed. 200 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. To test one's act as to politeness, it need only be asked whether it break tlie unity of good feeling binding to- gether the social whole. For instance, if one should meet an enemy in a social gathering, it would be impolite to treat hinV there as an enemy, because such conduct would break the unity and check the flow of social life. It is impolite to read a newspaper in church while the pastor is preaching, because he is thus treated as an unworthy pastor, and the congregational unity disturbed. Politeness in school is only a phase of the law of organic unity in the school. Pupils must meet on a common })lane, where each is forced to recognize the equal worth of others, in whatever uninviting guise it may appear. A dignified and well-toned system of manage- ment necessarily maintains strict practice of polite conduct as an indispensable means to the integrity of the organism. Thus the teacher does not need to turn aside to enforce polite conduct, but secures such conduct in dae course of management itself. Whatever the teacher may do by way of instruction in the theory and practice of politeness should be done ; but the practice of politeness is inherent in the organism itself. And whatever definite instruction may be desired on the subject, no better ojiportunity can be found than that furnished by the concrete situations of school life. As the pupil in all cases of discipline must reason out how certain acts destroy the school, so here he should see specifically how he disorganizes the school by impolite conduct. And then such conduct has still greater THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 201 claims upon the individual on his own account; which should become so clear to him as to appeal to his sense of ideal worth , as well as to his respect for the ideal worth of another, and the desire for the welfare of the school as a whole. The requirement of politeness put upon the teacher in maintaining unity in the class reciting has already been indicated. This may now be taken as a general principle of securing unity in any form whatever. By the nature of the teacher's relation to his pupil, he must address himself to the ideal in the pupil. When the teacher, in an angry moment, berates the pupil for his shortcomings, he subverts the very foundations of the school. The weakness of a pupil can never be made the means of attack without risking disorganization. At all times the teacher must see tlie lady or the gentleman in his pupil, even when brought to the necessit}- of dealing sternly with misdemeanors. The seliool is still a phase of polite society, and the teacher must never violate social proprieties because occupying a position of authority. However wayward a pupil may be, he must receive the same social attention and courtesies as a perfect lady or gentleman. Teachers, because they have not realized ideal politeness, may have to make a little effort to treat the uncouth and saucy boy with the same attention and courtesy as the well-bred and attractive one; l)ut the law of unity permits nothing less; and in this the teacher finds, as does the pupil, rugged discipline in polite conduct. On the general basis of sociable relations, the school 202 SCHOOL management. and society pass into more definite organic character by the parts lusuming orderly arrangement with reference to work to be accomplished. This new fact requires of the social unit the ethical sense and habit of : — Order. — The first condition to active co-operation of the parts of a mechanism or organism is that the parts be orderly disposed with reference to each other, — that each be in its proper place at the proper time. The essential element in order is that of punctuality, — the observance of time and place conditions of co-operation. The organ must be where it is needed when it is needed, or it is use- less ; therefore , disorder is disorganization. The law of order involves the law of silence; for the individual must not simply be in body at the right time in the right place, but must be there in spirit also. His mind must be abstracted from everything but the work in hand; and this is the inward silence which produces the outward silence. Order requires attention to a given matter at the right time and place. A pupil is in order when his mind is at the point of doing the thing next to be done. The school organism cannot move forward without plac ing the pupil under the strict requirement of order; hence, it again appears that the teacher need not turn aside to cultivate the ethical virtue in question, but must simply enforce as usual the law of unity inherent in the organism. Thus may be cultivated the habit of order and the feeling of obligation to the law, which are necessary to maintain unity in any phase of social organization. Social co- THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 203 operation is impossible in any form without obedience to the law of order; and as civilization advances, and social phenomena become more complex, the more exacting is the requirement of the law. A railroad system would be instantly paralyzed by a failure of operatives to conform to the schedule; and the business of the whole country would be destroyed by absolute uncertainty as to the time and place of transactions. And such is the general neces- sity for order running through every p'Kase of organic life; and also manifested with such mathematical precision in the world of physical law. The parts of the solar system are always in place and at their appointed task. And so should it be with every social organ; but such organs work by capricious will instead of by mathematical law, and must be trained to observe the first law of heaven. With such necessity of the moral virtue of order, and with such definite requirements made by the law of tlie school on that virtue, the school should be "managed with the conscious purpose of forming habits of order, and of culti- vating a quick sense of obligation to the requirements of the law. The next social virtue arising after order, and which the school by its inherent structure cultivates, is that of: — Truthfulness. — Truthfulness is essential not only to the integrity — the unbrokenness — of the individual, but to the integrity of an institution. The co-operative unity of the parts already orderly arranged is maintained through some form of cnnnuunioatiiig medium. Now truthfulness, including all forms of fair and honest dealing, is that 204 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. (luality in the communicating medium by which each knows the real intent of the other. Trutli fulness is the transparency of the communicating medium. If this medium diffuses or refracts the real intention of the communicator, the recipient is thrown off the track, and his effort to join in the thought and work of the other defeated. Truthfulness in word or act brings two or more minds into unity; but lying and deceit sunder yet more widely, while pretending the opposite. Thus unity of thought and harmony of action rest, after order, on the transparency of the social medium of communication. Lying not only antagonizes truth, but cannot harmonize with itself; hence liars must have good memories. Any truth fits every other; while any lie fits no other, else it would be true to the lie it fits. Thus lying is the absolute destruction of organic unity. Hence, truthfulness in school, especially between teacher and pupils, is an absolute requirement of the law of unity in school management. For instance, if the pupil in any way deceive the teacher as to what he knows about the subject of instruction, he so far dissolves organization Avith the teacher; and should the teacher cause the pupil to practice self-deception as to his real mental condition, the result is the same, with change of criminals. The true attitude of the pupil will reveal his whole mind to the teacher, especially his weakness, so that the teacher may render the needed assistance. But the teacher generally so puts the pressure on the student by threats, examinations, marks, prizes, and honors, that he is not THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 205 only tempted to conceal his weakness, but to make a false show of knowledge. This is another root of the evil dis- cussed under false incentives, which ajjpears now as a thoroughly disorganizing element at the vital centre of the school, — unity of teacher and pupil. This suggests the care the teacher should exercise in keeping the mind of the pupil open as to its vital needs, both in order to secure the focal unity of the school and to avoid the cultivation of a most subtle form of deception, blighting to every phase of social life. But in every phase of school experi- ence the teacher must bring the pupil to the practice of truthfulness; and he will not lack for opportunity to lead the pupil to discover the disorganizing character of decep- tion and falsehood. The school is inherently true and honest; and the cultivation of these virtues requires only the rigid enforcement of its fundamental law. The individuals of society, bound togetlier by tlie mere feeling of community of life, and having assumed definite and orderly arrangement with reference to each other in the work to be done; and further, given to trutlifulness in communication, the welfare of the school and of society requires yet another attribute, that of: — Industry. — The individual, when organized into a sys- tem of work, must give steady attention to that work. The wlieels of a machine cannot stop without stopping the machine; idleness is a social disorganizer, and not only because of the absence of labor, but because the dead, disjointed material becomes a burden to the social body. Whether viewed from the individual or social standpoint, 206 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. idleness is immoral, — from the individual standpoint, because activity is the law of his being; from the social, because the whole is disintegrated when the activity of its members ceases. Industry, from the social point of view, is the tension of the activity of the individual with the movement of the whole. Industry is the very life and movement of any social organization; hence, idleness on the part of the teacher or pupils destroys the school to the extent of the idleness; and complete idleness is com- plete destruction. It is needless to urge that a school thoroughly organized and managed, with its regular, exact, and punctual requirement in performance of duty, is a most powerful means of bringing the pupil into the habit and spirit of industrial life. It is in the school that the pupil passes from capricious play to systematic and con- tinuous effort to some end beyond that of mere activity itself. To make this transition from play to work effec- tive, the work must carry with it the joy of play. In the highest art of labor, and in the most effective social industry, work has a reward in the activity itself. Work to the artist workman is as play to the child: in both there is the joy of free activity, — in the former the result, besides the activity, is a useful end; in the latter, there is no end beyond the activity itself. The philosophy of the kindergarten games and gifts is in the fact of trans- forming play into work, while still maintaining the reward of the activity in the activity itself. The public school, artfully managed, is the very institution to supply to society members who are not simply industrious by force THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 207 of conviction and habit, but who have the joy of industry in the heart, — members who are free men in the love of wholesome labor, rather than slaves to the inexorable requirements of the hard industrial world. " Work thou for pleasure ; paint, or sing, or carve The thing thou lovest, thougii the body starve. Who works for glory misses oft the goal ; Who works for money carves his very soul. Work for tlie work's sake, theu ; and it may be. That these things shall be added unto thee. " In the pursuits of life under the law of industry, one individual will traverse the path of another, and come in conflict with him, unless restrained b}* a proper sense of the rights of others. Thus, the integrity and welfare of society further requires the cultivation of the restraining sense of: — Justice. — As defined by Herbert Spencer, justice is the equal freedom of action; or, to put it in his own words, as found in his "Social Statics," in which, and also in his "Principles of Ethics,'" he has forcibly elaborated the doctrine: '"Every man has freedom to do as he wills, pro- vided he infringes not the equal freedom of an}" other man." In absence of the social relation of justice, neitlier the school nor any other institution, nor society as a whole, can maintain its organic life. Absolute injustice may readily be seen to be absolute disorganization. Pupils cannot invade the rights of each other, nor teacher and pupils make mutual invasions, without dissolution of the organism to the extent of the invasion. Hence, justice in the school is onl}' another jdiaso of the law of unity j 208 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. and to train pupils into the liaLit and sentiment of justice, the teacher need only to manage the school thoroughly with reference to its primary law. How the pupil is thus required to practice justice is quite obvious. For instance, in order that class woi'k may proceed, each pu})il in tlie class must consider the rights of every other in tlie class, and subordinate his own caprices and desires to their good. In every case of self- regulation the welfare of the class is consulted, and the pupil must bring himself into line with that welfare. He puts the individual self down for the general good. And so it must be with reference to the school as a whole; the individual has many desires which are crossed by the requirements of the school as a whole. At every turn he must stop to consider what the good of the whole in the interests of its members requires of him. To that he must render obedience. This is a universal form of morality, — the putting down of an individual preference for a general good. Such is the requirement of virtuous citizenship. Patriotism — justice intensified — is the feel- ing which enables one to sacrifice self for the good of country and humanity. "We have much to say about training for citizenship, and devise means through the study of civics and history to prepare for that duty. But no means ever devised is more potent than an efficient system of school management. Under this the pupil has the citizen's experience, — lives a real citizen's life. He is required to think his own conduct as a member of the little school- world, and is thus trained into citizenship THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 209 habit. In the otlier way he merely theorizes about citizenship. It is not more or different studies needed in school in order to cultivate this virtue, but a more efficient system of school management. Civics in the blood is more vital than civics in the head. Especially unpromis- ing is the newest metliod of teaching patriotisni by the galvanic process of ritualism. Nothing but patriotic experience through the concrete situations of life can call forth the desired virtue. Pretence and formalism are death; while the altruistic demands made on the pupil in due course of a well-regulated school life are potent and healthful influences in the cultivation of a patriotic spirit. And thus we have already passed from justice to the climax of school and social virtue, that of : — Altruism. — Under this sentiment tlie individual does more than simply avoid interference with the rights of others, and now positively seeks their good. This, there- fore, is the completely unifying social virtue. If all were dominated by an altruistic spirit, society would move for- ward as one harmonious whole. Hence, this is the virtue which in common thought and literature is exalted above every other; it is the chief glory of Him who went about doing good. At the outset we found this to be the necessary attitude of the teacher towards his pupils; and without tlie same feeling of mutual lidpfulness among impils, scliocd life would be dreary and incomplete. The kindergarten properly makes much of this spirit, and it is claimed that such is the fundamental basis of all school work. Thia U 210 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. may well be accepted if we expand the idea of altruism to include all forms of self-forgetfulness in the spirit of the world lying objective to the pupil. In this larger sense altruism is the last word either in method of thought or of action. The highest principle of instruction already advocated in "The Philosophy of Teaching," and now presented in conclusion as the truest principle of manage- ment, is that of immediate self-forgetfulness in the envi- ronment of truth and life in which the pupil lives and moves and has his being. The highest outcome of such an appeal to altruistic con- sciousness in both instruction and management is a realiz- ing sense of the rational order of the universe; that there is reason and law above the individual to which he must bow assent, if he would realize his destiny. The school, beginning with the little concrete world immediately about the pupil, including the school itself, gradually opens his eyes to the fact that his own highest good is to be at one with the divine order of things. Gradually, and by long experience, it dawns upon him that the reason in the larger world about him is his reason, and that he must conform to this reason if he would achieve the highest good. He comes finally by habit and insight to seek the divine order of the world to make it his order. And thus we are reminded that altruism is not an end, but only a method of thought and action; that while it is more blessed to give than to receive, one always receives more than he gives. We speak of cultivating the social virtues for the good of society; but society is an empty THE ORGANISM EXECL'TIXG TiiK LAW. 211 abstraction apart from the concrete lives of the indi- viduals. A social virtue is, after all, a personal and private virtue. Kindness, gentleness, mercy, and love have more worth to the subject than to the object of them. But these have no meaning except in attarlnnent to others; and the only method of cultivating them is through the immediate consciousness of their object and not their sub- ject. The practice of altruism returns as personal wortli in some form, else why be altruistic, if human worth is the goal of education? The proximate end is certainly another person or another truth; but the teacher, in train* ing to practical knowledge and social virtues, should not forget Kant's maxim: "So act as to consider every man as an end in himself, and never as a means only." The pupil must lose his life, but a' ways in order to find it. Through efficient school management the pupil is required to deny liimself , to sacrifice himself, for the good of others and the institution as a whole; but this is only his proper subjective discipline, and the school as a whole is only his own rational nature, at first unrecognized. So while he, out of respect to others and devotion to the school, practises politeness, order, truthfulness, industry, justice, and love, his own life is being disciplined and enriched by these virtues. All high achievement for self, as well as for humanity, comes through a self-forgetful devotion to a universal objective good; yet tlie ultimate test of ethical training is its personal, private, and subjective value. The ultimate test for management is tlie same as that already set up for instruction in the "Thilosophy of 212 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. Teaching," — namely, the self-realization of the indi- vidual, which is best explained by the words, rational freedom, or the power to choose and live in the highest good. Hence, the ultimate etliical question for school management is, how does the securing of unity to the end of instruction discipline to: — Rational Freedom. — The law of the school requires each pupil to bring himself into unity with the organiza- tion, and thus he must limit his customary, free, irre- sponsible conduct; must harmonize his actions with others, and direct his effort to serious worthy attainment. When the child enters school, his actions are chiefly controlled by caprice. He has not been trained to sub- ordinate his likes and his dislikes to the attainment of a rational object. In school for the first time, perhaps, he is held to systematic effort to attain some good beyond his immediate desires. By the nature of the school organiza- tion he is compelled to limit himself to a given task, at a given time and place. No phase of school work is more beautiful, or more suggestive of educative power, than a school-room of children brought into the unity of an industrious effort to attain some worthy object. The very nature of the school requires self-limitation on the part of each pupil, and no form of training could be more directly in the line of moral habit and moral ponder. All forms of combination in school work help to enthrone reason and will above desire and caprice, — help to exalt the spiritual man above the natural man. The exact combination of a gymnastic exercise requires a high THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW. 213 tension of will to control the body; and tins strengthens the power of the soul to rule its naturalness. The ethical culture of gymnastic drill is of more value than its physical training. Thus the nature of the school organization forces the pupil to self-limitation. But the })upil is not morally free until he needs no such specific external means to self- control. The school controls conduct in specific and minute waj's; but through this control the pupil is gradu- ally to grow stronger, so that he will, by and by, need less direct and immediate help from the organization, until at last he becomes wise enough to set up his own law of conduct, and strong enougli to render obedience without the help of master and machiner}-. As a result of school discipline, the pupil should be enabled, in the light of reason, to set up his own standard of action, and by habit and strength of will to bring himself imder the law thus set up. It will be here recalled by the reader that tlie plan of management discussed in the preceding pages, with the view of securing the unity essential to instruc- tion, is exactly in line witli that of securing the ethical freedom of conduct here noted. At all stages of his course the student is to explain the reason for a given course of action, and then to make his decision in favor of the line indicated. The pupil m\ist tlius bo released gradually from obedience to mere authority. The teaclier must take pains to put the pupil under his own guidance. The teacher controls too much, leaving too little for the pupil. For the child sitting by the stove to move, without iiermis- 214 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. sion, because too warm, is better than to move with per- mission. Under such circumstances pupils are sometimes ordered back to remain until they get permission from headquarters. The pupil then raises the hand; the teacher nods consent; then matters are in good condition because the pupil has rendered obedience to authority. But such obedience confers no power of self-direction; whereas such power would be cultivated if the pupil debate the question and decide for himself. This idea of obedience to a teacher is full of mischief. The pupil should obey the law inherent in the case, which he himself is able to expound and set up as his only master. In an important sense, the pupil should do as he pleases. The teacher must let him alone, and watch his actions and tendencies. Suppose a pupil in the primary room should go to the water-pail three times during a recitation, would it not be well to let him go without interruption; and then during the day, at some convenient time, — unless too much going, make an immediate demand, — to have a general discus- sion as to how long a pupil can do without water before suffering; and whether, if a pupil's wants have all been supplied before the beginning of a recitation, he could suffer before the close? And then permit pupils to point out tlie interruption occasioned if all should thus fre- quently visit the water-pail. Personal mention of the offender need not be made, but he should be drawn into the discussion. Or, if thought best, he alone might discuss the matter with the teacher. No matter about details; I mean only to insist that the student be led to THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THE LAW 215 set up his own standard of action and make his own decision in regard to it, so far as possible, without any regard for the mere authority of tlie teacher. This reminds one that there are two kinds of discipli- narians, — one who, by the force of authority, maintains the appearance of good order; the other causes good order to arise within the pupil. Wliat often passes for good order is quite the opposite 5 and the so-called good dis- ciplinarian secures only the temporary form of discipline. This is the heavy-handed drill master who, by force, may quell a mob, but who can never prevent the occurrence of one. And, too, the appearance of order is good only while pupils are in the immediate presence of the master. No teacher is worthy the name of disciplinarian who does not strengthen the pupil to govern himself after lie turns tin' corner of the school-house. An able-bodied man may crush a school into fearful silence, which is the worst of disorder; but the teacher — and such may be a timid lady — who can cause order to orii^'inate in tlie understanding and consent of the pupil, whether securing the same beautiful and formal external appearance or not, is the true disciplinarian. A mnjority of teachers, from the common school to the college president, wlio have been noted for disciplinary power, have gained Iheir notoriety on the score of external crushing power over the student. And by this I do not mean the apjdieation of physical force; there arc a thousand and one wiiys of intimidating and bribing a student into the semblance of good conduct. The pupil may be enticed with rewards, roll of honor, 216 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. good will of teacher, and divers kinds of favors; or threat- ened with loss of ])rivileges, with demerits, with lowering of grades; with whatever rack and torture desperate inge- nuity can devise. I know what proud success teachers report to have achieved by this, that, and the other dis- ciplinary device of fear or favor; but, beneath the surface, it surely can be but a questionable success. It may be that a teacher must hold the fort temporarily by such external forces; but he should be ashamed to report success till the pupils see the reason of proper conduct as grounded in the school itself, and voluntarily make the law of the school the law of their behavior. The true disciplinary poAver of school management is Avell illustrated in the method of punishment, already dis- cussed. Suppose the young lady who communicates in school be kept in to make up lost time ; or that the time be doubled, and still multiplied until it becomes so un- pleasant that she finally desists. It has been shown that unity in such a case is not secured; for the unity desired is in the will of the student. While apparently at one with the school, she is not really so ; for to be so she must purpose with the school. But more important still, such a method of procedure fails to cultivate the power of rational self-control. If she had been required, as insisted on in preceding pages, to explain the law inherent in the school against such conduct, and then to take charge of herself in the light of the law, the temporary end of management would not only have been more enectively secured, but there would have been a gain in general THE ORGANISM EXECUTING THK LAW. 217 power to rule the spirit in the light of reason. Every time the pupil is led to resolve that he will take charge of himself, the teacher has aecomplished a victory for righteousness. This is a daily and almost hourly oppor- tunity. The whole spirit of management, and promi- nently that of punishment, requires constantly just such a resolution. Thus the true means of securing unity as a condition to instruction is the true means of ethical discipline. And thus in every phase of school management, the pupil is led to adoi)t reason and law as tlie guide to conduct; and through this is discii)lined to the power of choosing the highest good, the true self, as against the claims of the lower nature. Such supremacy of the higher over the lower self comes from the int-, 76. Education, hist^iry of justifiabl*-, 11; consifltA in, 39. 220 INDEX. Educational public, 89; sentiment, 102. Elements of professional spirit, G6. Emulation, 194. Energy, economy of, 75; wasted, 184. Environment, not break witii, 12; liie child's touch with, 38; pupil edu- cated througli, 184. Ethical training, 183. Examinations, 189; a quotation on, 190. Exclusion from school, 171. Executing the law, the organism, 103. Explanations, 150. External authority, 168. Family as teacher, 40. Fitch, quotation from, 190. Forgetting, danger of, 29. Formal school arises, 36. Freedom, in vocation, 41 ; rational, 212. Fundamental law, 1. Good, the ultimate, 53. Gradation, 114; tirst step in, 116; of pupils, 117; difiicult'es of, 118. Grading country schools, 115. Grasp, complex functions, 65; the school, 107. Guessing, 155. Harmony, 65; of means and end, 185 ; of the whole process, 217. Hawthorne, 4G. History, 8. Honor, false sense of, 176. Hyde, Dr., quotation from, 9. Idea, everything exists in, 4 ; origi- nates school, 5 ; loyal to, 8. Ideal, the pupil's, 44, 48, 49 ; teacher, 92. Ideals, 49. Identity, point of, 19. Illustration of a graded course of study, 120. Incendiary, 178. Incentives, 186. Industry, 205. Intluence, su.sceptible to, 46. Inherent difficulties. 118. Inetitutions arise, 31. Instruction, supervision of, 86; con- dition of, 97 ; the organism in the process of, 104; two kinds of, 184. Instruments of scliool work, 81. Intermediate grades, 170. Janitor. 98. Jerusalem, xii. Justice, 207. K^RAMOS, Longfellow's, 48. Kindergarten teacher, 55. Laboratory, 81. Law of unity, 1; of tlie school, 1; fundamental, 7 ; broadest aspect of, requires, 14: application of to pun- ishment, 175 ; evolving the organ- ism, 35 Lectures, 150. Library, 82. Life-meaning, conscious of, 59. Lighting, 77. Lincoln, allusion to, 28, 38. Longfellow, K^ramos, 48. INIachinery, necessity for, 29. Man takes active part in own devel- opment, 35. Manage, xi. Management, worst stroke of, 23 ; of a school, 25; ditficulties of. 176. Mclntyre, quotation from, 38. Motives to study, 188, 194. Movement, obstacles in forward, 152. Movements, unnecessary, 79. Nature as teacher, 40. Needlework, 64. Noise, 79. Objects, removed from desk, 78. Obstacles in forward movement, 152. Offence, 159, 161. INDEX. 221 Order. 202. Organic thought, G4; unity in, 110. Organization of the school. 108. Organism, law of, 1; the law evolving the, 35 ; executing the law, 103 ; in process of instruction, 104. Pai.issy, 48. Patriotism, 208. Per cents, ISO. Personal contact, 69. riiilosophy of Teaching, 33, 210. Picture from life, 144. Plato, allusion to, 2<). Politeness, 198. 'Possum Kingdom School, 113. Practice, viii. Pre|)aration of lesson. 136. Prepossessing moods, 80. Problem, 132. Problems, one of the serious, 10 ; inter- esting and difficult, 30. Process, school management, vii ; school an organic, 1. Professional spirit, 48; two phases, 52; not in conflict, 54; more than a susceptibility, 57; consciousness of subject-matter, 60; sensitiveness to unity of organism, 64. Program, the, 130. Promoting, necessity for, 129. Puebl.) jilan, 112. Punishment, law of, 158. Pupil, to report, 177. Pupils ideal, 44. Qualities in teadier, unifyin?, 38; se- cured, 84; distinctions not patent, 100. Questions, 140. Questioning classes, 148. Rational freedom. 212. Recital ion, memoriter, 154. Rcfonns in colleges, 56. Reinstate himself, 1G4, Reinstated, 166. Relation of teacher and pupil, com- municable, 73. Repetition, 153. Report, pupil to, 177. Requirement, the broadest, 13; of pro- f-.'ssional spirit, 54; the last, 62. Restoration of broken unity, 157. Restore the unity, 162. Retribution, 158. Salary, insufficient, 41; increase of, 42: not personal inducement, 42, 51. School, organic process, law of, ] ; spiritual unity, 3; elements of, 5; outline of process, 6; the real "chool, 13 ; created by students, 22; ulti- mate law of, 31; supervision, 85. School punisliment, 162. School-room, 72. Seating, law of, 74. Seats, 76. Self, the, 59. Serpent, shows wisdom. 10. Silence, the law of, 202. Social comliination, infiu<»nce of, 196. Society, 196. Socrates, 60, l-»6. Spencer, Herbert, quotation from, 3. Spiritual unity, 15; of the pupil him- .self, 21. Stale, x; proclaims laws, 2; policy, 24. Statute, 7. Stevens, Professor, 190. Stone Face, the Great, 46. Student, creates school, 21. Subject, a mental process, 02. Subject matter, 01. Superintendent, 18, 87; test of, 91; selected, 97. Supervising conditions of instruction, 97. Supervisiiin, 8."); limitations of, 99. Sympathy, 108. System, lixed, 8; centre of, 18; of city schools, 126. Tact, ix. Teacher, conscious of, 20 ; distinction between, and other agencic<<, 39; ideal of pupil, 4.*); nothing but, 57; 222 INDFA'. every lesson the, 58 ; selecting the, 90; aiding the, 92. Teaching, 70. Temperature, 77. Tension, 10; between real and ideal, 12, with subject, 187. Tested, a school organization is, 13. Testing school management, 181. Truancy, 70. Truantj 163. Theory, viii. Trustees, township, 27. Truthfulness, 203. Truth-loving, 45. Tuition, conscious and unconscious, 40. Ultimate end, conscious of, 58. Uniformity, 117; of texts, 118. University, a state, 14; student, 167. Unifying qualities in teacher, 38; con- ditions of teacher and pupil, G7. Unit}', law of, co-operative, 16; must not be violated, 30 ; in school as a whole, 105; in class studying, 133; in class reciting, 141; mainly s-e- cnred, 156 ; restoration of broken, 157. Utopia, an educational, 12. Valuk, ethical, to the student, 25. Ventilation, 77. Violated, law quite commonly, 27. Vividly conscious, .59. Vocation, freedom in, 41; choice of, 43. Vote, why teach, 40. Warning the teacher, 106. Waves circle out, 58. Weight, exact, 155. Whispers, 158, 160. Whispering, 159. Whole, unity in school as a, 105. Will, offence in, 159. AVork, 207. Worry, 179. Wrong act, 159. ANNOUNCEMENTS SOCIAL EDUCATION By COLIN ALEXANDER SCOTT Head of the Department of Psycholog)-, Boston Normal School i2mo. xi + 300 pages. List price, 51.25 ; mailing price, Si. 3 5 SOCIAL EDUCATION is a handbook for teachers who think. It is a plain and practical account of the life of the school from the standpoint of the social forces which are ever at work among pupils of all ages. It is not based upon mere ideals or philosophical abstractions but upon countless observations of schools of various kinds from the kindergarten up to the college grades. It is not the child as a separate individual, but children as they are actually found in classes and groups in and out of the school, which form the principal subject of discussion. The book is full of the actual activities of living children, and its aim is to show how these can be made more productive, more ethical, and more happy and spontaneous, — not sacrificing, but promoting and intensifying thereby, the scholarship and the truest discipline of the school. Mr. Colin A. Scott's careful study of Social Education leaves its readers duly impressed with the supreme and overwhelming importance of understanding the child at every step of his career, of making his citizenship date from his school days, of molding him, through the principle of organization, into an active and intel- ligent member of the state. The book is sincere, earnest, ardent. There is no flaw to be found in its reasoning. We wish Dr. Keate could have had the advantage of reading it before he became head master of the Eaton School. — Life. GINN AND COxMPANV Publishers AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS By O. J. KERN Superintendent of Schools, Winnebago County, Illinois I2mo. Cloth. 366 pages. Illustrated. List price, $l.l^-j mailing price, $1.35 THE author's endeavor in preparing this work has been to create a new ideal in the training of the country child. The book is the result of seven years of very earnest thought and hard work in an endeavor to secure for the country child his rights so far as an educational opportunity is concerned. The country school should have that freedom which country life affords. This book has but little to say about the mechanics of school management. In the training of children and the development of char- acter no greater opportunity can be offered than that now presented to the teacher in the country school. The author hopes that this book will prove suggestive to the teacher and school ofificer who are striving for the spiritualization of country life through the medium of the school. He believes that a careful reading of its pages will show a practical way of interesting the "farm child through farm topics." Some of the chapter titles, indicating the suggestions given in this distinctly novel treatise, are : THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD OUTDOOR ART — BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS INDOOR ART AND DECORATION A FARMER BOY'S EXPERIMENT CLUB THE COUNTRY SCHOOL AND THE FARMERS' INSTITUTE GINN & COMPANY Publishers UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 1 ID/UWl ^° OECi ir cniiTucRiu Dcr.miusi i lODaov turn iTv AA 001 033 383 9 SIATBM J^CHOOL,