How shall I govern my school?

Front matter

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Preface

In preparing the following work for the press, the Author has studied to make it throughout practically useful. It has been his desire to produce a work which might serve as a manual to the young teacher, in that important branch of his duties, comprised under the term Government. How far the execution has corresponded with the design must be left to the judgment of others.

Some may inquire, "Why add another to the many useful works on education already extant ?" The question is a fair one, and shall be candidly answered. The writer admits to the full the merit of the works referred to, nor does he arrogate to himself greater knowledge or skill than belonged to his predecessors. Nevertheless, unless he greatly mistakes, such a book as it has been his aim to make was still a desideratum. The subject of school-government seemed to him worthv of a more ex-

IV PREFACE.

tended developement and illustration than it has hitherto received in the one or two short chapters usually devoted to it, in the treatises on education which have fallen under his eye.

The principles of government herein set forth will, it is hoped, commend themselves to the judgment and adoption of those in whose behalf the work was undertaken. Their excellence and value, when skilfully and faithfully used, have been tested by many teachers. They are also, mutatis mutandis, equally applicable to family government.

The volume is addressed to young teachers : — not in a spirit of feigned modesty, but because the writer felt, unfeignedly, the impropriety and arrogance there would have been in putting forth his lucubrations as a guide to those who are better able to instruct him, than he them.

The Author avails himself of the occasion to announce to the public that he has in preparation a work addressed to school-children, on a plan, so far as he knows, entirely new. It is designed to give them simple and practical instructions

PREFACE. V

on the following topics, viz: on the nature of the relation between them and their teachers ; the duties growing out of this relation ; the necessity of government in schools, and hence the obligation on their part not only of submitting to it, but of upholding it with their influence ; the peculiar dangers to which school-children are exposed, and the means of overcoming them ; the methods to be employed by the young for self-improvement in moral excellence; the nature, objects, means, and advantages of education ; and the value of time.

Philadelphia, June 1st, 1838. 1*

Contents

Introduction Page 13

Section I

Count the cost of engaging in the profession of a teacher ; weigh the responsibilities it involves ; consider well whether you are willing to enter upon a life of toil and self-denial, in which you will often be expected to achieve impossibilities by transforming dulness into bright parts, and obdurate depravity into virtue, and in which your best services will not seldom be rewarded with want, ingratitude, murmurs, and even positive insult 23

Section II

Begin your school by forming a regular plan of government ; settle in your own mind the principles by which you will be guided in your little administration ; propose to yourself certain definite results, and aim steadily at their attainment 37

Section III

In forming your plan of government, avoid the multiplication of trifling rules ; seize upon principles as comprehensive as possible for your administrative laws; and be careful to draw a broad line of distinction between your rules and those eternal principles of morality which have their foundation in the revealed will of God, and are therefore obligatory upon all rational creatures, every where, and at all times 41

Vlll CONTENTS.

Section VIII

Formal lectures on moral subjects, delivered with unction and in a simple style, will be productive of happy effects on your pupils ; attend, therefore, assiduously and affectionately to the discharge of this duty ; but do not rest there : seize the occasions, as they rise in the daily occurrences of the school and conduct of the scholars, to enforce more pointedly the principles and dispositions of virtue ; and, above all, teach by example even more than by precept ... 91

Section IX

Do not confine your attention to your pupils to school-hours; let it embrace also, as far as practicable, their seasons of relaxation and amusement 130

CONTENTS. IX

Section X

Be reasonable in your requirements ; be firm in exacting obedience ; be uniform in your mode of governing ; be impartial in your treatment of all under your care 144

SECTION XL

Take an early opportunity, after becoming acquainted with your pupils, of conversing with each privately ; make their dispositions and habits your constant study : and, as far as may be, adapt your management of each to his individual peculiarities '. 168

Section XII

Court openness, candour, and confidence from your pupils ; accustom them to regard their faults as diseases, and you as their moral physician, capable of giving them wholesome advice, and pointing out appropriate remedies 177

Section XIII

Endeavour to excite in your pupils an interest in their own improvement, moral as well as intellectual ; and point out clearly the means whereby this improvement can be effected 195

Section XIV

In speaking to your pupils of their faults, do not overlook their true source, depravity of heart; yet in animadverting upon any particular offence, qualify your censure by introducing, when you honestly can, some commendation of the culprit, and always by laying a stress on the means of improvement, and the hope and expectation that these means will be employed 240

Section XV

Endeavour to produce in your pupils a cordial concern for their faults 245

X CONTENTS.

Section XVI

In treating what we have denominated the moral diseases of your pupils, look for occasional relapses ; do not expect too much immediately from your best exertions ; patient continuance in a course of judicious management and instruction will certainly, in the end, be crowned with success 250

Section XVII

Maintain a sleepless vigilance over your pupils, but with as little appearance of it as may be ; mark the beginnings of evil, and use your utmost endeavours to counteract and overcome them ; and cherish, with parental solicitude, the feeblest developements of good feelings and principles . . . 255

Section XVIII

Speak often and freely to your pupils of the peculiar dangers and temptations to which the young are exposed, especially those incident to their position as members of a school ; point out and urge upon them the means of overcoming these dangers, and resisting these temptations 260

Section XIX

Endeavour, as far as you can without sacrificing more important considerations, to sweeten the necessary restraints and labours of your pupils 264

Section XX

Punish as sparingly as you can, and always with evident grief and reluctance; never in an angry or revengeful spirit, nor with reproaches on your lips ; but do not attempt to dispense altogether with the use of the rod 270

Section XXI

By simple explanations of the nature, objects, means, and advantages of education, endeavour to awaken in your

CONTENTS. XI

pupils a love of learning for its own sake, and to incite them to diligence in seeking it 286

Section XXII

Finally : If you would govern with complete success, and have the influence of your government upon the character of your pupils of the most desirable kind, you must kndw how to control, and you must control, the public opinion of your school ; you must be able to make it tell, and you must make it tell, in support of law, order, and virtue. . . . 290

Introduction

Innumerable influences enter into that complex result which we denominate character, whether of individuals or of nations. Parental guardianship, the family circle, our companions, the pulpit, the state of society, the scenes of external nature, the social system under which we live, the press with its diversified modes of operation, and the direct instructions received in the seminal institutions of learning, from the university to the common school, are among these elementary principles of character. Of all the classes of influence included in this enumeration, not one is more controlling in its action, or more lasting in its effects, and therefore none is of greater importance, than the last mentioned in the catalogue.

It was said by a deep master of the human heart, —

" Give me the composition of the popular songs of a

nation, and I care not who makes its laws." How

much more forcibly would the spirit of this remark ap-

2 13 ply to a nation's Schools ! To enjoy the entire and exclusive control of these educational establishments might well satisfy the ambition of the greediest aspirant for power over his fellow-men. The mysticism of Egypt, the courage of Sparta, the disputatious subtlety of Attica, the high honour and commanding influence of the early Persians, and the military spirit of the Romans, may be traced to the schools of those several nations, as of controlling influence in producing the predominant traits in their respective national characters. Man, in his original elements, is the same now as he was then ; and what was truth in those remote ages remains so to our own times. That portion of education which is received from direct instructions is still of commanding effect ; and the sire is not more truly parent of the boy, than schools are the parent of national, and, to a great extent, of individual character.

This great, elemental, and universally admitted fact, stamps the schools of a country, of every name and rank, with an importance that cannot be expressed. For, consider the consequences immediately or remotely involved. Character, in its broadest comprehension of meaning, constitutes the man. It is his power of blessing or of cursing ; it is more ; it is, in most cases, the measure of the good or the evil he does to the human race. The same is true as to the character of nations.

It" a whole people be just, wise, moderate, liberal, and humane, its example will be like healing to the nations ; while it rebukes the statesman whose patriotism does not rise above a selfish ambition, it cheers and encourages the true friends of human liberty and upright government. . But if a nation be actuated by a selfish, vindictive, irritable, warlike spirit, its policy will of course be dictated by that spirit, and its career, as a necessary consequence, will be marked by injustice, rapine, and blood.

These are first principles, about which it is not apprehended that there will be any dispute. If the paramount influence of schools in forming individual and national character be admitted, it is equally clear that this influence constitutes the exact measure of importance that attaches to school-government. Government is essential to order; order to study; and study to progress in learning and moral excellence. It may be admitted that vigorous discipline sometimes exists without the results that ought to follow ; but none will contend that the converse of this proposition is also true. The fruits of knowledge and virtue cannot be gathered, except from a soil properly broken up, prepared, and regulated. To speak without a figure, the solid improvement of the pupils of any school depends upon the imposition and maintenance of judicious restraints, and the requisition of various duties, both enforced by appropriate penalties. Wise and vigorous government affords the only sure substruction on which an edifice of true wisdom, goodness, and happiness can be reared.

Mr. S. R. Hall, an eminent teacher, and a writer of good repute, in his excellent Lectures on School-Keeping, says : — " The direction, govern your school, is one of great importance. Unless you govern those placed under your care, all your other exertions will be nearly or quite in vain.

* Order is Heaven's first Law.' Without subordination on the part of your scholars, without good government on your own, you may as well expect the course of nature to change, as that your school will make any considerable progress."

" That the judicious regulation and government of schools," says Prof. Griscom, " is a vital part of civil polity, and that it claims far more attention than it receives from lawgivers and philanthropists, will be admitted, I trust, by all who are acquainted with the state of practical education in this and in other countries. If the welfare of society is really connected with the diffusion of learning, if schools are absolutely necessary to a nation's growth and elevation in all that adds dignity to national existence, if they contribute to family enjoyment, to the delights of social intercourse, to the preservation of morals, to the interests of religion, then, assuredly, ought they to be rendered not only thoroughly efficient in the communication of knowledge and the right training of the juvenile mind, but they should, to the utmost practicable extent, be made attractive and delightful. Indeed, the latter quality is, in a great measure, essential to the former, — for it is evidently a law of our being, that we can, and do, from infancy to old age, pursue most successfully those objects which yield us pleasure in the pursuit. In the early stage of pupilage it is more especially important that the paths of learning be strewed with allurements, that the nursery and the domestic circle may be willingly exchanged for the school-room and its classes, and the future man be drawn cheerfully and effectually into the folds of learning, and gradually inured to that intellectual labour, without which neither the depths of learning nor the heights of science can ever be attained." Nothing will contribute more effectually to this end, than that teachers should know how to manage their schools with discretion, and to govern by those influences whose effects, both immediate and remote, will be most beneficial to the pupils.

Government, as applicable to schools, is of three kinds, — the government of pure force, the government by moral influences exclusively, and the -government in which these two elements are combined, and where neither the one principle nor the other is altogether relied on, nor entirely overlooked. The immediate and obvious results of these different systems of discipline may be very nearly the same. They may each be equally successful in securing order in the school-room, a general attention to school duties, and a commendable progress in learning. But in this brief catalogue the identity of consequences ceases. The ultimate and permanent effects of the two systems, for they in fact resolve themselves into two, upon the character, happiness, and usefulness of those who are subjected to their respective influences, will be as variant as the poles. Both may make equally learned scholars, but they will make very different men. The tendency of the one system is to rear up a generation of men, selfish, deceitful, time-serving, tricky, and virtuous only from policy ; of the other, to implant in the soul lofty principles of action, a love of whatever is excellent for its own sake, and a habit of generous, self-denying, elevated virtue.

Of all sorts of government, that founded on brute force is both the simplest and the easiest. Where a sound beating is the panacea for all varieties of disposition and all classes of offences, nothing is wanting to make an accomplished disciplinarian but strength of nerve and muscle ; as, in those empyrical systems in which all diseases are referred to one disturbing cause, a single medicine is declared to be a sovereign remedy for every malady that flesh is heir to. No previous knowledge of human nature, no nice observation, no discrimination, no adaptation of punishment to varying circumstances and tempers, no tact or judgment, is requisite. It is only for the master to call out the offending pupil, in language like that used by an old Scotch schoolmaster to three bad boys that often troubled him with their roguery, " Come oot here, ye three, till I wheep ye jist noo," and suit the action to the word, and the whole business is done.

If boys could be effectually controlled by the principles of reason alone, none can doubt that this species of government would be preferable to every other. But the difficulty is, that where moral influences are relied on to the exclusion of all other restraints, government almost necessarily becomes lax and inefficient, and is apt even to degenerate into a species of coaxing, which renders the teacher the slave rather than the master of the scholars. When matters proceed to this length, the ability of the instructor to be useful to his pupils is at an end. As, therefore, there is no such thing as unmixed good below the skies, and as a faultless system of government is not adapted to human nature in its present state, it is the part of wisdom to select one that unites in itself the greatest number of wholesome principles practicable, to the exclusion of as much as possible of what is intrinsically evil in its tendency. On these accounts it may be fairly concluded that the mixed form of school government is the best, in which both physical force and the force of reason are, in the exercise of a discreet judgment, resorted to according to the exigencies of the occasion.

With these general observations on the nature and importance of school government, let us proceed to an examination of the question which forms the title of the present work. In entering on this interesting and most important inquiry, I desire to make this explicit declaration, — that to the experienced teacher I have no discoveries to communicate, no inventions to unfold, no secrets to reveal. I am no petitioner for a patent right in the art of school government. I do not even lay claim to any originality, other than that which consists in pursuing my own investigations in my own way. I am not, indeed, aware that any treatise, similar in its plan to that which it is now proposed to furnish, is in existence ; but the principles that I shall attempt to exhibit, are familiar to most of those who have been, for any length of time, engaged in the profession of teaching. In reference to many of these gentlemen, the proper posture of the writer of this volume would be that of a learner. But to those who are new in the profession, he hopes that the experience and reading of more than twelve years will enable him to present some practical suggestions, which will aid them in that important department of their labours which consists in disciplining and governing the young beings whose principles, habits, characters, and destiny are in a great measure committed to their charge.

Section I

Count the cost of engaging in the profession of a teacher; weigh the responsibilities it involves; consider well whether you are willing to enter upon a life of toil and self-denial, in which you will often be expected to achieve impossibilities by transforming dulness into bright parts, and obdurate depravity into virtue, and in which your best services will not seldom be rewarded with want, ingratitude, murmurs, and even positive insult.

The man who should begin the rearing of a magnificent edifice by employing an architect and giving him unlimited authority to expend to any amount, would be set down by the world as little better than insane. This is not the way in which prudent men enter upon an important undertaking of any kind. They require, first of all, accurate and detailed estimates of each class of expenditures involved in it ; they look narrowly into the state of their own finances ; and from a careful comparison of the results, they make up their decision as to the course which prudence dictates to be pursued. If so much forethought and caution are necessary to the comparatively narrow and temporary objects here alluded to ; if they are deemed both the evidence and the result of true wisdom, — of how much greater importance is it that they be employed by him who is engaged in weighing the considerations that are to determine him in the choice of a profession or business for life. This is always, whatever be the particular pursuit to be decided upon, an affair of serious import, and worthy of deep consideration and patient examination ; but there are circumstances connected with the profession of teaching, of a peculiar nature, and demanding more than ordinary deliberation. Every profession has its trials and its drawbacks ; that of teaching has an accumulation of them sufficient, if duly considered, to appal any but the most resolute spirits. In addressing myself to young teachers, and to those who have the business of instruction in contemplation, it seems proper to commence by a brief and unvarnished exposition of the peculiar labours and vexations incident to the profession which you have either already entered upon, or hold in near prospect.

It would seem, upon a superficial view of things, a principle both natural and just that every pursuit should be honoured in proportion to its utility. Such a conclusion would be neither weak nor preposterous on the

HOW SHALL 1 GOVERN MY SCHOOL 1 2b

part of one unacquainted with the actual character and conduct of mankind ; but a very limited experience of human affairs is enough to convince any one that nothing could be farther from the truth. Honour is a quality which attaches rather to what is rare than to what is useful ; a meed more readily accorded to exalted talents than to eminent worth ; the reward more frequently of a difficult achievement than of that silent but diffusive beneficence which, like the ivy, courts the shade, and, like it too, seeks to include in its comprehensive embrace every object within its reach. Thus, the most worthy, industrious, and successful cultivator of the earth does not receive a moiety of the applause bestowed upon the victorious general, fresh from the slaughter of uncounted hosts, or upon the poet of superior genius, even though he may have prostituted the powers conferred by the Creator for nobler purposes, to the insidious dissemination of pestilent errors and the uprooting of all morality.

In prosecuting your labours as an instructor, numerous objects will claim your attention, and you will have to deal with a great diversity of tempers, and almost every variety of intellectual endowment. You will have pupils of various ages, engaged in many different branches of study, each of which must receive its due share of attention. Your pupils will have 3 to be ranged in classes according to their respective ages, previous attainments, and actual capacities. This is a work requiring judgment, patience, and much reflection. The morals and manners of your scholars, as well as their intellectual training, must be constantly cared for and attended to. Their various talents must be directed to their proper objects, and their mental and moral development watched, marked, encouraged, and promoted in every conceivable way, and by every suitable appliance. You will have to find means to rouse the sluggishness of one and to correct the waywardness of another ; to encourage the timid and restrain the impetuous ; to check vicious propensities and foster every opening virtue ; to force information upon the dull, to incite the idle to diligence, to strengthen good principles where they already exist and implant them where they are deficient, and to form in all, habits of order, industry, attention, patience, and obedience. It cannot surely be denied that these duties, and such as these, require, for their due performance, solid talents, copious knowledge, correct judgment, great self-command, sleepless vigilance, and a deep insight into the springs of human conduct. These qualities, zealously and successfully employed in imparting to the young the principles of conduct and the elements of science, may well excite the admiration, but can scarcelv call forth the envy, of the members of any other profession.

The obligations enumerated above, as they are peculiar and appropriate to the profession, though they mark the laborious nature of the teacher's occupation, cannot be properly considered grievances, and do not therefore afford any just ground of complaint. They are undoubtedly the source of much perplexing anxiety, exhausting labour, and vexatious embarrassment; but if they were the only or the principal causes of trouble to the schoolmaster, he would have great occasion for rejoicing. His sorest vexations, and the greatest trials of his patience, spring from a different source, — the officious interference and dictation of parents and other relations of the pupils. Far be it from me to blame the anxiety of a parent in reference to the education of his children. It is not only excusable in him, but it is his duty, to look narrowly into their progress, and if this is not such as to satisfy him, to examine into the causes of its slowness. When this is done in a becoming spirit and manner, the teacher has no reasonable ground of offence, but, on the contrary, he will rejoice in the opportunity of explanations, probably every way desirable for all the parties concerned.

This is not what I blame. My complaint is aimed against a practice, not more humiliating to the teacher, than it is prejudicial to the pupil's progress in knowledge and virtue. Parents often entertain feelings of distrust and contempt towards those to whom, nevertheless, they are willing to commit the dearest interests of their offspring. It were well if these sentiments were confined to their own breasts. But this is seldom the case. " They generally communicate them to their children, and thus provide additional vexations for their teachers. Instead of impressing on the minds of their offspring that reverence for the preceptor, which should give weight to his advice, and efficacy to his instructions, they teach them to despise his authority, by allowing an appeal from it to themselves ; they encourage the pupil to sit in judgment on his teacher, and to make a report of his diligence, his temper, his talents, and his whole conduct in school." This is as injurious to the scholar, as it is insulting and mortifying to the master. Nevertheless, there are multitudes in the constant habit of speaking contemptuously in the presence of their children, of those whom they have employed to be their instructors, and of catechizing them in the manner here indicated. I do not say that all parents do it, or even the majority ; but it is done by numbers, and that teacher may esteem himself as singularly fortunate, who has been, even for the brief space of a few months, engaged in the business of instruction without personal experience of the disposition upon which we are animadverting.

It is surprising how often parents mistake the real dispositions and talents of their children, and how frequently they are ignorant of their true habits. Every teacher, who has been for many years in the profession, could reveal astonishing facts in illustration of this point. My own memory is burdened with them. 1 have had arrant and inveterate liars placed under my care, with the assurance on the part of the parent, that, if there was any vice from which his son was free, it was that of lying — that he did not in fact believe he had ever told a lie in his life ! Mistakes of this kind occur still more frequently among parents with respect to the intellectual powers of their offspring. These errors are unfortunate in every respect, but their effects fall with peculiar weight upon the poor schoolmaster. They give rise to unreasonable expectations, and when it is found that the improvement of the child does not tally with the ill-founded opinions of the father or mother, parental partiality, the source of the first error, now commits the second of ascribing the defect, not to any want of talents in their son or daughter, bu,t to the negligence, mismanagement, or inability of the teacher. " The father is too often inclined to proceed with something of the spirit and impetuosity of the ancient philosopher, who, when he found the pupil illiterate, without further inquiry chastised the preceptor." Whenever this is the case, you may expect to be overwhelmed with reproaches, which it is of course impossible to prevent by removing the cause, the mental imbecility of your pupil, and which you will not be likely to diminish, either in number or pointedness, by an unvarnished statement of the truth respecting the child in question.

Another thing to which you must make up your mind to submit, if you become a teacher, is an unjust depreciation of your merit by the public generally, and a most unreasonable degradation from your proper rank in society. Most men are agreed that the office of a teacher is one of great utility, and they will even allow that to exercise it properly requires power and attainments of a high order ; but it will not be asserted that it is held in proportional esteem. The fact is far otherwise. The title of schoolmaster, which ought to be an honour to any man, and which I believe in God will one day become so, now rests like an incubus on those who wear it. Parents do not hesitate to entrust the intellectual and moral education of their offspring to men whom they will not admit into their drawingrooms, except perhaps occasionally by sufferance, and as an act of special condescension. The consequence of this general and extraordinary exclusion of teachers from the best circles of society, as impolitic as it is unjust, has been to inundate the profession with quacks, pretenders, ignoramuses, and adventurers of every grade. Whatever disadvantages or drawbacks may be connected with the other professions, this one source of consolation at least is common to them all, that their members, if there is nothing in their characters to prevent it, are considered as on a footing of equality with the best of their fellow-citizens. But the teacher, as such, is not held to be entitled to respect. On the contrary, to be a schoolmaster is to be despised, ridiculed, sneered at, and either entirely shut out of respectable society, or barely tolerated there, as something little short of a positive nuisance. It has been said, with equal truth and beauty, that the general idea of a schoolmaster seems to be that of an humble drudge in the garden of knowledge ; who digs the soil, and trains the plants, indeed ; but who cannot taste the beauty, or understand the value of the flowers and fruits. Notwithstanding this low estimate in which the instructors of our children, as a class, are held, they are expected to possess qualities and qualifications such as rarely fall to the lot of humanity.