But perhaps some experienced teacher, who knows
from his own repeated difficulties with bad boys what sort of spirits
the teacher of district schools has sometimes to deal with, may ask, as
he reads this,
"Do you expect that such a method as this will succeed in keeping your
school in order? Why there are boys in almost every school whom you
would no more coax into obedience and order in this way than you would
persuade the northeast wind to change its course by reasoning."
I know there are. And my readers are requested to bear in mind that my
object is not to show how the whole government of the school may be
secured, but how one important advantage may be gained, which will
assist in accomplishing the object. All I should expect or hope for, by
such measures as these, is _to interest and gain over to our side the
majority_. What is to be done with those who can not be reached by such
kinds of influence I shall endeavor presently to show. The object now is
simply to gain the _majority_--to awaken a general interest, which you
can make effectual in promoting your plans, and thus to narrow the field
of discipline by getting those right who can be got right by such
measures.
Thus securing a majority to be on your side in the general
administration of the school is absolutely indispensable to success. A
teacher may, indeed, by the force of mere authority, so control his
pupils as to preserve order in the schoolroom, and secure a tolerable
progress in study, but the progress will be slow, and the cultivation of
moral principle must be, in such a case, entirely neglected.
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