Will you try the moral
one? Then wait till the recess, and while he is out at his play, send a
message out by another boy, saying that you have heard he is very
skillful in making whistles, and asking him to make one for you to carry
home to a little child at your boarding-house. What would, in ordinary
cases, be the effect? It would certainly be a very simple application,
but its effect would be to open an entirely new train of thought and
feeling for the boy. "What!" he would say to himself, while at work on
his task, "give the master _pleasure_ by making whistles! Who would have
conceived of it? I never thought of any thing but giving him trouble and
pain. I wonder who told him I could make whistles?" He would find, too,
that the new enjoyment was far higher and purer than the old, and would
have little disposition to return to the latter.
I do not mean by this illustration that such a measure as this would be
the only notice that ought to be taken of such an act of willful
disturbance in school. Probably it would not. What measures in direct
reference to the fault committed would be necessary would depend upon
the circumstances of the case. It is not necessary to our purpose that
they should be described here.
The teacher can awaken in the hearts of his pupils a personal attachment
for him by asking in various ways their assistance in school, and then
appearing honestly gratified with the assistance rendered.
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