difference to such slight matters.' So writes Mr. Mitchell, in his Report for 1848; while Mr. Kennedy, in his Report for 1859, bears testimony to the value of 'trifles' in the following words: 'If I were to name any one point of excellence more than another to which I think the success of the Lancaster and Rochdale schools is owing, and in which their merit lies, I should say that it was an attention to minutiæ.' 13. Discipline defined. With regard to discipline, it may be said to secure from the pupils subordination to the authority of the teachers, submission to the rules and regulations of the school, respect for superiors, the cultivation of decorum, and devotion to study; and the best system of discipline is that which secures most of these advantages with the least amount of restraint, harshness, or chastisement.1 Discipline also secures good conduct, gentleness of disposition, and kindness of manner and behaviour. It is chiefly instrumental, in fact, in forming the character of the child. He who would seek to form this correctly has to contend with anger and violence, with a proneness to wrangling, and with the many difficulties attending on the inculcation of truth, frankness, honesty, candour, and obedience. Anger and passion. Anger and passion are naturally found most where the governing powers of the mind are weakest, and hence they are, almost universally, met with in children. But children are angry from imitation, as well as from mental defect. They witness angry outbursts of passion in their parents, in the servants, their friends and acquaintances; and as they are ever open to impressions for good or ill, similar faults are rapidly developed in themselves, and become apparent in rough contentions with brothers and sisters, or with school companions. It is incumbent, therefore, upon all persons in charge of children—but especially upon those in whose hands is the chief formation of their character, and to whom they look instinctively for guidance-to refrain from angry expressions, and even from angry looks. When children are detected in bursts of anger among themselves, in quarrelling, in speaking harshly and cuttingly to each other, the master should reprove them; but he should do so with mildness and temper, for otherwise he may do harm under the hope of doing good. If he command them to cease, speak to them dogmatically and dictatorially-he may gain obedience for the time, but he will merely cover over the angry fires. They will smoulder, and be ready to burst out again with violence when opportunity offers. He must extinguish the evil, and not merely repress it; and this he can do only by appealing to the higher portions of their nature, 1 Rep. of Nat. Educ. Ireland, vol. for 1855; Mr. Keenan's Gen. Rep. DISCIPLINE DEFINED. 297 to the kindliness of disposition which lurks more or less in the breast of every one, to their sense of right, to their reverence for Him who said, 'The children of God must not strive.' They must learn the great lesson that, as quarrelling is sinful in itself -quite irrespective of what they may be contending about-they are not to indulge in it, whether their side of the dispute is right or wrong. The boy,' says Mrs. Fry, 'who is accustomed to maintain angrily the superiority of his top, will when a man angrily maintain the superiority of his creed; the girl who is allowed to quarrel for precedence in the use of a toy or book, will when a woman disturb the peace of her family by jealous contention and pertinacity.' Quarrelling among children often proceeds from their unwillingness to make those little concessions which grown people find incumbent on them to make in social intercourse. The important lesson of mutually yielding a little, if once learned, would prevent many a contention. It cannot, therefore, be commenced too soon. When teachers find that two opposite opinions are angrily maintained in their entirety, they should endeavour to bring about those small concessions which will make them coalesce, and so produce peace and harmony. Every outburst of passion may be made a means for the improvement of all. It therefore should not only be privately but publicly checked-not necessarily punished, but stopped-and occasion should always be taken to obtain an expression of regret from those who are in error, and while condemning the fault, the manliness of confessing it ought to be praised. Children should, however, not only avoid the fault of quarrelling, but they should act with openness of heart and with good nature towards each other. To refrain from error is but a negative virtue after all. Truth. Children should also be carefully brought up to habits of truthfulness, until they would as soon think of committing a theft as of telling a lie. To speak what is quite untrue, knowing it to be so, is not only a wicked and mean act, such as no man with love for God or for himself would be guilty of, but it is a silly act. It is mean, because it proceeds from a cringing spirit. The liar's mind is always sordid and low; and the liar himself, though he may be successful through his cunning, can never be great or noble. It is wicked, because an evil in itself, as well as a perversion of the great gift of speech with which God endowed us, and intended as a blessing. It is sinful, because strictly forbidden by Him who is the Father of Truth. But it is a folly, inasmuch as it generally defeats its own purpose. Very few believe a wilful lie, and the habit of lying is very easily detected. He who gains the reputation of telling lies cannot hope to be believed even when speaking truly. None but a fool would willingly lie. There are so many circumstances connected with even the simplest narrative, that any misstatement is easily detected. Equivocation and exaggeration. Again, though a child may not speak what is absolutely incorrect, he may equivocate-he may use a set of words whose meaning may conceivably be true, but which in their ordinary acceptation express what is false. This is a want of sincerity, of that openness of character and ingenuousness that ought always to characterise childhood, and must be as strictly checked as even direct falsehood. Those who commit this fault are very prone also to the fault of exaggeration. If relating any circumstance they will not confine themselves to the incidents as they occurred, though these may be sufficiently wonderful in themselves; they will add or diminish, in order to increase the effect. If six men were fighting, it is related that there were ten or twelve; if a dozen of birds were killed, the number when told is a dozen or two, &c. This fault, as Dr. Johnson says, is more the result of carelessness about truth than intentional lying,' but it is nevertheless a fault strongly deserving of censure and correction. Attention and perseverance. Discipline may also be made the means of forming habits of attention and perseverance, two virtues which, probably more than any others, are to the student the conditions and causes of his success. These virtues are not natural to children; they require special cultivation. Children, generally, attend to what is new; but when the novelty disappears, they become careless and indifferent, listless and apathetic. They are too energetic at first, and too sluggish in the end. The master ought to restrain this excess of zeal at the commencement, to treasure up the energy they would squander themselves if permitted, and to sustain it when about to flag. He should create in his children purity of motives. He should accustom them to do a thing simply because it is right to do it, and not because it is pleasant or novel; and he should not be too ready in rendering them assistance in overcoming whatever little difficulties present themselves. Every effort should be made by the student himself, of course encouraged and directed by the master, before he can legitimately claim help, and, before giving it, the student should be called upon to explain what he has done himself to attain success. If the efforts prove to have been desultory and weak, he should be encouraged to try again; if they have been continuous and intellectual, but unsuccessful, their defects should be pointed out, and he should then be left to reach the goal himself by the light thus thrown before him. A child ought not to be allowed to leave a thing unfinished. Whatever he begins to do, he should be caused HOW TO GOVERN. 299 to complete, no matter how much he may come to dislike it. He will thus learn habits of perseverance, and the value of prudence and forethought when about to undertake any business. Obedience. This is a most important virtue, and in children it is most essential, for without obedience from them we are powerless. Obedience, however, to be thoroughly valuable, must be cheerful and willing. It very often is tardy, hesitating, languid, dilatory, and often is the result either of threats or of punishment. It may, on the other hand, be brought about by entreaty, by argument, by persuasion, or from a strong liking for the duty assigned. But obedience so produced is not the kind with which the teacher ought to rest satisfied, or by which he will succeed in governing his school. Kind of. The obedience of a child should be prompt, active, and unhesitating; it should command his whole attention, and be the result neither of threats nor punishment, argument nor feeling, but it should spring solely from a sense of duty in submitting to authority. When told to do anything, it ought not to enter into his head to sift the why and the wherefore. He should feel that he cannot but obey. Children are not sufficiently rational, nor are their motives sufficiently pure, to make an appeal to their judgment judicious. It is impossible,' as Abbot says, 'to govern a child by mere argument; many cases must occur in which it will be incapable of seeing the reasonableness and propriety of the command, and often its wishes will be so strongly opposed to duty, that all efforts to convince it will be in vain.' The first thing, then, to be aimed at, is to bring the child under perfect subjection; to teach him that he must obey, and to accustom him to immediate and cheerful acquiescence in the will of his teacher. This is true obedience, and this is absolutely necessary to good government. Children very often resist, but when they find that resistance is useless, they soon sink down into submission; and when the habit of obedience is once formed, it smoothes the way to the attainment of the most perfect discipline, unaccompanied with trouble or crossness, and to the acquisition of every legitimate success. How to govern. But the question arises, 'By what means are pupils to be taught submission to authority ?' I give the answer in the words of another, 'By kindness, patience, undeviating firmness of purpose, and a strict regard to principle in all our dealings with them.' Never treat a child harshly, for love is a great incentive to obedience. Never manifest impatience at its little efforts, or any want of forbearance, for gratitude is a great incentive to obedience. Never show a want of principle-faith in the person who issues the command generally secures promptness in complying with the orders; and finally, never give a command which you do not intend to be obeyed to the letter, for there is no more certain way of habituating a child to disregard of instructions and neglect than this. No matter how trifling the command may be, see that it is fully and implicitly obeyed, and see also that the obedience, when it ought to be so, is continuous. In many cases I have seen masters call for silence every minute or so. The pupils obeyed him for the instant, but relapsed immediately afterwards into noise and confusion. Again, when disobedience leads, as it often does, to mischief, to the destruction of property, infliction of pain, &c., do not punish so much for the effect as for the cause. Appear always as if you were noticing their efforts to do right, for a consciousness of having our good actions known is a most certain stimulant for prolonging them. Children exhibit every diversity of temper and disposition. A kind look or a pleasant word will be sufficient for one; another may require gentle admonition; in another case severe rebuke must be resorted to; in a few cases—and I am happy to say that it is only in a few-corporal punishment must be inflicted with more or less severity. Punishment. In the selection of the punishment, and in its mode of administration, the teacher should exhibit peculiar judgment, but, above even it, he should exhibit temper and humanity. Corporal punishment cannot be wholly dispensed with, but it should not be inflicted until all other methods have failed. Teachers are by no means careful enough in obeying this rule. It is very common to see them striking the boys on the head or across the fingers with a cane or pointer, or boxing their ears with violence, and this, perhaps, from some very trifling cause. Such conduct is unpardonable. Corporal punishment ought not to be inflicted hastily, or with an improper instrument, or on a wrong part of the body—never about the head; but it is wonderful how very little of corporal punishment is required for the maintenance of order and discipline. In the very best schools with which I am acquainted, it is almost unknown. 'Dis Punishment is often a substitute for discipline. cipline,' as Mr. Keenan says,1' does not necessarily imply correction -it is only when discipline fails that correction becomes necessary. The infliction of punishment, if it show anything in relation to the system of discipline in a school, it is that the system is bad or ineffective. In nine cases out of every ten, punishment is resorted to as a substitute for discipline, rather than as a means of sustaining it.' If the government of a school is unvarying and correct, severity will very seldom be required; and if, when required, the punish 1 Rep. of Nat. Educ. Ireland, vol. for 1855; Mr. Keenan's Gen. Rep. |