Excerpt from The North Carolina Teacher, Vol. 6
There is about as much sense in this manner of acting as putting a man"s coat upon a little child and telling him that it must fit - it shall fit - "quit your nonsense, talking about it"s being too large." A large part of the failures in managing a school springs from just such conduct in the teachers. "But," the teacher may reply, "the pupil must pay attention to what I am saying and understand it," Yes, my friend, you ought to be a wise teacher and have more sense, but you haven"t.
Volunteers - Conscripts.
There are two classes of pupils in every school - volunteers and conscripts; that is to say, some go to school - some are sent. Let every teacher endeavor so to govern that by the second term of school the conscripts may become volunteers. You can easily distinguish these two classes of pupils on the very first day.
Again, a school is not a court-room, with all its officers, judge, jury, counsel, witnesses, sheriff, constable, clerk and crier, all combined in the majestic person of the school-teacher.
School-children should not be considered as being always on trial, with the court in perpetual session and the charge to the grand jury being perpetually delivered. All the lawyers in this court are commonwealths attorneys and counsel for the prosecution. A new trial is rare, and there is no appeal; for this tribunal is supreme. The jury never disagree, for the verdict is always unanimous. The plea of "not guilty" put forward by the criminal is always considered "too thin" and by no means to have any weight whatsoever with the jury. When a witness for the defence is on the stand, his testimony is mainly considered as simply proving himself an accomplice. Consequently there are not many volunteers on this service, and a subp?na is rarely issued.
In this court-room the judge"s eyes roam constantly around, seeking victims. The sheriff promptly executes all orders for arrest and the docket is always full. These things being well known to the boys, they yield a graceless compliance; for "there is no retreat but in submission and slavery."
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The North Carolina Teacher, Vol. 6 (Classic Reprint)