How to Teach Manners in the School-room

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
By MRS. JULIA M. DEWEY,
Method and Critic Teacher in the Public Schools of Rutland, Vt.; formerly Supt. of Schools, Hoosic Falls, N. Y.
“Who misses or who wins the prize?
Go, lose or conquer, as you can;
But if you fail, or if you rise,
Be each, pray God, a gentleman.”
— Epilogue to Dr. Birch and his Pupils.
THE A. S. BARNES COMPANY New York and Chicago
COPYRIGHT, 1888 E. L. KELLOGG & CO. NEW YORK

Importance of the definite teaching of manners. Children are close imitators; they will learn some kind of manners, and one who teaches positively or emphatically (or contrariwise) may often see a miniature of himself in his young pupil. With this truth in mind one can hardly attach too much importance to punctilious politeness on the teacher’s part in his intercourse with pupils. But however polite a teacher may be, the informal or unconscious teaching of manners is not enough. The school-room does not afford opportunity to exemplify all the necessary practices in good manners, and there is no other way but to teach the various requirements of an accepted code with reference to actual examples that may present themselves at any time in life.