A brief course in the teaching process

by George D. Strayer

If a fire drill is to be effective, every one must drop the work in hand when the signal is given and march out of the building in an order and by a route which has been determined previously and from which there is no variation. Here we have the best example of management as a means. There can be no question in this situation concerning the right of the individual to exercise his judgment. The safety of all depends upon the absolute following of rules, upon the degree to which the response to the fire drill has become a matter of habit. If we analyze this situation, we will discover the elements which characterize situations in which we are to look upon management as a means. In these situations we should strive to secure habitual responses.

In the first place the response demanded is invariable. It will not do to march out of the building one way to-day and another to-morrow. The class may not go before or after its place in the line. The speed with which the building is emptied depends upon every individual. Here we have the second element: the welfare of the whole group demands that the situation be followed always by a certain response.

Let us examine now some of the schoolroom situations in the light of these criteria. In passing books, paper, pencils, and the like, a definite order should be followed. In this situation the end desired is invariable. What is wanted is to place the desired material in the hands of each pupil with as little delay as is possible. The welfare of the whole group depends upon this invariable response upon the part of each pupil. If any one fails to do his part, there is delay and loss of time in the work which it is desired to accomplish. For the same reasons it is wise to have a definite order in getting wraps, a rule concerning the manner of passing in the room, the habit of rising and facing the majority of the class when reciting, and the like.

Let us now examine other situations which afford an opportunity for the exercise of self-control, in which management is an end. In some schools children are formed in lines five minutes before the hour and marched into the building. There is no good reason why children should march into the building. The end desired, that they all be in their places promptly, can be secured by ringing a warning bell and requiring that all enter the building as they see fit and be in their places on time. In the latter instance they have a chance to act as normal human beings who accept and fulfill their responsibility to themselves and to the group. The desired end is secured, and, far more important, the children are learning to exercise that self-control which is demanded outside of school. Of course, it may be objected that it is much easier to control the children, if you march them into the building. The answer is found by suggesting that the school does not exist primarily for the ease of teachers, but rather for the development of socially efficient children.

A principal who had some difficulty in having the boys come from a somewhat distant playground promptly lined them up for a race to the schoolhouse. They found that it took them little more than a minute to reach their schoolrooms. The boys understood his suggestion that the warning bell, rung five minutes before school opened, afforded ample time to reach their rooms and be ready for work when school opened. It would have required less thought on the part of the principal and less self-control on the part of the boys to have marched them to the schoolhouse at the right time each day. Many school situations offer similar opportunity. Passing through halls, asking the teacher questions, leaving one’s seat for books or materials, consulting with one’s neighbor may, in the hands of a skillful teacher, become a most efficient means of training children in self-control. In all such cases management is an end, in the sense that these opportunities are sought by the teacher because of their value in training children.

Pupil participation in school government has been much advocated of late as the best means of securing a feeling of responsibility on the part of pupils for the welfare of the whole group, as well as in the exercise of self-control. As long as these ideals control, it matters little what particular form of organization is utilized to secure the ends desired. What sometimes happens is an exaggeration of the importance of the machinery of government, with a corresponding lack of self-control, or exercise of social responsibility. The writer once visited a school which was much talked of because of its system of “pupil self-government.” He found there the worst bullying of small boys by those who held offices that he has ever seen in any school. Many of the children declared that they were not parties to the government supposedly in control of the school. When the teachers were absent from their rooms, the children droned over certain set exercises which were constantly before them and from which type of activity they were not permitted to depart. Now these defects in school management may not all be charged directly to the overemphasis of the machinery of government, but they were due to the fact that this machinery, this form, had taken the place of genuine self-government on the part of the pupils.

A wise principal or teacher may secure good results by inaugurating a system of pupil participation in school government, but the wise guide and counsellor must be there all of the time. Introducing children dramatically to the machinery of government will not place old heads on young shoulders. Children will still be childish in their judgments and in their ideas of punishment, even though they be called senators, aldermen, policemen, judges, and the like. The dramatization of city or state government will undoubtedly help in the understanding of the function of citizens and of their servants, the officeholders. This alone would be sufficient justification for introducing in the upper grades, in dramatic form, a system of government, without expecting that it would in any considerable measure relieve teachers or principals of the necessity of guiding children in their development in power of self-control, and in their acceptance of social responsibility.

The same system of pupil participation in school government will succeed with one principal and set of teachers and fail in another situation. The results which are most worth while, self-control and the exercise of social responsibility, will be secured without any of the forms of civil government in one school, while another principal will claim that success in his school is due to his system of “pupil government.” No teacher need feel condemned because she cannot succeed with a particular scheme of government, and none should be unduly elated because of the invention or use of some particular form of organization. The essential element in school management is found in the spirit of coöperation and helpfulness which should actuate teachers and pupils.