Now what shall we do? Must we use a fundamentally different method on each of these pupils in order to reach the same result? By no means. While these five pupils have characteristics which are distinctly their own and different from each other, yet they have precisely the same instincts underlying their actions. They have the same individual instincts, the same adaptive instincts, the same social instincts, the same regulative instincts and the same parental instincts. If we appeal to the same instinct in one child that we appeal to in another we will get a similar result. The expression will not be exactly the same, of course. One child may react more quickly than another or with more enthusiasm but nevertheless the response will be similar. For example, if I do something which Ralph sees is going to push forward his own interests: if I praise Ralph for something which he has done, he will react in the same direction as will Charley, Miriam, Fay and Helen when I appeal to the same instinct in them, such as their instinctive desire for approval.
Instead of only five pupils, we might take a hundred or a thousand pupils, each one having a disposition slightly different from all the others. Their natures are all based upon certain fundamental instincts common to the race. Therefore, it is this fundamental nature of the pupil which we must know. The disposition of the particular pupils is a matter of detail as compared with the deep-seated and essential nature and will not trouble us much after we have learned the fundamental principles of child supervision, because all children have the same natural instincts and, in applying principles, we appeal to these instincts. Part Four of this book is devoted exclusively to the naming and explaining of these great fundamental principles.
A teacher who thoroughly understands each of these principles is in possession of information that is really invaluable in discipline. It would be well for each teacher to read over these important principles several times during the school year. The reading can not fail to aid in getting better discipline.
The best possible way to acquire skill in discipline is to study a great variety of typical examples. In fact, the author has planned other volumes devoted exclusively to concrete cases of discipline.
By a concrete case is meant an interruption or annoyance caused by one or more pupils at a given time, which must be dealt with by the teacher in one way or another.
Very often a teacher, after observing the results of a certain method, will look back and say, “If I had that to do over again, I would treat the case differently.” Perhaps he has asked a child a question which, on account of the embarrassing circumstances, caused him to tell a falsehood; perhaps he has tried to force obedience instead of attaining the end in a better way. These and dozens of other cases might be suggested which often confront a teacher and unless he has correct ideas about disposing of them when they arise, he will have no small amount of trouble before the year is over. That teacher is almost sure to fail who waits for the occasion to select a method instead of preparing beforehand for different emergencies.
Treatment of Cases According to Age
The proper decision in cases of discipline is so extremely important that the cases which may arise in each grade should be treated separately. For example, all the problems which may present themselves to the first grade teacher may be recorded under the head “First Grade” and the remedy given for each case. The same is true of the second grade and so on through the High School. Special and very definite instructions should be framed for the proper discipline of pupils of various ages in the same room of the country school.
The methods must be safe methods. Some times an unenlightened teacher will use a method which not only fails to get good results but which actually aggravates the trouble. The very nature of the methods given in this Course is such that a teacher may be sure the best possible plan is being employed, viewed from the standpoint of positive good results that will surely follow.
The teacher will find it a great source of pleasure to have the subject of discipline so well in mind and so thoroughly analyzed and thought out that when a case arises, he can not only apply a method which he thinks is right but one which he knows is right.