The Teacher | Page 7

must make them industrious while they write," was his next thought.
After thinking of a variety of methods, he determined to try the
following: he required all to begin together at the top of the page, and

write the same line, in a hand of the same size. They were all required
to begin together, he himself beginning at the same time, and writing
about as fast as he thought they ought to write in order to secure the
highest improvement. When he had finished his line, he ascertained
how many had preceded him and how many were behind. He requested
the first to write slower, and the others faster; and by this means, after a
few trials, he secured uniform, regular, systematic, and industrious
employment throughout the school. Probably there were, at first,
difficulties in the operation of the plan, which he had to devise ways
and means to surmount; but what I mean to present particularly to the
reader is, that he was interested in his experiments. While sitting in his
desk, giving his command to begin line after line, and noticing the
unbroken silence, and attention, and interest which prevailed (for each
boy was interested to see how nearly with the master he could finish his
work), while presiding over such a scene he must have been interested.
He must have been pleased with the exercise of his almost military
command, and to witness how effectually order and industry, and
excited and pleased attention, had taken the place of listless idleness
and mutual dissatisfaction.
After a few days, he appointed one of the older and more judicious
scholars to give the word for beginning and ending the lines, and he sat
surveying the scene, or walking from desk to desk, noticing faults, and
considering what plans he could form for securing more and more fully
the end he had in view. He found that the great object of interest and
attention among the boys was to come out right, and that less pains
were taken with the formation of the letters than there ought to be to
secure the most rapid improvement.
But how shall he secure greater pains? By stern commands and threats?
By going from desk to desk, scolding one, rapping the knuckles of
another, and holding up to ridicule a third, making examples of such
individuals as may chance to attract his special attention? No; he has
learned that he is operating upon a little empire of mind, and that he is
not to endeavor to drive them as a man drives a herd, by mere
peremptory command or half angry blows. He must study the nature of
the effect that he is to produce, and of the materials upon which he is to

work, and adopt, after mature deliberation, a plan to accomplish his
purpose founded upon the principles which ought always to regulate
the action of mind upon mind, and adapted to produce the intellectual
effect which he wishes to accomplish.
In the case supposed, the teacher concluded to appeal to emulation.
While I describe the measure he adopted, let it be remembered that I
am now only approving of the resort to ingenuity and invention, and
the employment of moral and intellectual means for the
accomplishment of his purposes, and not of the measures themselves. I
am not sure the plan I am going to describe is a wise one; but I am sure
that the teacher, while trying it, must _have been interested in his
intellectual experiment._ His business, while pursued in such a way,
could not have been a mere dull and uninteresting routine.
He purchased, for three cents apiece, two long lead pencils--an article
of great value in the opinion of the boys of country schools--and he
offered them, as prizes, to the boy who would write most carefully; not
to the one who should write best, but to the one whose book should
exhibit most appearance of effort and care for a week. After
announcing his plan, he watched with strong interest its operation. He
walked round the room while the writing was in progress, to observe
the effect of his measure. He did not reprove those who were writing
carelessly; he simply noticed who and how many they were. He did not
commend those who were evidently making effort; he noticed who and
how many they were, that he might understand how far, and upon what
sort of minds, his experiment was successful, and where it failed. He
was taking a lesson in human nature--human nature as it exhibits itself
in boys--and was preparing to operate more and more powerfully by
future plans.
The lesson which he learned by the experiment was this, that one or
two prizes will not influence the majority of a large school. A