Orderly Desks by E. C. JAEGER

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 4, 1908

Orderly Desks

By E. C. JAEGER

It is of great importance that our pupils learn in their school life those little habits of order, neatness, and cleanliness, which are so important in the formation of character. These are virtues which must become those who enter the glorious kingdom of Jesus and are best taught in the spring-time of youth. In school, the child's desk is, in a sense, “his house,” and no doubt is a fair sample of what his real home would be, had he one. Every teacher has had, at some time or other, the problem of untidy desks to deal with. The following device will solve the problem, I believe, for it has worked admirably in my own school.

The day before you wish to see “a new order of things” give your pupils a nature study lesson on the crow or magpie, dwelling particularly upon the facts that the nests of these birds are never neatly made and are always filled with all sorts of things—old pieces of string, glass, papers, etc. Tell them that sometimes you see homes which look like crow’s nests, too. Next morning before the children arrive inspect their desks, and note the untidy and ill-kept ones.

After the opening exercises tell them what your astonishment was in finding a “crow’s nest” right in the school-house, and that you wonder if they could guess where it was found. As you say this, walk down the aisle looking in the desks, “to see if there are many more ‘crows’ nests.”

Before you have gone many steps every child will wonder if it is his desk. About once a week hunt out the “crows’ nests,” and soon you will find your pupils priding themselves on keeping a neat, orderly desk. The condition of the floor under and around a desk should also claim the attention and study of the teacher.

E. C. JAEGER.