EUGENE C. WALLER by Eugene C. Waller

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 10, 1907

EUGENE C. WALLER

By Eugene C. Waller

Discipline

THE maintenance of proper discipline is one of the most difficult tasks of the teacher. This is especially true in the church-school, where the age and development of the pupils vary so greatly. The task is made still more difficult because the parents differ so radically in their ideas of what constitutes proper school management. Every teacher has an individuality, and his work will of necessity be affected by it; but he should be constantly guarded that he does not mistake his opinions for principle.

However different may be our ideas of school government, yet, in the main, we should be agreed on what we consider the object of discipline. Is not its object the training of the child to control himself and to respect rightful authority, whether human or divine? Surely the child who is taught to obey his parents' every requirement, will, in afterlife, find it easier to render obedience to God's law.

Let us now consider some conditions which are met during the first years of the pupil's school life. On entering

school for the first time, the child finds himself surrounded by a different atmosphere from that of his home. He may have come from a home where love is the ruling principle, and where order and system are maintained. If so, he will not find it difficult to adapt himself to the regulations of the school. Such cases, it is to be regretted, are in the minority. Again, the pupil may have come from a home where the parents are fretful and impatient. Then, teacher, open wide your alabaster box of love and use its contents freely. Deal kindly and gently with such a one. Another child may have an Eli for his father. From the time he has been old enough to travel about, everything in his home has been at his disposal. He will probably act as if everything in the schoolroom belongs to him. This quality may be combined with a superabundance of audacity, which will make him an exceedingly disagreeable child. It will require a firm hand to deal with him. In all his work the teacher should remember that no two minds can be trained in exactly the same manner.

Some one has aptly said, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” The truth of this statement has a very important bearing upon the subject of discipline. The better a teacher succeeds in occupying the minds and hands of the pupils, the less difficulty there will be in controlling them. Activity is the law of life, and the pupil who is not kept busy with work or study will find another vent for his stored-up energy. It is not enough that a pupil be employed in some way; his interest must be aroused and held. Whenever the teacher sees that the enthusiasm of the pupils is waning, the work should be so changed as to reclaim the lost interest.

EUGENE C. WALLER

(To be continued)