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T h e m e B o o k m a r k s |
The Schoolmaster: 1, 2, 3, 4
Students at Work: 1, 2
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School & Community: 1, 2, 3
Punishment: 1
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E x c e r p t 2 |
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The Story: Locke Amsden is now about 19 years old and has just finished a very successful year studying at an academy. Locke has decided to make teaching his career, and as the chapter opens, he is returning home to look for a position at a district school.
Chapter III
"The little knowledge he had gain'd,
Was all from simple nature drain'd."
GAY
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T h e S c h o o l m a s t e r |
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It was late in the season when our hero returned home; and having inadvertently omitted to apprise his friends of his intention to engage himself as a teacher of some of the winter schools in the vicinity of his father's residence, he found, on his arrival, every situation to which his undoubted qualifications should prompt him to aspire, already occupied by others. He was therefore compelled, unless he relinquished his purpose, to listen to the less eligible offers which came from such smaller and more backward districts or societies as had not engaged their instructors for the winter. One of these he was on the point of deciding to accept, when he received information of a district where the master, from some cause or other, had been dismissed during the first week of his engagement, and where the committee were now in search of another to supply his place. The district from which this information came, was situated on one of the mountain towns about a dozen miles distant, and the particular neighborhood of its location was known in the vicinity, to a considerable extent, by the name Horn of the Moon; an appellation generally understood to be derived from a peculiar curvature of a mountain that partially enclosed the place. Knowing nothing of the causes which had here led to the recent dismissal of the teacher, nor indeed of the particular character of the school, further than that it was a large one, and one, probably, which, though in rather a new part of the country, would yet furnish something like an adequate remuneration to a good instructor, Locke had no hesitation in deciding to make an immediate application for the situation. Accordingly, the next morning he mounted a horse, and set out for the place in question.
It was a mild December's day; the ground had not yet assumed its winter covering, and the route taken by our hero becoming soon bordered on either side by wild and picturesque mountain scenery, upon which he had ever delighted
"To look from nature up to nature's God,"
the excursion in going was a pleasant one. And occupied by the reflections thus occasioned, together with anticipations of happy results from his expected engagement, he arrived, after a ride of a few hours, at the borders of the romantic looking place of which he was in quest.
At this point in his journey, he overtook a man on foot, of whom, after discovering him to belong somewhere in the neighborhood, he proceeded to make some inquiries relative to the situation of the school.
"Why," replied the man, "as I live out there in the tip of the Horn, which is, of course, at the outer edge of the district, I know but little about the school affairs; but one thing is certain, they have shipped the master, and want to get another, I suppose."
"For what cause was the master dismissed? For lack of qualifications?"
"Yes, lack of qualifications for our district. The fellow, however, had learning enough, as all agreed, but no spunk; and the young Bunkers, and some others of the big boys, mistrusting this, and being a little riled at some things he had said to them, took it into their heads to train him a little, which they did; when he, instead of showing any grit on the occasion, got frightened and cleared out."
"Why, sir, did his scholars offer him personal violence?"
"O no -- not violence. They took him up quite carefully, bound him on to a plank, as I understood, and carried him on their shoulders, in a sort of procession, three times around the schoolhouse, and then, unloosing him, told him to go at his business again."
"And was all this suffered to take place without any interference from your committee?"
"Yes, our committee-man would not interfere in such case. A master must fight his own way in our district."10
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S c h o o l & C o m m u n i t y |
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"Who is your committee, sir?"
"Captain Bill Bunker is now. They had a meeting after the fracas, and chose a new one."
"Is he a man who is capable of ascertaining for himself the qualifications of a teacher?"
"O yes -- at least I had as lief have Bill Bunker's judgment of a man who applied for the school as any other in the district; and yet he is the only man in the whole district but what can read and write, I believe."
"Your school committee not able to read and write?"
"Not a word, and still he does more business than any man in this neighborhood. Why, sir, he keeps a sort of store, sells to A., B., and C., and charges on book in a fashion of his own; and I would as soon trust to his book as that of any regular merchant in the country; though, to be sure, he has got into a jumble, I hear, about some charges against a man at 'tother end of the Horn, and they are having a court about it to-day at Bunker's house, I understand."
"Where does he live?"
"Right on the road, about a mile ahead. You will see his name chalked on a sort of a shop-looking building, which he uses for a store."
The man here turned off from the road, leaving our hero so much surprised and staggered at what he had just heard, not only of the general character of the school of which he had come to propose himself as a teacher, but of the man who now had the control if it, that he drew up the reins, stopped his horse in the road, and sat hesitating some moments whether he would go back or forward. It occurring to him, however, that he could do as he liked about accepting any offer of the place which might be made him, and feeling, moreover, some curiosity to see how a man who could neither read nor write would manage in capacity of an examining school committee, he resolved to go forward, and present himself as a candidate for the school.
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C o n t i n u a t i o n o f E x c e r p t 2 |
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The Story Continues: In most other stories, poorly educated school committees are a source of satire, but this author surprises us. Bill Bunker is a man with an uncommon ability to think and reason, as he proves to the astonished Locke during the examination. We pick up the story after Bunker has put Locke through a difficult test of his ability to think on his feet and is satisfied with Locke's abilities. Now Locke has to pass one more test: can he teach others how to think?
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S t u d e n t s a t W o r k |
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[Bunkers says,]"We will now drop the discussion of these matters; for I am abundantly satisfied, that you have not only knowledge enough, but that you can think for yourself. And now, sir, all I wish to know further about you is, whether you can teach others to think, which is half the battle with a teacher. But as I have had an eye on this point, while attending to the others, probably one experiment, which I will put upon you to make on one of the boys here, will be all I shall want."
"Proceed, sir," said the other.
"Ay, sir," rejoined Bunker, turning to the open fire-place, in which the burning wood was sending up a column of smoke; "there you see that smoke rising, don't you? Well, you and I know the reason why smoke goes upward, but my youngest boy don't, I rather think. Now take your own way, and see if you can make him clearly understand it."
Locke, after a moment's reflection and a glance round the room for something to serve for apparatus, took from a shelf, where he had espied a number of the articles, the smallest of a set of cast-iron cart-boxes, as is usually termed the round, hollow tubes, in which the axletree of a carriage turns. Then selecting a tin cup, that would just take in the box, and turning into the cup as much water as he judged, with the box, would fill it, he presented them separately to the boy, and said,
"There, my lad, tell me which of these is the heaviest?"
"Why, the cart-box, to be sure," replied the boy, taking the cup half-filled with water in one hand, and the hollow iron in the other.
"Then you think this iron is heavier than as much water would fill the place of it, do you?" resumed Locke.
"Why, yes, as heavy again, and more too -- I know 't is," promptly said the boy.
"Well, sir, now mark what I do," proceeded the former, dropping into the cup the iron box, through the hollow of which the water instantly rose to the brim of the vessel.
"There, you saw that water rise to the top of the cup, did you?"
"Yes, I did."
"Very well, what caused it to do so?"
"Why, I know well enough, if I could think; why, it is because the iron is the heaviest, and as it comes all round the water so it can't get away sideways, it is forced up."
"That is right; and now I want you to tell me what makes that smoke rise up the chimney."
"Why, I guess," replied the boy, scratching his head, "I guess -- I guess I don't know."
"Did you ever get up in a chair to look on some high shelf, so that your head was brought near the ceiling of a heated room, in winter? and, if so, did you notice any difference between the air up there and the air near the floor below?"
"Yes, I remember -- I have, and found the air up there as warm as mustard; and when I got down, and bent my head near the floor to pick up something, I found it as cold as tunket."
"That is ever the case; but I wish you to tell me how the cold air always happens to settle down to the lower part of the room, while the warm air, some how, at the same time, gets above."
"Why, why, heavy things settle down, and the cold air -- yes, that's it, an't it? -- the cold air is heaviest, and so settles down, and crowds up the warm air, that is lightest."
"Very good. You then understand that cold air is heavier than the heated air, as that iron is heavier than the water; so we now will go back to the main question what makes the smoke go upwards?"
"Oh! I see it now as plain as day; the cold air settles down all round, like the iron box, and drives up the hot air, as fast as the fire heats it in the middle, like the water; and so the hot air carries the smoke along up with it, same as feathers and things in a whirlwind. Gorry! I have found out what makes smoke go up -- it is curious, though, an't it, you?"11
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S c h o o l & C o m m u n i t y |
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"Done like a philosopher!" cried Bunker. "The thing is settled. I will give up that you are an academician of a thousand. You can not only think for yourself, but can teach others to think; and I therefore pronounce you well qualified for a schoolmaster, in every thing except government, about which we will hope for the best, and run the risk; so you may call it a bargain as quick as you please."
"You offer to make it so on your part, I suppose you mean to be understood," said Locke; "for on mine, you remember I told you, some time ago, that I feel unwilling to undertake to govern a school of the character I have discovered yours to be."
"What, back out now?" exclaimed the other, with a disappointed air. "Why, I was beginning to have a first-rate opinion of you, and thought, of course, you would have spunk enough to make a trial, at least. Surely, you an't such a coward as to be afraid to do that, are you?"
These last remarks of Bunker, as taunting as they were in import, were yet made in such a half-reproachful, half-respectful manner, that they might not have brought our hero to any decision, but for the low, deriding laugh which the two larger boys set up on the occasion, and which fell upon his ears with such an exasperating effect, that it brought him to an instant determination, and he replied, with unwonted spirit,
"I will come on, sir; and with your permission, we will see whether pupil or teacher shall be the master of the school for the remainder of the winter."
"Good! that sounds like something," said Bunker, with returning good humor. "Boys," he continued, nodding significantly to his two oldest sons, "boys, did you hear that? Ah! all will come out well enough, I imagine. But come, sir, now we have settled the contract, we will walk into the house for a little refreshment before we let you go home; and while taking it, we will fix on the day of beginning the school, first boarding place, &c. Come, sir, come on; and if you have a good appetite, I wil1 promise you a good dinner."
The decisive answer, which bound our hero to engage in this school, had now been given, and he had too much pride to make any attempts to recede from it; although, it must be confessed, that as soon as the momentary impulse, under which he had thus consummated the bargain, had died away, he more than half regretted the step he had taken. As it was, however, he soon determined to throw aside, as far as possible, both fears and regrets, and, arming himself with the rectitude of his purposes, proceed boldly and decidedly upon the task now before him.
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F u r t h e r C o n t i n u a t i o n o f E x c e r p t 2 |
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The Story Continues: Locke begins teaching at the Horn of the Moon district school and encounters no serious problems, though the older boys are watching him carefully.
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T h e S c h o o l m a s t e r |
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[Locke] very wisely shaped his course for establishing his authority on a more permanent foundation than can ever be raised in feelings where fear alone is the governing principle. While dignity and decision of manner marked his conduct in enforcing good order in school, he yet made kindness and courtesy to characterize his general demeanor towards all his scholars. This course he adopted no less from the suggestions of his own mind, drawn from the remembrance of the effect which kindness and respect in a teacher always produced on his feelings when he himself was a pupil, than from the recommendation of Bunker, "to treat his scholars like men and women."
The sentiment of the last-named person on this subject is indeed one well deserving of the consideration of all instructors of youth. Few teachers seem to be aware what a just estimate children put upon manners -- how quickly they pass a sentence of condemnation on all that is coarse, contemptuous, or unfeeling, and how soon they appreciate every thing that denotes respect and kindness towards them. If teachers would properly consider this, they would find less difficulty, perhaps, in accounting for the little influence which they often find themselves capable of exercising over the minds of their pupils: for almost as certain as one pursues the first-named course of conduct towards them, will his precepts be rejected; while the precepts of him who exhibits the last-mentioned conduct will be readily received, and treasured up for improvement.
And such was the effect of the kind and judicious manner which Locke displayed among the rough and uncultured pupils he had undertaken to control. When they saw, that, instead of turning out the cruel and capricious tyrant they had expected, he wanted nothing of them but what their own consciences told them was just and reasonable, and especially when they found themselves uniformly treated with such respectful courtesy, when their behavior was not exceptionable, all the mingled feelings of hatred, fear, and suspicion, with which they had armed themselves in anticipation of an opposite treatment, rapidly melted into an affectionate reverence, that not only destroyed, in most of them, all inclination for insubordinate conduct, but made them anxious to gain his approbation; the more particularly so, doubtless, from the belief they still entertained, that his displeasure would be attended with fearful consequences to themselves.
The first object of our instructor, that of gaining willing ears for what he wished to impart, was now, to a good degree, accomplished. And no sooner had he made sure of this important point, than he began to redouble his exertions to rouse their minds from that cold and listless intellectual condition in which they were unconsciously sunk, and which caused them to look upon learning and all attempts at mental excellence as a mere matter of secondary concern. This he did, not so much by general exhortation (for he well knew that scholars generally hate preaching masters), as by what logicians call arguments ad hominem, addressing the self-love of one, the vanity of another, the curiosity of a third, and so on; the dispositions of each having been previously studied for the purpose. In fine, he adopted almost as many expedients as he had pupils, in inciting them to push forward in their particular studies, and in awakening in their bosoms a love of learning. And, in doing this, he also labored incessantly, with argument, ridicule, and such familiar illustrations as they could best understand and appreciate, in showing them the superiority of mind over matter, or mere physical powers; and in setting up the true standard of excellence among them, instead of the false one, to attain to which seemed hitherto to have been the only object of their emulation. The happy results of these well directed exertions were soon apparent. The exploits of the wrestling ring, the leaping match, and other of the rough athletics, in which it had been their chief pride to excel, were no longer the main topic of conversation; and the feats of bullies and hectoring blades, exercised upon schoolmasters, ministers, and deacons, were no longer considered a matter of boasting. The keen interest formerly manifested on all these subjects, indeed, had so sensibly declined, that they were now seldom mentioned. But in their place were heard, both during the intermissions of school, and the evenings spent at home, almost nothing but talk of studies, anecdotes of the school, or the discussion of the arithmetical puzzles, and the various interesting and curious questions relative to the phenomena of nature, which the teacher was in the habit of putting, out, with which to exercise the minds of his pupils. The parents of the district witnessed this change in their children with no less surprise than pleasure, and wondered by what magic it could have been effected. Bunker, the committee-man, daily grew proud of his selection of a teacher, and declared he had already done more towards making good thinkers of his scholars than any of their former instructors had done in a whole winter. In short, before two weeks had elapsed, the whole Horn-of-the-Moon was ringing with praises of the new master.12
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P u n i s h m e n t |
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But although young Amsden's school was fast becoming what he had so sedulously labored to make it, and although his pupils had generally, since the expiration of the first half week of their attendance, so far shown themselves disposed to obedience and propriety of behavior, as led him to believe that no attempt would now be made to resist his orders, yet it was not long before he found he should not be permitted to avoid the test to which a master's firmness and discretion are almost invariably put, in maintaining his authority, at some period or other of his school.
This period, which forms a sort of crisis in the teacher's government, resulting either in its overthrow, or in its establishment on a permanent basis, generally occurs about the third week of the school. After the first few days of the school, during which the restraints which scholars feel under a new master, or the fears they may entertain of his yet untried spirit and promptitude in administering punishment, usually keep them quiet and orderly, they begin to take liberties; though at first of so trivial a character, that a teacher, not finding in them any particular cause of complaint, suffers them to pass unnoticed. From this, the more evil-disposed go on crowding, crowding a little, and a little more, upon his authority, till they get so bold that he finds the most decisive measures will alone save his dominion from a total overthrow.
Something like this was the process which Locke had perceived going on in his school, without knowing exactly where to interpose his authority; when one, a boy of about fourteen, who had been more forward than others in the course, one day grew so bold as to place his orders at absolute defiance. Perceiving at once that his government was at an end, unless the offender was conquered, and indignant at his unexpected audacity, our hero, under the impulse of the moment, was about to chastise him on the spot. A second thought, however, told him that he was too much irritated to do this now with the best effect on the offender, or on others inclined to become so; and he accordingly apprised the boy of the reason for deferring his punishment, but promised him, at the same time, that punishment would certainly follow. Although this act of disobedience was not instigated by any one, even by those from whom he had most reason to apprehend difficulties, yet either that, or the threatened chastisement, seemed to produce considerable sensation among them, by awakening, perhaps, remembrances of their old fracases in resisting their teachers on similar occasions, and in exciting in some degree their sleeping inclinations to take some such part when the punishment of the present offender should be inflicted. In addition to these suspicious appearances, he noticed, after his school was dismissed for the day, considerable mysterious whispering among two or three of those just mentioned, and overheard one of them, a relative of the offender, trying to excite the others to join him in preventing the threatened punishment, which they supposed would take place on the opening of the school the next morning. But our hero, unmoved by these unexpected and somewhat ominous demonstrations, resolved to go resolutely forward and do his duty, whatever might be the consequences to himself. On his way homeward, however, while reflecting upon the subject of school-punishment, its object, and the most effective manner of administering it to obtain that object, he began seriously to doubt the wisdom and expediency of the custom which he had always witnessed, and which he had proposed to follow in the present case, -- that of inflicting chastisements in open school. He reasoned, and from a just notion of the human heart too, that the presence of companions, whom the delinquent knew to be looking on to see with what spirit he bore up under the operation, that they might afterwards praise him for the spunk he exhibited, or taunt him for his weakness if he was seen to succumb, would in most instances have a tendency to arm him with feelings of pride and obstinacy, which would not only destroy all the beneficial effects to be gained from the punishment, but often make him more obdurate than before. So strongly, indeed, did these considerations weigh on the mind of Locke, that he at length determined to adopt a different mode of punishing the boy in question; and after trying to judge of his own feelings, were he placed in the offender's situation, as to what course would most conduce to that penitence and humility best calculated for amendment and calling to mind all he had ever observed of the effects of punishment on others, he at last hit on a plan which he determined to carry into immediate execution. Accordingly, after obtaining his supper, he repaired at once to the culprit's residence, and, taking his father aside, made known the boy's conduct, the absolute necessity of his punishment, and gave his reasons for wishing to inflict that punishment in private; ending with a request, that the other should call out his boy, and that they all three should repair together to the school-house for the purpose he had mentioned.
"Why, the boy deserves a basting richly enough, no doubt," observed the father; "yes, and a good one too. And, if I was you, I would give it to him. But what on earth do you want my help in flogging him for? Why, that is part of what we are paying you for, I take it, master."
"I wish for no help in the mere chastisement," replied Locke; "but I think your presence would add much to its beneficial effects, and it is only for your son's good that I request you to go."
"Well, well," rejoined the former, "if you think it will do the boy any good, -- and I don't know but you are half right about it; for I think if I was a boy, I should dislike most confoundedly to be licked by a schoolmaster before my father -- if you think this, why, I will go with you; but I kinder hate to, that's a fact."13
His reluctance having been thus wisely overcome, the father promptly called out his boy, who, not daring to disobey the command which was then given him, followed the two others, in dogged silence, to the school-house. On reaching the house, which, as expected and desired, was entirely solitary, Locke raised a light, and proceeded to the painful task before him. He first kindly addressed the offender; and, in a manner calculated to humble without irritating, set forth the probable consequences, both to him and the school. of suffering his offence to pass without punishment, which he had been called there to receive, and then administered a chastisement of adequate severity. After this, he was again addressed by his teacher, the father occasionally putting in a word, for nearly an hour, before the expiration of which he gave unequivocal evidence of not only being deeply penitent for the past, but resolved on good behavior for the future.
While so many alterations and improvements have been made in the education and management of children and youth at school, it is somewhat remarkable, that so little variation has taken place in the mode and character of school punishments, which, with some slight abatement, perhaps, in degree and frequency, have remained nearly the same since the days of King Solomon, who had a wondrous high opinion, it will be recollected, of the virtues of the rod. From nearly all our civil codes, instituted for the government of men, whipping, for the punishment of offenses, has been repudiated, as not only barbarous, but calculated to harden rather than amend; and confinement in prison, or other punishment, substituted. Is the distinction which is thus kept up between the government of men and children, made because the young are more obdurate than the old? Certainly not; for the reverse of this is acknowledged to be the fact. Is it, then, because a similar change in the government of schools is impracticable? We understand not why this should be; Since, if expulsions or degradations would not effect the object, rooms for solitary confinement might easily be provided for every school-house, and the delinquent imprisoned till he would be glad to purchase liberty by amendment. There may be sound reasons for the distinction we have mentioned, but we confess we are unable to discover them.
But suppose we admit, that the punishment of whipping is sometimes indispensable for insuring obedience and order in school, is there not room for improvement both in the frequency and manner of its application? Nothing has a greater tendency to brutalize the feelings, to deaden all the best sensibilities of the heart, than frequent repetitions of this questionable practice. If it must be resorted to, let it be seldom; and then, for reasons before suggested, let it be done in private, and, if possible, in the presence of a parent. If thus done, unless we have read in vain the young heart, its restraining fears, and its keen and overpowering sense of guilt and shame, when conscious that there is no one present to uphold and countenance it in error, rare indeed will be the cases in which a repetition of the punishment will ever be found necessary.14
The scholars, the next morning, assembled under the expectation that the business of the day would be opened by the promised punishment of the culprit of yesterday. But when they perceived that no movement of the kind was likely to be made, and especially when they noticed the altered demeanor of the boy, whose whole appearance, instead of the brazen looks which he wore on leaving school the preceding evening, now indicated the deepest humility, their disappointment was equalled only by their surprise. It was evident enough to them, that something had occurred to effect this unexpected alteration of circumstances. But what this was, they were wholly at a loss to conjecture. And, as the boy, when they went out, either avoided them or evaded their questions, the mystery was not solved till one of the boys, who had been home for his dinner, accidentally got hold of the truth, and hastened back to impart the important news to his companions.
"Hurra! boys," he exclaimed, as he came puffing up to a group assembled in the school-house yard to discuss the subject anew before entering the school for the afternoon, "hurra! boys, I have found out all about it, now."
"How was it, -- how was it?" asked a dozen eager voices at once.
"I'll tell ye," replied the boy, lowering his voice, and assuming a look of awe, as he thought of what he was about to relate. "They took him -- that is, his father and the master -- they took him last night here to the school-house -- only think of that, all alone in the night! -- and then the master gave him, I do spose, one of the terriblest hidings that ever was heard of."
"What! right afore his father?" exclaimed several of the older boys, evidently surprised and disconcerted to hear of this new mode of punishment, which might soon be adopted in their own cases.
"Yes," replied the former, "and then kept him half the night, forzino, talking to him like a minister, till he most cried himself to death, they said. How awful! wa'nt it, now?"
"Why, I rather he'd a killed me," responded one of the former, in which he seemed to be joined by both old and young; all of whom, for different reasons, saw much to dislike and dread in the picture.
"Well, I give in beat," observed the young bully, who, as before intimated, was meditating resistance to the punishment in question; "somehow, I can't get the hang of this new master. He does every thing so different from what a fellow is looking for; and I have about concluded we may as well mind our own business, and let him alone."
"So, Mike, you have come to my opinion at last, have you?" said Tom Bunker, who had been listening in silence. "Now I have said but little about this affair, from first to last; and if you had had a chance to go on with the shine you was thinking of, I can't say what part I should have taken, if the master had needed help; but I want to tell you I think he has used us all like a gentleman, and I would fight for him. And now, Mike, what do you say to backing him up in keeping order, and using him as he wants to use us, for the rest of the winter?"
"That is what I have been thinking of myself -- I am agreed," answered Mike.
"Well, then, boys," rejoined Tom, "let us all hands now into the house for our books; and the one that learns the most, and behaves the best, shall be the best fellow."
The crisis had passed. In the defeat of this last and impotent attempt to break down the authority of our schoolmaster, his triumph was completed. All seemed to understand this; and, for the remainder of the season, no school could have been more distinguished for good order and obedience.
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