[Sidenote: Remove Temptation]
Miss Hardy was succeeded the next year by a young man fresh from the
training department of a great university, who was enthusiastic and
keenly analytical. The non-smoking eighth grade boys had now gone into
the high school, and he was met by the same problem that had defeated
Miss Steele. He realized that while Miss Hardy’s plan had worked with
her boys, still the evil existed in the community as a constant menace,
and he resolved to reach the root of the trouble if possible.
There seemed to be several roots: the smokers in the high school, the
Station Store where the boys loafed, the indifferent parents, the shops
where the boys were sold, contrary to law, the materials for their
cigarettes. The story of how these elements in the problems were reached
is too long to recount here; but it was done by arousing the interest of
the parents, who were stirred into action by a rather lurid talk given
by the new eighth grade teacher, and who organized for the definite
purpose of removing the temptations to smoke.
The efforts of Miss Hardy and Mr. Sulzer, the eighth grade teachers,
were successful because they attacked the force which set the example.
Imitation grows into habit rapidly, and when both imitation and habit
are allowed to become cumulative, it takes more than a logical protest
to change conduct. In one case, the bad example was displaced by one
which was made more attractive than the old model; in the other, public
conscience was aroused and used as an agency for the elimination of the
bad example. The worst kind of a bad example is that of older people who
connive at an evil.