Give instructions on how to behave when visitors are present at a time
when no stranger is in the room.
Lay the stress on showing some good work to the friends of the school.
Repeat some of the words of praise that have been spoken regarding “our
work,” and promise a good many more visitors before long.
Name the children beavers or bees and tell them how well they have
worked and what they may hope to accomplish if every child will work
hard.
Apply the principles of suggestion and approval. Some morning, say
tomorrow morning, when all the pupils before you are fresh and in a good
mood to have suggestions lodged, rise from your chair, walk around in
front of your desk, smiling, and say something like this: “I want to
tell you how _proud_ I am this morning.” Pause at this point, allowing
your pupils to wonder what you are going to say next. Then continue: “A
visitor came in to one of my classes a few days ago and I noticed a good
number of my pupils kept right on with their work—their heads straight
forward, instead of turning around and bending their necks out of joint
trying to see the visitors, as they do in some schools. Now, a visitor
always notices this. I went into a school once where everyone twisted
his neck so much that I wondered if there wasn’t something wrong with
all of them. Then I have visited other schools where the pupils kept
right on with their work and it looked just fine. The teacher seemed to
be proud because the pupils showed such good manners. I tell you I’m
going to watch from now on and when I see everyone in the room
continuing his work when visitors come, I’ll feel like going to my desk
and raising every one of the grades a notch or two because it’s a good
trait in any school.”
The next time a visitor comes, a greater number of pupils will pay
attention to their work than before, so on the following morning, again
approve your pupils for their good manners in the presence of
yesterday’s visitor, bringing out the point that you noticed several
more yesterday than you ever did before.
One of the most important points about this method is that those who
stare are practically ignored. They are not approved nor even talked
about. In order for them to be included in that class which is
_noticed_, they must fall into line.
It is important that you spend the smallest amount of time possible with
the visitor when he comes. Simply show him a good seat and then go about
your work as if he were not present. Many teachers are responsible for
their pupils paying so much attention to the visitor because they are
continually going back and talking with the visitor, explaining various
things to him during a class recitation. In other words, the direction
of the teacher’s attention largely determines the direction of the
pupil’s attention.