[Sidenote: Slouching]
Another example of the effectiveness of the teacher’s own influence in
correcting bad habits formed through imitation, is the experience of a
teacher in a primary room in Ohio. She noticed the bad posture of her
little people on the first day, but was not surprised, as she had known
her predecessor to be a woman of slouchy appearance and stooped
shoulders, although an excellent teacher in other respects. She said
nothing about posture for two weeks, although she took especial pains to
stand and sit correctly herself. She hoped that her silent example would
effect a change.
Silent example does sometimes effect a change, without the need of any
word. This is when the imitators are either startled into attention
through the spectacular nature of the model offered, or are sensitive to
differences in models. In this case the children did not even notice
that their new teacher stood differently from their former one, for they
were not at all sensitive to the difference between good and bad
postures. So Miss Sturdevant began to make her example effective by
making it vivid.
“I want you to look at me a moment,” she said one morning, as she seated
herself before her pupils with her profile turned to them. “Please
notice my shoulders. Do you see anything wrong with them?” She was badly
round-shouldered at that moment. But the children were so completely
unconscious of the problem to be dealt with that they saw nothing wrong.
So Miss Sturdevant straightened her shoulders quickly.
“Do you like to see my shoulders this way, or as they were before?”
“We like you this way,” one little boy volunteered.
Miss Sturdevant again rounded her shoulders, straightened them, and
showed them how much better she looked with her chest well out and her
shoulders back, than when humped over. When the children had become
sensitive to the difference in her appearance, she called their
attention to their own round shoulders and crowded chests. There
followed a great straightening up, of course. The teacher drew two
pictures upon the blackboard, one showing chest and shoulders in a good
position, and the other showing a boy badly humped over his desk. Under
the first she wrote: “This boy will have a good figure when he grows
up.” Under the second she wrote: “What kind of a figure will this boy
have?” When all this had been done, the children began to notice Miss
Sturdevant’s erect posture, and to straighten up when she threw her
chest out or held her shoulders back suggestively.
When the first matter of correct sitting posture had been made clear by
repeated example and explanation, good standing posture was taken up,
then position when lying in bed, sitting in an ordinary chair and so
forth. In every case, example was clarified by explanation and reasons
were given. As Miss Sturdevant was a sweet and attractive woman and
loved by her pupils, they eagerly followed her example and directions,
and the bad effects of the former imitation were practically eliminated
by the end of the year.
Sometimes imitation and instruction can be effectively reinforced by
suggestion and approval. For example, some morning when the pupils are
fresh and in a good frame of mind to accept suggestion, the teacher
might say: “I want to tell you how proud I am this morning” (pausing,
allowing the pupils to wonder what will come next), then continue: “A
visitor came into one of my classes a few days ago and I noticed a good
number of my pupils sitting up just as straight as could be, with their
shoulders back like this.” (Here she should put her shoulders back
decidedly.) “Now, a visitor always notices this. I have visited some
schools where the pupils didn’t seem to have good postures at all, while
in other schools where I have visited, the pupils were all healthy
looking, robust, with big, broad shoulders kept well back. They made a
fine appearance. I’m going to watch from now on and just see how many I
can count who keep their shoulders back. It’s mighty fine to see
everyone in the room sitting up straight. I like to see a straight
physique and I am going to tell you tomorrow morning how many I count
today.”
The next morning the teacher should again approve the pupils regarding
how straight they sat the day before, bringing out the fact that she
noticed several more yesterday than ever before.
The skillful use of imitation is a particularly good means of bettering
conditions in schools in which there is no real badness, but in which
quietness and order are absent. It is not enough that children mean
well; they must also learn to work economically and efficiently, or they
are not being educated truly. One reason for the noisy school-room is
that quietness has not been held before American children as a universal
need. There have been teachers enough who have insisted on a death-like
solemnity in school-room routine, but few that have seen that training
in quietness must have a bigger end in view than mere school-room order.
Young people, having strong nerves and stronger motor impulses, are not
naturally quiet; therefore, the advantage of quietness must be shown
them conclusively, and ways of being quiet, of doing things without
unnecessary noise, must be made concrete by illustration. With the
desirability for quiet and the definite ways of attaining it both made
clear to them, imitation of quiet ways of accomplishing their ends will
follow.