[Sidenote: Scattering Paper]
Merrill MacFarland was elected to a position as teacher of the fourth
grade after three years of experience in the country schools. He had
found the circumstances in his former situation very unsatisfactory, and
resolved that since he was entering upon work in a graded school, he
would have some things different. Looking over the room after he had
wrestled his way through the first week, and recalling the events of the
past five days, he was strongly reminded of his former school
experience, since there was really a disgraceful amount of waste paper
all over the floor. The janitor had been complaining about the matter,
but MacFarland had been too busy with other matters to give attention to
it.
Monday morning, after the opening exercises, he made this announcement:
“Now, I want every one of you boys and girls just the moment you have a
piece of waste paper in your hand to go to the wastebasket and throw it
in. Last Friday our room was a perfect disgrace. On every desk there
were slips of torn-up paper and some whole sheets. We can’t get along
this way. George, you just this moment dropped a piece of paper in the
aisle there at your left. Pick it up at once and put it in the
wastebasket as I just told you.” George noisily moved his slow frame
according to the order, hardly imagining what would be the case if the
teacher’s idea were literally carried out and no more waste papers were
thrown upon the floor.
As soon as he had reached the basket, Mr. MacFarland discovered that
there were several pieces of paper on the floor in different parts of
the room, and said, “Each one look about his desk now and see if there
is any rubbish on the floor that should be taken away. If so, pick it up
at once and throw it into the basket as I told you. This is the thing to
do at any time when you want to throw something away.”
It need hardly be said that, with a great bustle, each one made the
desired search, and about nine pupils soon were on their way to the
basket with something or almost nothing that needed to be thrown away.
However unsatisfactory the noisy method had proved, it did bring about
the condition desired, for at the end of the day there was really
nothing that needed to be complained of regarding the cleanliness of the
room, so far as waste paper was concerned.