The president of the normal school sent them Isidor Thomberg, a man of
experience and high scholarship. He came with the understanding that the
board was to support whatever he did, and he agreed to reduce the school
to order. He was confident, fearless, and told no one of his plans. But
he did meet the board on the night of his arrival, and heard their full
account of the troubles.
The next morning school opened as usual, with the new teacher and the
new stove dividing the honors of attention. Mr. Thomberg made just one
reference to the situation:
“Of course you know why I’m here,” he said. “I want to say one thing. I
shall never waste a moment’s time trying to find out who does anything
bad. We have to make up for a great deal of lost time this winter;
you’ll have to work hard from now until spring. We shall have no school
but a good one. Now we’ll go to work.”
Under the stimulus of his quiet confidence, the order was excellent that
first day. The school needed organization, and much time was spent in
showing the pupils economical ways of doing things. While the novelty
lasted there was no tendency to disorder, and when things settled down
into a regular routine the lessons proved so interesting under Mr.
Thomberg’s teaching that the boys forgot for a time to have fun in the
old way. A fancy skating club had been organized; a new era seemed to
have dawned, when one day, quite unexpectedly, the old problem popped up
again.
A row of pupils, coming quietly forward to the recitation bench, found
themselves stepping on a number of match-heads which had been scattered
in the aisle. At the same moment Mr. Thomberg himself, who had stepped
to a window to adjust a shade, exploded two of these little
trouble-makers. Every one looked up in surprise, for bad order had been
almost forgotten.
The teacher went to his desk. Very quietly he sent the class back to
their seats. Then he told the pupils to put away all books, and they
obeyed in a dazed way, afraid of they knew not what.
“I told you when I came,” said Mr. Thomberg, “that we couldn’t have
anything but a good school. The reason that we can’t afford to have bad
order is that we have too much serious work to do. I had begun to like
you all so much that I’m sorry some one has had to spoil our pleasant
beginning. But I meant what I said. So this school is closed, now,
indefinitely. You are all, without exception, suspended from school
until further notice. You will pass out as you always do.”
There was a breathless silence. Such a thing as suspending a whole
school had never been heard of before. Mr. Thomberg gave the usual
signals, and the boys and girls passed into the hall as though they had
been at a funeral. Mr. Thomberg went to the nearest house and called the
directors by telephone for a conference, which was scarcely begun when
parents began to inquire indignantly why their children, guiltless of
dropping match-heads, had been suspended from school. Mr. Thomberg
dictated the answer:
“Tell them,” he said, “that I have no time to ferret out the doers of
silly little tricks in my school. When the school gives me the assurance
that there’ll be no more trouble, then we’ll go back to work. Whoever
dropped those match-heads thought the school liked that sort of thing,
and you must show him that he is mistaken. I am a teacher, not a
policeman.”
The parents really wanted their children in school, and guided by the
suggestion, skillfully made by the teacher, they took steps to secure
the concerted action which Mr. Thomberg knew was the remedy for the
evil. He was reading the daily paper in the living room of his boarding
house that evening, when the response for which he had planned came.
There were seventeen of his twenty-six pupils in the party which called
on him. One of the older boys, Felix Curry, was spokesman.
“We came to ask you if you’d have us in school again,” he said. “All our
fathers and mothers want us to go back, and we’ll be good if you’ll let
us. The boy that threw the match-heads will tell you about it himself.
He told us he would.”
“There is no need of that, although he may do so privately tomorrow if
he wants to. But I should rather not know who did it, if you’ll all be
responsible for its not happening again. You see, I like you all so much
that I’d hate to know who did so foolish and wrong a thing. And if you
will agree that it is to be a good school, in which everyone works
together in the right spirit, I’ll agree to stay until the end of the
year. Otherwise I pack my trunk tonight.”
The pupils gave ample promises, which were not broken. Mr. Thomberg
stayed through that year and the next one also, and had the best school
in the county.