[Sidenote: Organize Carefully]
Mr. Merryman was the jolliest teacher the children of the Concord rural
school ever had had. No other teacher gave the children so many
“outings”; no other ever placed so much responsibility upon the pupils
on such vacations, and never before had responsibility seemed so
delightful as since Mr. Merryman came to the school. “He’s just like his
name,” declared the children.
One reason why Mr. Merryman had such success in organizing little
excursions which to other teachers were most unwelcome bugbears, was
that he announced them long enough beforehand to give himself and the
children ample time to prepare for details.
“One week from today,” said Mr. Merryman one Friday afternoon, “we will
all go on an excursion to get materials for our aquarium. I will appoint
Joseph and Henry to look up, sometime between now and Wednesday, the
best route for the school to take down to the creek. Remember, we want a
dry path, for the children must not get wet feet. Lucy and Ellen, James
and William may arrange for drag nets. Perhaps we shall have to make
some of them. You may find out whether we can borrow them or not, and
how much the material will cost if we need to make them ourselves.
Henrietta and Edward may be sure that there are suitable dishes for
bringing home our trophies. Find out just what we need.
“Some of the little children won’t want to go so far as the creek, where
they have to be so still, so I will appoint the sixth grade girls to
form an entertainment committee to find a pleasant place at some little
distance from the creek where the little ones can play. You will have a
stock of games ready to entertain them while some of us are busy at the
creek and when we have enough things, animals, plants, etc., for our
aquarium, we will all come to the same place and there we will have our
lunches together. Doris, Frieda and May of the girls, and Thomas,
Fayette and Wilbur of the seventh and eighth grade boys may be the
refreshment committee. The different committees may get together next
Monday and talk over their plans. Make up your minds between now and
then just what you need to talk about. Have everything planned and ready
before the day of our excursion. Meanwhile all of us, in the nature
class, will study about the aquarium and the animals that live in it.
Our first lesson will be on Monday, about ‘How to make the aquarium.’
That is all for this afternoon.”
It is needless to add that for a week the excursion and the studies and
talks connected with it furnished many an hour of innocent and
instructive diversion for the eager children. When the day came every
detail had been thought out and prepared for so carefully that the event
was entirely successful. Looking forward in expectation to the pleasure,
filled the children’s minds too full to leave much room for mischief,
and “discipline” in the sense of punishments sank into its legitimate
place, far into the background.
Conferences with the teacher about matters which were puzzling to the
children brought teacher and pupils into a close and delightful
relationship which made unkindly feeling toward the teacher or
insubordination almost out of the question. Once or twice earlier in the
year, when planning the excursion, Mr. Merryman had been obliged to say,
“But only those will be invited whose work and conduct in school have
been satisfactory.” But even this precaution was now unnecessary; he
simply took the precaution to place the more troublesome of the pupils
on whatever committee would have to consult most frequently with
himself. In this way the feeling of coöperation between himself and them
grew stronger with each succeeding school “event.”
(5) _Play and truancy._ There is no better preventive of truancy than
just such outings as that above described, especially if the teacher is
wise enough and tactful enough to utilize some part of the day’s
experiences in the regular school work, nature study, geography,
history, etc. This is by no means difficult to do. Such a course would
have prevented entirely the unfortunate situation of the following case.