Whisper not in the company of others.
—_George Washington._
[Sidenote: In General]
(1) _Whispering._ A few students of the subject of school management may
need to be reminded that a child who whispers is attempting to conform
to a good school policy and at the same time to satisfy a powerful
instinct. He foregoes the use of the ordinary conversational tone in
deference to the custom or rule that outlaws the unrestricted use of the
same for pupils in the school-room.
It is a powerful instinct that impels one to communicate with his
fellows. No one has failed to experience the impulsion to talk, or in
some way, express himself to another person.
The child ordinarily speaks freely and in a normal tone of voice when
addressing another individual. Whispering is an unusual and emergency
measure, adopted when circumstances render the customary mode of
communication inappropriate, imprudent or impossible. The interchange of
ideas brings a pleasant glow of good fellowship.
Whispering, also, is a relief from the weariness of work. If there is
any daring in a pupil he will try out the teacher on whispering. There
are always enough reasons why occasional communication is necessary, to
afford an excuse for asking permission to whisper, and next, to whisper
without permission.
No teacher ever attempts to secure absolute silence. Minor infractions
of a whispering rule are always tolerated. Such must ever be the case.
These concessions to human necessity lodge the idea that more whispering
may pass unnoticed. In a word the conditions that favor whispering are
numerous and very stimulating.
The impulse to whispering can never be eradicated from a pupil. It may
be suppressed or directed. A wise teacher has no wish to remold human
nature to the extent that a person ceases to care for the opportunity of
talking to another person.
We are confronted with the problem of how to control an impulse that we
desire to preserve without injury and yet without waste of time and
effort.
Whispering has always been a menace to the best school order. Everywhere
and in all grades it threatens to retard or make impossible the highest
type of school work. Not only is the noise of whispering a nuisance in
itself, but it stimulates unnecessary noise from other sources. When
whispering ceases many other sounds of doors, rustling leaves, etc.,
will be either markedly subdued or entirely eliminated.
Furthermore, whispering is a well recognized cause of inattention to the
subject in hand. The pupil who whispers, and the one to whom he
whispers, both have their attention withdrawn from the work of the
moment.
Whispering is not a wrong in itself, like dishonesty or theft. Again,
while all agree that better order can be maintained without whispering,
few have a tested method to suggest for reducing it to a minimum.
The most useful principle of discipline for the control of whispering
seems to be that of substitution. Given a room full of children with no
work to do, whispering will spring up instantly. Given a room where
every pupil has urgent work on hand, the amount of whispering will be
greatly reduced.
If work can be substituted for communication, as an object of interest
and effort, a large gain will have been made.
Careful attention must be given to the age of the offender. In younger
pupils the joys of talking with one’s fellows are still very enchanting.
Usually offenders are not vicious in intention, rather they are quite
without self-control.
To require that whispering shall be reduced to a minimum can not be
looked upon as an injustice; at most it is only an inconvenience. At
church and theater and in the parlor or dining-room, whispering is
tabooed. The teacher, then, is merely requiring what good manners
prescribe in this respect for other assemblages of people.
The whispering problem can never be allowed to solve itself. The
offenders will wax worse and worse until intolerable conditions will
compel a reform. On the other hand a method of suppressing whispering,
that only interrupts school work the more, is not to be adopted.
The most favored procedure is to adopt, first of all, a general policy
regarding quiet, one that is patiently urged and unceasingly enforced.
Sudden, explosive, distracting attempts at suppression are to be
avoided.
Every teacher, from the first grade to the last year in the high school,
will admit that whispering is one of the most general annoyances. Some
teachers succeed in holding it in check while others aggravate the
difficulty until it becomes a misdemeanor.
There are educators who recommend that as long as whispering is carried
on about lessons and school work, it should not be prohibited. There are
others who say it should be prohibited, but fail to give prohibitive
measures. The former fail to note that whispering about lessons and
school tasks is really a temptation to whisper about almost anything
that comes into the child’s mind.
[Sidenote: First Grade]
In the first grade, whispering about lessons and school work is unusual.
Their interests are play interests and their activities are the
activities of child life; about these they talk. It is only natural that
they should do so. While it does not seem fair to the child to
transplant him from his outside world of freedom to the school-room
where the privilege of free expression is denied, still the first grade
teacher must bear in mind that if she allows whispering to become a
habit in the first grade, it will become very annoying in the higher
grades. There is no argument in favor of whispering, and, therefore, the
first grade teacher should train her pupils not to whisper during the
school sessions.
In rural schools the matter of preventing whispering is more difficult
than in the city school, for what is busy work for one grade cannot be
used in another. What will interest one grade will not interest another,
hence study periods and periods of busy work must be most carefully
planned, especially in the first three grades. Too much time must not be
given to study, for that means opportunity for play and mischief and, of
course, for whispering.
Even with the best planning, an occasional child will whisper. Such a
child should not be reproved in a faultfinding way. The teacher may
preface her request to refrain from whispering by approval of something
that has been well done, then say, “My dear, we do not whisper here at
all.” Following her request, the teacher may do some kindness for the
child that will gain his love and affection and make him willing to try
to obey the teacher.
If the child repeats the offense the teacher must use the same methods
again. Say, “Oh, no. Do not do that, we must not whisper.” The teacher
should use an even, smooth tone of voice, devoid of the least inflection
that might indicate impatience or unkindness. She should follow this
second command by expectancy. She should feel that the child will not do
otherwise than obey her. The child may repeat the offense, but the
teacher must use the same method again and again, until the child
responds and does not whisper. Second and third offenses usually make
teachers impatient, and, instead of kindness and indulgence toward the
child, they manifest impatience. By all means such a course should be
avoided, even though the offenses be many.
Teachers are often heard to complain that pupils recite before called
upon, or talk without permission. Such teachers confess to faulty
methods on their own part. Early in the year they failed to curb such
tendencies, thereby allowing them to become habits. In the very first
lesson require each pupil to wait for his turn in the recitation, to
secure permission to speak when he has something to say. If the teacher
will closely supervise her class work in this manner for the first
month, she will have no further trouble on this point. To begin right is
half the battle in school-room discipline. Those petty offenses that a
teacher dislikes must be prevented the first day, the second, and so on,
until they no longer recur.
In the first and second years it is highly important that the pupils
form correct school-room habits in all respects. Whispering is easier to
control here than in any subsequent grade.