Miss Griffin, a teacher in the eighth grade of the Waller Avenue School,
decided to cure two boys in her room who had the idea they could not
study in school unless they spoke aloud.
During a study period in which she was at leisure she went quietly to
each boy’s desk and privately asked:
“Are you a Chinese boy, Leonard?” The boy laughed and shook his head.
[Sidenote: Chinese Method]
“I thought not. Well, do you know, Leonard, that Chinese boys study out
loud? A Chinese boy learns his lessons by shouting aloud until he has
committed the passage to memory. Then he hands his book to the teacher,
turns his back and recites the lesson as fast as he can.
“Now, you are not a Chinese, Leonard, neither are we advertising the old
Chinese method of education. Let me see you study like an American boy
hereafter.”
(4) _Tattling._ The tale-bearer usually acts to satisfy some secret
desire either for fame or for revenge. Tale-bearing grows directly out
of the taproot of selfishness.
Fortunately, public opinion, both in school and out is sufficient to
suppress the majority of pupils in their leanings in this direction.
Nevertheless, a few individuals now and then taste the sweets of
tale-bearing. These are apt to be in the lower grades, where the force
of community ideas has less weight.
For the sake of both teacher and pupil it is necessary to mark a clear
distinction between the legitimate report of a misdeed that is a menace
to good order and the petty, selfish carrying of stories of other
pupils’ misdemeanors.
The difference is marked by the character of the motive and the
frequency of the reporting.
Some supervisors and administrators take the unwarranted position that
all reporting of misbehavior by pupils is wrong. They do not expect nor
desire information of misbehavior to come to them from pupil sources.
They highly commend all pupils who refuse to answer questions on the
misconduct of their schoolmates. They deny that the best of motives can
warrant a revelation of student wrongs to the school authorities.
This position is extreme. It seems due to an attempt to adopt a pupil’s
point of view. It positively contradicts the duty laid down by public
sentiment and the fundamental law of the land, to the effect that all
good citizens must aid in the discovery and repression of crime.
A pupil stands in a double position. He owes good will both to his
comrades as individuals and to the school as an institution. His duty to
neither must be overlooked. The rule of right in the case seems to be
somewhat as follows: to his schoolmates he owes a generous silence when
their misdeeds are not a serious menace to the school and a kindly
sympathy when he must report their wrong actions. To the school he owes
a loyalty that requires only a reporting of that which if left untold
will be a serious injury to both the wrong-doer and to the school.
These broad statements need careful application in particular instances.
For example, to answer the questions of an administrator should never be
construed as tattling. To relate daily that Charley has been dropping
hints of his intention to give Robert a sound thrashing should not be
approved under the head of school loyalty; it stands on the level of
gossip.
Teachers will do well to weigh carefully the attitudes of the
conscientious and the over-conscientious pupils of their schools. The
sense of duty to their schoolmates and to their teachers sometimes leads
them into embarrassing dilemmas. A rough and ready rudeness with them
will mark the dull and hardened teacher, who may foster a strained
abhorrence of tale-bearing.
In the daily experience of the school-room it will be found that
tattling usually arises from a distinctly selfish impulse. Perhaps
jealousy is the most usual inciting cause. At times there is a standing
antagonism between two pupils; the hope of revenge is here the leading
impulse to tale-bearing. In other instances mere acquaintance, with
neither friendship or antipathy, is to be observed; the eagerness for a
sensation such as seeing a boy or girl whipped may lead to reporting
minor or major wrongs.
[Sidenote: First Grade]
The little child who comes to school and tells the teacher and his
playmates all the happenings of the home is as annoying as the pupil
that is constantly coming to the teacher to tell that a certain pupil
did this or that, or, in common school language, tattles. While a few
teachers cultivate this practice in pupils, it is right to brand it as
one of the most ignoble of habits. Teacher and pupils can be no better
off for knowing all that goes on in a certain home. The teacher should
tactfully talk of something else—something so interesting as to divert
him from his talk about home matters.
The habit of tattling or “telling on” other pupils is more annoying and
usually gets the pupil who indulges in the habit into ill-repute with
the other pupils. It must be admitted that the teacher sometimes needs
information from a pupil or pupils to ferret out some misdemeanor. But
this should be given only when the teacher asks for it. In the first
grade it is almost an exception if the teacher needs to ask pupils to
give information to explain some misdemeanor. If the teacher pays no
attention to tattling, it will soon stop. The spirit of tattling can be
effectively cured, if, when the child tells on a certain pupil, the
teacher will turn to the child and ask him if he does not admire some
particular trait in the other child.
Often the motive for tattling is envy. By asking something about the
other child’s good traits, envy will be eradicated, and it will be the
exception if the offense is repeated.