The successful treatment of tuberculosis is psychic, as well as
physiologic. So, too, must the treatment of juvenile delinquency
be considered. The physician impresses the patient with faith
in his recovery. So, too, must the teacher impress the child.
She must have faith in him, a faith so wholesome that he will
learn to have faith in himself. She must encourage so that her
encouragement will spur the weakest to effort. Oh, the effect of
a tender word on a parched and starving little heart! Cases of
individual rescues effected by a kind word crowd upon me.
Dominick, the little Italian, the terror of three successive
schools, who to-day is not only a fine lad, but who has reformed
several other boys, changed from a lawless, defiant misdemeanant
to the pride of the class--how? By a teacher who said to him, “I
think you are trying to-day, dear.” Poor little chap! He told
his teacher frankly that it was her calling him “dear” which
developed in him a determination to please her.
The insolent, defiant Irish boy, driven from room to room,
who to-day is working steadily--respectful, law-abiding,
ambitious--what worked his reform? A teacher, who in reply to
the principal’s question, “Well, how is Tom doing in here?”
looked at the class in line and noticing that Tom was standing
up straight, said: “Oh, he’s going to be all right. He’s the
best stander in the class.” And Tom, poor Tom, the first time
he had ever been the best anything, took heart, and worked for
further commendation.
Ikey, the little Russian boy, in rags which almost fell from his
poor, thin, little legs, what changed him from an ugly little
outcast to a boy who tried, really tried, to do what was right?
A clean suit of clothes, a warm bath, and a daily glass of milk,
given by a teacher who sensed the boy’s needs.
Have you read Owen Kildare’s account of the effect upon him of
the first gentle touch he had ever felt?
Seldom in his life as a child had any one said a kind word to
him. One day when a strange woman patted him on the cheek he
almost cried with the joy of it.
“With a light pat on my cheek and one of the sunniest smiles
ever shed on me.” he says of the incident, “she put a penny
in my hand. She was gone before I realized what had happened.
Somehow, I felt that were she to come back I could have said
to her, ‘Say, lady, I haven’t got much to give, but I’ll give
you all me poipers, me pennies, and me knife if you’ll do that
agen.’”
Go back to your schools. Pick out the so-called worst boys. Find
out whether heart-hunger as well as stomach-hunger may not be
one of the symptoms of the disease. There is not a teacher in
all our broad land who would knowingly let a child’s body starve
to death for want of physical food. Why should any child’s heart
or soul be allowed to starve to death for want of a little
sympathy and affection? Bodily starvation, at its worst, can
only end in death; soul starvation, at its worst, ends in a
hateful, ugly, defiant, lawless attitude toward authority, which
not only ruins the starved one but brings disaster to the social
order. Does not some blame belong to the school if its teachers
fail to feed these starving souls?--JULIA RICHMAN,
“Proceedings of the National Education Association,” 1909.
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