Any precise generalization covering all the causal factors that enter
into a disobedient attitude is of course impossible. Certain factors
obvious to all people and others discovered by careful observations
embrace only a fragment of the facts and yet they are worth careful
scrutiny.
(1) _Causes within the child._ As already noted the fundamental cause of
disobedience in the child is a vague perception, a suspicion or a
conviction that some of his interests are jeopardized by a proposed
course of action. Selfish interests are ready to speak up and dictate to
him what to do and what not to do. Lack of inhibitory habits often
permits a quick expression of the impulse to take good care of their
egoistic rights and interests.
The ordinary observer is prone to affirm that the chief causes for
disobedience are to be found in the child himself. It is easy to make a
long list of conditions which provoke him to disobey. Among these we may
mention the following: poor health, bad habits, natural stubbornness,
which is independence of spirit uncontrolled, mental dullness, eagerness
for action, delight in pleasure, desires for popular esteem, perverted
ideas of duty and the like. Beneath all these conditions the great
irrepressive incitement is the eagerness of the self to satisfy the
natural cravings that the inherited constitution continually develops.
(2) _Provocation by parents._ School administrators find it
impracticable to attempt accurately to survey home conditions in the
majority of cases, but many reports that filter into school through
children reveal fairly well the circumstances at home which make
obedience in school extremely difficult.
A genuine lover of children will make every effort to discern
instigation to disobedience. Parents may take what seems to be at the
time the easiest course: namely, to let the child do whatever he
chooses, or the mother may not have the time and strength to insist that
a child obey. Many parents sincerely desire to govern their children
properly, but are ignorant as to how they may accomplish it.
Oftentimes children disobey as a means to attract attention to
themselves; only in such a way do they receive consideration in the
home. They have found it highly entertaining to be the center of a furor
when they have been “naughty.” Parents have not learned to use the many
forms of approval to satisfy the call of the child for notoriety.
(3) _Causes in the teacher’s mismanagement._ The teacher’s mismanagement
must be named in enumerating the causes of disobedience. Here, perhaps,
a “challenge” is the chief incitement to the child of the choice of
obedience or disobedience, daring him to choose the latter.
Some foolish imp at times provokes teachers to lay before pupils very
clearly what are the alternatives between which they must choose. It may
go so far that the teacher says in so many words, “I dare you to break
the rule.” This is an outspoken challenge and incites all well-made
characters either to indignation or to actual rebellion. The implied
challenge appears in an aggravating espionage, watching from the corner
of the eye, too frequently questioning or checking up and snappish
manners generally in enforcing obedience. The challenge may appear in
the arrangement of circumstances, so that obedience is difficult, as
when the teacher leaves the room with an exhortation to maintain good
order during his absence. Every cautious teacher adopts the following
resolution, “I will never, by word or deed, plan or project, purposely
make it easier for a pupil to disobey than to obey.”
The second great fault in the teacher is blindness to actual conditions.
There are several forms of ignorance that may be cited. The teacher or
principal may not know that a whole body of pupils is prejudiced against
him, or ridicules him or is waiting to precipitate a collision; that he
is arousing community prejudice; that he has let slip clear evidence of
disobedience; that he accuses the wrong child; that his fellow teachers
despise him; that his manners are ridiculous and weaken his influence.
This disregard of facts may be due to lack of native insight,
heedlessness of daily experiences, lack of social training or an
exaggerated sense of self-sufficiency. Each teacher must find his own
cure. The careful assimilation of the instructions given herein should
effect a change in many a failing teacher.
Again, teachers usually fail to secure obedience if they themselves
refuse to submit to authority. It is difficult, sometimes, for a person
of strong will, well developed talents, and perhaps mature years, to
yield cheerful submission to the requirements of his superiors in the
school system; but the greater the personality, the more evident is the
power of self-control and the consequent skill in so ordering one’s
behavior as to fit properly into the school mechanism.
Sad to say, there are some teachers who are entirely out of place in the
schoolroom. Neither by natural endowment nor technical preparation have
they any equipment that suffices for the duties they have assumed.
School life is to them abnormal. They do not sense the fine adjustments
of pupil and teacher. They can not profit from experience as managers,
or as directors of social activities. They blunder and stumble and fail.
Perhaps for them the best hope is that they may soon discover their
mistake in attempting to teach.
(4) _Community conditions favoring disobedience._ Often a teacher finds
that the standards of action endorsed by the school community are such
as to make his work as a disciplinarian extraordinarily difficult. The
neighborhood heroes are those who have had long careers as bullies.
Conditions of frontier life when rowdyism was the avenue to popular
esteem still may dominate public opinion. There may be a general scorn
of education and the teacher is placed upon the defensive from the very
start. Very frequently religious and racial prejudices at once appear
when the teacher becomes a little known. Circumstances of this sort
require a broad knowledge of human nature and an ever resourceful tact
on the part of the teacher. If he is a man of wide sympathies and
considerable information, he will easily find a starting-point for a
campaign of reform. A cautious foresight will suggest to him that the
leaders of the community be enlisted as sympathetic patrons of the
school, and as his own personal friends. He frequently associates with
the people of the community in church and social affairs, and becomes
familiar with the public enterprises of the community. As rapidly as
possible, he makes himself a well-known exponent of the best sentiment
found in the neighborhood. By thus identifying himself with the most
progressive elements in the community, he leads by following, and
enrolls among his firm friends those who might have become enemies.
The theory of obedience herein expounded is based essentially on
comradeship between pupil and teacher. A good teacher and a typical
public school pupil can easily find common ground and discover a
satisfactory basis of coöperation. The teacher must lead, the pupil will
follow. Under proper conditions obedience comes as a matter of course.
When perplexities arise, specific counsel is needed, but the aim of
every good disciplinarian is to cultivate the soil in such a manner that
only the good fruit of loyal obedience will appear at the harvest.
In discussing the particular instances presented in the following cases,
the purpose is to guide the teacher so as to forestall acts of
disobedience as far as possible. With this, however, are numerous
suggestions as to the best methods of dealing with pupils when they
actually refuse to obey.
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