If the teacher maintains the attitude recommended, he will launch a
powerful suggestion which cannot fail to modify the conduct of the
school. He accomplishes far more by suggestion than he does by direct
instruction. The latter is subject to point-blank criticism; the former
enters the mind without deliberate scrutiny by the person influenced.
It does not take so much of a teacher’s time to enter sympathetically
into a pupil’s life as one might suppose. It is not a matter of hours,
but of conscious linkage with pupil interests.
[Sidenote: Who Is the Ringleader?]
_No one can manage a school who cannot discover ringleaders._ These must
be dealt with unobstrusively to avoid accusations of favoritism. Dealing
with persons one at a time saves a teacher from the cumulative pressure
of combined personal suggestion. If one pupil alone objects to an idea
he is not reinforced by the consensus of comrades. When the teacher has
won over, in part at least, a number of pupils singly, he can trust
himself to face the entire group for purposes of conference and decision
on a project.
Comradeship develops in forming plans, whether they are practical or
imaginative. The close adjustment of mind to mind, the pooling of
interests, the surrender of preferences all make coöperative planning
one of the richest sources of friendship. Moreover, it is an excellent
school for character building: it constrains one to adjust himself to
intimate life with other people.
“Let them obey that know not how to rule.”
—_Shakespeare._