The boy who threatens a teacher with personal violence is usually still
in the stage of control by force. He can understand a force weaker than
himself, he can understand a force stronger than himself, but he can not
understand a force which is essentially different from himself. What Mr.
Levenson and Mr. Pearson did was to show him a force which was both
stronger than and different from himself—the force of a thoughtful man
under control. In his limited experience he had never met this force in
opposition to himself, nor had he learned consciously to work with it
rather than against it.
The experience was his first conscious clash with social forces, and it
was so managed that he came out of the experience a more promising
citizen than before. Had he been arrested for assault, as he might have
been, he might have had a jail experience which would have left him
resentful and diminished his self-respect. However, Mr. Pearson’s object
was not to punish him unless that was absolutely necessary, but rather
to show him that the society approval he gained by insubordination was
as nothing compared to the greater satisfaction he might gain by
traveling with the social current.