[Sidenote: Coöperation]
Miss Benedict, a second grade teacher in the town of Milford, had one
pupil, John Dwier, who was addicted not only to quarreling but to
fighting. All through his first year he had annoyed his teacher in this
way. Miss Benedict talked with John, urging him to give up this bad
habit, but to no avail. She decided that some new plan of overcoming
John’s tendencies must be devised. She began by making a careful study
of John’s interests. She made them her interests also. Often in the
morning when he came to his seat, she would sit down with him and talk
about those things she knew interested him. Before she knew his
interests she would show him puzzles on his slate, or she brought curios
from home to show him, and little by little she got into his life and
learned what he liked. At play she always managed to control John by
playing with him. She took Saturday afternoon to go out exploring, as
she and John called it. They named as many flowers as they could. Of
course, the teacher knew the names for but a very few flowers and weeds
and she told John that she did not know many, so they decided to call
the unknown ones “strangers.” They watched the birds, butterflies and
bugs.
One snowy Saturday afternoon, Miss Benedict went with John and several
children who took their sleds and spent the time coasting and studying
the tracks of birds and little animals.
However, all this time, John had some very heated quarrels on the way
home from school, and usually ended his quarrels with his fists. But the
teacher’s time had not yet come, she was patient.
Her next step was to ask John whether he would not stay with her each
evening, for a few days, to help her about ten minutes with some work.
John loved her and consented. The work was coloring drawings on the
blackboard and such other odds and ends as she knew John would like.
Then while he was helping his teacher, the other pupils got home. When
John was ready to go he walked part of the way with his teacher, who
would neither quarrel nor fight with him, and the rest of the way by
himself, another character with whom he could neither quarrel nor fight.
He always reached home happy. No one knew but the teacher that John was
being kept from the other pupils after school so he could not quarrel or
fight.
Finally, the day came when the teacher took John on her knee to have a
long and earnest talk with him. She had chosen the time after school
when all the pupils were gone. She had also chosen the evening of a
beautiful day, a day in which John had had all his lessons well. She
explained to John how she loved him. This he knew because she had
displayed it to him. He loved her. Then her conversation drifted into
what she felt would help him to be a good and useful man. He was keenly
interested.
At last she told him how she disliked quarreling and fighting. He agreed
with her. Then she asked him if, whenever she had no work after school
for him, he would not wait a few minutes until the other pupils were out
of his way so he could walk home by himself. “Or,” said she, “if you
care to do so, John, you can leave school ten or fifteen minutes before
it closes and be at home by the time the other pupils are dismissed.”
The teacher told John she was doing this to help him. He understood. Her
love and humane and square treatment of the little offender was such
that she had his confidence and good will. He obeyed her. During the
spring months John’s mother came to tell this wonderful teacher that
John was a different boy. That boy is now a young man, and the letters
he writes to that teacher are beautiful. They would stimulate any
teacher to greater efforts. But the teacher had paid the price. She had
sacrificed. Many teachers try for three or four days and lose patience,
give up and, what is worse, lay the blame for failure upon the boys and
girls.
(4) _Bullying._ Bullying is just a cowardly kind of unprovoked fighting,
and even more exasperating because of the contemptible spirit shown.