[Sidenote: Stammering]
Sammy Hendrickson was a fiery little seventh grader who was always
having “scraps” with boys who mimicked his stammering speech. “Hit ’em
back,” was his father’s advice, and Sammy followed it, not because it
helped his stammering, but it relieved his feelings.
When he was promoted from the sixth grade to the seventh, his new
teacher, Miss Noyes, picked him out immediately as a child who was
likely to be teased by his classmates. She resolved that she would
forestall such conduct, with the resultant fights, if possible, and by
so doing shield Sammy from a torture which his thoughtless companions
were likely to inflict upon him.
With this in mind, she made it a point to be on the playground with the
children whenever it was possible, and in many little ways showed the
children by her own example that she expected Sammy to be treated with a
little more than usual consideration, yet so as not to make him feel
himself a privileged character, allowed to do things which other boys
might not do. In the games requiring choice of partners she often chose
Sammy. When the games were over she often took her place beside Sammy
and exchanged a few words with him partly to win his confidence, partly
that her presence might protect him from being made the sport of the
others. She realized, too, that if the other children were allowed to
mimic Sam, they, too, would soon be victims of the habit. Meanwhile she
quietly watched to see which children did amuse themselves at Sammy’s
expense. These she talked with privately one by one, showed them the
rudeness and cruelty of their sport and told them she should expect each
one to abstain from such acts hereafter.
[Sidenote: No More Mockery]
Finally, she called together half a dozen boys whom she had reproved at
different times for mocking Sam and said to them, “I am delighted to
find, boys, that you have been more thoughtful about this matter of
late, and now I am going to ask a great favor of you. Next week I shall
be especially busy and can not be out here as much as I have been. I
want to make you six a committee to preserve good order on the school
grounds and especially to see that no one teases Sam about his
stammering.”
The boys lived up to their responsibility so well that very little
further trouble was experienced with respect to mimicry.
Miss Noyes did not drop her efforts for Sammy at this point, however.
Already he had come to feel so trustful and kindly toward his teacher
that he could talk with her more freely than with most persons. When
they were alone together she would often say, when he stammered, “Wait a
minute, Sam. Take a deep breath. _Now_ tell me what you started to say.”
Generally by observing this precaution, Sam would be able to give the
sentences correctly. Miss Noyes never failed to encourage him. “That’s
better! That’s just fine! You can do it all right!”
During leisure hours she made a special study of stammering and
stuttering, and showed Sammy how, by taking a little forethought in
breathing carefully and in relaxing the chest muscles and in waiting
before speaking until he felt sure he could control his speech, he could
help himself greatly.
“Did you see the soap bubbles the kindergarten children were playing
with in the yard this morning?” she asked him one day; “and how any hard
thing pressing upon them would cause them to burst? Well, play that your
words are soap bubbles and let them float on the air just as gently as
the real soap bubbles do. Make all the muscles loose and easy as they
can be, because if you tighten them the least bit it will break the
words just as the soap bubbles break when you hit them with a stick. Now
then, gently!” Here she imitated by a motion of the hand the light
floating of the bubbles. “Talk just as my hand goes.”
Relieved from fear of being made the butt of the boys’ sport, and
finding a sympathetic helper in his teacher, Sammy improved considerably
before the end of the year. The other children meanwhile had learned a
lesson in consideration for others, which they did not forget after they
left Miss Noyes’ room to enter upon the eighth grade work. Furthermore,
the children who had learned that lesson best were the ones who most
needed to learn it. Coöperation of the teacher with Sammy, and, for the
other children, her approval and the substitution of the idea of
protection for that of teasing, had wrought the change, and,
incidentally, had banished fighting from the playground.
(7) _Fighting as an outgrowth of competition._ Competition is an
instinct that can be turned to excellent account in school life. It is
also a frequent source of trouble there.