Credulity of rumors has led to a serious administrative blunder. One of
the finest disciplinary devices is to induce a guilty person to state
the facts relative to his misconduct. At the points where he is sorely
tempted to alter the facts, a few penetrating questions will place him
again on the right track.
Parents must be continually reminded that they share daily in the
responsibility of keeping good order in the school. It takes four people
to hold up a boy in the high school—a parent, a teacher, a chum and the
boy himself.
Boys who know so clearly that they have overstepped the bounds of sound
morals should be forced to solve the problem. Put it up to them to make
adjustments and to take a stand for the right regardless of any penalty
that might be devised.
(3) _Stealing._ Though the habit of stealing is not so frequent as
lying, among school children, yet it is of such widespread prevalence
that it needs careful consideration. It is true that many in this group
of offenders leave off the habit when they grow older—that is, outgrow
it; still there are others who become habitual thieves when older and
finally are detected and remanded to some penal institution. One form of
stealing is known as kleptomania, an abnormal disposition to steal. This
will not be discussed here, more than to say that a child who is a
kleptomaniac should not be kept in a public school, but placed under a
private tutor who can give especial and continual attention to the cure
of his habit or, more properly speaking, his malady. He should be
required to do or make something for the person whom he robs, every
time, something that will replace that which he wrongfully took from
them.
[Sidenote: Motives for Stealing]
The motives that prompt a young child to steal may be many. Likewise the
occasions that make it possible for a child to steal may be numerous. A
child may learn to steal because he has not been given sufficient food
of different varieties, and in order to satisfy his hunger, he may have
acquired the habit of stealing. He may have a liking for gaudy articles
and because this craving is not satisfied, he begins to steal those
articles that please his fancy. Playmates may have taught him to take
what does not belong to him. Parents may have very loosely conceived
notions on these matters and thereby teach their children, by example,
to steal.
However, it seems that the motives or causes for pilfering can have
little to do with the methods of prevention. Then, whatever the motives
or causes for stealing may be, one thing is certain—the method of
treatment need not be changed. At the outset the teacher must remember
that the law of suggestion may play a great part in diminishing or
increasing the tendency to pilfer. The unthoughtful teacher many times
increases the tendency to “take things” in her room when in reality she
is trying to prevent it. Her idea is that nothing shall lie before the
children to tempt them to take what is not theirs. She locks every
drawer in her room. She does it, too, in the presence of her pupils; she
is careful to leave nothing valuable on her desk. If a child brings her
a fine, luscious apple or orange, or a bit of candy, she at once
secretes it in one of the mysterious drawers. Little does she think she
is cultivating a tendency, not exactly to steal, but to peep into those
secretive places; that act, if ever performed, will be the first step
toward taking what is not theirs. For the child that must sneak to get a
look into a forbidden place, it is a wrong to satisfy that longing; and
pilfering easily attaches itself as a kindred wrong.
From this, the teacher must not conclude that to keep pupils from
pilfering, she must leave things lying about carelessly; that would be
going to the other extreme of placing temptation before them. A happy
medium is needful. To give the methods of a rural teacher of many years’
experience, who never was troubled by pupils’ stealing, will, no doubt,
be placing the situation before the teacher so it may be understood.
This teacher did not make it a practice to lock drawers, desks and
cabinets. When something of value was given her, she laid it upon her
desk. Apples, oranges, candy and money could be found on the desk,
almost any time. She never entertained the least fear that something
might be taken. Her pupils knew how she felt about it. They could see
her attitude in her actions, consequently they never took anything that
did not belong to them.
When evening came, she would very unassumingly take any articles that
had been given her, implying that she was not removing them because she
feared they might be stolen. On the other hand, she often forgot to take
money from her desk and it lay there over night, but she never worried a
moment about it. She always found it in the morning, just where she had
left it. She trusted her pupils and they trusted her. She was honest, so
were they. Sometimes a very amiable pupil would remark, “Miss Jenkins,
what would you do if some one were to take the money from your desk?”
Invariably there shone on her face that confident smile of trust in
every human heart and she would say, “Why, my dear, I do not need to
think about that. I have no pupils that would steal anything.” Every
word she uttered rang with trust and confidence. There need be no wonder
that she had no pupils that stole.
She would send any one of her pupils to her home to get any article she
wanted or to the store with money to buy some trifle for her. She
trusted them in every way; she avoided that suspicious look and action
that so many teachers have. No trait of the teacher will reproduce
itself so quickly in the lives of those whom she teaches as the trait of
trustfulness.
This teacher, once in a while, gathered her flock about her and told
them stories. One story may have been about Eskimos, told without any
attempt at moralizing; the next story referring to politeness; then she
would deftly fill in a story about the wrong there is in taking things
that do not belong to one. She avoided the harsh terms of pilfering or
stealing. She taught the children to ask for what they wanted. They did
not note that she was directly teaching them not to steal. Added to her
many stories along various lines of conduct was a simple life of trust
and confidence. There would be fewer thieves behind bars, could every
first grade teacher look with trust and confidence upon the boys and
girls that come under her care.