efore
the school, so that all witness the teacher's displeasure and feel the
effects of it (for to witness it is to feel its most unpleasant
effects), the school becomes, in a short time, hardened to such scenes.
Unpleasant associations become connected with the management of the
school, and the scholars are prepared to do wrong with less reluctance,
since the consequence is only a repetition of what they are obliged to
see every day.

Besides, if a boy does something wrong, and you severely reprove him in
the presence of his class, you punish the class almost as much as you do
him. In fact, in many cases you punish them more; for I believe it is
almost invariably more unpleasant for a good boy to stand by and listen
to rebukes, than for a bad boy to take them. Keep these things,
therefore, as much as possible out of sight. Never bring forward cases
of discipline except on mature deliberation, and for a distinct and
well-defined purpose.

(3.) Never bring forward a case of discipline of this kind unless you
are sure that public opinion will go in your favor. If a case comes up
in which the sympathy of the scholars is excited for the criminal in
such a way as to be against yourself, the punishment will always do more
harm than good. Now this, unless there is great caution, will often
happen. In fact, it is probable that a very large proportion of the
punishments which are ordinarily inflicted in schools only prepare the
way for more offenses.

It is, however, possible to bring forward individual cases in such a way
as to produce a very strong moral effect of the right kind. This is to
be done by seizing upon those peculiar emergencies which will arise in
the course of the administration of a school, and which each teacher
must watch for and discover himself. They can not be pointed out. I may,
however, give a clearer idea of what is meant by such emergencies by an
example. It is a case which actually occurred as here narrated.

In a school where nearly all the pupils were faithful and docile, there
were one or two boys who were determined to find amusement in those
mischievous tricks so common in schools and colleges. There was one boy,
in particular, who was the life and soul of all these plans. Devoid of
principle, idle as a scholar, morose and sullen in his manners, he was,
in every respect, a true specimen of the whole class of mischief-makers,
wherever they are to be found. His mischief consisted, as usual, in s