destruction of the men engaged, they would not fight? . . . A good master does not require to be severe because he is certain.' '

The punishment must also be swift. 'We need not look far for an illustration; it is certain that all men die, but yet, because the time of death is uncertain, and may

b. Swift

be far off, this certainty has not the slightest effect on the lives of most men.' 1

The punishment must, of course, be deserved, and whether any act deserves punishment depends on the intention of the doer. The butcher who kills a hundred sheep in c. Deserved the way of business is reckoned innocent; if he were to cut one needlessly he would be reckoned cruel. It is not enough, therefore, to ascertain beyond a doubt that a pupil has come late, has blotted his book, has broken a window, or said what is not true; one must also ascertain whether he could help being late, or blotting his book, or breaking the window, and whether he knew that what he said

was not true.

Every punishment must be deserved, but even-handed justice does not require that every offender should receive the d. May be same punishment for the same offence (though it variable is perhaps impossible to make a distinction when two offenders are being punished at the same time for the same offence). The primary end of punishment is to prevent a repetition of the fault, and a frown may be as effective in securing this end with one child as a birching with another. Where there is no probability of attaining the desired end, punishment is useless, so far as the offender is concernedwhere, for instance, the will is so weak that punishment cannot supply sufficient moral force to counteract the natural inclination to wrong-doing. Thus, to punish a child overpowered by grief for not instantly controlling its feelings is barbarous.'2

Offence and punishment are not a debtor and creditor account, one balancing the other. The offence is balanced not by the punishment but by amendment. Till the teacher sees some sign of that he will not restore the pupil to favour. Routine It is folly 'to legalise insubordination by having punishments a set of small routine punishments and imposing them regularly. This makes a regular crop of the fault; and the fault becomes an established institution, and what began as a bit of carelessness ends by being a tolerated crime. Little breaches of order ought to be met by the personal authority of the teacher's word and influence. If that is not enough, they should be promptly stamped out by real severity.' 1

The punishments available are reproof, disgrace (such as Punishments standing apart from the class), detention (with or available without tasks), and in some cases bodily chastisement.

If children do right only from emulation, love of praise, dislike of blame, hope of reward, or fear of punishment, some4. Desire to thing is accomplished. The action necessary for please the formation of a good habit has been induced, though the motive for the action may not be of the highest. More is accomplished when children do right to please their parents and teachers. The desire to gratify others rather than self must not be looked for too early; it will be vain to look for it in some people at any time. It must not be looked for either if parents and teachers have not earned love and respect, and if they do not show that they are gratified when they see honest striving for excellence.

Weak parents and Sunday school teachers who are not able to rule, and amiable theorists who have never tried to rule, say 'Rule by that children should be ruled by love and not by love' fear. Discipline rests on authority and love— ' authority which depends on superiority of mind, love which

1 Thring.

never degenerates into undue indulgence. . Love is only of value when combined with the necessary severity.' We consider the coachman kind and skilful who can manage his horses without using the whip, but we should consider him foolish if he refused to use the whip when the horses could not be made to move without it. Love is a higher motive than fear, but when it is too weak to affect conduct it must be reinforced by fear. Good children may do right to please a good teacher, but the best children ought to be made afraid of displeasing the best teacher.

The highest motive of conduct is the sense of duty, and the work of discipline is done when it has created this. Laws are 5. Sense of not needed for a man who is a law unto himself. duty Punishments have no terror and rewards no

charm for him,—

His high endeavours are an inward light

That makes the path before him always bright.

Before we can do right we must learn to recognise it, and then We needs must love the highest when we see it,

and, loving it, will choose it, cleave unto it. Preaching is wasted on children (it is sometimes wasted on their elders), and direct moral instruction is apt to tire; but instruction by example is very powerful, whether it be the living example of parents and teachers or the models derived from history and fiction. Admiration of those who have done their duty leads unconsciously to imitation, and the 'immortal dead' live again

In pulses stirred to generosity,

In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end with self.

1 Herbart.

39

ORAL QUESTIONING1

A BAD questioner is a bad teacher. He may be a good lecturer, but the lecture differs from the lesson. Both the lecTeaching turer and the teacher strive to secure attention by and lecturing the presentation of interesting facts or the interesting presentation of facts; but the lecturer looks upon his audience as a whole, while the teacher looks upon his class as units. The lecturer does not undertake to make all his hearers understand or to make any of them remember, but the teacher considers it to be his duty to make each pupil both understand and remember. The lecturer asks no questions; but if the teacher copies his example too closely, he succeeds only in giving a lecture when he meant to give a lesson. 'The teacher's subject . . . is not books but mind. On the other hand, the lecturer's subject in the first instance is not mind but books. This distinction is vital, and the most important results follow. . . . Broad is the dyke and deep that cuts across between the teacher and the lecturer, dividing them by a bridgeless space. They stand on the same level; at a little distance they appear in the same field; to the ordinary eye they are engaged in the same work, with the same surroundings and the same object. But they are divided for ever in theory and in practice.' 2

The teacher asks questions:

Aims of

I. To show some one else what his pupils know.

2. To find out for himself what they know

Some parts of this chapter are taken, without much alteration, from Longmans' Object Lessons. 2 Thring.

3. To ascertain whether they are following him.

4. To direct and encourage thought.

5. To recapitulate what has been taught.

6. To test how far what was intended to be taught has been learned.

7. To awaken curiosity.

8. To check inattention.

9. To repress self-conceit.

1. The teacher who is required to question his pupils in order to show an official superior or visitor what they know of a 1. To display given subject sometimes fails to do himself jusknowledge tice'. Being more in the habit of questioning in order to discover, for his own purposes, what they do not know, he insensibly loses sight of the end that he should have kept in view throughout; selecting, as usual, the most difficult parts of the subject, and giving, as usual, most attention to the backward scholars, he exposes ignorance when his business was to display knowledge. If he has taught with any success, he ought to be able to question for half an hour without getting any bad answers. 2. To dis- 2. Before beginning a new lesson the teacher cover know. must find out what the children already know, so ledge that he may avoid waste of time in trying to teach what has been learned, and may ascertain the foundation on which he can build.

3. To test mental activity

3. The teacher must not proceed faster than the pupils. As we can, by lifting what covers the glass of a hive, see the bees at work, so we can, by questioning, see the mind at work.

1 A horse dealer's boy, entering the yard one day, found a strange horse there and his father in conversation with a strange gentleman. The father said, Trot that horse up and down.' The boy mounted at once, but, having mounted, he appeared to hesitate. At last he bent over and asked The boy would have shown

his father, 'Am I to ride to sell or to buy?' off the horse's good qualities if it were for sale, and its bad qualities if it were to be bought. Similarly the skilful questioner can show off children's knowledge or their ignorance.