54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



At this point I was called from the room, "but I learned that 

 each member of the class promised to do his duty by Ward and 

 Frank if they remained in the class. I learned that these boys 

 were told by Mr. Norton that their class voted to retain them. 

 The boys promised to try to do their duty. Mr. Norton told them 

 that boys reported that they had a good time when they talked 

 with him in his office. He was glad they had a good time, he also 

 enjoyed it ; but now that they had given their word of honor to 

 try to do their duty, he thought he ought to have evidence that 

 there had been more than a good time. " What shall we do, Mr. 

 Norton ? " " Anything you like." The boys conferred, then 

 wrote and signed a promise, which they gave their principal and 

 asked him to read to their mates that they might know that they 

 were in earnest. After this they were returned to their room, 

 which is in charge of an apprentice or practice teacher. 



A few days after I visited the class and found Frank and 

 Ward doing well. Later they relapsed somewhat. During this 

 relapse I met Mr. Norton and reported it to him. He smiled 

 hopefully and said : " Young persons do not move steadily toward 

 the desired haven ; they drift, adverse winds sweep over them ; 

 in fact, their progress is very similar to that of adults. I do not 

 ask how far on the way my pupils are, but which way they are 

 tending. Frank and Ward are tending toward the haven. I 

 will see them, ask them how they are doing, encourage where 

 I can, remind them of their promissory note in my pocket, warn 

 them if I must. We are on the up-grade. Character-build- 

 ing is a slow process ; have you not found it so in your own 

 case ? " " Yes," was my reply. " But, Mr. Norton, why do chil- 

 dren so hate to go into that room, so hate to vote to have their 

 mates go there when they frankly say it is for the good of the 

 pupils who go, and for the class relieved for a time of their pres- 

 ence ? " 



" Because they are coming to appreciate character, to admire 

 the person who can govern himself. They see a difference be- 

 tween the men in prison who do not use whisky because they can 

 not get it, and the men outside who do not use it because they 

 will not. They are feeling the dignity of freedom and the respon- 

 sibility that accompanies it. They look upon their class-room as a 

 place where the pupil is free free to do his own choosing. When 

 he shows by persistent wrong-doing that he can not be trusted to 

 choose, he goes to ' that room ' where another chooses for him 

 and enforces his choice, if need be, by the use of the rod. The 

 more strength for right choice the pupils get, the more reluctant 

 they are to vote their mates destitute of power or determination 

 to choose wisely, which they do when they banish them to that 

 room." 



