LITTLE STUDIES IN COOPERATION 37 



leadership or in loyalty to leaders. A person is a born leader 

 just as truly as he is a born teacher, doctor, or actor, no more 

 and no less. To work in the highest sense cooperatively one 

 must be trained. Since we so glibly say that we are educating 

 children for life, a timely question arises, Are we educating 

 them for the cooperative or for the competitive life? and, 

 putting aside any reasons we may have for pursuing one or 

 the other of these two courses, should we not in justice to 

 society be consistent ? 



On scrutinizing the beautiful fabric of life in the school- 

 room, do we not discover, running through it, many ugly com- 

 petitive threads ? Look, for instance, at the whole system of 

 school prizes, - these still exist, even though they mas- 



querade under varies names. There are competitive examina- 

 tions, rank lists, graded seating, promotions, and marks, — 

 for marks are ever with us. Competition, we may conclude, 

 is, on the whole, antisocial. The boy or girl, a social creature 

 by nature, is through the arts of the schoolroom molded into 

 the " model scholar." Perhaps his most conspicuous trait 

 hinges on habitually minding his own business. 



" Don't you find kindergarten children inclined to be rest- 

 less ?" said a visitor to a sour-looking primary teacher, whose 

 class, had been sitting all too long in the " first position." 



" Only the first day or two, for I mold them — mold them," 

 she answered. 



The Procrustean methods formerly used in such transfor- 

 mations are by a very short span of years removed from our 

 own day. President Briggs, 1 for example, reminds us that in 

 his own school days " the boy who turned his head round to 

 the boy behind had to stand on' the platform with a spring 

 clothespin on his nose till he saw another boy turn his head 

 and transferred the clothespin to him." 



1 Le Baron Briggs, School, College, and Character. 



