Chapter IV.

_MANNERS IN SCHOOL._

FIRST TWO YEARS.

ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS.

LESSON 7.

=Purpose.=--To show the necessity of good manners in school.

=Method.=--A guessing lesson.

_The Lesson._

Shall we have a guessing game to-day?

“Yes’m.”

Very well. You may guess, Arthur, why I like to have a boy enter this room quietly.

“Because you have told him to.”

What is it to do as I have told him?

“It is minding you.”

You may guess, Mary, what I should think of a boy who came in noisily.

“That he was rude.”

And the other boy was----?

“Polite.”

Then if he minded me, it made him----?

“Polite.”

You may guess, George, why I like to have Johnnie pick up my crayon when I drop it.

“You want it.”

Yes, but I could get it for myself. Why do I like to have Johnnie do it for me?

“It shows how kind he is.”

If he should not pick it up, would it be because he was unkind?

“Perhaps he wouldn’t think.”

What have we learned about those who try to think of doing others a kindness?

“That they are polite.”

You may guess how I feel toward Johnnie when he is kind and polite to me.

“You like him.”

May I guess that you like me when I am kind and polite to you?

“Yes, Miss B.”

Suppose we should always be kind and polite to each other here in school, what kind of a school should we have?

“A good school.”

“A pleasant school.”

Then we must try and make our manners in school good. I must be polite to you, and you polite to me.

LESSON 8.

=Purpose.=--To show that regularity of attendance at school is a mark of good manners.

=Method.=--A conversation.

_The Lesson._

You may read a part of yesterday’s lesson, Susie.

“I can’t.”

Why not?

“I was not here yesterday, and I don’t know the lesson.”

Why were you not here?

“I did not wish to come.”

What did you lose by not coming?

“My lessons.”

Does that make any hard work for me, Susie?

“Yes’m. You will have to teach the lesson again.”

What will the rest of the class do while I am teaching you this lesson?

“They will have to wait for me.”

What is thought of a school when the pupils do not come steadily?

“That it is not a good school.”

Tell me, then, why it is unfair for pupils to stay away from school, when they can come.

“It makes extra work for the teacher.”

“It keeps the rest of the class waiting.”

“It gives the school a bad name.”

Yes, and all this is unkind, and if unkind----?

“It is impolite.”

LESSON 9.

=Purpose.=--To show that punctuality of attendance at school is a sign of good manners.

=Method.=--A contrast drawn and lesson deduced.

_The Lesson._

It is not a little boy in our room of whom I am about to tell you. I hope there is not such a child in _our_ room. But there is a boy _somewhere_ who has to be called and called in the morning, and then he yawns, and takes another nap, and puts off getting out of bed as long as he possibly can. He is late at breakfast, late in doing his morning’s work, and late at school. He goes into his school-room after the rest are at their work, and disturbs the teacher and the children, feels very unhappy, and perhaps gets a mark that he does not like.

There is another boy _somewhere_, and I guess right here in this room. _He_ does not wait for his mother to call him, but when it is time he springs out of bed, and is ready in time for his breakfast, and gets his work done, and starts for school with a happy face, and arrives there in time for a game with his school-mates and a pleasant word with his teacher before school begins. Which one of these boys would you rather be, John?

“The one who is not late.”

Why?

“Because it makes trouble when we come in late.”

How does it make trouble?

“We do not mind you, for you have told us not to be late.”

“Sometimes you have to stop the lesson and help us take off our things.”

“And show us the place in the book.”

And how about the class?

“They look at us when we come in, and forget their lesson.”

If you are unkind enough not to mind me, and to disturb the class, what are your manners?

“Bad.”

Tell me how it is if you try not to be late.

“We are kind and polite.”

LESSON 10.

=Purpose.=--To show that cleanliness is one sign of good manners in school.

=Method.=--A conversation.

_The Lesson._

You may tell me what you do in getting ready to go on a visit.

“We bathe.”

“And comb our hair.”

“And clean our nails.”

“And put on our best clothes.”

Why should you do all this?

“Because we wish to look nice.”

Why do you care to look nice?

“People see us.”

What of that?

“We ought to make ourselves as nice as we can to other people.”

“They like us better if we are clean.”

Then what is one reason why you make yourselves tidy?

“To make people like us.”

Are there any people here whom you wish to like you?

“Yes, Miss B., you and our school-mates.”

Tell me one way to make us like you.

“To keep ourselves clean.”

“And our clothes clean.”

If you do this with the idea of pleasing others, what can we say of you?

“We are polite.”

LESSON 11.

=Purpose.=--To show that care in keeping the school-room clean is a sign of good manners.

=Method.=--A conversation.

_The Lesson._

There is a rug at the door, children. Why is it there?

“We are to clean our shoes on it when they are muddy.”

Jack did not know, did he, when he came in? What is the use of cleaning your shoes?

“It keeps the floor clean.”

How else can you keep the floor clean?

“We need not throw paper on it.”

“Nor anything else.”

And why keep the floor clean?

“That our room may be nice.”

“You wish us to keep it clean.”

Once in a while some little children are careless about it. Do you suppose they are thinking about you or me?

“No, Miss B., neither one.”

Then we must call them impolite.

In what way, then, can you show good manners?

“By trying to keep our school-room neat and clean.”

SUBJECTS FOR ADDITIONAL LESSONS.

Care of school furniture.

Care of halls, piazzas, walls.

Care of school grounds.

Care of books.

Economy in using what is furnished by the school.

Care in using borrowed articles and in returning them.

Only quiet conduct permissible in the school-room at any time.

LESSON 12.

=Purpose.=--To show how pupils should conduct themselves toward their teachers.

=Method.=--A conversation.

_The Lesson._

Suppose when I wished to speak to you I should call you _boy_ instead of Harry, how would you like it?

“I shouldn’t like it.”

Well, I might call you _pupil_?

“I shouldn’t like that either.”

How would it do to call you _child_, Mary?

“No one would know which child.”

What must I call any of you that you may know who is meant?

“You must call us by our names.”

Do you like your own name?

“Yes’m.”

Do you suppose I like my name?

“Yes’m.”

Then what should you do when you speak to your teacher?

“We should call you by your real name.”

Why?

“Because it is polite if you wish it.”

_Note._--A teacher’s name should be taught to pupils when they first enter school.

SUBJECTS FOR ADDITIONAL LESSONS.

1. Rendering assistance to teachers.

2. Care in not interrupting a teacher.

3. Kind treatment of school-mates.

4. Respectful treatment of the janitor.

5. Respectful treatment of visitors.

6. Respectful treatment of those who address the school.

_Note._--Subjects for many lessons may be found in Reminders,