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Education
have a high sense of honor; all desire to be treated with confidence
and respect, and this is their right. They should not be led to feel
that they cannot go out or come in without being watched. Suspicion
demoralizes, producing the very evils it seeks to prevent. Instead of
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watching continually, as if suspecting evil, teachers who are in touch
with their pupils will discern the workings of the restless mind, and
will set to work influences that will counteract evil. Lead the youth to
feel that they are trusted, and there are few who will not seek to prove
themselves worthy of the trust.
On the same principle it is better to request than to command; the
one thus addressed has opportunity to prove himself loyal to right prin-
ciples. His obedience is the result of choice rather than compulsion.
The rules governing the schoolroom should, so far as possible,
represent the voice of the school. Every principle involved in them
should be so placed before the student that he may be convinced of its
justice. Thus he will feel a responsibility to see that the rules which he
himself has helped to frame are obeyed.
Rules should be few and well considered; and when once made,
they should be enforced. Whatever it is found impossible to change,
the mind learns to recognize and adapt itself to; but the possibility of
indulgence induces desire, hope, and uncertainty, and the results are
restlessness, irritably, and insubordination.
It should be made plain that the government of God knows no
compromise with evil. Neither in the home nor in the school should
disobedience be tolerated. No parent or teacher who has at heart the
well-being of those under his care will compromise with the stubborn
self-will that defies authority or resorts to subterfuge or evasion in
order to escape obedience. It is not love but sentimentalism that palters
with wrongdoing, seeks by coaxing or bribes to secure compliance,
and finally accepts some substitute in place of the thing required.
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“Fools make a mock at sin.”
Proverbs 14:9
. We should beware of
treating sin as a light thing. Terrible is its power over the wrongdoer.
“His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be
holden with the cords of his sins.”
Proverbs 5:22
. The greatest wrong
done to a child or youth is to allow him to become fastened in the
bondage of evil habit.
The youth have an inborn love of liberty; they desire freedom;
and they need to understand that these inestimable blessings are to be