We lay great stress, especially in the Children's Room, on the
importance of a perfectly quiet and controlled manner in the
assistants. The training that our children have received in the
Story Hour, we feel, to be very valuable to them. This is a
special privilege to which they are admitted and they recognize
it as such. They have learned to come in and to go out on Story
Hour evenings with as much quietness as one can expect from a
body of children, and they are very courteous in the Story
Hours, saying a quiet "Thank you" to the story-teller instead of
indulging in clapping of hands, stamping of feet, etc. These
things help, I think, in the general control of the room, and I
think that Miss Cowing (who is not here now to speak for herself)
has occasionaly disciplined some child by refusing a Story Hour
ticket because of misbehavior in the room.
Mr. A. L. Peck, Gloversville, N. Y.
This institution has been in existence over twenty-eight years
and during all this time, there has been no trouble with
discipline. I am not willing to say that our young people or even
our older ones, are better than those of other places, but from
the very beginning everybody was given to understand that they
had to live up to a certain decorum, that is, men and boys have
to take off their hats and disturbing conversation is not
permitted.
While we do not hesitate to speak to any who need reminding that
reading rooms are for serious purposes, in all these years we
have sent out of the rooms, three adults and five boys. Our
janitor is sworn in as a special policeman and everybody knows
that not only prompt ejection from the room, but also discipline
before the recorder in the city courts would be forthcoming in
consequence of any serious breach of order.
I have never hesitated to make it known that the readers' rights
must be respected and that reading and studying is serious work
and our people have always supported me in this, fully as much as
the board of directors. I do believe that as soon as people
understand this, there will be no trouble, but there must be no
vacillating policy.
The trouble we have occasionally with boys, mainly, is that they
try to be smart and will deliberately put books on the shelves
bottom side up, but one of the youngsters was caught in the act
and promptly sent home. His father was notified and fully agreed
with us that the library was no place for such mischief and
promised that his youngster would behave henceforth. This had a
wholesome effect on all the others and there has been no trouble
since.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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