When Miss Murray came to the third grade she found bad conditions as to attention. A street car line went by the school and every time a car passed the children all looked up from their books until it had gone out of sight. [Sidenote: Watching Street cars] Miss Murray at once put up sash-curtains, thick enough effectively to shut out the sight of the street cars. She found the upper sashes nailed shut, as the former teacher had opened the lower sashes only. She had these unnailed, and the shades hung at the window sill instead of from the top of the window. This enabled her to shut out the sight and sound of the street cars pretty effectively. After several months, the children forgot to look out of the window even when they could see the cars; the habit of attention to work had been fixed through the elimination of the lures to curiosity. ILLUSTRATION 2 (HIGH SCHOOL) [Sidenote: Visiting Exhibit] Mr. Babbitt, the leading citizen of Hoopeston, had just returned from a long trip to the Orient. As he was wealthy, he had brought back a great many curios and art treasures; and as he was public-spirited, he arranged to exhibit these in the large assembly room of the high school building, and to lecture about them to any who cared to come. While the exhibits were being arranged, the high school students did not use the assembly hall, as Mr. Babbitt, aided by several assistants, was busy unpacking and putting things into place. However, the students came to Mr. Tower, the principal, to ask that they be allowed to go into the assembly room at noon to look at things. “I hardly know what to do about this,” said Mr. Tower, in chapel, “but I feel that young people of your age and training should be able to go to see these things, enjoy them, and not injure or even handle them at all. Therefore, I asked Mr. Babbitt if you might go in at noon, after giving a pledge that you would not touch or handle anything. He said he would trust you if I could, and so we have decided that you may go into the room at noon, by giving a signed promise to this effect to the servant whom Mr. Babbitt leaves there at the door.” This plan worked excellently. Practically the whole school spent the greater part of their noon hours for several days looking at the quaint and lovely things Mr. Babbitt had brought. Not one thing was hurt or even touched, although a small vase was broken by accident when some boys, examining the contents of a temporary shelf, fell over each other in their eagerness. But the boys volunteered to pay for this loss, and Mr. Babbitt was entirely satisfied. Mr. Tower could not have trusted his students so fully had not he and many other teachers and parents taught ideals of self-control and honor for a long time preceding this test. The principal’s talk and the written pledge were means of bringing and keeping before the students’ minds the ideal of controlled curiosity, of a desire to touch inhibited by the will.