The weak teacher dares not risk himself to laugh when the class or room is seized by a fit of fun. For the pupils it is highly interesting to watch the struggles of the teacher to avoid doing that which they know he likely wants to do. In refusing to participate in their mood he repels them. He puts himself out of their group; he takes a position as a critic and as an alien. If one leads pupils to make proper use of their talents, he fulfills his truest function as an educator. Developing, restraining from excesses, guiding in the profitable use of the natural endowments of the child—these are the necessary duties of every high-minded instructor. We must learn that the impartation of school facts is but one means of equipping a child for taking his place as a prepared member of society. Whatever natural gifts a child has must be dealt with in school life. Those that are dormant must be drawn out; those that are already functioning must be directed. When a boy or girl fully realizes that the teacher’s primary thought is helpfulness, many difficulties will disappear. ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL) Jennie Leavitt was a high-strung, irrepressible, well-meaning girl far on in her teens. It was her custom to announce firm adherence to good moral standards when such matters were up for discussion. Her motives, moreover, were seldom open to question. [Sidenote: Isolating Whisperers] She entered class at the opening of the term with an established whispering habit. Her classmates, one by one, were moved from her vicinity so that, finally, only one was left with whom she could chat. Her breaches of good order were so innocent that any suggestion of coercion seemed inappropriate; the removal of her companions reduced the problem to small dimensions. The teacher had but one short step to take: to give her remaining companion another seat in some unobtrusive way and to make enough assignments of written work to afford a means of expression for the active mind of the school girl. This could easily be done because of the excellent mutual understanding between the whisperer and her teacher. A school should offer conditions and surroundings that are as conducive as possible to study, to concentration of the pupil’s effort. Too many teachers put plenty of emphasis on the physical factors in their pupils’ surroundings—ventilation, posture, light, etc.—but allow their rooms to degenerate into a perfect hubbub of noisy confusion in which study is impossible. CASE 108 (FOURTH GRADE) Joseph Levy and Sadie Higgins, two pupils in the fourth grade of the Pittsburgh Avenue School, Minneapolis, were talking without permission, when Miss Bowen, who was conducting an arithmetic lesson on the other side of the room, saw them. [Sidenote: Talking Without Permission]