The next morning after opening exercises were over, her glance over the room showed her every head bent over a book. The room was so quiet that Robert Woods’ wheezy breathing (he had a very bad cold) was distinctly audible. Then the stillness was broken by John. He saw Miss James looking at him and asked a question about the lesson. Most of the children looked up from their work, shifted their positions, or gave some other evidence of having noticed the break. In a few minutes someone else asked permission to leave the room. And so on through the period. Not until she had watched for several periods did Miss James realize the stir each one of these speeches aloud made, and how frequent they were. Then she saw that the speaking aloud disease had reached an advanced stage in her school-room and that it, and it alone, was responsible for the seemingly causeless deterioration in her pupils’ work. CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT Do not sit still in the front of the room during a study period and let children ask questions whenever they please. Require them to raise their hands and then go to them and settle the difficulty quietly without disturbing the rest of the school. Develop the social consciousness in the child as early as possible. Make him realize that, for the general welfare of the whole school, it is worth his while to forego satisfying his need immediately. COMMENTS In this case the teacher was a good one and a good disciplinarian, but one minor weakness in her fabric of control had undermined all the rest of her good work. Work, no matter how earnest it may be, can not be constantly interrupted without suffering the consequences. The inspiration is gone and interest flags. The fullest and best work of which children are capable can never be finished on time if it is accomplished under the stress of interruptions and distracted attention. A steady noise, even a clatter or roar, does not disturb a worker after he becomes accustomed to it. It is the occasional outburst, the sudden breaking in upon a silence, that confuses the mind. ILLUSTRATION [Sidenote: Exhausted Nerves] A young engineer who was accustomed to working in a downtown office in a big city was transferred to a branch office in a small town. In the city he had been surrounded by the continuous clatter of typewriters and adding-machines, the noise of the traffic in the street below and the boom of elevated trains just outside the window. Because these sounds were steady and relatively constant, the man did not notice them. He paid no heed, though his work required intense concentration and uninterrupted thought.