These broad statements need careful application in particular instances. For example, to answer the questions of an administrator should never be construed as tattling. To relate daily that Charley has been dropping hints of his intention to give Robert a sound thrashing should not be approved under the head of school loyalty; it stands on the level of gossip. Teachers will do well to weigh carefully the attitudes of the conscientious and the over-conscientious pupils of their schools. The sense of duty to their schoolmates and to their teachers sometimes leads them into embarrassing dilemmas. A rough and ready rudeness with them will mark the dull and hardened teacher, who may foster a strained abhorrence of tale-bearing. In the daily experience of the school-room it will be found that tattling usually arises from a distinctly selfish impulse. Perhaps jealousy is the most usual inciting cause. At times there is a standing antagonism between two pupils; the hope of revenge is here the leading impulse to tale-bearing. In other instances mere acquaintance, with neither friendship or antipathy, is to be observed; the eagerness for a sensation such as seeing a boy or girl whipped may lead to reporting minor or major wrongs. [Sidenote: First Grade] The little child who comes to school and tells the teacher and his playmates all the happenings of the home is as annoying as the pupil that is constantly coming to the teacher to tell that a certain pupil did this or that, or, in common school language, tattles. While a few teachers cultivate this practice in pupils, it is right to brand it as one of the most ignoble of habits. Teacher and pupils can be no better off for knowing all that goes on in a certain home. The teacher should tactfully talk of something else—something so interesting as to divert him from his talk about home matters. The habit of tattling or “telling on” other pupils is more annoying and usually gets the pupil who indulges in the habit into ill-repute with the other pupils. It must be admitted that the teacher sometimes needs information from a pupil or pupils to ferret out some misdemeanor. But this should be given only when the teacher asks for it. In the first grade it is almost an exception if the teacher needs to ask pupils to give information to explain some misdemeanor. If the teacher pays no attention to tattling, it will soon stop. The spirit of tattling can be effectively cured, if, when the child tells on a certain pupil, the teacher will turn to the child and ask him if he does not admire some particular trait in the other child. Often the motive for tattling is envy. By asking something about the other child’s good traits, envy will be eradicated, and it will be the exception if the offense is repeated. CASE 117 (SECOND GRADE) Daisy was a talkative child. Her eyes went everywhere and her ears picked up all the news that passed her way. [Sidenote: “Telling on” the Pupils]