“I don’t want to get anyone into trouble,” was Nellie’s stammering reply. [Sidenote: Refusal to “Tell”] “You’ll have to tell if I get hold of you,” was the menacing rejoinder. “I don’t see how I can,” replied the perplexed girl. The child related her experience at home in order to lighten the load of her troubles. “I didn’t tell because I didn’t want to be mean to the other pupils.” “Would you report a murderer if you saw him when committing a crime?” “Yes; but school is different. No boy or girl in school would tell unless he wanted to be mean. The boys and girls who are naughty want to be let alone. They’ll settle with the teacher their own way. If the teachers want to ask some questions I suppose it’s all right. But they shouldn’t compel answers. What shall I do, mother?” “Don’t lie, child. If you don’t see that you ought to tell on another pupil don’t do it. Prove your goodwill, but turn aside these troublesome questions.” CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT Instead of this farce the principal of this ward school could make this announcement: “It is customary in this school for pupils to make good the damage done in a case like this. If the cost of repairs is too large for them they may come to the office anyway and we will hit upon some plan of getting around the difficulty. “Now I know that seventh graders are responsible for this accident. I have traced that down to a certainty. But I don’t want to know who actually smashed the case. Please order Mr. Selfredge, the hardware man, to make the repairs, and then you settle for the expense and that will end the matter according to the standards of gentlemen.” COMMENTS A teacher has no right to put a child into the predicament of choosing between two conflicting moral codes without explaining the situation and giving due thought to the pupil’s viewpoint. Parents will rightly affirm that a teacher is tactless and incompetent who runs his pupils up into a corner on the matter of tattling. On the other hand, how strong is the appreciation of the teacher or principal who gives opportunity for a dignified moral choice! The appeal to manhood or womanhood never fails to draw forth a response. In some pupils the response is insufficient, but when a wise disciplinarian makes such an appeal he almost invariably gets the desired results. ILLUSTRATION (SEVENTH GRADE) A drawing teacher appeared in a seventh grade room twice a week. It came her turn to suffer from a school prank—pepper scattered on the floor produced an uncontrollable epidemic of sneezing. There was not the least clue to the offender, but the teacher was too proud to thrust the matter into other hands, so she made this announcement: “You can see very well that this sort of thing is intolerable. We must see that no one reports this. I want to ask the seventh grade to hold a special class meeting and dispose of the trouble the best they know how.”