When children are not supplied with the necessary equipment for their work and are too poor to buy for themselves make an appeal to the board of education asking them to purchase the material needed, which material should be considered the property of the school and left there from year to year. Most states require that the school furnish books and equipment for all who are unable to buy them. Show by your own example that poor people are just as desirable for companions as rich ones, other things being equal. See to it that the children of poor parents be made to forget, while at school, that they are different from others. See to it that democracy reigns on the playground. Supervise all play. Do not foster the borrowing habit. COMMENTS If children are unable to buy books, allowing them to borrow daily is a source of annoyance to both borrower and lender. Besides it daily emphasizes the contrast in the financial condition between the richer and the poorer. This is wrong. It fosters haughtiness in the one and undue humiliation in the other. While you are supervising play you can easily manage to have the neglected children drawn into play and even chosen for the enviable parts in the games. It largely depends upon the teacher’s influence whether the public school is a leveler of false barriers or a hotbed where selfishness is cultivated. The borrowing habit, if fostered even among children of equal rank, teaches a disregard for the property rights of others. Americans are especially lax in their thought and behavior relative to property rights, and the public schools can do the nation a great service by giving its children correct notions concerning appropriation without ownership, and in selfishness as contrasted with altruism, in both rich and poor. The rich often enjoy display and the poor retaliate by vandalism. Both wrongs are the outgrowth of selfishness. ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL) [Sidenote: Invoking Fairies] Margaret Blake lived not far from the Lone Star rural school. Her father had bought much land years before which had so increased in value that he was very rich. Many people in the Lone Star district were tenants on his farms. Margaret’s mother taught her that she was better than other children and must not “mix” with them more than absolutely necessary. As soon as she was old enough she was to go to a “select” school of her own “class” of people. Miss Coleman saw the situation the first day of school. Margaret’s selfishness was manifested by her selection of the best seat, the display on her desk of numerous and costly aids for her work, her haughty demeanor and her frequent references to what her mother said she need not do. Whenever she spoke of her mother’s wishes she emphasized the “I” in a way to show her difference from others.