Apply the principles of suggestion and approval. Some morning, say tomorrow morning, when all the pupils before you are fresh and in a good mood to have suggestions lodged, rise from your chair, walk around in front of your desk, smiling, and say something like this: “I want to tell you how _proud_ I am this morning.” Pause at this point, allowing your pupils to wonder what you are going to say next. Then continue: “A visitor came in to one of my classes a few days ago and I noticed a good number of my pupils kept right on with their work—their heads straight forward, instead of turning around and bending their necks out of joint trying to see the visitors, as they do in some schools. Now, a visitor always notices this. I went into a school once where everyone twisted his neck so much that I wondered if there wasn’t something wrong with all of them. Then I have visited other schools where the pupils kept right on with their work and it looked just fine. The teacher seemed to be proud because the pupils showed such good manners. I tell you I’m going to watch from now on and when I see everyone in the room continuing his work when visitors come, I’ll feel like going to my desk and raising every one of the grades a notch or two because it’s a good trait in any school.” The next time a visitor comes, a greater number of pupils will pay attention to their work than before, so on the following morning, again approve your pupils for their good manners in the presence of yesterday’s visitor, bringing out the point that you noticed several more yesterday than you ever did before. One of the most important points about this method is that those who stare are practically ignored. They are not approved nor even talked about. In order for them to be included in that class which is _noticed_, they must fall into line. It is important that you spend the smallest amount of time possible with the visitor when he comes. Simply show him a good seat and then go about your work as if he were not present. Many teachers are responsible for their pupils paying so much attention to the visitor because they are continually going back and talking with the visitor, explaining various things to him during a class recitation. In other words, the direction of the teacher’s attention largely determines the direction of the pupil’s attention. COMMENTS Too much attention can easily be devoted to a small matter of this sort. Miss Tenney, by a little manipulation, could have placed this staring at visitors where it belonged—in a subordinate relation to the remainder of her work. Her own absorption prevented her from properly instructing her pupils when guests were absent. A small neglect of this sort may nearly undo a very fine piece of work; surely this will be the case if the children discover that they have free rein under certain circumstances. ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL) [Sidenote: Greeting the Visitor]