By means of such little plays Miss Strong taught her mountain boys and girls the more obvious points of good manners. Gradually they learned not to shout to her across the road, to address her by name instead of by the title “Teacher,” and to raise their caps punctiliously when she passed. A few of the fathers, as eager as their children to learn the ways of the world, also learned to salute her courteously; but most of them merely tolerated this innovation as a harmless fancy of the new teacher’s. COMMENTS The use of the dramatic method in dealing with faults based on the exercise of imitative faculties has these recommendations: 1. It presents the new ideal for imitation vividly; it brings it before the children in action, with words and gestures. 2. It overcomes the physical inertia of unusedness through practice. Any one can remember cases in his own childhood in which he resolved to do a certain thing, but failed when the chance came through sheer lack of practice; the unschooled muscles refused to do a new, strange thing. Teachers should be careful to practice the game several times before suggesting that the action be made a part of daily life. 3. It gives a pleasant association to the new idea; the association of play is far more pleasant than that of didactic instruction. Games and plays can be made very interesting and little children love them. ILLUSTRATION 2 (THIRD GRADE) [Sidenote: Slouching] Another example of the effectiveness of the teacher’s own influence in correcting bad habits formed through imitation, is the experience of a teacher in a primary room in Ohio. She noticed the bad posture of her little people on the first day, but was not surprised, as she had known her predecessor to be a woman of slouchy appearance and stooped shoulders, although an excellent teacher in other respects. She said nothing about posture for two weeks, although she took especial pains to stand and sit correctly herself. She hoped that her silent example would effect a change. Silent example does sometimes effect a change, without the need of any word. This is when the imitators are either startled into attention through the spectacular nature of the model offered, or are sensitive to differences in models. In this case the children did not even notice that their new teacher stood differently from their former one, for they were not at all sensitive to the difference between good and bad postures. So Miss Sturdevant began to make her example effective by making it vivid.