“I’ll tell you why you did it, Coith. You thought it would make a little hero of you with all the basketball crowd to be rude and insubordinate to Miss McCord, just now when they all dislike her, because she had the courage to stand by her guns in that affair. It was a case of posing, and the thing has happened to you that does happen sometimes to the poseur—she took you at your word. If you chose to put an end to your relations as teacher and student, she agreed to accept the situation. As I see it, you are out of the class and your own fault it is, too.” Of course in the end Coith came back into the class, after making all due apologies. He had learned the lesson of coöperation; he had learned, too, to subject his love of approbation to a standard of fairness and reciprocity. The instinct for self-gratification often takes the form of a pathological fondness for prominence and the approval of others. In Coith’s case his sense of fairness, courtesy, and submission to rightful authority had all become subordinate to promptings of his vanity and resentment. The course of Mr. Stacey and Miss McCord restored in him the proper sense of the relative importance of the admiration of his fellows and a sound working relation with his teacher. CASE 97 (RURAL SCHOOL) [Sidenote: Preparing for Picnic] Miss Jackman of the Ellensburg rural school and her pupils were having a picnic in the woods. She said: “Who would like to carry my basket?” “I want to.” “I can.” “Let me,” came the response from various pupils. “You may carry it, Tom,” said the teacher. CONSTRUCTIVE TREATMENT After getting the pupils thoroughly interested in the project you are planning, name at once those who are to assist you. Distribute the work so that as many as possible may have a share in the responsibility. COMMENTS Those who had offered their services were hurt at not being chosen. Had the teacher said: “Will you please carry my basket, Tom?” there would have been a less poignant feeling among the others that favoritism had been shown by the teacher. ILLUSTRATION (RURAL SCHOOL) [Sidenote: Organize Carefully] Mr. Merryman was the jolliest teacher the children of the Concord rural school ever had had. No other teacher gave the children so many “outings”; no other ever placed so much responsibility upon the pupils on such vacations, and never before had responsibility seemed so delightful as since Mr. Merryman came to the school. “He’s just like his name,” declared the children. One reason why Mr. Merryman had such success in organizing little excursions which to other teachers were most unwelcome bugbears, was that he announced them long enough beforehand to give himself and the children ample time to prepare for details.