Pupil: Why, sir, to learn. Master: And tell me, what must I do if you are all to learn? Pupil: I suppose you must teach us. Master: Well now, what is a school? Pupil: This is a school. Master: You mean the building? Pupil: Yes, of course. Master: Don’t you think I could teach and you could learn in a field? Pupil: Well, I suppose we could. Master: Would that be a school? (No answer). It would. You see the building and the writing over the door have nothing to do with it. _We_ make the school. For if to-morrow the authorities were to send us to a barn and put some poor people here—— Pupil (interrupting): Sir, I know, it would be a poorhouse. Master: And the barn where we went? Pupil: It would be the school. Master: Right. Then who makes the school? Pupil: The teacher and the pupils. Master: Right. But let us go on talking about the same case. The authorities say that this place must be given up to house poor old people. Now I think that a lot of strong boys like you could carry the benches, blackboard and so on to the barn. Pupil: Of course we could. Master: And I might say to you: “Come this afternoon, all of you, and let us do it.” Pupil: Very well, we would come, at least those who live near. Master: And we would start teacher and pupils together, carrying the things. Pupil: Yes, sir. Master: Would that be a school? Pupil: Of course not, sir. Master: Then it is not enough to have pupils and teacher together to make a school. Pupil: No, sir. Master: What is missing, then? Pupil: Why, sir, we carry benches and things, and that is not a school. Master: Well, what exactly is a school? Pupil: ... I don’t know. Master: I’ll tell you. It is my teaching and your learning that makes a school. Do you see? Pupil: Oh, yes. Master: But if it is actual teaching and learning that make a school, what happens if the master is a bad master and does not actually teach anything? Pupil: Well ... I suppose it is not a real school ... Master: It is not a school at all. Pupil: I see. Master: Now if a boy does not want to learn at all—— Pupil: He is a bad pupil. Master: He is not a pupil at all, as long as he persists in not learning. Pupil: Of course he is not. Master: And if he makes a noise and prevents the others from learning, what then? Pupil: He oughtn’t, sir. Master: I know he oughtn’t. But if he does not see that he oughtn’t, and goes on doing it, what happens? Pupil: He prevents the others from learning and the master from teaching. Master: Very good, and what is the result for the school, if, as you see, it is the actual teaching and learning which makes the school? Pupil: It is just as before, when the Master was bad, it stops being a school.