Otherwise there
comes a time when mere authority fails to control. It is a good thing to
train children to abide by regulations out of a sense of duty. If duty
and love can be coupled, the combination makes for permanent
law-abiding. Arbitrary authority and blind obedience have produced
Germany. Strong leadership coupled with democratic co-operation and
loyalty have produced America.
Still another doctrine of discipline rests upon a social appeal. Members
of a group agree that in the interest of everyone's welfare each
individual will subscribe to certain conditions regardless of their
application to him. This principle, fundamental in all democracies, can
safely be trusted to secure desired results in groups mature enough to
assure sound judgment. The sense of justice in the human soul is a safe
guarantee of both liberty and good order. Many of our classes no doubt
could be improved noticeably if we could enlist the co-operation of the
members to the extent that they would assume to govern themselves.
Finally there is the doctrine of interest as a means of maintaining
discipline. This doctrine implies that a teacher should get his class so
interested in doing what he wants it to do that it hasn't any
inclination to do what it ought not to do. This doctrine is not the
pernicious doctrine hinted at earlier in this chapter of cheapening
everything into "easiness.
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