The Discipline of the School

neral classes, giving rise to five types or modes of government. While each mode is distinct in its origins, nature, and results, few concrete instances of school Five fundamental government can be classed exactly with any one mode, modes owing to the complex nature of schoolroom life and aims. In actual practice the modes overlap, merging imperceptibly or passing sharply one into another. They represent nodal points in methods of school management, however; they are types of the means used to secure and keep good order and a good spirit in a schoolroom. They predominate at various periods in the development of any one child; they are variously emphasized by different teachers, communities, and ages; they supplement and strengthen one another in a thousand ways. Through all their elaborate inter-relations, however, the fundamental differences in these five modes remain unchanged. In the follow- ing discussion they are treated approximately in the order of their historical development, and in the reverse order of their probable worth in bringing about ideal school conditions. The natural origin of school authority I. The Mode Of Absolute Authority Pedagogy in its simplest form is the oldest science practiced by man. The man who mastered the first rude art taught it to his children and his neighbors, and because he knew more than they, found himself in a position of authority among them. Greatest of all men was Prometheus; and every unknown fire- brin...