s if eager to get back to his work.
Instead of staring at the stranger within his gates with the impudent
curiosity so often noticed in children of this age, he greeted me
pleasantly and wished to know if I were looking for the principal. When
I told him that I was, he informed me that the principal was on the
upper floor, but that he would go for him at once. He did, and returned
a moment later saying that the head of the school would be down
directly, and asked me to wait in the office, into which he ushered me
with all the courtesy of a private secretary. Then he excused himself
and went directly to his room.

Now that might have been an exceptional case, but I found out later that
is was not. Wherever I went in that school, the pupils were polite and
courteous and respectful. That was part of their education. It should be
part of every child's education. But many schools are too busy teaching
reading, writing, and arithmetic, and others are too busy preserving
discipline, and others are too busy coquetting for the good will of
their pupils and trying to amuse them--too busy to give heed to a set of
habits that are of paramount importance in the life of civilized
society. This school took up the matter of training in good manners as
an essential part of its duty, and it accomplished this task quickly and
effectively. It did it by utilizing the opportunities presented in the
usual course of school work. It took a little time and a little
attention, for good manners cannot be acquired incidentally any more
than the multiplication tables can be acquired incidentally; but it
utilized the everyday opportunities of the schoolroom, and did not make
morals and manners the subject of instruction for a half-hour on Friday
afternoons to be completely forgotten during the rest of the week.

When the principal took me through the school, I noted everywhere a
happy and courteous relation between pupils and teachers. They spoke
pleasantly to one another. I heard no nagging or scolding. I saw no one
sulking or pouting or in bad temper. And yet there was every evidence of
respect and obedience on the part of the pupils. There was none of that
happy-go-lucky comradeship which I have sometimes seen in other modern
schools, and which leads the pupil to understand that his teacher is
there to gain his interest, not to command his respectful attention.
Pupils were too busy with their work to talk much with one another. They
were sitting