n become passive and die
mentally for want of activity. The true teacher will allow his pupils to
wrestle with their problems without interruption until they arrive at a
conclusion. If some pupil "goes into the ditch" and flounders he should
usually be allowed to get out by his own efforts as best he can. Here is
the place where the teacher "should be cruel only to be kind."

=The Button Illustration.=--Another illustration may help to bring to us
one of the characteristics of the really good teacher. When children, we
have all, no doubt, amused ourselves by putting a string through two
holes of a button and, after twirling it around between our thumbs,
drawing it steadily in measured fashion so as to make the button spin
and hum. If the string is drawn properly this will be successful;
otherwise it will become a perfect snarl. This common experience has
often seemed to me to typify two different kinds of school. In one,
where there is a great teacher "drawing" the school properly, you will
hear, incidentally, the hum of industry, for all are active. A school
which may be thus characterized is always better than the one
characterized by silence and inaction. A little noise--in fact a
considerable noise--is not inconsistent with a good school, and it
frequently happens that what we call "the silence of death" is due to
fear, which is always paralyzing.

=The Chariot Race.=--Still another illustration may help to make clear
what is meant by a good school and a good teacher. Lew Wallace, in his
account of the chariot race, makes Ben Hur and his rival approach the
goal with their horses neck and neck. He says that Ben Hur, in getting
the best out of his steeds, _sent his will out along the reins_. A
really spirited horse responds to the throb of his driver's hand upon
the rein. A good driver gets the best out of his horse; he and his horse
are in accord and the horse takes as much pride in the performance as
the driver does. This is analogously true of a good school.

The schoolroom is not a complete democracy--in fact, it is not a
democracy at all in the lower grades; it is or should be a benevolent
autocracy. The teacher within the schoolroom is the law-making body, the
interpreter of the laws, and the executor of the laws. The good teacher
does all this justly and kindly, and so elicits the admiration, the
respect, and the active support of the governed. He sends his will out
along the reins. Some schools--those with g