Fifthly: The 44th rule gives wise directions for maintaining order at the end of class. Here the danger is greater than at the beginning of the session. The boys are not so eager to come to class as after recitation hours to rush to the yard for a game of baseball, or to hasten home for dinner. But it makes certainly a bad impression if the boys run out of class like a pack of hounds turned loose. Therefore, the teacher should be on hand and watch the boys at this critical time. These are not the minutes for correcting stray themes, or for conversation with another professor, or with one of the pupils. The teacher should, as the rule says, take his station at his desk, or at the door, and have his eye on the class room and the corridor. All are to leave the room in silence and order. There is to be no hurry, no running about, no jostling. If the teacher acts thus, all disorder will be prevented far more effectively than by punishments.
§ 5. Politeness and Truthfulness.
Another point intimately connected with discipline consists in the attention given to politeness and good manners.[1] There is nothing more attractive than a class of boys who are lively and, at the same time, truly polite. But the amusements of our boys, baseball and football especially, easily lead to a certain roughness, which is certainly the very opposite of refinement. Further, however attractive frankness and freedom of behavior may be, they frequently degenerate into want of respect. Teachers, elderly persons, and others who must claim the young man's respect, are sometimes approached without due reverence. The greeting con-
- ↑ Sacchini, Paraenesis, art. 14. – Kropf, Ratio et Via, ch. 5, art. 1, § 8.
