"In our zeal to control the child,some have lost sight of the fact that it is quite as important to teach the child to control himself;that if he is to become a good citizen,he cannot learn too early to respect the rights of others."At a meeting of the Massachusetts Library Club,reported in Public Libraries,v.12,p.362(Nov.1907),Miss Harriet H.
Stanley of Brookline said of "Discipline in a Children's Room,"that unnatural restraint was to be avoided,but the restraint required for the common good was wholesome,and that children were more,rather than less,comfortable under it,when it was exercised with judgment and in a kindly spirit.
"Judgment comes with experience....As far as you are able,be just.If your watchfulness fails sometimes to detect the single offender in a group of children and you must send out the group to put an end to some mischief,say so simply,and they will see that they suffer not from your hard heartedness,but from the culprit's lack of generosity or from the insufficiency of their devices for concealing him.Be philosophical.Most disturbance is only mischief and properly treated will be outgrown.Stop it promptly,but don't lose your temper,and don't get worked up.To the juvenile mind,'getting a rise'out of you is no less exhilarating than the performance which occasions it.Habitually deny them this gratification and mischief loses its savor.
"Talk little about wrongdoing.Don't set forth to a child the error of his ways when the 'ways'are in process of being exhibited,and the exhibitor is fully conscious of their nature.
Choose another time--a lucid interval--for moral suasion.
"When children are intentionally troublesome,the simplest means of discipline is exclusion from the room;when necessary,formal exclusion for a definite period with a written notice to parents.
The authority of the library should be exercised in the occasional cases where it is needed,both for the wrongdoer's own good and for the sake of the example to others.
"Provided you are just and sensible and good-tempered,your patrons will respect the library more and like you none the less for exacting from them suitable behavior.We talk a good deal about the library as a place of refuge for boys and girls from careless homes,and they do deserve consideration from us,but to learn a proper regard for public law and order is as valuable as any casual benefit from books.The children of conscientious parents whether poor or well-to-do also deserve something at our hands,and we owe it to them to maintain a respectable standard of conduct for them to share.Let us be hospitable and reasonable,but let us be courageous enough to insist that the young citizen treat the library with the respect due to a municipal institution."It has been impossible to publish in full all of the replies to the circular letter sent out,but as much as possible has been incorporated in this report,believing that each situation delineated may give helpful hints toward the solution of this general difficulty.The list of questions is given in the synopsis appended to the admirable and helpful report contributed by the chief of the children's department in Pittsburgh.
Miss Frances Jenkins Olcott,Pittsburgh After ten years of experience we find our most difficult question of discipline arises when the older boys and girls come into the library.They usually come in the evening and we have the greatest trouble with the boys.Sometimes we suspect that our trouble with the boys is due to the influence of the girls,who know how to keep quiet and yet make confusion!
The question of discipline depends largely on the district in which a branch is placed and also on the planning and equipment of the children's room--in fact of the whole branch building,and on the personal attention of the branch librarian toward the children.
In answer to question ten I might say that everything depends on the children's librarian's judgment and also on the children.
Some children come into the library to be sent home.They wish to see how many times they can make mischief,and it is really a pleasure to them to have you send them out.In other cases children are much mortified by being sent from the room.It is necessary that the children's librarian and her assistants should know the children individually,especially their names and something of their home conditions wherever possible.The handling of "gangs"takes a great deal of tact and sympathy with boys.
On the whole,given a well-planned and equipped children's room,plenty of books,a sufficient number of the right kind of children's librarians who are firm,tactful and sympathetic (having a sense of humor and a wide knowledge of children's books)and by all means a sympathetic branch librarian,the question of discipline will usually smooth itself out.We have one room in a crowded tenement district where the right young woman has produced unusual order.The children come in and go out happy and interested in their books,and there is little need for reproof.This is due largely to the fact that we started in with a determination to have reasonable order and the children learned that to use the room it was necessary to be orderly,and they are much happier and get more from the library.
