Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/129

122, discipline is essential. If a group of forty children once break from the control of the teacher, all is lost,—Bedlam is the result. In consequence all such teachers, but particularly the younger and less experienced, are laboring under a constant strain. The problem with them is not "How shall I teach?" but, "How shall I maintain discipline?" This discipline becomes irksome. It is, for the average child, a burden grievous to bear, and, revolting under this burden, the children leave school, preferring the comparative freedom of the factory and the mine.

After a careful study of 666 children who left school in New York City during 1908, Mary Flexner concludes:—"The reasons assigned [for leaving school] show that the children are not in harmony with the present school environment."

Good work is impossible and interest must necessarily flag, in dark, poorly ventilated, and overcrowded classrooms. When the