Page:The Life and Works of Christopher Dock.djvu/132

120 more easily appeased than adults. When children become angered at school or on the way there, and it is shown that both combatants are wrong, each one's fault is pointed out and the punishment for each defined, and also meted out if they are unwilling to make peace. Thereupon they are placed together on the punishment seat, apart from the other children until they are willing to make up; if not, deserved punishment will follow. But it rarely happens that they are put on the punishment seat. They prefer shaking hands, and then the case is adjusted. If this were the case among adults, and if they were as willing to forgive and forget,

I am further asked how I teach the children to refrain from talking, and train them to silence. To this I reply, that it is the hardest lesson for children to learn, and they would hardly do it of their own free will. It takes them long to learn to speak, and having learned they are loath to give up the privilege. But nothing more edifying can be taught children than that there is a time to speak and a time to keep silent, and none more difficult to instil. Indeed, it would seem that we grown ones have not learned this lesson too well ourselves, for we should often be more careful when to speak and when to keep