Page:The Sunday Eight O'Clock (1916).pdf/82

 the best service I had ever done him during the four years of his undergraduate course was to leave him alone—to refrain from giving him advice when he knew I wanted to do so and when there was evident reason for it, to keep from calling him to account for his wrong doing when he knew that I was aware of what he had done and disapproved of it. If I had reproved him he would have argued; as I did not, he changed his conduct.

It is a difficult lesson for parents and teachers and organization officers to learn, but it is often true, nevertheless, that the best way to reform children is not to notice them; the best way to teach students a lesson is to set them an example and say nothing; the best way to impress freshmen is not to lay down so many rules and to preach less. I have often felt that the reason men outside of organizations frequently have a higher scholastic average than those inside, is that, like the old lady's children, they have