12. Shop Conduct. In conduct, a. boy at the manual training center should be governed by the same rules that obtain in the regular school, with slight exception.

It is sometimes argued that shopwork provides an opportunity for free and natural or unrestricted action on the part of the pupils. This they argue is a distinct advantage of manual training over the restraint of the academic classroom and results in greater development educationally. Theoretically this seems reasonable. Practically, it soon becomes evident that young pupils, such as our manual training boys, are lacking sadly in judgment in the power to discriminate between liberty and license in shop conduct. Allow them the privilege of talking to one another about necessary matters without asking permission of the instructor and you must be a strong teacher to prevent abuse of the privilege. To allow unrestricted conversation, however, is decidedly bad. Even with grown men and women working in shops, only restricted conversation is allowed. The reason is evident. If with men and women of supposed judgment there must be insistence on order and system, how much more so with immature boys.

Have definite signals and insist upon their being heeded promptly. The three bells used in the regular school work serve well to open the school. One, the opening of the doors; two, the call to order; three, the tardy bell.

Some instructors do not allow the pupils to enter the shop - do not open the shop - until the second bell rings. Other instructors allow the boys to enter the shop at the first bell and begin work as soon as they like. The first method is used mainly in large cities where large classes have to be cared for and where the boys are morally inacute. The second is preferable in some ways. It allows the pupil to make the most of his time. It has the disadvantage in that it requires the instructor's immediate supervision after the first bell, or else allows the pupil to commit errors because of no supervision. As a rule it is the boy who most needs the extra time who does not make use of the privilege.

Of course, where pupils are not admitted to the shop before the second bell, provision must be made for taking care of them inside the building in inclement weather.

To fully appreciate the merits of either practice it should be explained that each boy is to be held responsible for the tools at his bench and the class as a whole for all other tools. Each boy is expected to look over his tools upon coming into the shop that he may report any tool that is missing or damaged. Should he fail to make a report until late in the period, or not at all he should be made to feel the responsibility. Broken or lost tools should be paid for as the case merits.

At the close of the period, all tools are to be in their places ready for the instructor's inspection. It should be explained to the pupils that this inspection is not to relieve them of responsibility but merely to assist them in avoiding an oversight.

Unnecessary damage to the bench is to be reported and the responsibility fixed as is that concerning tools.

At the ring of the tardy bell every boy should be in his place with his material, ready for work. Since the recitation generally follows the tardy bell, that should be the signal for quietness and attention such as is demanded in the regular schoolroom. The instructor will have marked his attendance by the time the pupils have got in order and the recitation may begin at once.

Insist upon continued attention during the recitation and demonstration. The author has made it a point to call upon any boy showing signs of inattention to recite. No boy likes to be considered a dullard and usually he will confess to inattention after which the proper note can be made of it.

Where the full half-day is given to shopwork, a five minute rest period is advisable. This allows the boys to relax and to make known to one another their ideas. Where possible, they should be allowed to move about and converse freely. Under no circumstances, however, should there be allowed scuffling or loud talk, either at rest or before the tardy bell. Aside from the damage that might be done themselves and the equipment, there should be instilled a feeling of respect for the shop environment.

The instructor should aim to have on each bench as many of the tools as will be in great demand. The general tools will be kept in a wall case. Permission should be given to boys to go after any such tool whenever he needs it without asking for it. Likewise it is advisable to allow boys standing permission to go to the drinking fountain, if it be in the same room, or to the wash basin or the finishing tables. It should be understood that there is to be no congregating at these places. Permission to leave the room should be required.

At the close of the period a tap of the bell will be the signal for the boys to put away their tools and work, get their wraps, brush off the shavings from the bench top and from under the bench into the aisle. When all are ready and the tools have been inspected, the teacher's signal to rise, and then to pass may be given. Have the rows instructed to pass out in a definite order.

A few schools require the boys of the last class of the day to clean up the entire shop. In many communities this is not advisable for there is some justice in their complaints that they are not janitors. There will be no objection by boys in any community, however, to brushing out from under and around their own benches. This practice makes the janitor's work comparatively light and does not offend the boy's sense of justice or fitness. They do not object to the cleaning of the room so much as to the idea of doing what another is paid for doing.

The discussion of ways and means of maintaining discipline is not appropriate in a book of such brevity as this. Sufficient to say that a manual training teacher to do his best work should be a teacher well trained in methods of teaching and the psychological bases back of them. He should at least understand the art if not the science of good teaching.

Where an instructor is engaged in teaching his entire time it is not just that he should be required to attend to formal disciplining of pupils. In most schools, therefore, an instructor, like the regular grade teacher, conducts his shop as best he knows how. When a boy insists in being unruly in spite of all the instructor can do, then that boy should be sent to the principal of the building in which he belongs for further treatment. The shop instructor will be expected to make use of the many little devices for maintaining order that are required of other teachers. Otherwise he will find himself wanting to send boys to the principals more frequently than he should. His maintanance of order will be a much easier task than is that of the regular teacher.

While these restrictions may occasionally work a hardship, they effectually prevent such injustices as the boy who is inattentive during the demonstration bothering the boy who was attentive, when it comes to doing the work. Our American boy is not in much danger of being injured by our school requirements of order and discipline. In fact, he would be benefited by a little more strictness than is now the custom, both at school and at home.

The high school shop bells will of necessity be those for other classes with the exception of the double period. There will be no necessity for a rest period, of course.