mother is one of his ideals.  He believes her to be the best woman alive, and it were a sorry fact if he did not.  Hence, when her good qualities are assailed his spirit explodes and commands his right arm to become a battering-ram.  The kindness of the mother has caused the boy’s spirit to react a thousand times, and his reaction in defending her name from calumny was but another evidence of an acquired spiritual habit.

Hence it is that we find loyalty enmeshed in these elements that pertain to the province of psychology.  It must be so, seeing that these elements and loyalty have to do with the spirit, for loyalty is nothing other than a reaction to the same external stimuli that have induced reactions many times before.  In setting up loyalty, therefore, as one of the big goals of school endeavor the superintendent has only to make a list of the external stimuli that will induce proper reactions and so groove these reactions into habit.  His problem, thus stated, seems altogether simple but, in working out the details, he will find himself facing the entire scheme of education.  If he would induce reactions that spell loyalty he must make no mistake in respect of external stimuli, for it must be reiterated that the character of the stimuli conditions the reactions.  We may not hope to achieve loyalty unless through the years of training we have provided stimuli of the right sort.

If the sentiment of loyalty concerns itself with the teachings of the Bible and the tenets of the church, we call it religion; if it has to do with one’s country and what its flag represents, we call it patriotism; and in many another relation we call it fidelity.  Hence it is obvious that loyalty is an inclusive quality and in its ramifications reaches out into every phase of life.  This gives us clear warrant for making it one of the prime objectives in a rational, as distinguished from a traditional, scheme of education.  The progressive superintendent who is endowed with perspicacity, resourcefulness, altruism, and faith in himself will consult the highest interests of the boys and girls of his school before he relegates the matter to oblivion.  To such as he we must look for advance and for the redemption of our schools from their traditional moorings.  To such as he we must look for the inoculation of the teachers with such virus as will render them vital, dynamic, and eager to essay any new task that gives promise of a larger and better outlook for their pupils.

In the second chapter of Revelation, tenth verse, we read, “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life.”  Now this is quite as true in a psychological sense as it is in a scriptural sense.  It is a great pity that we do not read the Bible far more for lessons in pedagogy.  However, too many people misread the quoted passage.  They interpret the expression “unto death” as if it were “until death.”  This interpretation would weaken the expression.  The martyrs would not recant even when the fires were blazing all about them or when their bodies were lacerated.  They were faithful unto death.  In his poem Invictus Henley says,