=Methods contrasted.=—­Some teachers have attempted to make this substitution by means of ridicule and sarcasm and then called the boy stupid because he continued to read his Henty.  Others have indulged in rhapsodies on Shakespeare, hoping to inoculate the boy with the Shakespearean virus, and then called the boy stolid because he failed to share their apparent rapture.  The politician would have pursued neither of these plans.  His inherent or acquired psychology would have admonished him to begin where the boy is.  He would have gone to Henty to find the boy.  Having found him, he would have sat down beside him and entered into his interest in the book.  In time he would have found something in the book to remind him of a passage in Shakespeare.  This passage he would have read in his best style and then resumed the reading of Henty.  Thus, by degrees, he would have effected the substitution, permitting the boy to think that this had been done on his own initiative.

=The principle illustrated.=—­The vitalized teacher observes, profits by, and initiates into her work the method of the politician and so makes her school work vital.  Beginning with what the boy wants, she lures him along, by easy stages, until she has brought him within the circle of her own wants, which are, in reality, the needs of the boy.  The boy walks along in paces, let us say, of eighteen inches.  The teacher moderates her gait to harmonize with his, but gradually lengthens her paces to two feet.  At first, she kept step with him; now he is keeping step with her and finds the enterprise an exhilarating adventure.  She is teaching the boy to walk in strides two feet in length, and begins with his native tendency to step eighteen inches.  Thus she begins where the boy is, by acquainting herself with his wants, attaches her teaching to his native tendencies, and then proceeds from the known to the related unknown.  Libraries abound in books that explain lucidly this simple elementary principle of teaching, but many teachers still seem to find it difficult of application.

=Substitution illustrated.=—­This method of substitution becomes the rule of the school through the skill of the vitalized teacher.  The lily of the valley is substituted for the sunflower, in the children’s esteem, and there is generated a taste for the exquisite.  The copy of the masterpiece of art supplants the bizarre chromo; correct forms of speech take the place of incorrect forms; the elegant usurps the place of the inelegant; and the inartistic gives place to the artistic.  The circle of their wants is extended until it includes their needs, and these, in turn, are transformed into wants.  Thus all the pupils ascend to a higher level of appreciation of the things that make for a more comfortable and agreeable civilization.  They work under the spell of leadership, for real leadership always inspires confidence.