property; and analyzes at length the kinds of punishment, modes of making it fit
the offense and the nature of the child, the discipline of consequences, lapse of
time between the offense and its punishment, the principle of slight but sure
tasks as penalties, etc.
Triplett[6] attempted a census of faults and defeats named by the teacher. Here
inattention by far led all others. Defects of sense and speech, carelessness,
indifference, lack of honor and of self-restraint, laziness, dreamy listlessness,
nervousness, mental incapacity, lack of consideration for others, vanity,
affectation, disobedience, untruthfulness, grumbling, etc., follow. Inattention to a
degree that makes some children at the mercy of their environment and all its
changes, and their mental life one perpetual distraction, is a fault which teachers,
of course, naturally observe. Children's views of their own faults and those of
other children lay a very different emphasis. Here fighting, bullying, and teasing
lead all others; then come stealing, bad manners, lying, disobedience, truancy,
cruelty to animals, untidiness, selfishness, etc. Parents' view of this subject
Triplett found still different. Here wilfulness and obstinacy led all others with
teasing, quarreling, dislike of application and effort, and many others following.
The vast number of faults mentioned contrasts very strikingly with the seven
deadly sins.
In a suggestive statistical study on the relations of the conduct of children to the
weather, Dexter[7] found that excessive humidity was most productive of
misdemeanors; that when the temperature was between 90 and 100 the
probability of bad conduct was increased 300 per cent, when between 80 and 90
it was increased 104 per cent. Abnormal barometric pressure, whether great or
small, was found to increase misconduct 50 per cent; abnormal movements of
the wind increased it from 20 to 66 per cent; while the time of year and
precipitation seemed to have almost no effect. While the effect of weather has
been generally recognized by superintendents and teachers and directors of
prisons and asylums, and even by banks, which in London do not permit clerks
to do the more important bookkeeping during very foggy days, the statistical
estimates of its effect in general need larger numbers for more valuable
determinations. Temperature is known to have a very distinct effect upon crime,
especially suicide and truancy. Workmen do less in bad weather, blood pressure
is modified, etc.[8]
In his study of truancy, Kline[9] starts with the assumption that the maximum
metabolism is always consciously or unconsciously sought, and that migrations