ABSTRACT
Teachers frequently notice how much difference there can be between a group and its component members. Thus the individuals, taken separately, may be pleasant and ordinary but the group as a whole difficult to deal with; or more rarely it can happen that a group containing some quite difficult individuals may fit in well and function as a harmonious whole. The low morale of the group comes from at least two sources. First, the individuals bring their low personal morale to it; second, they have no particular pride in the group as such, for membership of it carries little prestige, and they would prefer to sink their nonentities into a more glamorous corporate body, had they any choice. Social status fluctuates, and with it prestige and the pattern of morale in the class.
