Introduction

For a long time I have been concerned with a nexus of related ideas: group spirit, morale, discipline, discrimination, stigma. How are these connected with leadership, both that of the assigned person in authority, lecturer or teacher, and that of the dominant spirits within the group? What is their relation to backwardness, and the place of the slow learner in the school morale system? Where does streaming fit in? How can a good group spirit assist what I have elsewhere (Cleugh, 1962, Chapter 2) called ‘social learning’ and by what mechanisms does it operate? What part do good communications play in the development and maintenance of good morale? What about the morale of teachers themselves, as distinct from that of their pupils? These questions are basic, and they overlap and subdivide in a most perplexing manner. No sooner does one catch on to one question than it turns into another. It seems to me that a study of morale, which has been surprisingly little considered in educational literature, occupies a key position in this imbroglio. It is a more useful topic to study than discipline, which rapidly tends to degenerate into a consideration of punishment, and corporal punishment at that, and once that Gorgon’s head has been raised one can say goodbye to any rational discussion while the proponents and opponents argue hotly and emotionally. Meanwhile common sense and rationality fly out of the window and wider issues are forgotten. By contrast, the study of morale is 4a useful aspect to approach the Gorgon’s head – from the back, so to speak – for in the last resort one cannot have good discipline without good morale. How can a helpful group feeling, an accepting climate which gives individuals a chance to grow and encourages social learning, be fostered? We are still in the stage of needing detailed factual data before we can proceed, on which hypotheses can be built.