Dikes and Ditches by Oliver Optic

Professor Hamblin went on deck, walked up and down, and made himself as miserable as possible. He was the senior instructor of the Josephine, and was the superintendent of her academic department. He had been a schoolmaster or a professor for forty years, and was fully steeped in the dogmatism of the pedagogue. He was disposed to be overbearing and tyrannical, though perhaps his profession, rather than his nature, had implanted this tendency in his character. Certainly the almost absolute sway of the schoolmaster encourages such an unfortunate development of the lower faculties of human nature.

It is necessary that the parent or the teacher should have this absolute sway. Practically, his will is law, and the child has no alternative but to rebel or obey. The limit to his authority is only placed on the line where tyranny ends and actual abuse begins. It is true that public opinion has its influence upon the teacher or parent; but there is room for much petty oppression before the limit of endurance is reached. A man may be an efficient teacher, and produce splendid intellectual results, while he is a tyrant and an oppressor; indeed, his tyranny and oppression may be the very means by which his success is accomplished.