A missionary school was beleaguered by the serious problem of indiscipline. The matter went to their concerned council. The council decided to replace the principal. The new principal was quite, a unique character. She would hardly ever raise her voice. After observing her for a few days, the school staff concluded that the authorities had committed a big mistake.

In the meantime, the principal carefully scrutinized the problem areas. There were many students who would routinely come late to school and thereby disrupt the morning assembly. To solve this problem, the principal started standing at the entrance gate exactly when the children used to arrive. Slowly, parents, bus drivers, children, all fell in line.

The next problem was that of indiscipline in the classrooms. The principal began to make frequent rounds and would go and quietly sit in the various classes. The children, aware of her presence, were now afraid of making noise in their classrooms and gradually the school became peaceful.

Whenever a complaint came, the principal would find out the background of the child. She would only speak about the positives like, “You come from a good family; your grades are okay,” etc. She would also give responsibility to such children obliging them to behave properly. If this did not work, she would call the parents of the erring student. Again, she would be positive with them, encouraging them to spend more time with their children. She believed, after all, souls are intrinsically pure and we become good or bad by association only.

Gradually, the staff and children became less inclined to disturb her. The rebellious streak in some children started dissipating.

The essence of this story is that it is negative to look for faults in others. Unfortunately, we are naturally inclined to do this. By doing so we don’t make friends but only enemies. Also, by criticizing other for their faults we divert attention from our own shortcomings. No one can reform another unless that person is himself or herself convinced. Fault-finding is a negative exercise unless it is done with oneself. Don’t we consciously or subconsciously know our faults? But most of the time we just don’t have the necessary determination to rectify them. We should develop a habit of looking within ourselves rather than finding faults in others. This way we will certainly gain in the long run.