Currently the press tells us of widespread resistance to discipline on the part of youth. Especially is this situation found in the schools. We read of numerous experimental schools, of one, for instance, in which there are no entrance requirements, no courses, no faculty, no regularly held classes, no tests or degrees, no externally imposed controls or requirements. In another school, even those pupils of second grade age decide on their own what they want to take. Each student goes along at his own speed.
While respecting experimental efforts to improve educational methods, one might wonder if a nondiscipline system might annul the usual purpose of education to train or develop students mentally and morally by instruction. Such experimental methods as those mentioned above put a strange light on the word "discipline" as it refers to a subject that is taught. To learn anything takes a measure of discipline, even of the self-control that submits to instruction.
Wise discipline is needed for freedom since real freedom is founded on obedience to law, not on lawlessness. To use a musical illustration of freedom, the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach, the greatest contrapuntist of all time, was dependent upon his extraordinary ability to understand and obey the laws of counterpoint. His soaring, intricately woven themes have delighted the musical listeners of the world for many years.
