At the Cole School, where they had community singing every morning the teacher noticed that Jack London remained silent. She asked him why. He replied that she didn't know how to sing, that she would spoil his voice because she flatted. The teacher dispatched him to the principal to be punished. The principal sent him back with a note saying that he could be excused, but that he would have to write a composition each morning for fifteen minutes of singing. Jack ascribes his ability to write a thousand words every morning to the habit formed in this class.