"Sums."-" Question."-Anecdote.-Animation.

minds of his class some rule of syntax, when his ow language at the very moment shows an entire disregar of the rule. It is very common to hear teachers tal of "sums" to their classes in arithmetic, and even t ask them to do "sums" in subtraction or division The term "question" is often as improperly applied when no question is asked. The teacher should be accurate in the use of terms. "Question" is sometimes the proper word; sometimes "problem," and sometimes "exercise," or "example," may with more propriety be used; but "sum" means the amount of several numbers when added, and it should not be applied as the name of an exercise. Some teachers use the terms ratio and proportion* interchangeably, as if they were synonyms. Such inaccuracies in the teacher will be sure to be reproduced in the school, and it is a great evil for the scholar to acquire a careless habit in the use of terms.

4. He should have proper animation himself. Horace Mann describes some of the Scotch teachers as working themselves up into a feverish excitement in the presence of their classes, and the classes in turn as literally bounding from the floor when they answer their hasty questions. Now, while I think these Scotch

Children imitative.-Attitude.-The attention of the class.

teachers go quite too far, I do think that many of our own teachers come short of a proper standard of animation. A teacher should be ready, without being rapid; animated, without being boisterous. Children are imitative beings; and it is astonishing to observe how very soon they catch the manners of the teacher. If he is heavy and plodding in his movements, they will very soon be dull and drowsy in theirs; then, if he speaks in a sprightly tone, and moves about with an elastic step, they almost realize a resurrection from the dead. If he appears absent-minded, taking but little interest in the lesson which is recited, they will be as inattentive, at least, as he; while, if all his looks and actions indicate that the subject is of some importance, he will gain their attention. Nor can I refrain in this place from suggesting to the teacher the importance of regarding his manners, while engaged in conducting a recitation. His attitude should not be one of indolence or coarseness, and when he moves from his seat, and appears at the blackboard to illustrate any point, it should be done gracefully, and with a constant regard to the fact, that every look and every motion teaches.

5. He should never proceed without the attention of the class. A loss of interest is sure to follow a want of attention. Besides, a habit of inattention, while it is very common, is also a great calamity to the person who falls into it during life. Many a sermon is lost upon a portion of the audience in our churches every Sabbath from this cause. When the attention is

A routine." Books but helps."-Utility.

aroused, the impression made is enduring; and o idea then communicated is worth a hundred at ar other time.

In order

6. Avoid a formal routine in teaching. Childre are very apt to imbibe the notion that they study i order to recite. They have but little idea of any pur pose of acquirement beyond recitation; hence the study their text book as mere words. The teache should, as soon as possible, lead them to study the subject, using the book simply as an instrument. "Books are but helps"-should become their motto. to bring this about, the instructor would do well occasionally to leave entirely the order of the book, and question them on the topic they have studied. If they are pursuing arithmetic, for instance, and they have carefully prepared a definite number of problems, it might be well to test their ability by giving them at the recitation others of the teachers' own preparing, involving an application of what they have learned to the business of life. This will lead them to study intelligently. Besides, as soon as they begin to see how their knowledge is to be useful to them, they have a new motive to exertion. They should be so taught as to discover that grammar will improve their understanding and use of language; that writing will prepare them for business, and by enabling them to communicate with their friends, will add to their enjoyment; and so of reading and the other branches.

7. Be careful to use language which is intelligible to children, whenever an explanation is given. The

Intelligible language.—An example quoted.

object of an explanation is to elucidate, to make clearer. How is this object accomplished when the explanation is less intelligible than the thing explained? Suppose a child should ask her teacher to explain the cause of cold in winter and heat in summer; in other words, the cause of the change of seasons. "Oh, yes," says he, pleasantly. "The annual revolution of the earth round the sun in connection with the obliquity of the ecliptic, occasions the succession of the four seasons.' 99# The child listens to these "words of learned length," and is astonished at the learning of her teacher, but she has no clearer idea than before of the point she inquired about.

Mr. S. R. Hall in his lectures gives the following forcible illustration of the same point. "Will you please to tell me why I carry one for every ten ?" said little Laura to her instructor. "Yes, my dear," said he, kindly. "It is because numbers increase from right to left in a decimal ratio." Laura sat and repeated it to herself two or three times, and then looked very sad. The master, as soon as he had answered, pursued his other business and did not notice her. But she was disappointed. She understood him no better than if he had used words of another language. "Decimal" and "ratio" were words that might have fallen on her ear before, but if so, she understood them none the better for it. She looked in the dictionary and was disappointed again, and after some time, put away her

* Worcester's Geography.

Honest confession,-not mystification.-Example.

arithmetic. When asked by her teacher why she did so, she replied, 'I don't like to study it; I can't understand it.'

"Now the injury to little Laura was very great. She had commenced the study with interest; she had learned to answer a great many questions in arithmetic and had been pleased. She was now using a slate and writing her figures on it, and had found the direction to carry one for every ten. This she might have been made to understand. The master loved his scholars and wished to benefit them, but forgot that terms perfectly plain to him would be unintelligible to the child. From that moment Laura disliked arithmetic, and every effort that could be used with her could not efface the impression that it was a hard study, and she could not understand it."

While upon this subject, I might urge that teachers should not resort to evasion when they are not able to explain. It is a much more honorable, and far more satisfactory course, for the teacher frankly to confess his inability to explain, than to indulge in some ridiculous mysticism to keep up the show of knowledge. I may never forget the passage I first made through the Rule of Three, and the manner in which my manifold perplexities respecting "direct and inverse" proportion were solved. "Sir," said I, after puzzling a long time over more requiring more and less requiring less'— "will you tell me why I sometimes multiply the second and third terms together and divide by the first—and at other times multiply the first and second and divide by