is one grand step towards order. After the first day or two, the children will begin to act together, and to know each other, but until this is the case, they will be frequently peevish and want to go home; therefore any method that can be taken, in the first instance, to please them, should be adopted for unless you can please them you may be sure they will cry. Having induced them to act together, we are then to class them according to their capacity and age, and according as they shew an aptitude, in obeying your several commands, those who obey them with the greatest readiness may be classed together.

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I have found it difficult, at all times, to keep up the attention of infants, without giving them something to do; so that when they are saying the tables in arithmetic, we always cause them to move either their hands or feet, sometimes to march round the school: the best way we have yet found out is the putting their hands one on the other every time they speak a sentence. If they are marching they may count one, two, three, four, five, six, &c.

Having classed them, and having found that each child knows its own place in the school, you may select one of the cleverest of each class for a monitor. Some of the children will learn many of the tables sooner than the others; in this case the teacher may avail himself of the assistance of those, by causing each child to repeat what he knows in an audible manner, the other children repeating after him, and performing the same evolutions that he does; by this means the other children will soon learn. Then the master can go on with something else, taking care to enlist as many children as he can to his assistance, for he

will find that unless he does so he will injure his lungs, and render himself unfit to keep up the attention of the children, and to carry on the school with good effect.

When the children have learned to repeat several of the tables, and the monitors, to excite their several classes, and to keep them in tolerable order, they may go on with the other parts of the plan, such as the spelling and reading, picture lessons, &c. as described below. But care must be taken that in the beginning too much be not attempted. The first week may be spent in getting them in order, without thinking of any thing else; and I should advise that not more than sixty children be admitted the first week, that they may be reduced to order, in some measure, before any more are admitted, as all that come after will quickly imitate the others. I should, moreover, not advise visitors to come to see an infant school for some time after it is opened, for several reasons; first, because the children must be allowed time to learn, and there will be nothing worth seeing; secondly, it takes off the children's attention, and interferes with the master; and lastly, it may be the means of visitors going away dissatisfied, and thereby injure the cause intended to be promoted.

In teaching infants to sing, I have found it the best way to sing the psalm or hymn several times in the hearing of the children, without their attempting to sing until they have some idea of the tune; because if all the children are allowed to attempt, and none of them know the tune, it prevents those who really wish to learn from catching the sounds.

You must not expect order until your little

officers are well drilled, which may be done by collecting them together after the other children are gone, and instructing them in what they are to do. Every monitor should know his work, and when you have taught him to know his work, you must expect it to be done. To get good order you must make every monitor answerable for the conduct of his class. It is astonishing how some of the little fellows will strut about, big with the importance of office; and here I must remark, it will require some caution to prevent them from taking too much upon themselves; so prone are we, even in the earliest years, to abuse the possession of power.

The way by which we teach the children hymns, is to let one child stand in the rostrum, with the book in his hand; he then reads one line, and stops until all the children in the school have repeated it, which they do altogether; he then repeats another, and so on successively, until the hymn is finished. This method is adopted with every thing that is to be committed to memory, such as catechisms and spelling; if twenty words are to be committed to memory, it is done in this way; so that every child in the school has an equal chance of learning.

I have mentioned that the children should be classed in order to facilitate this there should be a board fastened to the wall perpendicularly, the same width as the seats, every fifteen feet, all round the school; this will separate one class from another, and be the cause of the children knowing their class the sooner. Make every child hang his hat over where he sits, in his own class, as this will save much trouble. "Have a place

for every thing, and every thing in its place."

This will bring the children into habits of order. Do not do any thing for a child that he is able to do for himself, but teach him to put his own hat and coat on, and hang them up again when he comes to school; teach every child to help himself as soon as possible; if a child falls down, and you know that he is able to get up himself, never lift him up; if you do, he will always lie until you come to lift him up: have a slate, or a piece of paper, properly ruled, hanging over every class, let every child's name that is in the class be written on it, with the name of the monitor: teach the monitor the names as soon as you can, and then he will tell you who is absent; have a semicircle before every lesson, and make the children keep their toes to the mark; a bit of iron hoop nailed to the floor is the best: when a monitor is asking the children questions, let him place his stool in the centre of the semicircle, and the children stand round him: let the monitors ask what questions they please, they will soon get fond of asking questions, and their pupils equally fond of answering them. monitor ask, What do I sit on? toes? What do you stand on? you? What behind you? At first children will have no idea of this mode of exercising the thinking powers. But the teacher must encourage them in it, and they will very soon get fond of it, and be able to give an answer immediately. It is a very pleasing sight to see the infants stand round the monitors, and the monitors asking them any questions they think of. I have been much delighted at the questions put, and still more so at the answers given. Assemble all the very small children together as soon as you can: the first

will soon be Suppose the Where are your What is before

day or two they will want to sit with their brothers or sisters, who are a little older than themselves. But the sooner you can separate them the better, as the elder children frequently plague the younger ones; and I have always found, that the youngest are the happiest by themselves.

Having said thus much on the subject of organizing the school, and supposing the little flock reduced into something like order; we are next to consider the means of securing cleanliness and decorum. Although the following Rules for this purpose are given, it must not be supposed, that they are presented as a model not to be departed from. If they can be improved upon so much the better, but some such will be found indispensable.

RULES

To be observed by the Parents of Children admitted into the Infant School.

1.

PARENTS are to send their children clean washed, with their hair cut short and combed, and their clothes well mended, by half past eight o'clock in the morning, to remain till twelve.

2.

If any child be later in attendance than nine o'clock in the morning, that child must be sent back until the afternoon; and in case of being later than two in the afternoon, it will be sent back for the day.