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Neatness and Courtesy.

into consideration at a quiet hour after school. In a calm but firm manner, call the offenders to an account, administering such punishment, or censure, as may seem necessary. Do not forget that there is a right time, place, and manner in which to say things, and never administer reproof or punishment, when either the erring or yourself are in a state of undue excitement.

Cultivate Habits of Neatness and Courtesy as Helps to Discipline. If you can so inspire a boy with feelings of self-respect, that he will always enter the school-room with his person and apparel in a neat and cleanly condition, you will at the same time create within him a desire to regard the rules of the school. If, in addition to this, you can induce him to regard the rules of propriety and courtesy in his manner and conversation with others, you may be quite sure all else will be right. A courteous pupil will, almost as a matter of course, be an obedient and attentive pupil.

You ask, if you must ever resort to corporal punishment. In answer to this, I wish I might feel warranted in saying that it is never necessary. I hope the time may come when it will be wholly unnecessary; but I do not believe that time has yet arrived. I will advise, however, that you inflict corporal punishment as seldom as possible. Make it your "strange work"; and when you resort to it, do it in such manner and in such spirit as will make the right impression. In most cases, I would

Corporal Punishment.

recommend that corporal punishment be inflicted in private; and yet there will be cases, in which the greatest good of all concerned will require that the punishment be inflicted in the presence of the whole school. If a boy wilfully sets at defiance all wholesome authority, and says or does things, in the presence of the whole school, for the purpose of showing that "he will do as he pleases," the better way will be to administer to him the well-deserved punishment in the presence of all who have witnessed the transgression. If, however, you can secure the entire co-operation of the parents, you will not often have any trouble of a disciplinary nature. I do not hesitate to express the belief, that, when all teachers shall be thoroughly qualified for their high duties, and enter upon their discharge with an earnest fidelity, and when all parents shall be faithful in training their children in "the way in which they should go," we shall hear no complaints touching school discipline. But until that good time shall come, the best of teachers may sometimes find it necessary to resort to corporal punishment; but ordinarily, the higher the qualifications of the instructor, the less frequently will such occasions occur.

Never scold. If whipping is objectionable, scolding is much more so. If you speak in fretful and fault-finding tones, your pupils will soon lose all respect for you, and they will, to a great extent, partake of your spirit. In such things "like pro

Anecdote.

duces like." Mild and pleasant tones, combined with a firm and determined manner, will, in most cases, secure the desired result. I once visited a school, kept by an accomplished lady, who ever exercised the most perfect control over her feelings and actions. A class was called upon to read. In it was one of those disagreeable things, an obstinate, mulish girl. When her turn to read came, she paid no regard to it. The teacher very pleasantly, but firmly, said, "Read, Mary." But, in stubborn expression, Mary's countenance said, "I won't." The teacher, with the utmost composure, said, "You may continue standing, and the next may read." Wishing to know the teacher's plan in such cases, I asked what she intended to do in this instance. Her reply was, "I shall let my patience have its perfect work, and Miss Obstinate will not be allowed to leave her place, until she has performed her part; and as the regular time has passed, she must await my time, which will not be until every other lesson has received attention, and the faithful pupils have been dismissed." Throughout the whole, the teacher was as calm as a summer's day; and I doubt not that the plan adopted was entirely effectual.

Never attempt to frighten a Pupil into Obedience. Temporary subjection may be secured by terror, but it will not be a true submission. The motive is a wrong one, and the result will have no permanency. Let it be ever your aim to exercise

Be exemplary.

that influence over your pupils, which will lead them to respect authority, and to do right, from high and honorable motives. So far as possible, train them to habits of self-control and self-discipline. Be to the little ones under your care an example of all that is "lovely and of good report," ever manifesting on your part a willing and prompt obedience to the higher powers. Remember always that

"The mind, impressible and soft, with ease
Imbibes and copies that she hears and sees,
And through life's labyrinth holds fast the clew
That first instruction gives her, false or true."

How important is it, then, not only that right impressions be made on tender minds, but also that they be made in the right way and in the true spirit. It is unquestionably true, that parents and teachers do wrong by being over-exacting and over-rigid in their treatment of the young, not making sufficient allowance for youthful feelings and buoyancy of spirit. Is there not a lesson prettily expressed in the following lines?

"He who checks a child with terror,

Stops its play, and stills its song,

Not alone commits an error,

But a great and moral wrong.

"Give it play, and never fear it,

Active life is no defect;

Never, never break its spirit,
Curb it only to direct.

"Would you stop the flowing river,

Thinking it would cease to flow?

Onward it must flow for ever,

Better teach it where to go."

A

System. Roger Ascham.

Have System in Relation to all your Exercises.This will be of great service to you in the discipline of your school. Have a time for every recitation, and have every recitation at its proper time. See that every pupil has work enough to occupy his time, and do all you can to make every lesson interesting by illustrations of your own. Pupils love order and system; and, if they are kept properly employed, they will not be tempted to wrong action. Nothing is more true, than that a certain noted "busybody" has always some mischief for idle hands to do; and if you fail to give your pupils useful work, he will give them that which will greatly increase your labors and trials.

Aim earnestly and constantly to make all the Exercises of the School-room pleasant and attractive. Many a child has acquired an unconquerable dislike of school, and all that pertains to it, on account of the forbidding manner or injudicious chiding of unwise teachers; even as some children, from ill-treatment at home, have been brought to regard any place as more attractive than home. On this point let me quote from the quaint language of Roger Ascham, in "The Schoolmaster," published in London, in 1571.

"Yet some will say that children of nature love pastime, and mislike learning, because in their kind one is easy and pleasant, the other hard and wearisome. Which is an opinion not so true as some men ween. For the matter lieth not so much in the dis

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