carefully refrain from retorting or sending a verbal answer back by the child. A soft answer, if any, is generally the wisest and most dignified. Many a teacher ruins his usefulness, especially in country villages and small towns, by resenting impertinent messages sent by ignorant or unreasonable parents. In serious cases he should consult his managers; in less serious cases it may be better to visit the parents in person and speak to them calmly and kindly. Such forbearance will often make a friend where a less conciliatory mode of treatment might have made an enemy. In any case, a teacher should be always willing to waive his strict rights and dignity for the good of the children. Their time at school is short. That teacher best consults his own interest and comfort who, by the conscientious discharge of his duty, shows that he has the true welfare of his scholars at heart, and that his every action is prompted by a wish to influence them for good.

When children ask their teacher for information on subjects with which he has little or no acquaintance, he should not be ashamed of frankly owning his ignorance; certainly he should never attempt to hide it by asserting that of which he is not quite certain. If, however, he will take the first opportunity of acquiring the needed information, his scholars will teach him as well as he them. Teachers have been known to boast that they never allow their scholars to believe them ignorant on any subject. How can such teachers discharge one of their highest duties, namely that of striving by daily practice and personal example, as well as by precept, to implant in children's minds, an earnest longing for self-improvement and culture, and, what is of yet higher importance, a heartfelt respect for truth, thoroughness, and honesty in every detail of work?

When a child is detected in the act of copying, or getting assistance unfairly, he should be shown the twofold harm he is doing himself

First, by falling into untruthful habits;

Secondly, by leading his teacher to believe that he knows what he does not, thus losing the chance of receiving further instruction till he has mastered his task.

Such a habit, moreover, if not promptly, vigorously, and

habitually checked, will inevitably bring disappointment and failure on the day of examination. It is the practice, therefore, of prudent and experienced teachers, while endeavouring to instil, yet never to reckon on, a high code of honour among children, but to adopt such methods as will make copying impossible. A teacher should blame himself whenever he detects such acts of dishonesty as good and watchful discipline would have prevented.

In all his dealings with children a teacher should scrupulously avoid the slightest appearance of partiality or favouritism. Nothing so arouses the anger of the mildest tempered child, or is so fatal to a teacher's influence for good, as any word or deed savouring of unfairness. The most trivial act of injustice will often rankle for years in a young mind.

If at any time, from infirmity of temper or physical irritability, a teacher does or says anything unjust or unkind, or speaks or acts hastily or angrily to a child, he ought never to be ashamed to own himself in the wrong.

When a teacher feels his temper ruffled by a child's misconduct, it is better in most cases not to speak or act at the time, but to wait till he can reason with the offender, not merely calmly, but even lovingly.

He will bear in mind that punishment is in itself an evil, though at times it may be expedient, nay even necessary; especially in the case of children spoilt or ill brought up at home. Its necessity may almost be said to imply more or less of failure on the teacher's part. He should certainly never resort to it when he can do without it. He should trust to persuasion, remonstrance, warning, encouragement, rather than to scolding or threats. If he feel no cause for self-reproach when he has to punish, he should at any rate seriously consider whether in future better management and tact would not equally well attain the end desired.

Whenever he is satisfied that it is his duty to inflict punishment he should make it clear that he does it unwillingly, sorrowfully. In punishing he should consider not what is deserved but what is best. He must never allow himself to be swayed by personal feeling, but should endeavour to enter into the feelings of the

children with whom he has to deal. He should bear in mind that his duty is not merely to teach, but to train, to educate, to draw out powers, to stimulate to exertion, to overcome sloth and evil, not by repression, but by good, to replace the worse by the better. When this is the tone prevailing throughout a school the children will be ruled less by fear than by love, and punishments of any kind will be rarely resorted to or required.

Corporal punishment should of course be administered by head teachers alone. No assistant or pupil teacher should be allowed on any pretext to touch a child either with his hand or with a cane. An interval of at least one hour should elapse between the time of the offence and the infliction of the punishment. The punishment should be inflicted publicly and entered in the log book with full particulars.

A teacher will do well to be as often and as much as possible with his scholars in the playground, trying to be in heart a boy among boys. He will there bestir himself to keep them active, teach them good games, and put a stop to rude romping and bullying. His presence may often check the beginning of evil, impart a healthy tone to their amusements, and give him opportunities of setting an example of fairness and good temper, of cheerful obedience to rules, of honour and truthfulness in word and act. It will also teach them to look upon him as a friend, thus strengthening the bonds of sympathy between him and his scholars, and increasing his influence over them for good. He will be very careful however, both in the playground and in the school, to let "bygones be bygones;" that is, never to allow anything that may have gone wrong in the one to be brought up again in the other. Nor is it wise to resent the rough behaviour of rude children. Studied courtesy is at once the best reproof and the surest cure, the likeliest means of shaming them out of ill-behaviour, and of teaching them good manners and language, consideration and respect for others.1

1 When a Manager or Inspector, upon entering or leaving a school, greets the children, they should rise and return the greeting respectfully, as becomes their youth. When no greeting is given respect is best shown by the children going on with their work.

He should take special pains to cultivate a genial disposition, a cheerful temper and bearing. The sunshine of a smile, even a hearty laugh, will do no harm where the tone of a school is of the right kind. Firm discipline indeed is essential to true kindness, but does not necessarily imply pompous or gloomy solemnity.

It may seem superfluous to warn teachers to pay due attention to their health, but daily experience shows the necessity of serious warnings. Impaired health is not only a source of discomfort to the sufferer, but it saps his energy, sours his temper, adds to his fellow-workers' labour, and robs his scholars of his best efforts. Plain meals taken regularly and with intervals of about four clear hours between each, daily walking exercise, or games in the open air, and woollen clothing next the skin all the year round, thicker or thinner according to the season, are essential to the maintenance of good health in this variable climate. Teachers who do not take regular exercise become morbidly sensitive to draughts, and shut all the inlets by which fresh air can be admitted to a schoolroom, thus poisoning with foul air the children as well as themselves, and seriously impairing the working power of the brain.

CHAPTER II.

CLASS MANAGEMENT.

WHEN in charge of more than one class a teacher should stand' where without change of position he can see every child. The children in each class should be so grouped that the front rows are occupied by the backward, the dull, and such as most need supervision. The children should sit at equal distances from

1 In the case of female teachers occasional sitting is recommended by medical men as less exhausting. High chairs with foot-rests should be provided for this purpose, so that the teacher's eye may command every corner of her class.

one another, neither too close together nor yet too far apart. When some of those who usually fill a group of desks are absent, the children present should be seated in a compact mass, instead of being allowed to sit straggling at irregular intervals. Care should be taken not to seat two or more troublesome children near one another. Whatever work a class be doing none should be left unemployed. The teacher should never, without urgent cause, quit his position. He should so use his eyes that each child may feel himself to be under their influence, that he cannot stir without being observed.

When teaching a class seated at parallel desks he should stand about four feet from the centre of the front desk, so that without turning his head he can view the whole group at a glance and readily eye every child in turn. When a stranger, or superior approaches, he should refrain from advancing nervously towards the front row; as then, no longer feeling his eye upon them, the children there seated (who as before intimated, should be the more troublesome) will fall into inattention or disorder. If the teacher's heart be thoroughly in his work, he will gradually grow out of that self-consciousness which makes him feel shy and awkward, while his teaching is being overlooked. When unmistakeable signs of general weariness are noted in a class of young children, the whole should be smartly exercised for a few seconds; but if this has often to be done, there must be something seriously amiss in the teacher's method or manner (usually a lack of sprightliness, or of cheerful utterance), which he will do well to search out and amend.1 When he has to reprove an offender by name, he should do so without any appearance of anger, but with studied composure of voice and mien. An inattentive child is best rebuked by being asked what his teacher has just said. Order should be maintained as much as possible by the eye.

1 It may be well to note here that no subject should ever be pursued for more than three-quarters of an hour, and that the ten or fifteen minutes allowed for recreation at each meeting of the school should invariably be taken in the middle of the sitting, not, as is sometimes the case, at 11.15. It should be remembered that a grant can be reduced for an ill-adjusted Time Table, and that H.M. Inspector's approval refers only to a Time Table's conformity with Section 7 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870.