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efficiently-the heart of the teacher must be in his school. If he have not the zeal of the amateur, the skill of the professor will be of little avail. The maxim will apply to every species of occupation, but it is peculiarly true as to that of an Infant School teacher. To those who can feel no other interest than that which the profit gives to the employment, it will soon become one, not only of an irksome, but of a loathsome kind. But certain I am that it is possible to feel it as what it is-an employment not only of a most important nature, but a most interesting one likewise. It is one which a philosopher might choose for the study of the human character, and a philanthropist for its improvement.

CHAPTER VII.

HINTS FOR ORGANIZING AND CONDUCTING AN INFANT SCHOOL.

AS I have had considerable practice in the art of teaching infant children in various parts of the kingdom, I hope I may be allowed to give a few hints on the subject of organizing an Infant School, without being considered ostentatious. I have generally found on opening a new school, that the children have no idea of acting together; in order, therefore, to gain this object, it will be found necessary to have recourse to what we call manual lessons, which consist in the children holding up their hands, all at one time, and putting them down again in the same manner; putting the right foot out, or the left foot out; putting their hands together, or rising from their seats, all at one time; putting their hands behind them and many other things of a similar nature.

These lessons we have recourse to in the first instance, because it is calculated to please the infants, by causing them to act together, which

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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.

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 se veral 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.'

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