ttend who please.

The business, therefore, of a thorough examination of the class must not
be omitted. I do not mean that each individual scholar must every day be
examined, but simply that the teacher must, in some way or other,
satisfy himself by reasonable evidence that the whole class are really
prepared. A great deal of ingenuity may be exercised in contriving means
for effecting this object in the shortest possible time. I know of no
part of the field of a teacher's labors which may be more facilitated by
a little ingenuity than this.

One teacher, for instance, has a spelling lesson to hear. He begins at
the head of the line, and putting one word to each boy, goes regularly
down, each successive pupil calculating the chances whether a word which
he can accidentally spell will or will not come to him. If he spells it,
the teacher can not tell whether he is prepared or not. That word is
only one among fifty constituting the lesson. If he misses it, the
teacher can not decide that he was unprepared. It might have been a
single accidental error.

Another teacher, hearing the same lesson, requests the boys to bring
their slates, and, as he dictates the words one after another, requires
all to write them. After they are all written, he calls upon the pupils
to spell them aloud as they have written them, simultaneously, pausing a
moment after each, to give those who are wrong an opportunity to
indicate it by some mark opposite the word misspelled. They all count
the number of errors and report them. He passes down the class, glancing
his eye at the work of each one to see that all is right, noticing
particularly those slates which, from the character of the boys, need a
more careful inspection. A teacher who had never tried this experiment
would be surprised at the rapidity with which such work will be
performed by a class after a little practice.

Now how different are these two methods in their actual results! In the
latter case the whole class are thoroughly examined. In the former not a
single member of it is. Let me not be understood to recommend exactly
this method of teaching spelling as the best one to be adopted in all
cases. I only bring it forward as an illustration of the idea that a
little machinery, a little ingenuity in contriving ways of acting on the
_whole_ rather than on individuals, will very much promote the teacher's
designs.

In order to facilitate such plans, it is highly desirable that the