cution of their
studies_. I knew that it sometimes would be necessary, and I was
desirous to adopt this plan to save myself the constant interruption of
hearing and replying to requests. But it would not do. Whenever, from
time to time, I called them to account, I found that a large majority,
according to their own confession, were in the habit of holding daily
and deliberate communication with each other on subjects entirely
foreign to the business of the school. A more experienced teacher would
have predicted this result; but I had very high ideas of the power of
cultivated conscience, and, in fact, still have. But then, like most
other persons who become possessed of a good idea, I could not be
satisfied without carrying it to an extreme.

Still it is necessary, in ordinary schools, to give pupils sometimes
the opportunity to whisper and leave seats.[1] Cases occur where this is
unavoidable. It can not, therefore, be forbidden altogether. How, then,
you will ask, can the teacher regulate this practice, so as to prevent
the evils which will otherwise flow from it, without being continually
interrupted by the request for permission?

[Footnote 1: There are some large and peculiarly-organized schools in
cities and large towns to which this remark may perhaps not apply.]

By a very simple method. _Appropriate particular times at which all this
business is to be done_, and _forbid it altogether_ at every other time.
It is well, on other accounts, to give the pupils of a school a little
respite, at least every hour; and if this is done, an intermission of
study for two minutes each time will be sufficient. During this time
_general_ permission should be given for the pupils to speak to each
other, or to leave their seats, provided they do nothing at such a time
to disturb the studies of others. This plan I have myself very
thoroughly tested, and no arrangement which I ever made operated for so
long a time so uninterruptedly and so entirely to my satisfaction as
this. It of course will require some little time, and no little
firmness, to establish the new order of things where a school has been
accustomed to another course; but where this is once done, I know no one
plan so simple and so easily put into execution which will do so much
toward relieving the teacher of the distraction and perplexity of his
pursuits.

In making the change, however, it is of fundamental importance that the
pupils should themselves be interes