this plan his school will be, during the exercise,
under his own observation, as at other times. It may, in some schools
where the number is small, or the prevailing habits of seriousness and
order are good, be well to allow the older scholars to read the prayer
in rotation, taking especial care that it does not degenerate into a
mere reading exercise, but that it is understood, both by readers and
hearers, to be a solemn act of religious worship. In a word, if the
teacher is really honest and sincere in his wish to lead his pupils to
the worship of God, he will find no serious difficulty in preventing the
abuses and avoiding the dangers which some might fear, and in
accomplishing vast good, both in promoting the prosperity of the school,
and in the formation of the highest and best traits of individual
character.

We have dwelt, perhaps, longer on this subject than we ought to have
done in this place; but its importance, when viewed in its bearings on
the thousands of children daily assembling in our district schools must
be our apology. The embarrassments and difficulties arising from the
extreme sensitiveness which exists among the various denominations of
Christians in our land, threaten to interfere very seriously with giving
a proper degree of religious instruction to the mass of the youthful
population. But we must not, because we have no national _church_,
cease to have a national _religion_. All our institutions ought to be so
administered as openly to recognize the hand of God, and to seek his
protection and blessing; and in regard to none is it more imperiously
necessary than in respect to our common schools.

5. After the school is thus opened, the teacher will find himself
brought to the great difficulty which embarrasses the beginning of his
labors, namely, that of finding immediate employment at once for the
thirty or forty children who all look up to him waiting for their
orders. I say thirty or forty, for the young teachers first school will
usually be a small one. His object should be, in all ordinary cases, for
the first few days, twofold: first, to revive and restore, in the main,
the general routine of classes and exercises pursued by his predecessor
in the same school; and, secondly, while doing this, to become as fully
acquainted with his scholars as possible.

It is best, then, _ordinarily_, for the teacher to begin the school as
his predecessor closed it, and make the transition to his own per