must first be taught to take an interest in the exercises by making
the exercises interesting to him. That the transition from home to the
school may be easy, he should first occupy himself with those topics and
studies that are presented to the eye and to the ear, and may be
mastered, so as to produce the sensation that follows achievement with
only a moderate use of the reasoning and reflective faculties. Among
these are reading, writing, music, and drawing. This is also the time
when object lessons may be given with great advantage. The forms and
names of geometrical solids may be taught. Exercises may be introduced
tending to develop those powers by which we comprehend the qualities of
color, size, density, form, and weight. Important moral truths may be
presented with the aid of suitable illustrations. In every school the
teacher and text-books may be considered a positive quality which should
balance the negative power of the school itself. In primary schools
text-books have but little value, and the chief reliance is, therefore,
upon the teacher. Instruction must be mainly oral; hence the mind of the
teacher should be well furnished, and her capacities chastened by
considerable experience. As the pupils are unable to study, the teacher
must lead in all their exercises, and find profitable employment for the
children, or they will give themselves up to play or to stupid
listlessness. Of these alternatives, the latter is more objectionable
than the former.

It is, of course, not often possible for a teacher to occupy herself six
hours a day with a single class in a primary school, especially if she
confines her attention to the studies enumerated. In many schools, of
various grades, gymnastic exercises have been introduced with marked
advantage. There are many such exercises which do not need apparatus,
and in which the teacher can properly lead.

These furnish a healthful variety to the studies usually pursued, and
they prepare the pupils to receive appropriate instruction in sitting,
standing, and in the modulation and use of the voice. Indeed, gymnastic
exercises are indispensable aids to proper training in reading, which,
as an art of a high order, is immediately dependent upon position,
habits of breathing, the consequent power of voice, and expressiveness
of tone. I am fully satisfied that much more may be done in the early
period of school life than is usually accomplished. In the district
mixed schools th