and cautiously bestowed on those who have distinguished themselves, and let every appearance of harshness, censure, or impatience, be avoided in regard to those whose efforts have been less successful. And whenever these latter individuals happen to get a lesson better than usual; tell them so, and let them see that you feel a double pleasure in their improvement. Where scholars are indolent, or negligent, or do not try to learn, it is proper to let them know how much pain their conduct gives you; and perhaps sometimes a gentle reprimand for their waste of time and misimprovement of privileges, may be expedient; but any degree of harshness, any thing like scolding, driving, or compulsion, so far from making them love learning, will only serve to increase their aversion to it. Whether corporal punishment should ever be used in a school, to deter from the commission of crimes, is a question which it does not belong to me to decide or discuss; but sure I am, that the rod and the ferule are the worst means that ever were devised, to get knowledge into the head or the love of it into the heart. 9. Another means of stimulating the student, is to associate as many pleasing ideas as possible with the thought of his lesson, his book, his school, and his teacher. The expectation of being approved and commended, is indeed included in this head; but there are many other pleasing associations, by whose aid flowers may be strewed in the path of learning. A child should always hear an opportunity to learn spoken of as a privilege; a school, as a pleasant place; and an instructer, as a friend. Let this be done, and let every school be made indeed a pleasant place, and every instructer show himself a cordial friend to his pupils, and children would soon love their school as well as they do their play. A teacher of a common school should be a person of an affectionate disposition; one, who loves children, and whose patience and kindness are never exhausted by their ignorance, dullness, and numerous little faults. Yet all the efforts of the most affectionate, skilful, and indefatigable teacher, may avail little, where they are counteracted by parents and others out of school, who view the subject in a wrong light, and are daily enstamping their false views on the minds of children. 10. Another means of stimulating the student, is to point out to him the connexion between a good education and his future comfort and happiness. On pupils who are old enough to be capable of understanding this connexion, the consideration may be made to bear with great weight. It does not require much discernment or reflection to see, that a cultivated and well-furnished mind is not only a great help in managing one's pecuniary and temporal affairs so as to secure a comfortable subsistence, but adds greatly to a man's respectability and influence as a member of the community. 11. I shall name but one more means of stimulating the student to exertion; and that is, a sense of duty and of future accountability. Let the pupil be made to feel, that he owes duties to himself, to his fellow-men, and to his Maker, which he can discharge only by diligence and assiduity in the acquisition of useful knowledge. Let him be made to feel, that if he neglects to do all in his power to promote in the highest degree his own happiness and the happiness of all to whom his influence may extend, he does wrong, and must suffer the reproaches of an accusing conscience, and incur the disapprobation of Him who "is greater than the heart and knoweth all things." Let him never forget, that time is short; that he has much to do; and that, of the manner in which these fleeting moments are spent, a review must hereafter take place, and an account be rendered. Let him hence be made to feel, that time is precious; that his privileg es are precious; and that he has no right to waste the one or neglect the other. |