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a child that stealing is wrong; with a child trained from the earliest days to steal it is otherwise. Every child is, however, quick enough at crying out against the theft of his own property. No one, however unfortunately placed in respect of parental influence, is ignorant of the fact that kindness is right. He has recognized that, a long while before he came to school. What a child needs is, not so much help to know what the right is, as help to do it, especially when circumstances tempt to the opposite. A child needs help to turn his attention on the rising disposition, which, if allowed to gain strength, will tempt to evil doing. A child is prone to allow attention to be absorbed with what is external, and scarcely turns attention on the feeling which is swelling in the breast. He needs frequent help in beginning reflective exercise. Reflectiveness in the proper sense comes as one of the later attainments, and needs not a little effort for its cultivation.

Work of Repression.

This is a more difficult and trying work than the encouragement of good. But evil tendencies must be checked, in order that the nobler dispositions may have room to grow. If the check is to be wisely and successfully put on, much more is wanted than that the check itself be a strong and severe one. Fortunately, the most powerful form of restraint is a form of encouragement to the person restrained. Taking for granted that evil inclinations must be mastered, and demanding this of the children themselves, the teacher gains the strongest position when he is neither the lawgiver nor the imperious authority requiring its fulfillment, but is the friendly counsellor, suggesting the best means of gaining the victory. A suitable hint dropped in the ear, showing that the difficulty has been seen and measured, and that the teacher will be a sharer in the joy of success, will stir new resolution, and change some part of a naturally irksome task to attractiveness. There is great need that we keep in view the painfulness of the experience involved in conflict with powerful tendencies in the nature. To appreciate the difficulty of the task any child has on hand carries one a great way toward proving a real helper. But the painfulness of the work must in nowise give exemption from it. Such painfulness is part of the necessary experience of true development. To favor a child escaping from the determination and suffering connected with self-denial is no kindness but the worst form of cruelty. There is but one way for mankind securing a clear escape from this painfulness, that is, to face the effort which occasions the pain, until by facility of effort

the pain itself gradually diminishes, until the pleasure of pure and lofty motive is felt greatly to outweigh the uneasiness. Neither parent nor teacher can wisely screen children from the bitter ordeal which self-denial entails. A spoilt child' has been spoiled by encouragement in self-indulgence, which at each turn has been allowed under the name of kindness,' and which has prevented reflection where it might have arisen, and a struggle for self-mastery which might have been attempted. It is a weak and altogether pernicious type of sympathy which inclines a teacher or guardian to save a child from the pain of conflict with his own evil tendencies. This is 'blind sympathy,' one of the worst illustrations out of a considerable variety which give force to the adage that 'love is blind.' Wisdom is the true guide of love, for there is no more glaring practical mistake than the notion that the law of love is all we need to make our life noble. The love which shelters from the pain of self-denial . is soon blind even to the faults which spring from the want of restraining power. There is therefore great need to guard against love degenerating to softness. Even tender years must not be allowed to plead for self-indulgence. In kindness, the teacher must remember that the sooner the work of self-restraint begins the easier it proves. But when the work is bravely faced, let us give all the sympathetic aid in our power, always remembering that the work itself must be the child's own. Real sympathy helps the youth in bis battle with evil within. And a heavy demand there ever must be for such sympathy, while selfishness must be crushed, anger must be restrained, and wrongs must be endured without retaliation. The task may be harder for some than for others, but in every case it must be carried through. A clear recognition of all that this requires is of greatest value to a teacher. Happy are the children placed under the care of teachers who see the moral requirements of their case, and take pleasure in individualizing. The victory is half won if a child has a strong helper in his instructor.

The Willful, Stubborn, and Defiant.

Beyond such general dealing comes the great perplexity of school life. How shall we deal with those who are willful, stubborn, and defiant? It is a question hard to answer. There are some who object entirely to corporal punishment. As already indicated, I am not able to agree with this view. Alternatives are hard to find, though it is most desirable to avail ourselves of all that seem to promise efficiency. Expulsion from the school I regard as an extreme measure, to be shunned up to the verge of endurance.

Unless in the case of unruly pupils at an advanced age for school life (such as are not unfrequently to be found in evening schools), expulsion from the school can hardly be looked at as an available course. It is escape from a difficulty, not mastery of it. It is a practical admission of failure, which, if possible, should never be made in face of a school. Instead of increasing the moral influence of a teacher, it detracts from it. Let kindly treatment, as occasion offers, calm and sympathetic remonstrance in private, assurances of patience, and promises of help, be all accumulated around the offender. Let every thing be done which tenderest sympathy can suggest rather than that the offender be banished from the school, and turned over as a pest upon the hands of some unsuspecting brother in the profession. There is a very graphic account of the conflict with a stubborn and wild youth which deserves perusal, given in one of the books of Dr. Eggleston,* descriptive of school life in the midst of the rude settlers in the Far West of America. Very touching is the story, naturally recalled here, which is told by Dr. Guthrie in his own pathetic style: A soldier, whose regiment lay in a garrison town in England, was about to be brought before his commanding officer for some offense. He was an old offender, and had been often punished. "Here he is again," said the officer, on his name being mentioned; "every thing-flogging, disgrace, imprisonment has been tried with him." Whereupon the sergeant stepped forward, and apologizing for the liberty he took, said, "There is one thing that has never been done with him, sir.” "What is that?" was the answer. "Well, sir," said the sergeant, "he has never been forgiven." "Forgiven!" exclaimed the colonel, surprised at the suggestion. He reflected for a few minutes, ordered the culprit to be brought in, and asked him what he had to say to the charge? "Nothing, sir," was his reply; "only I am sorry for what I have done." Turning a kind and pitiful look on the man, who expected nothing else than that his punishment would be increased with the repetition of his offense, the colonel addressed him, saying, "Well, we have resolved to forgive you!" The soldier was struck dumb with astonishment; the tears started in his eyes, and he wept like a child. He was humbled to the dust; he thanked his officer and retired to be the old refractory, incorrigible man? No; he was another man from that day forward. He who tells the story had him for years under his eye, and a better conducted man never wore the Queen's colors.'t

The Hoosier Schoolmaster. Routledge, London. †Speaking to the heart, p. 36.

RISKS CONNECTED WITH SCHOOL MANAGEMENT.

There are risks in some of the methods and devices of school management, against which it is an important duty to have the scholars kept on guard as far as possible. The rivalries of school life carry with them temptations to jealousy. The daily competition, the marking of places, the reckonings which are to determine the prizes, all excite the children in a way which is apt to break in upon the work of self-restraint. Eagerness for honor tempts either to seize at an advantage or to cherish enmity because such an advantage has been secured by another. The stimulus of competition has undoubtedly a high value; but this fact must not blind our eyes to the accompanying evils. The influence of numbers is great, and the rivalry of open competition quickens interest in the round of school work. To dispense with such stimulus seems hardly wise. And yet it can not be matter for surprise that many teachers have been led seriously to question whether there is a real educational gain from these rivalries. It would be difficult to decide the dispute by careful comparison of the evidence for the opposing views. One consideration seems to me conclusive. Competition is an invariable attendant on human effort. There is no sphere of life which altogether escapes its influence. In the great majority of the spheres in which life is spent the results of rivalry are met at every turn. For this school training should prepare, as for one of the certainties of human life. To bear one's self with calmness, fairness, and generosity in the midst of the rivalries of business is of the highest consequence both for personal interests and for the harmony of social life. It is, indeed, a great service which is rendered to the community if school training prepare for this. The teacher's thoughts must often revert to the subject, if the scholars are to be guarded against the requisite power. Ambition, that 'last infirmity of noble minds,' may be turned to ignoble ends, and may change strength to weakness, nobleness to meanness.

NATIONAL VICES SHOULD BE GUARDED AGAINST."

Early school life should do much to guard against the rudeness and coarseness which turn domestic life to bitterness, and prepare the way for outbreaks of violence. A constant stream of refining

Professor Hodgson (University of Edinburgh) in his Address as President of the Social Science Association, dwells on the want of a better public opinion on the subject. Every where around us we find coarseness of manner, cruelty both to animals and to our fellows, petty dishonesty, disregard of truth, wastefulness, evasion of duty, infidelity to engagements, not to speak of graver forms of wrong-doing; and WHO BELIEVES IN HIS HEART THAT SCHOOL TRAINING COULD DO ANY THING TO PREVENT THEM ?'-Proceedings for 1873.

influence should flow through the minds of the pupils. Every thing favorable in the reading book, in history, or in the incidents of the school-room, should be utilized for this end. By all means at our command, let us seek to refine and elevate. Our aim must be to give a softened tinge to the character, like the mellow bloom on the dark rich clusters of the vine. Thus a higher life is in some measure reached by a child, and he wields a gentler influence, checking the asperities of life. In mixed schools, such as we have in Scotland, there is ample opportunity for training boys to cherish a respectful and generous demeanor toward girls-a lesson of high value in itself, and far-reaching in its effects. Encouragement in right practice is real training.

The Vice of Drunkenness.

If there be any one vice against which the teachers of our country should seek to warn the young, it is DRUNKENNESS. Our national reproach becanse of this one vice is a bitter one; our national loss and suffering appalling to a degree not realized by those who do not ponder the statistics of the subject. Our national weal depends largely on our casting off this loathsome evil. Intelligence and debauchery can not go long together, either in personal or in national history. Drunkenness is a vice at which school training should level its heaviest blows. There are at present fearful odds against the teacher's hand here, more particularly in the midst of the poverty stricken districts in our large cities, blighted by the baneful influence of strong drink. But if the teacher be observant as to opportunities, persistent in his plan, hearty in his utterances, and judicious in his avoidance of ridicule, he can do much in fixing unseen convictions, and may be aided, unconsciously to himself and to the poor children, by the sad experience of the misery and brutality which a drunken life occasions. A steady moral influence quietly returning, as opportunity offers, to impress upon the mind the evils of drunkenness, and the value of temperance as a root virtue, will help largely toward the training of a race strong in the self-control of a temperate life. The waste of substance which drunkenness causes, the weakness and weariness of body,-the debasement of mind, the desolation of homes, are such as to afford the teacher many links of association making reference easy and natural. There is enough in the thought of these things to deliver childhood from the risk of making mirth of the drunkard. There is enough to favor one who desires to awaken loathing in a young mind. But in all allusions to this subject there is need for great delicacy of feel

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