SECTION X.

A TEACHER SHOULD MAKE HIS SCHOOL PLEASANT.

CHILDREN and youth are governed almost entirely by their feelings. They are controlled neither by the reason of maturer years, nor the habits of advanced age. With them all is freshness and curiosity; and nothing is so likely to interest them as novelty and change. And a teacher, who has not only to govern his scholars, but to interest them, who has to amuse as well as instruct, should understand the motives and principles of action in the youthful mind, that he may be able to rouse it into activity, and give it its proper direction. Something new will always please and excite the youthful mind. This truth the teacher will take advantage of, to awaken dulness and indifference: but he must at the same time guard. against this love of novelty, that he may form habits of fixing the attention on any one subject till the mind has mastered it. And here teachers find a difficulty. The scholars become impatient before they are thorough. The teacher wishes to continue the interest, and to please his pupils by letting them advance, but knows that it is for their good (although he is unable to convince them of it)

to make slower progress. He will have to put a strong check upon this ardent passion for something new, and yet give it sufficient latitude to keep up a deep exciting interest. To keep the mind in this proper balance requires nice observation, much ingenuity, and close reflection.

Those who are under the government of their feelings are greatly influenced by first impressions. The teacher should be careful to have these favourable. His first appearance among the pupils should be winning and friendly. If he should be ill-natured and repulsive at first, it will take a long time to eradicate the unfavourable feelings. The teacher should meet his scholars with a smile; he should show them that he feels a deep interest in their improvement and happiness. He should overlook their faults at first, and endeavour to allure them by tenderness and sympathy, and not repel them by instantaneous harshness and severity.

If a teacher loves his school, he will make it pleasant; if the duties are a source of enjoyment to him, his government and instructions will be likely to be pleasing to his pupils. If he looks pleasant, the scholars will. I know of nothing that will produce this kindness, attention, and goodnature in the teacher, but a sincere love for his employment. Men are generally agreeable and efficient when they labour where they feel an interest and a delight; and, on the contrary, disagreeable and inefficient in stations which they do not like. No one should teach except he can sym

pathize with his pupils, and feel happy in his duties. He should be free with his scholars, but not trifling-easy, but not familiar-sociable, without levity-a companion, and yet a respected teacher, and a beloved ruler. He should possess dignity, without stiffness or affectation, and should temper justice with mercy, and duty with love.

The teacher, to make his school pleasant, should strive to create friendship and good-will among his scholars. The members of the school must meet each other every day, and spend the greater part of it in each other's society. In this close and constant intercourse, the bad feelings will be frequently provoked, and it will be necessary to have a large share of good-nature and a forgiving spirit to prevent strife and hatred from rendering the school association a nourisher of the evil passions. It is the teacher's duty to suppress the unhappy, destructive passions, and to cultivate the sociable and the benevolent. He can perform this duty only by producing love and friendship among his pupils while they are associated during the hours of school. It is said that the seeds of evil and good are planted by schoolmasters and mothers. Their negligence sows many of those that are evil. I think that it will not be doubted that many of the most malignant passions of men sprang up, and received the most fearful strength in the broils and quarrels with schoolmates. How necessary is it, then, that the teacher should keep a watchful eye over the intercourse of his pupils, and exert all his

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powers in preventing the exercise of the selfish nature, and in developing and strengthening the social and benevolent feelings.

Very few teachers perceive the influence which scholars have upon each other; and many, very many, are altogether indifferent respecting the nature of this influence, whether it be good or bad. From this negligence and indifference in teachers, the growth of the evil passions more than counterbalances the benefit of the best instructions. But, if the teacher is disposed, he has the privileges, while strengthening the mind and furnishing it with knowledge, of cultivating the social and moral nature of his scholars; and this to such an extent as to give them governing feelings and principles through life. His school is the world in miniature; the same fears and hopes, prejudices and partialities, passions and strifes, ascendency and submission that we see in the greater world. Thus the teacher has the opportunity for preparing his pupils for that more extended sphere of life which will call into action the same feelings which were exercised in the more limited. He may, by regulating his scholars' intercourse with each other, fit them for useful, honoured members of society, or for destroying the peace and happiness of others, by the exercise of those appetites and passions which his negligence permitted to spring up and grow while at school. Let him, then, labour to make his scholars love each other; and to feel that

they were made social beings that they might make each other happy.

The teacher can render his school pleasant, by making the acquisition of knowledge the means of happiness. The young mind is delighted with the discovery of something new; and it has pleasure in mere action, independent of the knowledge which this action secures. The very labour necessary to obtain knowledge, if properly directed, will afford enjoyment to the mind. The teacher, then, should take advantage of this love of action, and this desire of knowledge, and make them assist in making his school agreeable. I know of no higher enjoyment to the mind than its own exercise in finding out new truths. The reason why study is made such a task, and the exercises of the school become so irksome is, the efforts of learners are improperly directed, and the instructions of the teacher ill-adapted. The scholars perceive no certainty, nothing definite or distinct; they know not that they make any advance or any discovery. They make nothing their own. The teacher's instructions are not understood, or are not of the right kind for the age and attainments of the pupil, and possess no interest. Hence the dislike which children and youth have for study. But the mind was made to love knowledge as naturally as the eye loves light, or the lungs air, or the stomach food. And the mind has a much more exquisite relish in acquiring knowledge than the sense of taste has in preparing food for the stomach, The