Chapter V

RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. The American mechanic at Paris.--A Congregational teacher among Quakers.--Parents have the ultimate right to decide how their children shall be educated.

Agreement in religious opinion in this country.--Principle which is to guide the teacher on this subject.--Limits and restrictions to religious influence in school.--Religious truths which are generally admitted in this country.--The existence of God.--Human responsibility.--Immortality of the soul.--A revelation.--Nature of piety.--Salvation by Christ.--Teacher to do nothing on this subject but what he may do by the common consent of his employers.--Reasons for explaining distinctly these limits.

Particular measures proposed.--Opening exercises.--Prayer.--Singing. --Direct instruction.--Mode of giving it.--Example; arrangement of the Epistles in the New Testament.--Dialogue.--Another example; scene in the woods.--Cautions.--Affected simplicity of language.--Evils of it.--Minute details.--Example; motives to study.--Dialogue.--Mingling religious influence with the direct discipline of the school.--Fallacious indications of piety.--Sincerity of the teacher.

CHAPTER VI. MOUNT VERNON SCHOOL. Reason for inserting the description.--Advantage of visiting schools, and of reading descriptions of them.--Addressed to a new scholar.--Her personal duty.--Study-card.--Rule.--But one rule.--Cases when this rule maybe waived.--1. At the direction of teachers.--2. On extraordinary emergencies.--Reasons for the rule.--Anecdote.--Punishments.--Incidents described.--Confession.

2. Order of daily exercises.--Opening of the school.--Schedules.--Hours of study and recess.--General exercises.--Business.--Examples.--Sections.

3. Instruction and supervision of pupils.--Classes.--Organization.--Sections.--Duties of superintendents.

4. Officers.--Design in appointing them.--Their names and duties.--Example of the operation of the system.

5. The court.--Its plan and design.--A trial described.

6. Religious instruction.--Principles inculcated.--Measures.--Religious exercises in school.--Meeting on Saturday afternoon.--Concluding remarks.

CHAPTER VII. SCHEMING. Time lost upon fruitless schemes.--Proper province of ingenuity and enterprise.--Cautions.--Case supposed.--The spelling class; an experiment with it; its success and its consequences.--System of literary institutions in this country.--Directions to a young teacher on the subject of forming new plans.--New institutions; new schoolbooks.--Ingenuity and enterprise very useful, within proper limits.--Ways of making known new plans.--Periodicals.--Family newspapers.--Teachers' meetings.

Rights of committees, trustees, or patrons, in the control of the school.--Principle which ought to govern.--Case supposed.--Extent to which the teacher is bound by the wishes of his employers.

CHAPTER VIII. REPORTS OF CASES. Plan of the chapter.--Hats and bonnets.--Injury to clothes.--Mistakes which are not censurable.--Tardiness; plan for punishing it.--Helen's lesson.--Firmness in measures united with mildness of manner.--Insincere confession: scene in a class.--Court.--Trial of a case.--Teacher's personal character.--The way to elevate the character of the employment.--Six hours only to be devoted to school.--The chestnut burr.--Scene in the wood.--Dialogue in school.--An experiment.--Series of lessons in writing.--The correspondence.--Two kinds of management.--Plan of weekly reports.--The shopping exercise. --Example.--Artifices in recitations.--Keeping resolution notes of teacher's lecture.--Topics.--Plan and illustration of the exercise. --Introduction of music.--Tabu.--Mental analysis.--Scene in a class.

CHAPTER IX. THE TEACHER'S FIRST DAY. Embarrassments of young teachers in first entering upon their duties.--Preliminary information to be acquired in respect to the school.--Visits to the parents.--Making acquaintance with the scholars.--Opening the school.--Mode of setting the scholars at work on the first day.--No sudden changes to be made.--Misconduct.--Mode of disposing of the cases of it.--Conclusion.

THE TEACHER.