It is best, then, _ordinarily_, for the teacher to begin the school as
his predecessor closed it, and make the transition to his own perhaps
more improved method a gradual one. In some cases a different course is
wise undoubtedly, as, for example, where a teacher is commencing a
private school, on a previously well-digested plan of his own, or where
one who has had experience, and has confidence in his power to bring his
new pupils promptly and at once into the system of classification and
instruction which he prefers. It is difficult, however, to do this, and
requires a good deal of address and decision. It is far easier and
safer, and in almost all cases better, in every respect, for a young
teacher to revive and restore the former arrangements in the main, and
take his departure from them. He may afterward make changes, as he may
find them necessary or desirable, and even bring the school soon into a
very different state from that in which he finds it; but it will
generally be more pleasant for himself, and better for the school, to
avoid the shock of a sudden and entire revolution.
The first thing, then, when the scholars are ready to be employed, is
to set them at work in classes or upon lessons, as they would have been
employed had the former teacher continued in charge of the school. To
illustrate clearly how this may be done, we may give the following
dialogue:
_Teacher_. Can any one of the boys inform me what was the first lesson
that the former master used to hear in the morning?
The boys are silent, looking to one another.
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