If these individuals should appear
to be of the proper standing and character, they might at once be joined
to the class in question, and directed to take the same lesson.
In the same manner, the other classes would pass in review before the
teacher, and he would obtain a memorandum of the usual order of
exercises, and in a short time set all his pupils at work preparing for
the lessons of the next day. He would be much aided in this by the
previous knowledge which he would have obtained by private conversation,
as recommended under a former head. Some individual cases would require
a little special attention, such as new scholars, small children, and
others; but he would be able, before a great while, to look around him
and see his whole school busy with the work he had assigned them, and
his own time, for the rest of the morning, in a great degree at his own
command.
I ought to say, however, that it is not probable that he would long
continue these arrangements unaltered. In hearing the different classes
recite, he would watch for opportunities for combining them, or
discontinuing those where the number was small; he would alter the times
of recitation, and group individual scholars into classes, so as to
bring the school, in a very short time, into a condition corresponding
more nearly with his own views. All this can be done very easily and
pleasantly when the wheels are once in motion; for a school is like a
ship in one respect--most easily steered in the right direction when
under sail.
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