come at last.

4. I am, therefore, now to consider, under a fourth general head, what
course is to be taken with _individual_ offenders whom the general
influences of the school-room will not control.

The teacher must always expect that there will be such cases. They are
always to be found in the best and most skillfully-managed schools. The
following suggestions will perhaps assist the teacher in dealing with
them.

(1.) The first point to be attended to is to ascertain who they are. Not
by appearing suspiciously to watch any individuals, for this would be
almost sufficient to make them bad, if they were not so before. Observe,
however; notice, from day to day, the conduct of individuals, not for
the purpose of reproving or punishing their faults, but to enable you to
understand their characters. This work will often require great
adroitness and very close scrutiny, and you will find, as the results of
it, a considerable variety of character, which the general influences
above described will not be sufficient to control. The number of
individuals will not be great, but the diversity of character comprised
in it will be such as to call into exercise all your powers of vigilance
and discrimination. On one seat you will find a coarse, rough-looking
boy, who openly disobeys your commands and opposes your wishes while in
school, and makes himself a continual source of trouble and annoyance
during play-hours by bullying and hectoring every gentle and timid
schoolmate. On another sits a more sly rogue, whose demure and
submissive look is assumed to conceal a mischief-making disposition.
Here is one whose giddy spirit is always leading him into difficulty,
but who is of so open and frank a disposition that you will most easily
lead him back to duty; but there is another who, when reproved, will fly
into a passion; and then a third, who will stand sullen and silent
before you when he has done wrong, and is not to be touched by kindness
nor awed by authority.

[Illustration]

Now all these characters must be studied. It is true that the caution
given in a preceding part of this chapter, against devoting undue and
disproportionate attention to such persons, must not be forgotten.
Still, these individuals will require, and it is right that they should
receive, a far greater degree of attention, so far as the moral
administration of the school is concerned, than their mere numbers would
appear to justify. This is the field