eachers, for it is they who constitute and determine
the school. If pupils are made to stand during recitations, it is
because the teachers of the school desire it; but in a somewhat large
daily observation and intimate acquaintance with public schools of all
grades, and in different sections of the Union,[55] I have yet to see
any high or normal school, or, indeed, any oldest class in a grammar
school, in which the pupils stand during recitation. In the lower grades
they stand or sit, as the teacher requires. I should say that in a
majority of cases they will be found standing, but, at the same time, it
should be borne in mind that in the lower grades the recitations are
much shorter, as a general rule not exceeding ten or fifteen minutes. In
the older grades the pupil is almost universally expected to rise to
answer his question, and sit as soon as it is answered. Leaving out the
point of formal courtesy to the teacher--a matter not to be lightly
treated in its far results on character--it is assumed, even in a
physiological point of view, that the momentary change of position is
better for bodies not yet matured than the constant sitting posture.

I would not for one moment be understood as asserting that much
unreasonable work is not demanded of the pupils in the public schools of
the country, or as defending the often excessive and unseasonable work.
I most emphatically record my protest against the custom of public
exhibitions, and the unnatural excitement which is oftentimes kept up to
stimulate the susceptible thought-machine of the child and youth into
abnormal activity. But these evils are not inseparable from mixed
schools, nor do they belong exclusively to them. I have now in mind a
school of girls, directed by women exclusively, where the girls have
been for many days obliged to answer in writing in ninety minutes,
twenty difficult questions, as an examination, three girls being allowed
only one copy of questions between them, and their promotion to another
class being dependent upon their success. Two or three of these
examinations are being given in one session of five hours. But if the
girls go home from that school-work every day with cold hands and feet,
and a headache that keeps them on the sofa all the afternoon, it is not
because they are doing regular work, nor are schools or systems in
general to blame; the only persons to blame are the individual teachers
who plan and carry out the barbarous and s