it is distinctly given.

4. Hearing recitations. I am aware that many attempt to do something
else, at the same time that they are hearing a recitation, and there may
perhaps be some individuals, who can succeed in this. If the exercise,
to which the teacher is attending, consists merely in listening to the
reciting, from memory, some passage committed, it can perhaps be done. I
hope however to show, in a future chapter, that there are other and far
higher objects, which every teacher ought to have in view, and he who
understands these objects, and aims at accomplishing them,--who
endeavors to _instruct_ his class, to enlarge and elevate their ideas,
to awaken a deep and paramount interest in the subject which they are
examining, will find that his time must be his own, and his attention
uninterrupted, while he is presiding at a class. All the other exercises
and arrangements of the school are, in fact, preparatory and subsidiary
to this. Here, that is, in the classes, the real business of teaching is
to be done. Here, the teacher comes in contact with his scholars, mind
with mind, and here, consequently, he must be uninterrupted and
undisturbed. I shall speak more particularly on this subject hereafter,
under the head of instruction; all I wish to secure in this place, is
that the teacher should make such arrangements, that he can devote his
exclusive attention to his classes, while he is actually engaged with
them.

Each recitation, too, should have its specified time, which should be
adhered to, with rigid accuracy. If any thing like the plan I have
suggested for allowing rests of a minute or two, every half hour, should
be adopted, it will mark off the forenoon into parts, which ought to be
precisely and carefully observed. I was formerly accustomed to think,
that I could not limit the time for my recitations without great
inconvenience, and occasionally allowed one exercise to encroach upon
the succeeding, and this upon the next, and thus sometimes the last was
excluded altogether. But such a lax and irregular method of procedure is
ruinous to the discipline of a school. On perceiving it, at last, I put
the bell into the hands of a pupil, commissioning her to ring regularly,
having, myself, fixed the times, saying that I would show my pupils that
I could be confined myself to system, as well as they. At first, I
experienced a little inconvenience, but this soon disappeared, and at
last the hours and half hours of