ron let into the floor. When a monitor is asking
the children questions, let him place his stool in the centre of the
semicircle, and the children stand around him. Let the monitors ask
what questions they please, they will soon get fond of the process,
and their pupils will soon be equally fond of answering them. Suppose
the monitor ask. What do I sit on? Where are your toes? What do you
stand on? What is before you? What behind you? Let the monitors be
instructed in giving simple object lessons on any familiar substance,
such as a piece of wood, of stone, of iron, of paper, of bone, of
linen, &c. Let them question their class as to the qualities first,
and then the various uses to which the object is applied. These
lessons will be of incalculable benefit to the children, and give them
an early desire to inquire into the nature, qualities, and uses of
every natural object they come into contact with. We will suppose the
monitor holds in his hand a piece of leather; he first asks, "What is
this?" The children will simultaneously exclaim, "A piece of leather."
This being answered, he will proceed to the qualities, and will have
either from his class, or by his own help, the following answers: "It
is dry, it is smooth, it is hard, it is tough, it is pliable, it is
opaque," &c. He will then question them as to its uses, and will ask,
"What is made from leather?" A. Boots and shoes. Q. What use is it of
else? A. Books are bound with it; and so on through all its uses. He
will then ask them how leather is made, and give them information
which he has himself previously received from the teacher as to the
mode of tanning leather, and the various processes which it goes
through. Indeed, there is no end to the varied information which
children may thus receive from simple natural objects. At first they
will have no idea of this mode of exercising the thinking powers. But
the teacher must encourage them in it, and they will very speedily
get fond of it, and be able to give an answer immediately. It is very
pleasing to witness this. I have been much delighted at the questions
put, and still more so at the answers given. Assemble all the very
small children together as soon as you can: the first day or two they
will want to sit with their brothers or sisters, who are a little
older than themselves. But the sooner you can separate them the
better, as the elder children frequently plague the younger ones;
and I have always found that