two years old and under are not diverted, they will naturally cry
for their mothers: and to have ten or twelve children crying in the
school, it is very obvious would put every thing into confusion. But
it is possible to have two hundred, or even three hundred children
assembled together, the eldest not more than six years of age, and yet
not to hear one of them crying for a whole day. Indeed I may appeal to
the numerous and respectable persons who have visited Infant Schools,
for the truth of this assertion; many of whom have declared, in my
hearing, that they could not have conceived it possible that such a
number of little children could be assembled together, and all be so
happy as they had found them, the greater part of them being so very
young. I can assure the reader, that many of the children who have
cried heartily on being sent to school the first day or two, have
cried as much on being kept at home, after they have been in the
school but a very short time: and I am of opinion that when children
are absent, it is generally the fault of the parents. I have had
children come to school without their breakfast, because it has not
been ready; others have come to school without shoes, because they
would not be kept at home while their shoes were mending; and I have
had others come to school half dressed, whose parents have been either
at work or gossipping; and who, when they have returned home, have
thought that their children were lost; but to their great surprise and
joy, when they have applied at the school, they have found them there.

Need any thing more be advanced than these facts, to prove, that it is
not school, or the acquirement of knowledge, that is disagreeable to
children, but the system of injudicious instruction there pursued.
Children are anxious to acquire knowledge, and nothing can be more
congenial to their taste than association with those of their own age;
but we ought not to wonder that little children should dislike to go
to school, when, as in most of the dames' schools, forty or fifty,
or perhaps more, are assembled together in one room, scarcely large
enough for one-third of that number, and are not allowed to speak to,
or scarcely look at each other. In those places, I firmly believe,
many, for the want of proper exercise become cripples, or have their
health much injured, by being kept sitting so many hours; but as
children's health is of the greatest consequence, it becomes necessary