An infant-school, is, in many respects, a community in a state of nature.
What one does, the other almost involuntarily learns.

The merest infants are not an exception to this rule, and therefore the separation in many infant-schools of the children, invariably into two classes, sometimes in two rooms, is a great mistake, and can only arise from ignorance of the laws under which the young mind unfolds itself, and a misunderstanding of the first principles of infant-teaching.
Perhaps one reason that infant-school teaching has not been kept up to its proper point and true standing, is, the desire to make a striking shew before the visitors in a school.

I fear the grounds for this opinion are not slight.

Perhaps nothing has lead more to the multiplication of singing, even to the injury of the children.

The ease with which they learn a metrical piece by _rote_, and the readiness with which they acquire a tune to it, is surprising, and as the exhibition of such attainments forms a striking sinew, in many cases little else is taught them.