CHAPTER VII.
QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS.
_Teachers should practice what they teach--Necessity of patience--Mere automatons will not do for infant teachers--Disadvantage of using excessive restraint--A master and mistress more efficient than two mistresses--Objections to the sole government of females--Two frequent use of Divine names should be avoided--General observations._ * * * * * -- "Such authority, in shew, When most severe and minist'ring all its force, Is but the graver countenance of love, Whose favour, like the clouds of spring may lower, And utter now and then an awful voice, But has a blessing in its darkest frown, Threat'ning at once and nourishing the plant."-- _Thomson_.
* * * * * I enter on this chapter with a full recollection of the painful sense of incompetency I endured on becoming "a teacher of babes;" and this, I trust, will enable me to offer any remarks on the present subject with the humility that is desirable, blended with the confidence of experience.

It is a very common idea, that almost any person can educate little children, and that it requires little or no ability; but it will be found, on an enlightened and correct estimate of the work, that this is a very great mistake: and I regret that this mistake has been made by those who professed to understand the system, and who have written upon it.

But there is just this slight difference between theory and practice: theory supposes such and such things to be correct, which was my own case; but twelve months only of practical effort very soon convinced me I was wrong.

How frequently, for instance, may we find children, ten or twelve years of age, who cannot answer the most simple question, and who, nevertheless, have been to school for several years.

To give the children correct notions, is a part of education seldom thought of: but if we really wish to form the character of the rising generation, and to improve the condition of society generally, the utmost attention must be given to this object.
Little, I should think, need be said to prove, that few ideas are given in dame-schools.