It is a great, though very prevalent mistake, to imagine that boys and girls like a lax and inefficient government, and dislike the pressure of steady control.

What they dislike is sour looks and irritating language, and they therefore very naturally dislike every thing introduced or sustained by means of them.

If, however, exactness and precision in all the operations of a class and of the school are introduced and enforced in the proper manner, that is, by a firm, but mild and good-humored authority, scholars will universally be pleased with them.

They like to see the uniform appearance, the straight line, the simultaneous movement.

They like to feel the operation of system, and to realize, while they are at the school-room, that they form a community, governed by fixed and steady laws, firmly but kindly administered.