firmness of the teacher will gradually and naturally begin to take root, and the cumberer of the school-room becomes the respectful, obedient, and studious scholar.

Every individual who undertakes to teach school assumes to become not only a former of character and habits, but a reformer, and a destroyer of bad habits. As a rule then, pupils should not be suspended from school until all measures toward a disciplinary reform have been exhausted; for when once suspended they are taken from under the reformatory influences of the teacher, and will most likely go from bad to worse. But how, says one, is this reformation to be brought about? Can every irascible, vicious, stubborn boy be reformed? We do not know. While we do not entirely believe in the doctrine of total depravity, we do believe that there are some scholars that some teachers can never reform. But these are the very few exceptions.

1. One of the first and most successful means of securing the obedience and respect of pupils is to visit and secure the coöperation of parents. Very few parents who send their children to school, but that have a deep interest in their education. Teachers sometimes think that parents do not support their efforts, and often thwart their best laid plans by ill management of their children's time, and the irregularity of their attendance. This is not because parents are indifferent to their children's welfare, but is due to their incorrect ideas of what constitutes a good education, and of the importance of regular and prompt attendance. It is the province and the duty of the teacher to visit and convince such parents of the importance of proper training, and help them to know how to coöperate with the teacher and secure the greatest good to the child.

2. Promptness. The teacher should endeavor to inculcate habits of promptness on the part of the pupil, both in his attendance at school and at his recitations. The scholar who is habitually tardy in school, will be behind time in everything he undertakes in life, and I deem the influence exerted upon scholars by being obliged to be in their places promptly at a given time, to be of more importance to them than the study of English Grammar.

"On time" should be engraved on all the walls of the schoolroom, and at the head of all the pupil's text-books; he should hear its benefits rehearsed by the teacher whenever an occasion

"offers to make it impressive, until it is indelibly inscribed upon his memory, and becomes one of his life principles. The man who is prompt in all his appointments, punctual in all his contracts, is the man who has the confidence of the people, and who succeeds in business. The boy who is taught habits of promptness at school, will almost invariably make such a

man.

3. Order. Next in the list and of equal importance, we deem habits of order and neatness. Every movement about the school-room should be performed in a systematic and orderly manner. Scholars should be required to enter the school-room and proceed to their seats by some regular and prescribed route, and to leave in the same orderly manner, always leaving their desks by the same aisle. In passing down stairs and through halls, they should be instructed on which side to walk, and in what direction to proceed, and then be required always to observe the same order. The same regularity of movement should be observed by pupils in coming to and passing from recitations.

At a signal the class should arise, and all move by a prescribed route to their seats, moving as much in file as the circumstances and the arrangements of the school-room will permit. Do you object lest too much precious time be consumed in useless parade? I can say, both from observation and experience, that any school, and especially a large one, can be moved and quiet restored in from one-half to two-thirds of the time consumed in the pell-mell order of moving classes and schools; and even should it consume a little more time, the habits of order which pupils will thus obtain will be of more benefit than they would derive in the same length of time at recitation.

4. Cleanliness. This topic need hardly be commented upon, and yet many times the "angel in the child" is obscured or totally concealed by a miserably dirty face, and dirtier hands. What can the teacher do in such a case? March the pupil out to some place where there are in readiness a basin of water and soap, with a good crash towel, and if they are too young, or have had too little experience, to perform the ablution in a satisfactory manner, assist them in the task, and then by a little appeal to their pride, and some judicious remarks in the school, you will probably not have to repeat the ceremony with the same pupils. Neatness in and about the teacher's desk, and

the pupil's desk, is another point that every teacher should look after. The desk is the pupil's work-bench, and books are his tools. The habits of order or disorder acquired in keeping them, will be seen in after years, in the workshop, the countingroom, the store, the farm, the kitchen, the cupboard, and in every household arrangement. I want no better criterion by which to judge of the appearance of a young lady's dressingroom, kitchen, or cupboard, than to have the privilege from time to time of examining her school-desk, whether she be teacher or pupil.

5. In connection with this topic we might mention another habit of a most annoying character, and of very common occurrence, that of eating apples, nuts, candies, etc., in the schoolroom. This should never be permitted during school hours or recesses. The school-room is no more an eating-room than is the church or the sabbath-school room; and the idea of a lot of boys and girls crunching candy or peanuts, or eating apples and throwing the skins on the floor, in church, is too uncultivated to need a word of condemnation.

If the school-room has the appearance of a bar-room, or an eating-saloon, pupils will have no more respect for the one than they have for the other.

6. Pupils should enter the school-rooom immediately on arriving, and proceed directly to their seats. This would involve the necessity of scholars remaining at home until such time as may be fixed for teachers to be in their rooms ready to receive their scholars and to take charge of them. The time necessary for all the scholars to collect, and be in their proper places in the school-room, might vary in different localities, but as a general rule twenty minutes will be sufficient. Teachers then should be in their rooms from twenty to thirty minutes before the time proper for commencing school, and during the time scholars are collecting, should be at the door where they can have an eye on the scholars that are coming in, and those at their seats at the same time. The scholars should be allowed to whisper quietly during the time for collecting, but not to move about the school-room without permission.

7. Recesses. There is probably no part of a teacher's or a superintendent's work that requires more skill in managing properly, than recesses. The time allotted to them must necessarily be short, and should be, especially if the scholars are numerous. The first things then to be looked after are the

preparations. Nearly all scholars expect and think they must have a drink at recess. Every school should be provided with a number of buckets and tins in proportion to the number of scholars. These buckets should be filled with water, and with the tins be placed on benches, in suitable places, either by the janitor or a couple of trusty boys from among the larger scholars, before the school is dismissed, and then no scholar should be allowed to go near or meddle with the pump. In nearly all cases the girls and boys should have a separate recess. They should proceed from their seats in their usual prescribed manner, and file out of the door past the teacher, who should always stand at the door during the time of dismissing, and during recess he should stand at the most convenient point to observe the actions of the scholars that are out, and those that are in at the same time. The scholars that are in the room should be allowed the same privileges as were allowed during the time the school was collecting, but no recitations should be conducted during the recess.

The teacher should give undivided attention to the actions of the scholars. No better time can be found for studying the peculiarities of their different dispositions. If the school be graded, and the Principal or Superintendent has not sole charge of a room, his place should invariably be on the ground with the scholars, having an oversight on their behavior.

8. Dismissing. A very few words will be sufficient on this topic. If it be a single school, all the teacher need do, after the scholars have been provided with their hats and wraps, is to open the door, give the usual signals for moving and allow the scholars to file out past him and go in peace. But if it be a graded school, composed of several rooms, the ceremony requires more time and care. One room should be dismissed at a time, and if there be a hall in the building, have all the schools dismiss through the hall, and pass out of the door in file under the eye of the Superintendent, who should see that the scholars leave the school ground promptly and go home. Leetonia, Ohio. C. C. DOUGLASS.

VOICE TRAINING.

The human voice! What a wonderful instrument! All other instruments of sound are insignificant compared with the voice in its minute structure and infinite variety of tones. There is no gift to mortals, save that of mind itself, whose interpreter

the voice is, that possesses such power. The voice is the harp of the soul, and the music it plays is the exponent of the inner life. If joy gladden the heart and sparkle in the eye, the tones of the voice swell out in sweet liquid strains, or in merry shout. If sorrow depress it the mournful cadence tells of the grief within.

What is meant by the terms vocal culture, voice training, vocal gymnastics, and the like, of which we hear so much in these days?

The terms apply equally to the speaking voice as to the singing; training for the latter has long been accounted a necessity to all excellence; training for the former is scarcely recognized as of any practical value even. To learn of its neglect we have but to listen to the every-day conversation of our friends, to say nothing of the more public exercise of the voice in the school, upon the platform, and in the pulpit, to be convinced of the lack of culture in this respect.

Those whe have given this subject any thought, have conceded that voice training is a good thing for the clergyman and the lecturer, but how many are persuaded of its importance in the school-room?

Music masters are employed in the schools (though it is to be feared, sometimes making sad havoc with the voices). Music and Elocution are twin arts based equally on scientific principles. Music appeals wholly to the emotional nature, while Elocution possesses the double value of appealing to the intellect and the emotions; it is also of great practical use.

Why cultivate that which can be called into exercise only occasionally to the exclusion of that which is a daily and hourly necessity? The singing voice and speaking voice are alike based upon TONES. Of what value is the mechanical drill of music, so far as calling the notes upon the musical staff, and beating the time is concerned, unless in the vocal utterance, the tones are regarded as all important, and so in reading or speaking, correct inflection, emphasis, pauses, etc., are the machinery and not the music of vocal utterance in speech.

There is a vast difference between noise and tones. Sound is caused by the vibrations of the air. If the waves of air are irregular, noise is the result, as the rattling of wheels over the pavement; if the waves are regular, tones or agreeable sounds are the result, as the play of the wind upon an aeolian harp. The ear transmits these sounds to the brain as agreeable or