The plan that we have acted upon to enforce cleanliness, is as follows:  As soon as the children are assembled in the school, the monitors cause them to hold out their hands, with their heads up; they then inspect their hands and their faces, and all those who are dirty are desired to stand out, to be examined by the master, who will easily perceive whether they have been washed that morning; if not, they are sent home to be washed, and if the mother has any sense of propriety, she will take care that it shall not often occur.  But it may be found, that some have been washed, and been playing with the dirt, when coming to school, which some children are very apt to do; in this case they have a pat on the hand, which generally cures them.  There is much trouble at first, to keep the children quite clean; some of their parents are habitually dirty, and in such cases the children will be like them; these will, therefore, require more trouble than others, but they will soon acquire cleanly habits, and, with proper management, become as cleanly as any of the other children.  As soon as a child is taken into the school the monitor shows him a certain place, and explains to him, that when he wants to go into the yard, he is to ask him, and he will accompany him there.  Of course there are separate accommodations for each sex, and such prudential arrangements made as the case requires, but which it is unnecessary further to particularize.[A]

[Footnote A:  This is a subject of the highest importance in moral training, and deserve the serious attention of committees as well as teachers:  inattention to these matters, may demoralize every child that enters the school.  In many schools throughout the country I have seen great want of attention to this subject, the seats were too high, the circular holes too large, causing fear on the part of the infants, and also bad habits.  The seats should be the same height as the seats in the school—­six inches, and nine inches high, the diameter of the holes seven inches and nine inches—­the teachers should constantly visit these places, inculcate habits of delicacy and cleanliness.  Such habits formed in childhood are never forgotten.  Superfine dressy teachers, will be too proud, and too high, to attend to these things—­but the judicious mother or matron will at once see their importance and act accordingly—­“as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.”]

2.  NEVER FRIGHTEN CHILDREN.

It is common for many persons to threaten to put children into the black hole, or to call the sweep to take them away in his bag, when they do not behave as they ought; but the ill effects of this mode of proceeding may be perceived from the following fact.  I knew a child, who had been to one of those schools where the children of mechanics are usually sent, called dames’ schools, which was kept by an elderly woman, who, it seems, had put this child into the coal-hole, and told him, that unless he was a good boy, the black