The first thing that appears to me necessary, is to find out, if possible, the real disposition and temper of a child, in order to be able to manage it with good effect.  I will allow that it is possible to govern some children without corporal punishment, for I have had some under my charge whom I never had occasion to punish, to whom a word was quite sufficient, and who, if I only looked displeased, would burst into tears.  But I have had others quite the reverse; you might talk to them till you were tired, and it would produce no more effect half an hour afterwards, than if they had not been spoken to at all.  Indeed, children’s dispositions are as various as their faces; no two are alike; consequently, what will do for one child will not do for another; and hence the impropriety of having an invariable mode of punishment.  What should we think of a medical man who was to prescribe for every constitution in the same manner?  The first thing a skilful physician does, is to ascertain the constitution of the patient, and then he prescribes accordingly; and nothing is more necessary for those who have charge of little children, than to ascertain their real character.  Raving done this, they will be able, should a child offend, to apply some appropriate antidote.

To begin with rewards:  to the monitors I have generally allowed one penny a week each, as I found much difficulty in procuring monitors; for, whatever honours were attached to the office, children of five years old could not exactly comprehend them.  They could much more easily perceive the use of a penny; and as a proof how much they valued the penny a week above all the honours that could be bestowed, I always had a good supply of monitors after this remuneration was adopted.  Before this time, they used to say, “Please, sir, may I sit down?  I do not like to be a monitor.”  Perhaps I might prevail on some to hold the office a little longer, by explaining to them what an honourable office it was:  but after all, I found that the penny a week spoke more powerfully than I did, and the children would say to each other, “I like to be a monitor now, for I had a penny last Saturday; and master says, we are to have a penny every week; don’t you wish you were a monitor?” “Yes, I do; and master says, if I am a good boy, I shall be a monitor by and bye, and then I shall have a penny.”  I think they richly deserve it.  Some kind of reward I consider necessary, but what kind of reward, must, of course, rest entirely with the promoters of the different schools.[A]

[Footnote A:  In many of the infant schools I hull visited, I found the spelling and reading very much neglected, that neither the monitors nor children look at the lessons, but merely say them by rote; if the monitors are punished for inattention they wish to give up the office, because there is no reward attached to it; but if there is a reward attached to it of any kind, the children have sense enough to see that the thing is fairly balanced, for if they are rewarded for doing their duty they see no injustice in being punished for neglecting it.]