It is well known that when we accustom ourselves to particular company, and form acquaintances, it is no easy matter to give them up; and it is a maxim, that a man is either better or worse for the company he keeps.  Just so it is with children; they form very early attachments, and frequently with children whose parents will not send them to school, and care not where they are, so long as they keep out of their way.  Hence such children will persuade others to accompany them, and of course they will be absent from school; but as night approaches, the child will begin to think of the consequences, and mention it to his companions; who will instruct him how to deceive both his teachers and his parents, and perhaps bring him through his trouble.  This will give him fresh confidence, and finding himself successful, there will be little difficulty in persuading him to accompany them a second time.  I have had children absent from school two or three half-days in a week, and sometimes whole days, who have brought me such rational and plausible excuses as completely to put me off my guard, but who have been found out by their parents from having stayed out till seven or eight o’clock at night.  The parents have applied at the school to know why they kept the children so late, add have then in formed me that they have been absent all day.  Thus the whole plot has been developed; it has been found that the children were sent to school at eight o’clock in the morning, and had their dinners given them to eat at school, but instead of coming they have got into company with their older companions, who, in many cases, I have found were training them up for every species of vice.  Some of them have been cured of truant playing by corporal punishment, when all other means I could devise have failed, others by means the most simple, such as causing the child to hold a broom for a given time.

The most powerful punishment I have yet discovered is to insist on the child sitting still, without moving hand or foot for a given time, say half an hour at most.  Long punishment always has the tendency to harden the child; he soon gets contented in his situation, and you defeat your own object.

By keeping a strict eye upon them it will be remarked, they soon begin to form an attachment with some of their own school-fellows, and ultimately become as fond of their new companions, their books, and their school, as they were before of their old companions and the streets.  I need scarcely observe, how strong our attachments, formed in early years at school, are, and I doubt not but many who read this have found a valuable and real friend in a school-fellow for whom they would do any thing within their power.

There were several children in the school who had contracted some very bad habits, entirely by their being accustomed to run about the streets; and one boy in particular, only five years of age, was so frequently absent, and brought such reasonable excuses for his being so, that it was some time before I detected him.  I thought it best to see his mother, and therefore sent the boy to tell her that I wished her to come.  The boy soon returned, saying his mother was not at home.