There is another view of the subject which ought to be taken.  Perhaps it would not be far from the truth to estimate the average number of scholars in the schools in our country at fifty.  At any rate, this will be near enough for our present purpose.  There are three hours in each session, according to the usual arrangement, making one hundred and eighty minutes, which, divided among fifty, give about three minutes and a half to each individual.  If the reader has, in his own school, a greater or a less number, he can easily correct the above calculation, so as to adapt it to his own case, and ascertain the portion which may justly be appropriated to each pupil.  It will probably vary from two to four minutes.  Now a period of four minutes slips away very fast while a man is looking over perplexing figures on a slate, and if he exceeds that time at all in individual attention to any one scholar, he is doing injustice to his other pupils.  I do not mean that a man is to confine himself rigidly to the principle suggested by this calculation of cautiously appropriating no more time to any one of his pupils than such a calculation would assign to each, but simply that this is a point which should be kept in view, and should have a very strong influence in deciding how far it is right to devote attention exclusively to individuals.  It seems to me that it shows very clearly that one ought to teach his pupils, as much as possible, in masses, and as little as possible by private attention to individual cases.

The following directions will help the teacher to carry these principles into effect.  When you assign a lesson, glance over it yourself, and consider what difficulties are likely to arise.  You know the progress which your pupils have made, and can easily anticipate their difficulties.  Tell them all together, in the class, what their difficulties will be, and how they may surmount them.  Give them directions how they are to act in the emergencies which will be likely to occur.  This simple step will remove a vast number of the questions which would otherwise become occasions for interrupting you.  With regard to other difficulties, which can not be foreseen and guarded against, direct the pupils to bring them to the class at the next recitation.  Half a dozen of the class might, and very probably would, meet with the same difficulty.  If they bring this difficulty to you one by one, you have to explain it over and over again, whereas, when it is brought to the class, one explanation answers for all.

As to all questions about the lesson—­where it is, what it is, and how long it is—­never answer them.  Require each pupil to remember for himself, and if he was absent when the lesson was assigned, let him ask his class-mate in a rest.

You may refuse to give particular individuals the private assistance they ask for in such a way as to discourage and irritate them, but this is by no means necessary.  It can be done in such a manner that the pupil will see the propriety of it, and acquiesce pleasantly in it.