“This is the answer obtained by the majority; it is undoubtedly right.  Those who have different answers may sit.”

These directions, if understood and obeyed, would divide the class evidently into two portions.  Those standing have their work done, and done correctly, and those sitting have some excuse or error to be examined.  A new lesson may now be assigned, and the first portion may be dismissed, which in a well-regulated school will be two thirds of the class.  Their slates may be slightly examined as they pass by the teacher on their way to their seats to see that all is fair; but it will be safe to take it for granted that a result in which a majority agree will be right.  Truth is consistent with itself, but error, in such a case, never is.  This the teacher can at any time show by comparing the answers that are wrong; they will always be found, not only to differ from the correct result, but to contradict each other.

The teacher may now, if he pleases, after the majority of the class have gone, hear the reasons of those who were unprepared, and look for the errors of those whose work was incorrect; but it is better to spend as little time as possible in such a way.  If a scholar is not prepared, it is not of much consequence whether it is because he forgot his book or mistook the lesson; or if it is ascertained that his answer is incorrect, it is ordinarily a mere waste of time to search for the particular error.

“I have looked over my work, sir,” says the boy, perhaps, “and I can not find where it is wrong.”  He means by it that he does not believe that it is wrong.

“It is no matter if you can not,” would be the proper reply, “since it certainly is wrong; you have made a mistake in adding somewhere, but it is not worth while for me to spend two or three minutes apiece with all of you to ascertain where.  Try to be careful next time.”

Indeed the teacher should understand and remember what many teachers are very prone to forget, namely, that the mere fact of finding an arithmetical error in a pupil’s work on the slate, and pointing it out to him, has very little effect in correcting the false habit in his mind from which it arose.

The cases of those who are unprepared at a recitation ought by no means to be passed by unnoticed, although it would be unwise to spend much time in examining each in detail.

“It is not of much consequence,” the teacher might say, “whether you have good excuses or bad, so long as you are not prepared.  In future life you will certainly be unsuccessful if you fail, no matter for what reason, to discharge the duties which devolve upon you.  A carpenter, for instance, would certainly lose his custom if he should not perform his work faithfully and in season.  Excuses, no matter how reasonable, will do him little good.  It is just so in respect to punctuality in time as well as in respect to performance of duty.  What we want is that every boy should be in his place at