Now under such circumstances the first class will go to their seats with ardor and alacrity, determined to show you that they can do work, even if it is difficult; and if they succeed, they come to the class the next day with pride and pleasure.  They have accomplished something which you admit it was not easy to accomplish.  On the other hand, the second class will go to their seats with murmuring looks and words, and with a hearty dislike of the task you have assigned them.  They know that they have something to do, which, however easy it may be to the teacher, is really difficult for them; and they have to be perplexed and wearied with the work, without having, at last, even the little satisfaction of knowing that the teacher appreciates the difficulties with which they had to contend.

2.  We now come to consider the subject of rendering assistance to the pupil, which is one of the most important and delicate parts of a teacher’s work.  The great difference which exists among teachers in regard to the skill they possess in this part of their duty, is so striking that it is very often noticed by others; and perhaps skill here is of more avail in deciding the question of success or failure than any thing besides.  The first great principle is, however, simple and effectual.

(1.) Divide and subdivide a difficult process, until your steps are so short that the pupil can easily take them.

Most teachers forget the difference between the pupil’s capacity and their own, and they pass rapidly forward, through a difficult train of thought, in their own ordinary gait, their unfortunate followers vainly trying to keep up with them.  The case is precisely analogous to that of the father, who walks with the step of a man, while his little son is by his side, wearying and exhausting himself with fruitless efforts to reach his feet as far, and to move them as rapidly as a full-grown man.

But to show what I mean by subdividing a difficult process so as to make each step simple, I will take a case which may serve as an example.  I will suppose that the teacher of a common school undertakes to show his boys, who, we will suppose, are acquainted with nothing but elementary arithmetic, how longitude is determined by means of the eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites; not a very simple question, but still one which, like all others, may be, merely by the power of the subdivision alluded to, easily explained.  I will suppose that the subject has come up at a general exercise; perhaps the question was asked in writing by one of the older boys.  I will present the explanation chiefly in the form of question and answer, that it may be seen that the steps are so short that the boys may take them themselves.

“Which way,” asks the teacher, “are the Rocky Mountains from us?”

“West,” answer two or three of the boys.

In such cases as this, it is very desirable that the answers should be general, so that throughout the school there should be a spirited interest in the questions and replies.  This will never be the case if a small number of the boys only take part in the answers, and many teachers complain that when they try this experiment they can seldom induce many of the pupils to take a part.