I will simply state one case, to illustrate what I mean by the difference between blind force and active ingenuity and enterprise in the management of school.  I once knew the teacher of a school who made it his custom to have writing attended to in the afternoon.  The school was in the country, and it was the old times when quills, instead of steel pens, were universally used.  The boys were accustomed to take their places at the appointed hour, and each one would set up his pen in the front of his desk for the teacher to come and mend them.  The teacher would accordingly pass around the school-room, mending the pens, from desk to desk, thus enabling the boys, in succession, to begin their task.  Of course, each boy, before the teacher came to his desk, was necessarily idle, and, almost necessarily, in mischief.  Day after day the teacher went through this regular routine.  He sauntered slowly and listlessly through the aisles, and among the benches of the room, wherever he saw the signal of a pen.  He paid, of course, very little attention to the writing, now and then reproving, with an impatient tone, some extraordinary instance of carelessness, or leaving his work to suppress some rising disorder.  Ordinarily, however, he seemed to be lost in vacancy of thought, dreaming, perhaps, of other scenes, or inwardly repining at the eternal monotony and tedium of a teacher’s life.  His boys took no interest in their work, and of course made no progress.  They were sometimes unnecessarily idle, and sometimes mischievous, but never usefully or pleasantly employed, for the whole hour was passed before the pens could all be brought down.  Wasted time, blotted books, and fretted tempers were all the results which the system produced.

The same teacher afterward acted on a very different principle.  He looked over the field, and said to himself, “What are the objects which I wish to accomplish in this writing exercise, and how can I best accomplish them?  I wish to obtain the greatest possible amount of industrious and careful practice in writing.  The first thing evidently is to save the wasted time.”  He accordingly made preparation for mending the pens at a previous hour, so that all should be ready, at the appointed time, to commence the work together.  This could be done quite as conveniently when the boys were engaged in studying, by requesting them to put out their pens at an appointed and previous time.  He sat at his table, and the pens of a whole bench were brought to him, and, after being carefully mended, were returned, to be in readiness for the writing hour.  Thus the first difficulty, the loss of time, was obviated.