PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

"An inactive and healthy child under six years of age is never seen. Children must exert all their muscular force, and employ all their ingenuity, in order to gratify their curiosity, and satisfy their little appetites. What they desire is only to be obtained at the cost of labour, patience, and many disappointments. By the exercise of body and mind necessary for satisfying their desires, they acquire agility, strength, and dexterity in their motions, as well as constitutional health and vigiour; they learn to bear pain without dejection, and disappointment without despondency."-WILDERSPIN.

PHYSICAL Education embraces the development and training of the bodily organs, and the regulation of all influences affecting the health of the child, including the government of those instincts which relate to physical existence; such as hunger, thirst, sleep, activity, anger, fear, etc. From this it will be seen that it is closely united with Moral Education.

All children require sound sleep, regular and wholesome meals, cleanliness, warmth, light, fresh air, and frequent exercise.

With regard to the first, it is injudicious to encourage sleep during school-hours; but should an infant fall asleep either from habit or any natural heaviness, it must be allowed to rest; but if not encouraged, the habit soon wears off, and it only sleeps when at home.

As children are usually furnished by their parents with some small provision for the day, it is the teacher's duty to see that it is not wasted, or eaten at improper times. An hour should be appointed for lunch, and the children supplied with water to drink at the same time, and care taken that they do not satisfy their thirst when heated.

Inspection for cleanliness is absolutely necessary, and affords the teacher an opportunity of training the children to a love of neatness and purity in personal habits. Want of warmth may proceed from a languid habit

of body, insufficient clothing, as well as from sudden changes of weather, and the severity of winter. Whatever is the cause, it is the teacher's duty to take every means to restore and keep up warmth and a free circulation of the blood.

In winter time it is necessary to induce the children to exert themselves, by joining in and promoting their games; and when in the gallery on cold days, their lessons must be interrupted by vigorous manual exercises, to restore the animal heat, and with it cheerfulness and attention; while in summer it is equally important to promote quiet amusements, which do not heat or exhaust the children.

Every school-room should be well lighted, and the means of free ventilation provided. But this alone is not sufficient; relaxation in the open air is also necessary to health, for if kept constantly in the school-room, infants will not remain healthy.

A child if left to itself will be sometimes actively engaged, at others quiescent, quickly tired, and quickly rested, ever seeking variety, pursuing the impulse of the moment with all its energies, .until suddenly attracted by some new pursuit; indeed the most striking characteristic of infancy is, its activity, and in this it agrees with the common nature of young animals, for the least observant must be aware of the restless activity of the foal, calf, lamb, &c., and like these, the child seeks the exercise of every muscle, and the gratification of every sense.

In an Infant School all exercises of a set character should be simple, natural, and somewhat sparingly used. Children soon tire of the best arranged evolutions, and we should not try their patience with what is chiefly intended as amusement. The school question to decide in this case is, how long should an infant rest from bodily exercise, and how long a time should it spend in the open air to secure health and cheerfulness? To this the answer must be conditional, varieties of wea

ther and other circumstances affecting it; as a general rule, however, it may be said, that one hour is long enough for any lesson, although by a complete change, as from geography to writing or drawing, another half hour may succeed; but the general rule for infants is, short lessons and frequent exercise.

Overstraining the attention and intellectual powers would infallably injure the health of the child, but this is a fault seldom found in Infant Schools; for nature generally indicates the extent to which we should go, and the work becomes so difficult when this limit is reached, that the teacher stops per force. It is, however, far wiser never to venture to this extreme, but to cease teaching while the children are yet willing to learn.

To watch against the entrance of disease is an important part of the teacher's duty: without this supervision no set of children can long remain healthy. When children come into school wet, in rainy weather, their outer clothes should be removed and dried, or if this is not possible, and they are quite wet through, they should be sent home. So, also, if it rains heavily at the time of dismissal, no humane person will send children out in it.

All rules and directions on such a subject must necessarily be imperfect. A feeling of benevolence should lead teachers to seek every means of promoting the health and happiness of the little ones committed to their care.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE TEACHER.

"He, whene'er he taught,

Put so much of his heart into his act,
That his example had a magnet's force,

And all were swift to follow, whom all loved."

THE person who undertakes the charge of an Infant School, should be prepared to undergo much labour and anxiety, and to meet with many difficulties.

On

the other hand, it is a work full of interest, and yielding peculiar pleasures to those engaged in it. The dispositions necessary for success are kindness, gentleness, and patience towards the children, steadiness of temper, a habit of observation, cheerfulness, and activity. To the usual branches of education the teacher of infants should add a knowledge of the elements of music, drawing, natural history, and as much general information as possible. The habit of study and observation must always be kept up, whether in the fields, in the town, or at home; a good teacher is always observing and storing up facts for future lessons, by which to attract the attention, and inform the minds of his pupils. This is no difficult or impossible task, but simply an attentive habit, which becomes very agreeable and improving to those who cultivate it. We must also consider, that standing for the time in the place of the parent, the health and conduct of the child are under the superintendence of the teacher, who should be duly impressed with the importance of the trust committed to him.

Speaking of the first transfer of the child from the mother's care to that of the teacher, Pestalozzi says,

"It will therefore become possible even for a stranger, and one who is a stranger also to the mother, by a certain mode of conduct, to gain the affection and confidence of the child. To obtain them, the first requisite is constancy in the general conduct. It would appear

scarcely credible, but it is strictly true, that children. are not blind to, and that some children resent, the slightest deviation, for instance, from truth. In like manner, bad temper once indulged, may go a great way to alienate the affection of the child, which can never be gained a second time by flatteries.

"This fact is truly astonishing; and it may also be quoted as evidence of the statement, that there is in the infant a pure sense of the true and the right, which struggles against the constant temptation arising from

the weakness of human nature, and its tendency to falsehood and depravity."

In the following passage Mr. Wilderspin points out the error of employing incompetent Teachers.

"It is indeed a melancholy truth, that moral training is yet, to a very limited extent, estimated; and this is mainly owing to its not being understood by the generality of those selected for the office of teachers of infants: nor can it be expected that persons of sufficient intellect and talent to comprehend and carry out this great object can be procured, until a sufficient remuneration is held out to them to make it worth their while to devote their whole energies to the subject. It is a fatal error to suppose that mere girls, taken perhaps from some laborious occupation, and whose sum total of education consists of reading and writing, can carry out views which it requires a philosophical mind, well stored with liberal ideas and general knowledge, to effect. They may be able to instruct the children in the mere mechanical parts of the system; and as long as they confine themselves to this, they will go on capitally; but no farther than this can they go; and though the children may appear to a casual visitor to be very nicely instructed, and very wonderful little creatures, on a closer examination they will be found mere automatons, and then, perhaps without a further thought on the subject, the system will be blamed, not considering that the most perfect piece of mechanism will not work properly in any hands, except those who thoroughly understand it."

We must however take this with some qualifications, and not despair of success even with ordinary teachers, for daily experience proves that most persons by devoting their minds steadily to one object can attain to a certain proficiency, and this special study will enable a sufficient number to qualify themselves, whose views in life may lead them to devote themselves to the work. But in order to do so, they must at least know what they aim