useless, or destroys such an object if it be accidentally produced.
14. In imitation of this
(i) There should only be one teacher in each school, or at any rate in each class.
(ii) Only one author should be used for each subject studied.
(iii) The same exercise should be given to the whole class.
(iv) All subjects and languages should be taught by the same method.
(v) Everything should be taught thoroughly, briefly, and pithily, that the understanding may be, as it were, unlocked by one key, and may then unravel fresh difficulties of its own accord.
(vi) All things that are naturally connected ought to be taught in combination.
(vii) Every subject should be taught in definitely graded steps, that the work of one day may thus expand that of the previous day, and lead up to that of the morrow.
(viii) And finally, everything that is useless should be invariably discarded.
15. If these reforms could be introduced into schools, there is no doubt that the whole circle of the sciences might be completed with an ease that surpasses our expectation, just as the sun completes its circling course through the heavens every year.
Let us therefore get to work and see if these counsels can be carried into effect, and how the difficulties that hinder their realisation can be overcome.
First Problem
How can a single teacher teach a number of boys, no matter how great, at one time?
16. I maintain that it is not only possible for one teacher to teach several hundred scholars at once, but that it is also essential; since for both the teachers and their
