permission, and you do not wish to ask and be refused. Do you, or not,
experience these inconveniences from our present plans?"

The pupils would undoubtedly answer in the affirmative.

"I myself experience great inconvenience too. I am very frequently
interrupted when busily engaged, and it also occupies a great portion of
my time and attention to consider and answer your requests for
permission to speak to one another and to leave your seats. It requires
as much mental effort to consider and decide whether I ought to allow a
pupil to leave his seat, as it would to determine a much more important
question; therefore I do not like our present plan, and I have another
to propose."

The pupils are now all attention to know what the new plan is. It will
always be of great advantage to the school for the teacher to propose
his new plans from time to time to his pupils in such a way as this. It
interests them in the improvement of the school, exercises their
judgment, establishes a common feeling between teacher and pupil, and in
many other ways assists very much in promoting the welfare of the
school.

"My plan," continues the teacher, "is this: to allow you all, besides
the recess, a short time, two or three minutes perhaps, every hour" (or
every half hour, according to the character of the school, the age of
the pupils, or other circumstances, to be judged of by the teacher),
"during which you may all whisper or leave your seats _without_ asking
permission."

Instead of deciding the question of the _frequency_ of this general