certainly inadvisable to give exercises in the preceding ones, as the
whole attention must be concentrated on the new tonality. But other keys
should be taken at least once in three weeks. An impatient person may
say: 'But properly taught children could not forget so soon!' Yet, at
times, we are all hazy on almost any subject, but it does not follow
that we are either fools, or badly taught: we are simply human! After
all, machines get out of order, so why not the most complicated machine
of all--the human mind?

Again, it is only the inexperienced teacher who thinks her class has
been badly taught by her predecessor. Many a student in training is
inclined, after the first lesson with a new class, to come to the
distracting conclusion that the children know 'nothing'. This generally
means that, after the holidays, the former work needs a little revision
before new work is begun.

In taking a fairly advanced class a teacher is often worried because
there is not enough time in a single forty-minute lesson a week to touch
on all of such subjects as chords, cadences, extemporizing,
transposition, &c., in addition to sight-singing and dictation. It is
certainly quite impossible to do so, and this is one of the reasons for
apparently slow progress. But there is, however, a good side to the
difficulty, for such work ought not to be hurried, and it is well to
leave a little breathing space between the references to it.

Teachers are sometimes heard to speak with regret of the high spirits of
their classes, which lead to restlessness. But we should never regret
_force_ in a child, and we must realize that all pent-up force needs a
safety-valve. It must be our business to direct such force into safe
channels. Keep the children really busy, give them plenty to do, and