THE MASSACHUSETTS TEACHER. . Vol. VII, No. 1.] CHARLES J. CAPEN, EDITOR OF THIS NUMBER. [January, 1854. THE EVILS AND REMEDIES OF WHISPERING, OR COMMUNICATING IN SCHOOL. [A PRIZE ESSAY, BY MR. DANIEL MANSFIELD, OF CAMBRIDGE.] THE evils of communication are many and apparent. Whispering, under which term we would include communication of all kinds, is the source of nearly all the disorder that arises in school. Indeed, it is impossible to have any tolerable degree of quiet, where it is permitted or practised to any extent without permission. In some select, private schools, and in some small public schools of the higher grade, this privilege may, perhaps, be allowed without much inconvenience. But in such as we generally understand by the term public or common schools, whispering is a great evil in all its tendencies and results. In a school where it is permitted, six times in a half day, or twice an hour,- for each scholar, would by no means be considered an unreasonable allowance. And yet with sixty pupils, (a fair average number, perhaps,) there would be 360 whispers in one session, or two a minute. Now what can be done in a school where there is an average of two whispers every minute? Even if they were all confined to subjects appropriate to the school-room, to inquiries concerning lessons, &c., the very act of communication must produce a vast amount of noise and confusion. But no one, at all acquainted with human nature, or who has had any experience in teaching, will suppose for a moment that any bounds can be set to the indulgence of this propensity. The last party, and the next sleigh-ride, the new bonnet of one, and the shabby dress of another, the name or the looks of the stranger who occupies the platform; these, and all other subjects, that ever entered the |