Page:A new England boyhood by Hale, Edward Everett.djvu/270

224 best method for the handling of a class which I have ever seen. In his case, certainly, there was no right to complain that an inferior teacher was put in charge of novices. At two o'clock in the afternoon we went into one of the large dining-rooms of University Hall, which was not needed for commons. As one went into the room he took from a pile of manuscript books his own book, as he had left it the day before. In this book he found a slip of paper with the problem of geometry which he was to work out that day. Now if he had failed the day before the problem given him would be one on the lesson of the day before; if he had not failed it would take him on in the regular order.

Of course it happened, before many weeks were over, that the different members of the class were in different places; but it also was sure, that nobody had been advanced any farther than he had understood what he was about. In point of fact, only six or eight members of the class went through without any failures at all, and the others straggled along in their places behind. If you had any