If you see a boy put his hand before his mouth whilst he is talking, snub him hard for it. Tell him that, when you were a boy and wanted to have a quiet chat with a neighbor, you were not so silly as to thus draw the master's attention and get your little conversation disturbed.
We are none of us infallible, not even the youngest of us, as the late Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, once wittily remarked.
Never be tired of asking for advice; you will become a good school-master only on condition that you will take constant advice from the old stagers.
If, however, you should discover that, in the middle of your lesson, your pupils are all sound asleep, don't go and tell the head-master, and ask him how you should set about keeping them awake. This is beyond his advice.
The General commanding a French military school had once decided upon having a lecture on Hygiene given to the pupils on Monday afternoons. The day was badly chosen. A French Sunday always means for a French boy a little dissipation in the shape of a good dinner at home or with friends, and on Monday afternoons we generally felt ready for a little doze, if the lecture was in the least prosy.
The lecturer, tired of addressing sleeping audiences, lodged a complaint with the General, and asked that his lecture should henceforth take place on another day of the week.
This could not be arranged, but the General soon decided upon a plan to set matters to rights.
"I will place a basof [ [11] ] in the room," he said; "he will take down the names of all those who go to sleep, and I shall have them kept in on the following Sunday."
When the lecturer made his next appearance, followed by the basof, we thought it would be prudent to listen, and the lesson passed off without accident.