"They 'ad to do it."—An inspector once asked a teacher during a lesson in Mental Arithmetic if she ever allowed a pupil to propose questions to the children. The teacher replied that she had done so. H.M.I. then asked, "Who would like to ask the other children a question?" Several hands went up instantly. "Come on, Tommy." Tommy marched in front of his class with an air of importance and confidence, born of experience, and blurted out: "A million articles at half-a-crown each." Inspector: "Well, Tommy, what do you make it yourself?" Tommy: "Please, sir, they 'ad to do it, not me."
Little Jim.—Some years ago a teacher was hearing a class read the poem "Little Jim." He had been trying very hard to teach expressive reading. The children had been brought almost to tears by hearing the teacher read the verse describing the death scene, when he called on a boy to read the verse describing the return of the dead child's father. The reader evidently trusted too much to memory, for, in all earnestness and with beautiful expression, he read—
"He saw that all was over
He knew the child was dead;
He took the candle in his hand
And walked upstairs to bed."
An Excellent Reason.—"Who," asked the teacher, "is your favourite writer?" Johnnie answered, "Samuel." "Why?" replied the teacher. "Because" answered Johnnie, "I like to read about him!"
Why You Couldn't.—As an exercise in composition upper standards had occasionally to write what they could upon a given maxim. The one given was: "You can't put old heads on young shoulders." One boy gave up his paper to the master, who, upon scanning it, found the first sentence to be as follows: "Of course you can't, and if you did they wouldn't fit."