The British System of Education

What a master says, should be done; but if he teaches on this system, he will find the authority is not personal, that when the pupils, as well as the schoolmaster, understand how to act and learn on this system, the system, not the master's vague, discretionary, uncertain judgment, will be in practice. In a common school, the authority of the master is personal, and the rod is his sceptre. His absence is the immediate signal for confusion and riot; and in his absence his assistants will rarely be minded. But in a school properly regulated, and conducted on my plan, when the master leaves school, the business will go on as well in his absence as in his presence, because the au- thority is not personal. (p. 121)