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EXTRACTS 
 
 THE EEPORTS 
 
 HER MAJESTrS INSPECTORS OF SCHOOLS 
 
 INTENDED CHIEFLY FOR THE USE OF THE MANAGERS 
 
 AND TEACHERS OF SUCH ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 
 
 AS ARE NOT RECEIVING GOVERNMENT AID. 
 
 " 'He that would hit the mark, especially if it he at a great distance^ must take 
 his aim above it, allowing for the sinking of the arroio.' " Reports. 
 
 "It is a religious man who (done can give to the child anything that can deserve 
 to he called a religious education.'^- Repoets. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN AND LONGMANS. 
 1852. 
 
at- 
 
 V. p. CARPBNTER, OBERLIN PRESS, WARRINGTON. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE following Extracts are made from the official 
 Reports of the Inspectors appointed to visit Schools receiving 
 Government assistance, in order to secure the fulfilment of 
 the objects of the grants. 
 
 It is the duty of the Inspectors to examine Teachers 
 aspiring to receive Certificates, which entitle them to an 
 increase of salary, in proportion to that given by their 
 employers ; and to ascertain that the [Pupil Teachers 
 (who, under certain circumstances, are apprenticed to the 
 Master or Mistress of the School for five years, with an 
 allowance increasing from ten to twenty pounds per an- 
 num ; — the Teachers to whom they are apprenticed being 
 also entitled to a yearly allowance for their special instruc- 
 tion,) are receiving and profiting by the stipulated advantages, 
 and are doing their part, by good conduct, to deserve the 
 annual payments. 
 
 The Inspectors in no way interf^e with the principles on 
 which each School is estabirshed. All those who are 
 appointed to inspect Church of England Schools are clergy- 
 men : and other religious bodies have an opportunity of 
 objecting to the appointment of any particular individual. 
 
 The opinions and collected experience of a number of 
 men of education, who spend their wliole time in going from 
 school to school, and have thus the means of observing the 
 results of every variety of management and mode of instruc- 
 
tion, cannot fail to be valuable. The Volumes from which 
 the Selections are made, are far too numerous and too 
 ponderous for general circulation ; and contain so much 
 matter which is utterly uninteresting to plain practical 
 workers, that the idea suggested itself of undertaking a 
 Selection which might, in the compass of a small Volume, 
 place within the reach of the Teachers and Managers of 
 remote and friendless Schools, some of the more generally 
 practical portions, and such as give at the same time an 
 insight into the advances made of late in the education of 
 the poor. 
 
 The difficulty of selecting, where there was so much to 
 choose from, has in some instances been great, and has 
 occasionally caused repetition. There are also apparent 
 inconsistencies, which will easily be accounted for when 
 the circumstances under which the Reports were written 
 are considered. Many of the Schools, particularly those 
 mentioned in the earlier Reports, had hitherto met with few 
 advantages ; whilst in the later Volumes there are sensible 
 marks of progress. The various views taken by different 
 individuals cause in some instances a diversity, which how- 
 ever adds to the practical value of the whole, as supplying 
 hints suited to various minds. Another cause of diversity is 
 the reference to Schools connected with different bodies ; 
 whether National, British, or belonging to the Established 
 or Free Churches of Scotland, or to any other religious 
 society ; each having its own peculiar rules with regard to 
 religious instruction. We hope therefore that each reader 
 will find something which he will feel to be adapted to his 
 own peculiar wants, or to the circumstances of the School 
 in which he is interested. 
 
PREFACE V« 
 
 Happily there appears to be a gradually increasing con- 
 viction that no one can be a good schoolmaster, who is not 
 a man of religious principles and moral character, and at 
 the same time a man who knows how to encourage the 
 good and kindly feelings in his pupils, and to give them an 
 interest in his instructions. Experience shows that severity 
 often fails, where kindness begets obedience and prepares 
 the mind for better things. The more ignorant of good 
 and instructed in evil children are when they come under a 
 teacher's care ; particularly if they have been neglected, or 
 harshly treated before ; the more they will require, and 
 frequently repay, gentle and affectionate treatment. Even 
 where severity does not produce rebellious conduct, we 
 have still painful evidences of its bad effects in the frighten- 
 ed looks with which the children watch their teacher's 
 movements, each one in dread of being the next victim of 
 his lash. The following is the testimony of one of the 
 Inspectors on this subject. 
 
 "The observations which I have made in the course of my inspection lead me 
 to conclude that the efficiency of a school, not only in respect to that paramount 
 object which is comprised in the formation of a religious character, but with 
 reference to the subordinate consideration of secular instruction, is in the inverse 
 proportion of the amount of corporal punishment inflicted in it ; and for this 
 obvious reason, that the master whose object it is to dispense with corporal 
 punishment falls back upon those other resources of discipline which are of a 
 moral character and a more abiding influence. It is remarkable to what an 
 extent the habit of inflicting corporal 'punishment may grow upon the master, 
 and of enduring it upon the children ; and on the other hand to what an extent 
 the children may become sensitive to its infliction and the master forego it. I 
 have found in the cheerful aspect of some schools, and in the earnest desire of 
 the children to acquit themselves to the satisfaction of their teachers, the plain 
 proof of mutual forbearance and good\vill. The masters of others have given 
 proof of the habitual character which corporal punishment has acquired in their 
 hands by a prompt recourse to it in my presence. That school is ill managed in 
 which the moving principle is terror of the rod. The steady growth of an 
 unhealthy moral condition in it is not easily seen by the master in its relation to 
 a false system of discipline ; the Inspector recognises it, however, from the 
 moment the threshold is passed. He sees it in the very faces of the children. 
 
VI » t»REFACfi 
 
 If sentiments of fear are habitual to their minds, it is not to be expected that a 
 kindly and cheerful subordination should be depicted in their countenances, but 
 rather a suUen apathy or the sinister expression of a silent but resolute opposi- 
 tion of purpose. It is painful to contemplate the moral result of circumstances so 
 unfavourable, called into operation at so early a period of life, and strengthened 
 in their influence by a daily repetition. The opinions which have been expressed 
 to me by some of the schoohnasters with whom I have conversed on the subject 
 of corporal punishment, were it not for the gravity of the results involved in 
 them, would appear to me not a little ludicrous. In some cases long-continued 
 custom has been urged in its favour, in others I have been told of the evil dispo- 
 sitions of the children and the natural dulness of the district. In all I have felt 
 the real reason to be a want of temper or of professional skiU in the master. To 
 exercise an easy moral ascendancy in a school is, in fact, an art not to be ac- 
 quired without study, or practised without the exercise of judgment and self- 
 denial. Many instances are present to my mind in which these qualities have 
 been strikingly exemplified. I can recall to my recollection men whose Christian 
 benevolence and patient self-dedication have appeared to me not unequal to the 
 duty they have undertaken, or unworthy of it. In the relation which has grown 
 up between them and the children intrusted to their charge, I have recognised 
 a parental confidence and affection. I have marked the cheerful attention with 
 which the instructions of the master are listened to, and the pleasure with which 
 the expression of his approbation is received ; and when his hand has rested on 
 the head of some hopeful scholar and the familiar household name and cheerful 
 smile exchanged between them, have borne testimony to their mutual goodwill ; 
 this simple action, replacing a whole page of official inquiries, has not escaped 
 my observation or been without my sympathy. Circumstances so favourable to 
 the best interests of education as these, I have commonly found associated in 
 the character of the schoolmaster, with a just recognition of his social position ; 
 and the perception of its deprivations and its difficulties lost in the sense of its 
 importance or forgotten in the zealous discharge of its duties. In the enjoyment 
 of the friendly regard of his clergyman, the esteem of his neighbours, and the 
 grateful affection of the children intrusted to his charge, I have seen this man 
 surrounded by many of the amenities of a station in life superior to his own, 
 without its factitious wants ; and reflecting on the allotment of happiness to 
 different orders of men, and upon the degrees in which they severally minister 
 to the glory of God and the public welfare, I have thought that of the elementary 
 schoolmaster, whilst it was surpassed by no other in value or importance, to 
 yield to no other in its proper sources of enjoyment." Reports, 184)5, II. 506, 507. 
 
 The Rev. J. Clay, Chaplain of the County House of 
 Correction at Preston, says of the children under his care : — 
 
 "Believe me that the 'law of kindness,' so eloquently enforced by the 
 
 learned Eecorder of Ipswich, can do, by the Divine blessing, much good even in 
 a prison. It was not that these children stood most in need of reading and 
 writing, of learning their catechism, of committing to memory chapters from 
 the Holy Scriptures — they stood most in need of what had never yet approached 
 them— of something to touch, soften, and humanise their hearts aud desires. I 
 
believed that, in almost every instance, these misled creatures had never in 
 their lives heard words or tones of kindness or affection ; that they never had 
 dared to suppose that any one cared for them, or desired, for their own sakes, 
 that they should learn to speak and do things that are right. I endeavoured to 
 show them theu' mistake — that there were people who felt for them, who pitied 
 them, who loved them ; who earnestly desired to promote their happiness both 
 here and hereafter. These endeavours were not unsuccessful ; and I found that 
 as the heart softened and opened, so the mind expanded : — and the reading and 
 Scriptural teaching, which, otherwise, would have been mechanical and irksome, 
 were received vdth eager thankfulness, as something conducive to the great 
 object of repentance and amendment. I must resist the temptation to dwell 
 upon this topic, yet I would beg to say one word more, viz., that whatever 
 measure of success has been granted to us in regard to the reformation of 
 young criminals, it dates from the time when, seven or eight years ago, at my 
 earnest entreaty, our Court of Quarter Sessions abohshed the punishment of 
 whipping." * 
 
 And this is said of young persons who, of all others, have 
 been spoken of as those for whom no treatment could be 
 too severe : and it is not a hasty opinion, but the result of 
 the careful experience of years. 
 
 In a good school, the main object will always be a 
 religious and moral education, accompanied by such instruc- 
 tion as will assist the child in the right performance of the 
 various duties and in the bearing of the various struggles 
 of life, whether at home or in his daily labour ; at the same 
 time seeking to communicate a taste for such innocent 
 reading and employment as may add to the pleasures of 
 home, and tend to preserve the man from the temptations 
 of the Public House, and to render the society of parents, 
 brothers, sisters, w^fe and children, more attractive than 
 that of idle and vicious companions. It is very important 
 that the minds of children should be well stored with simple 
 sacred poetry and passages of scripture, which should be 
 repeated daily until they are thoroughly learned, so as to 
 
 • Report of the Proceedings of a Conference on the subject of Preventive and 
 Reformatory Schools, held at Birmingham on the 9th and 10th Dec.y 1851 : p. 57. 
 Longman and Co. A most interesting and instructive pamphlet. 
 
Vlil. PREFACE 
 
 stand by them for life in health and in sickness. They 
 should also learn simple prayers for home use. A little 
 Volume of Sacred Songs, published by the Irish Board, 
 contains some delightfully simple home verses for young 
 children. 
 
 The importance of obedience is often overlooked. It is 
 a habit which should be from the first established. There 
 should be firmness vv^here the child is expected to obey : 
 and after he has sometimes been allowed to discover the 
 reason of the command, he will often see that obedience is 
 better for him than following his own will. But neither 
 threat nor bribe should ever be used. 
 
 "The state and condition in which we enter into b'fe, have been so ordered 
 and appointed that infancy and childhood must needs be to all a pei'petual exer- 
 cise of Faith. During the first years of life, we cannot do anything, we cannot 
 know anything, we cannot learn anything, not even to speak, except through 
 Faith. A child's soul lies in Faith as in a nest. He is so fashioned, is brought 
 into the world in such utter helplessness and dependence, that he cannot do 
 otherwise than put Faith in the vsdsdom and in the love of all around him, 
 especially of his parents, who in this respect chiefly stand in the stead of God to 
 liim. * * But every child that comes into the world, is to be trained up not 
 merely as an heir of time, but as an heir of eternity. He is to be trained to live 
 
 ■ a life of Faith. * : * When we have learned to look at childhood in its 
 
 \ true light, as a discipline and exercise of Faith, — when we have recognised the 
 1 beneficence of the ordinance, that, during our first years, our souls should grow 
 I up whoUy by breathing the air, and as it were sucking the milk of Faith ; * * 
 i we see how rightly, in ages before men were dazzled by the glare of their own 
 ingenuity, it was deemed the fundamental principle of a wholesome education to 
 bring up children in full strict unquestioning obedience. For every act of 
 obedience, if willing and ready, not the result of fear or of constraint, is an act 
 of Faith ; and that too in one of its higher manifestations. * * Whereas the 
 practise, now far too prevalent of refraining from requiring obedience of child- 
 ren, without at the same time explaining the reasons for requiring it, by depriv- 
 ing the obedience of its personal Faith and confiding submission, deprives it in 
 great measure of its worth as an habitual element of the character ; while, by 
 appealing to the child's own understanding as the supreme and qualified judge 
 of what he ought to do, it fosters that spirit of self-reliance, which springs up too 
 readily in every heart. * * Perverse too and enervating is the practice of 
 coaxing or fondling a child into obedience, of winning obedience from love, in its 
 more superficial external workings, rather than, as a duty, from Faith. Let Faith 
 be the primary principle, and love will follow, and be dutiful and steadfast. * * 
 
PREFACE IX. 
 
 StiU more nosious is another habit, which also is deplorably common, of bribing 
 children into obedience. * * Many parents are content if they get the dead, 
 works of obedience performed any how,, and will promise their children some 
 plaything or dainty, if they will only do as they are bid. Hereby, through a self 
 indulgent weakness, to spare themselves a little pain and trouble, they encourage 
 stubbornness and reward disobedience. * * Moreover they do what in them 
 lies to strengthen the child's carnal sensual propensities. * * They teach him 
 that even in doing his duty, he is not to do it for its own sake, but for the sake 
 of some paltry outward gratification to be gained by it. They teach him that 
 God's judgments are less to be desired than gold, and far less sweet than honey ; 
 and that in keeping them there is no reward, comparable to an apple or a toy.* 
 
 The position which a Teacher holds with regard to the 
 children in a school, is for the time, in a great degree, that 
 of the Parent ; and unhappily, in many cases on them it 
 falls to supply the almost total neglect of the Parent's duties. 
 
 Boys should, if possible even in a town, be taught the 
 use of a spade, and receive some little agricultural know- 
 ledge. A small garden in the play- ground may often be 
 contrived : and who can say of any boy, in these days of 
 change and of emigration, that he may not at some time 
 have occasion to employ himself in the cultivation of the 
 ground ? But even without looking forward so far, there 
 is sufficient evidence, in Birmingham and other places, of 
 the great advantages to body and mind which are derived 
 by the artizans, after their day's labour in the close work- 
 shop, from hiring a little piece of garden ground in the 
 outskirts of the town, where they can enjoy with their 
 children the fresh air and a wholesome change of employ- 
 ment. "The 'Finchly Manual of Gardening,' and the 
 ^Useful Hints to Labourers,' [Parker,] are very useful in a 
 school. The Irish Board has an Agricultural Class Book : 
 but it appears to be more peculiarly suited to the soils of 
 Ireland." 
 
 • Arehdeacon Hare's Victory of Faith : pp. 100—107. 
 
X. PREFACE 
 
 It is desirable that boys should know something of 
 Mechanics, of which the principles are to be found in the 
 higher books of most of the School Reading series. Gen- 
 erally, the secular lessons of both boys and girls should be 
 regulated by the kind of employment in which the child is 
 likely to be engaged in after life. 
 
 The attention of girls should be frequently called to the 
 duties of child, sister, wife and mother, in making home 
 comfortable ; and to little objects of domestic management, 
 such as cooking, economy, cleanliness, buying, cutting out, 
 making and mending clothes, &c. There is a Reading 
 Book in the Irish Series, intended for Female Schools, 
 which contains much that is useful, but not all that is most 
 needed, and with which every cottage girl should be familiar. 
 The Finchley Manuals of Cooking and Housework are very 
 good ; and the Manuals of Needle-work, published by the 
 British and Foreign School Society should be in the hands 
 of the Schoolmistress : but perhaps such instruction is best 
 imparted, in familiar conversations or oral lessons, by a sen- 
 sible teacher who is herself conversant with such useful arts. 
 
 It is not easy to speak particularly of the very numerous 
 lesson books which have been given to the public. The 
 Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, the 
 British and Foreign School Society, and the Irish Board 
 of Education, have each a series of Reading Books : and 
 there are six series, at least, published in Scotland. In 
 some of the latter, it has been thought that examples of 
 ancient heathen heroism might well have been spared ; 
 since they have little in accordance with the right teaching 
 of Christian children, who have barely time whilst under 
 instruction to learn that which is most essential of the true 
 
and useful. Sometimes also there appears a tone of worldly 
 prudence and wisdom in the moral lessons. This fault is 
 often also found in fables ; and it should be most carefully- 
 guarded against, for children should always have the highest 
 motives placed before them, to the exclusion, as much as 
 possible, of all others. In .some early Reading Books, 
 devotional sentences have very injudiciously been introduced 
 as lessons for young children in joining words of three or 
 four letters. Excellent as they may be to be read and 
 explained and committed to memory, the act of puzzling 
 over the letters must destroy their beauty and all the right 
 associations which the children might have with them. 
 Perhaps, of the Scottish books, M'Culloch's and those of 
 the Scottish School Book Association are the best. There 
 is however probably no lesson book where an earnest 
 teacher will not think it sometimes desirable to make 
 omissions or alterations in the order of reading ; and he 
 should always make himself acquainted with the lesson 
 before he hears the children read it, in order to be prepared 
 with the necessary explanation. There are also books on 
 special objects, as Grammar^ Geography, History, Natural 
 History, Mechanics, Arithmetic, Music and Drawing. In 
 most of the Reading series, enough of the five first will be 
 found for most elementary schools. It may perhaps be well 
 to mention Tate's Arithmetic as excellent for beginners ; 
 and the Irish Treatise on Arithmetic as containing every- 
 thing which the Teacher is likely to require. Richards' 
 Examples are good. 
 
 The Parallel Desks, spoken of in page 287, will be found 
 very useful. They should be arranged in groups of four or 
 five, (each being long enough for six or seven children ") to 
 
contain a class, where they can write or read or receive 
 direct instruction from the Teacher, with a black board 
 before them. 
 
 The Gallery alluded to is formed by a succession of 
 steps rising from the floor. In some cases, a low form is 
 fixed on the front of each step, leaving room for the feet of 
 the next row of children ; but in Infant Schools, the child- 
 ren usually sit on the steps themselves. The seats should 
 increase in height towards the back for 'the elder children. 
 
 The old customs of making children repeat by rote, 
 and read without understanding, indeed without any at- 
 tempts on the part of the Teacher to explain, or to ascertain 
 whether the reading has conveyed a single idea to the mind 
 of the child, are decreasing in proportion as the necessity 
 for a higher qualification for teachers is acknowledged. 
 
 Our consciences are far too easily satisfied by collecting 
 together a number of children, or even by enrolling their 
 names in the books of our schools, without enquiring what 
 they actually learn that is good and useful ; and then we 
 are surprised that education does not do its part in the 
 prevention of crime. But it is not reading or writing or 
 arithmetic or grammar or geography or history v^hich forms 
 the character, or makes a good member of society. These 
 things may only give a greater power for evil, if such 
 instruction be considered as the sole means of education, 
 and be allowed to stand alone, w^ithout any regulating 
 principles of action, or aids for their employment in good 
 purposes. 
 
 The following extracts are from "Reformatory Schools,"** 
 
 * "Eeformatory Schools, for the Children of the Perishing and Dangeror 
 Classes, and for Juvenile Offenders : by Mary Carpenter." London : C. G' 
 pin. 1851. 
 
a very valuable vrork, and one containing a large body of 
 information obtained from those vrho have the best means 
 of observing the state of the class of children to whom it 
 refers. 
 
 "If we form our judgment only from the 'reading and writing' tests, we 
 
 may doubt whether ignorance has so' much to do with crime as is generally 
 
 supposed. But of the danger of trusting to such records, which, however care- 
 fully made, cannot give an idea of the real condition of the subjects of them, 
 Mr. Pearson gives the following caution : — 
 
 " 'The returns received from the prisons as to the state of the acquirements 
 and education of prisoners, are to a surprising extent in contradiction to what 
 I believe to be the actual facts of the case. The amount of instruction a child 
 has received when brought into gaol is by no means to be estimated by the 
 answers he gives, and the answers the chaplains return. The juvemle classes of 
 thieves are the most subtle, crafty, acute, mendacious body you can possibly 
 imagine. They are perfectly aware that they are now objects of great compas- 
 sion ; that ignorance is supposed to be the cause of their position. For the 
 purpose of the prison returns the question to them is, ' Can you read ? ' * No ! ' — 
 ' Can you write ? ' * No ! ' Prisoners recommend themselves to the compassion of 
 the officers of the prison, who place them under the chaplain, and the school- 
 master of the prison. In the course of a month or two they acquire a degree of 
 intelligence, and a capacity for reading and writing, which would seem to show 
 that the prison school far surpasses any other seminary for education that the 
 mind can conceive of, such is the rapidity of their progress. But let them get 
 into the world again, and be brought again to prison, the same questions are put 
 to them, — ' Can you read .P' 'No.' * Can you write ? * 'No.' — I have been from my 
 earliest infancy a devoted advocate for education ; but I am satisfied that the 
 cause of juvemle crime is not the absence of education ; and that any education of 
 the children of the labouring classes that is not accompanied with industrial 
 training, and their actual employment in manual and useful labour, will entirely 
 fail in checking the growth of crime.' 
 
 "Instead, then, of referring to the ordinary educational statistics, let us avail 
 ourselves of the carefully analysed records of chaplains of gaols, from which we 
 shall also be able to gather not only the degree, but the nature of the education 
 the prisoners have received. 
 
 " Though it may be impossible from mere statistic tables to form a true estimate 
 of the real relation between ignorance and crime in this country, — so variable 
 are the criterions of which such tables are founded, so easily may the most 
 accurate be led into error by the misstatement, intentional or otherwise, of the 
 prisoners, — yet the testimony of such a man as Mr. Clay, who for more than 
 quarter of a century has been anxiously and watchfully fulfilling the painful yet 
 most important duties of Chaplain, at the Preston House of Correction, must be 
 entitled to great weight. The wise and careful manner in Avhich, by judicious 
 questions and sldlful experiments, he has ascertained the nature of the instruc- 
 tion which his prison inmates had received, will show that the mere statement 
 of the numbers who can read or write well, indifierently or not at all, will give a 
 
 ' 2a 
 
XIV. PREFACE 
 
 very inadequate idea of the degree of real education they have received. In his 
 evidence before the Committee of the Lords, in 1847, he states that the cases of 
 extreme ignorance among the juvenile and adult prisoners, amoimt to 43 or 45 
 per cent. 
 
 " 'I call it' 'he says,' * extreme ignorance, when a man, or woman, or child, 
 cannot repeat a word of prayer, — when they cannot do it intelligibly. They 
 attempt sometimes to repeat the Lord's Prayer, but they make gibberish of it. 
 I caU it extreme ignorance when they cannot name the reigning Sovereign, or the 
 months of the year. I have found a great number that did not know the months 
 of the year ; and when I have put the question to them in the plainest way I 
 can, 'Do you know Avho is reigning over us ? ' the answer has been 'No.' — 'Do 
 not you know the name of the Queen ? ' * Prince Albert, is it not ? ' I have 
 conversed with 1,301 men and boys, and 287 women and girls, out of about 3,000, 
 in this state of ignorance. I have found 1,290 men and boys, and 293 women and 
 girls so incapable of receiving moral or religious instruction, that to speak to them 
 of virtue, vice, iniquity, or holiness, was to speak to them in an unknown tongue. 
 They have a vague impression of the immortality of the soul, and that when 
 they leave this world for another they will be rewarded or punished, but they 
 know little or nothing of the conditions of the reward or punishment. As 
 respects mere ignorance, I cannot say that I have known many instances of 
 persons who did not believe in the existence of a God at all, and that is the 
 ground of our hope ; but they have no sense of a God constantly present and 
 superintending them.' " * * 
 
 "The TOLLowiNa Tables are fkom the same Kepoet : — 
 
 * Religious Knowledge of Prisoners : — 
 
 Sessions. Summary. 
 Per cent. Per cent. 
 Ignorant of the Saviour's name, and unable to repeat the. 
 
 Lord's Prayer 37 * 5 37 ' 
 
 Knowing the Saviour's name, and able to repeat the 
 
 Lord's Prayer, more or less imperfectly . . . 51 • 7 59 ' 
 Acquainted with the elementary truths of religion . 10 • 7 ' 6 
 
 Possessing that general knowledge level to the capacities 
 
 of the uneducated -6 '1 
 
 Familiar with the Scriptures and well instructed . . "0 '0 
 
 Ignoram.ce in prisoners on the most ordinary subjects, as 
 
 compared to their direct or indirect acquaintance with 
 
 demoralizing literature : 
 
 Unable to name the months 61 ' 8 60 • 5 
 
 Ignorant of the name of the reigning sovereign . . 59 ' 1 59-1 
 Ignorant of the words, "virtue," "vice," &c, . . 61*5 58-4 
 
 Unable to count a hundred 6*8 12 • 8 
 
 Having read, or heard read, books about Dick Turpin, 
 
 and Jack Sheppard 52-6 44 • 
 
 Whole number of prisoners— Sessiona, M., 265 ; F., 73. Summary, M.^ 859; 
 F., 186." 
 
PREFACE XV, 
 
 "Can there be a stronger proof than is presented by these tables, of the 
 utter deficiency of any moral or reHgious training, or even of any ordinary cul- 
 ture of mind in these 1383 persons, who came under the penalty of the law 
 at Preston ; yet nearly half of them, however deficient in other knowledge, had 
 found the means of access to such books as would stimulate their worst passions 
 and encourage them in crime. It vrill also be noticed, that while the continual 
 proportions of the Sessions cases, and the Summary convictions, are nearly 
 equal in aU other particulars, a much larger proportion of the former, which 
 may be considered the most heinous, liave become acquainted with these 'demor- 
 alizing productions. 
 
 *'Let us now take the evidence of another Chaplain, in whose district society 
 may be expected to wear a very different aspect from that of the manufacturing 
 population of North Lancashire. 
 
 The follovring is an analysis of tables presented to the committee of the Lords, 
 by the Eev. John Field, of Reading Gaol. 
 ."*In 1816, of 631 prisoners, 3 only had received a superior education; 
 11 could read and write well ; 192 could read and write imperfectly ; 189 could 
 read but not write ; 236 could not read ; 204 were ignorant of the Saviour's 
 name, and could not repeat the Lord's Prayer, of these last 65 could read ; 2 only 
 of the whole number were familiar with Scriptures, and had been well instructed 
 in religious truths ; 393 were imperfectly acquainted with the simple truths of 
 religion ; 27 had learnt the creed, commandments, and catechism, remembering 
 the most important parts. . 
 
 ** ' The offences committed by these culprits,' he says most truly, * have been the 
 natural and almost necessary consequences of neglect. A greater number had 
 received some measure of instruction, yet so wretchedly defective had been the 
 character of their education, that for restraining vice, or directing in the prac- 
 tice of duty, it had been altogether inadequate. Children — or still childish 
 men— have learnt to read or write, but they have not learnt to think about, or 
 to understand, anything which they have been taught. Words are to such men 
 sounds J they are not signs. The ear has heard them, and the tongue has 
 learnt to give utterance to them, but the mind has received no ideas or impres- 
 sions from them. Hence these criminals have no realizing sense of any impor- 
 tant truths which it is supposed they have been taught, and consequently, 
 though acquainted with terms, they remain ignorant of motives. Conscience, 
 indeed, once whispered approval, or condemned, but its voice has been stifled^:- 
 it has ceased to warn. Thus, men who might be, and if properly educated would 
 have been, rational, really live without intelMgence.' " * * 
 
 "It is evident, from a careful examination of these statements, that a depth of 
 ignorance almost incredible to those who on the one hand have tJiought but little 
 respecting the condition of the lower classes of the community, or on the other 
 have taken a personal interest in it, is consistent with crime, and doubtless in 
 great measure the cause of it ; but that at the same time the mere circumstance 
 of having attended a Sunday or some other School for twelve months or more, 
 produces very little effect in opening the factilties to the true reception of know- 
 ledge, or even communicating the most simple elements of it. We shall, however, 
 discover another truth not less important from what follows ; namely, that the 
 mere mechanical power of reading and writing, unaccompanied by sound moral, 
 
XVI. PREFACE 
 
 industrial, and religious training really prepares the ill-disposed for greater 
 audacity in crime. 
 
 " 'The number of prisoners, says Mr. Smith, the Governor of Edinburgh Gaol, 
 in his evidence before the Lords, ' during the year ending the 30th of September, 
 1846, who could neither read nor write, was 317 out of 4,513 ; 292 could read 
 well ; 85 could read and write well, and 3 had received a superior education. 
 There is a remarkable fact elicited by the table from which this statement is 
 derived, viz., that the member of recommitments of those who can read well, is much 
 greater than the niraiber of those who cannot read at all.' " 
 
 No attempt has been made in combining the following 
 Extracts to introduce connecting words and phrases. On 
 the contrary, the greatest care has been taken not in the 
 slightest degree to modify the sentiments of the various 
 Authors of the Reports. Wherever omissions are made to 
 reduce the length of Extracts, they are carefully marked ; 
 and the reference to the original passage is always given, 
 in order that in case of ambiguity the whole of the views 
 of the writer may be consulted. The omission, in most 
 cases, of the names both of individuals and of schools, 
 has been made with the intention to avoid in any way 
 affecting personal feeling ; the object being only to call 
 attention to such general conclusions as may be deduced 
 from examples. 
 
 The dates always refer to the publication of the Volume, 
 not to the year for which the Reports are made. Thus the 
 first Extract, with the reference *'1847, II. ^1 ,'' is to be 
 found in the Second Volume of Minutes, &c., for 1846, 
 published by Parker in 1847, at the fifty- seventh page. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Qualifications of Teachers. 
 
 Religious Character, 1. Children acute observers, 2. 
 Responsibility, 3. False display, 4. Preparation, 7. Dis- 
 cipline, 8. Punishment, ,9. Too large schools, 13. The 
 educator is the school, 14. Moral training, 15. Different 
 classes of teachers, 17. Vivacity, 19. Teaching, an art, 22. 
 Intercourse v^^ith parents, 23. Health and spirits, 24. 
 Inefficient schools, 25. Examples of teachers, 29. School- 
 masters' unions, 34. Mode of punishment, 39. Revv^ards, 
 46. Public examinations, 46. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Religious Instruction. 
 
 Formation of character, 50. Parental influence, 53. 
 Use of the Scriptures, 54. Prayer, 58, 60. Monday 
 exercises, 69. Elementary books. 71. Public vv^orship, 73. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Discipline. 
 
 Cheerful aspect, 77. Attention, 78. Punctuality, 80. 
 The dead weight, 82. What has been done, 85. Recrea- 
 tion, 87. Short-timers, 87. Early labour, 92. The 
 greatest good for the largest number, 98. Real and tech- 
 nical knowledge, 100. 
 
XVm. CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Industrial Occupations. 
 
 Garden allotments, 105. Farm- work, 106. Needle- 
 work, 111. Influence after leaving school, 115. [See 
 also p. 288—294.] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Organization and Monitorial Teaching. 
 
 School Anniversaries, 118. Inefficient monitors, 120. 
 Organization, 124. Collective lessons, 131, 148. Middle 
 classes, 133. The poor man's classics, 128. Simultaneous 
 instruction, 140. Schools for both sexes, 141,184. Les- 
 son books, 144. Pupil Teachers, 147. Object Lessons, 
 164. Oral teaching, 169. Elements of science, 171. 
 Music, 172. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Arrangement and Divisions of the School. 
 
 Tripartite system, 174. Order of occupation, 185. 
 Lending libraries, 189, [217.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 General Teaching. 
 
 Hints to teacherS} 192. Maintainance of order, 196. 
 Responsibility, 199. St. Enoch's School, 201. Good 
 reading, 210. Influence on parents, 212. English com- 
 position, 216. Writing, 221. Spelling, 224. Arithmetic, 
 226. Geography, 234. Natural History, 235. Grammar, 
 242. Payments, 243. Welsh schools, 248. 
 
CONTENTS XIX. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Infant Schools. 
 
 Dame schools, 250. Intellectual display, 250. The pro- 
 digy system, 252. True purpose, 253. Object lessons, 
 254. Older children, 258*. Female teachers, 260. 
 Organization, 263. Popularity, 267. Religious instruc- 
 tion, 268. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Sunday and Evening Schools. 
 
 Routine, 272. Religious influence, 274. Night Schools, 
 276. Migratory habits, 277. Provident Society, 278. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 School Buildings and Appurtenances. 
 
 Cost of building, 280. Ventilation, 281. Warming, 
 284. Apparatus, 287. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Ragged and Pauper Schools. 
 
 Social evils, 289. Agricultural districts, 291. Half-day 
 schools, 294. Sunday Ragged schools, 295. Bristol 
 school, 296. Pauper schools, 305. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Fage xii.. 
 
 line 22 
 
 fc 
 
 .. 42, 
 
 .. 15 
 
 
 .. 167, 
 
 .. 10 
 
 
 .. 170, 
 
 .. 12 
 .. 15 
 
 
 .. 189, 
 
 .. 1 
 
 
 .. 201, 
 
 .. 10 
 
 
 .. 202, 
 
 .. 26 
 
 
 .. 296, 
 
 .. 20 
 
 
 for catecliisin read arithmetic. 
 
 restoring 
 
 .. resorting. 
 
 taking 
 
 taken. 
 
 our 
 
 other. 
 
 mountain 
 
 mountains. 
 
 occupation 
 
 of occupation 
 
 have 
 
 have made. 
 
 next 
 
 the next. 
 
 same 
 
 same time. 
 
EXTRACTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS. 
 
 I^Kr 
 
 IN regard to Christian character, the paramount quaUfication 
 of the instructor of youth, nothing is more inevitably be- 
 trayed than the contrary, in the tone and condition of a school, 
 in the course of an inspection which challenges the hearts 
 and minds of every child in each class, without disturbing him 
 from his place in it. 1847, II. 57. 
 
 The best teachers, in training Christian children, look in 
 faith to Him who has promised that the least service done to 
 His little ones, shall not be without its reward. 1846, II. 1 10. 
 
 Indispensable as is a religious character to serve as the 
 foundation of all the qualities of the teacher, it does not com- 
 prise them. They do not consist in good reading and writing 
 and in literary and scientific attainments, and they cannot be 
 drawn out by viva voce examinations, or by written exercises. 
 I am detailing the experience of more than one training insti- 
 tution, when I bear testimony to the fact that the qualities of 
 an invaluable schoolmaster may be hidden under a rude aspect, 
 and associated with uncultivated manners and limited acquire- 
 ments. What these qualities are it is more difficult to say. 
 They include, however, a paramount sense of duty, great 
 
 oral courage, and earnestness of character, united with a 
 gentle disposition and an humble spirit. They suppose an 
 unwearied industry, natural good sense, a sound judgment, 
 |and a ready apprehension. 1846, I. 339, 340. 
 
 B 
 
2 QUALIFICATIONS OP TEACHERS 
 
 Unless our teachers be living in the fear of God, and be 
 struggling to do their work as that which has been allotted 
 to them by Him, and in the faithful discharge of which they 
 may confidently look for spiritual help, all the pains that may 
 be bestowed on our educational establishments are compara- 
 tively useless. It is acknowledged that right moral training 
 is the first object to be aimed at : but what means are so 
 effectual to this end as the example of the teacher ? This 
 affords incessantly the most effective teaching, teaching that 
 will be found in some cases to have life and force after a long 
 interval of seeming torpor. 1847, I. 132 : 1845, II. 90. 
 
 Children are acute observers, and it is notorious that they 
 learn more by the eye than by the ear ; a gesture or a glance 
 will set their imaginations at work ; they expect also a sort 
 of perfection in those who are set over them as their guides : 
 most careful, therefore, should we be to do all in our power 
 to avoid that shock to their moral sense which must result 
 from the observation of gross faults in those whom it is their 
 duty to respect. Maxima dehetur pueris reverentia. It is 
 remarkable also how much skill in the production of merely 
 intellectual results is attained by those whose qualifications 
 may have been originally scanty, but who love their work, 
 and persevere with zeal therein. After visiting a school of 
 humble pretentions in a village in Hertfordshire, where the 
 teaching seemed to me to accomplish, in an admirable manner, 
 the highest purposes aimed at by such an institution, I was 
 very much struck by the observation of a lady who was daily 
 at work therein, rendering cheerfully her unbought services, 
 who said to me, *' We endeavour to train these children aright 
 for what will be required of them hereafter, assured that if we 
 succeed in this, they will not be found deficient in the discharge 
 of those duties that may be required of them here ." 1847,1. 132. 
 
 If a teacher be himself habitually under the influence of the 
 highest motives, seeking first, and above all things, to do his 
 Master's work in the station wherein he is placed, with a hope 
 grounded upon his Master's promises as the chief incentive to 
 diligence, — such a teacher will in numberless ways, and in a 
 degree wholly inappreciable by outside observers, exert a 
 most healthful influence upon his scholars. The tones of his 
 voice, his general bearing, his justice and consistency, his 
 silence oftentimes, will have effects that will be looked for in 
 
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 3 
 
 vain from the operation of any code of rules, however perfect, 
 that are not animated by a living spirit. I need not repeat what 
 I have previously urged as to the propriety of distinctly recog- 
 nizing the teaching of Scripture as the law of the school, an 
 appeal being made with reverence habitually thereto, whenever 
 the occasion may arise for correction or rebuke. The instruction 
 of Scripture was intended to be continually before our eyes as 
 the rule of our conduct, and it is our own fault if we are not 
 led thereby to perceive where the necessary help is to be 
 sought for under our moral difficulties, and what are the great 
 remedies for the ills of our social condition. I have also pre- 
 viously remarked upon the special necessity for gentleness in 
 the teacher of the poor, the duty laid upon him to strive to 
 bring into action a compensating process, so as that he may 
 be the means of doing most for those in whose behalf their 
 previous training has done least — the most stubborn and unto- 
 wardly being regarded by him as needing the largest measures 
 of his forbearence and affectionate zeal, as a physician in a 
 hospital would look upon the saddest cases as those that 
 especially called for his patience and skill. 1845, II. 90, 91. 
 My desire that teachers should realize the responsibility of 
 their position has led me to regard with extreme jealousy 
 any proposal that might seem to limit the services of a school- 
 master for the poor to the communication of secular instruct- 
 tion ; unless the teacher feels that he is intrusted with the 
 training of the noblest part of the child's nature, I do not 
 believe that, in ordinary cases, the most serious men will give 
 themselves to the work of school-keeping. Certainly the 
 teacher who regards mainly the intellectual development of 
 his pupils, loses that which is a great solace to such as, on 
 the highest grounds, follow this calling. It may be considered 
 wearisome to be day after day before an irregular class of 
 half-reclaimed urchins teaching them that twice two are four ; 
 and, under the most favourable circumstances, the school- 
 master's calling is necessarily a harassing one, involving, when 
 honestly persevered in, a great expenditure of spirit and 
 energy ; but if the teacher, standing at his class, feels that 
 the little ones around him are his flock, whom he by his care 
 and industry may be the means, under the Chief Shepherd, 
 of feeding and guiding to their future and enduring, as well 
 as their present and transitory well-being, surely he will have 
 
4 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 hope and encouragement in his work : as he is intrusted 
 with a talent of the highest value, he will feel that if he be 
 faithful in the use thereof he will receive at the last the high- 
 est reward. Such an one may be expected to crave more of 
 that support which is given to all that rightly ask for it, and 
 without v/hich nothing that is truly good can ever be accom- 
 plished by man. Such an one, moreover, as it seems to me, 
 ought not to be fettered in the exercise of his discretion as to 
 the occasion, manner, and extent of such appeals as he may 
 deem needful to be made to those motives which must be 
 most effective with his pupils, their fear and love of God, and 
 their regard to His written will. The schoolmaster of the 
 poor ought (in my judgment) to be trusted with the most 
 important teaching of the poor — a fellow-labourer with the 
 minister of reHgion. If the schoolmaster be not so trusted, 
 many favourable opportunities for dropping here and there 
 seed which may prove fruitful in infinite good, will, as I think, 
 be lost. Commonly, those observations that seem to rise 
 spontaneously, and that take children by surprise, produce 
 impressions more lively than direct teaching ; they are remem- 
 bered by us, and acted upon during all our subsequent lives. 
 
 A few years ago, it was no uncommon thing to hear per- 
 sons in the educated ranks of society say, **Our schoolmaster 
 is a very good one, but, unhappily, he is a little given to 
 drinking," or *'We cannot in a small place like this expect 
 him to attend very regularly to his boys." Such persons 
 meant that their village schoolmaster could produce copy-books 
 fairly written, or sums in the rule of three accurately worked 
 by his elder scholars. And as the school was regarded only 
 as a place where children could learn reading, writing, and 
 arithmetic, the qualifications of the master were measured as 
 if he were simply an instrument for developing facilities in 
 these exercises, and not a moral agent who, in all his inter- 
 course with his pupils, was communicating habits of thought 
 and action most influential on the present and future interests 
 of society, a disseminator of principles the growth and opera- 
 tion of which are absolutely boundless. 
 
 The inspection of a school sometimes causes considerable 
 disappointment to those who believe themselves to be well 
 acquainted with the attainments of the children. For example. 
 
FALSE DISPLAY 5 
 
 a class has been used to answer simultaneously, and, as a 
 consequence, two or three of the more forward children have 
 been suffered, without any very severe scrutiny, to lead the 
 answers of the rest. The Inspector, in his examination, finds 
 that all the answers that are made to his questions are repeated 
 with a sort of shout from the entire class. This result is 
 annoying, for it is plainly not favourable to the exercise of 
 thought and reflection on the part of the children ; there is a 
 huny^ to seize on an answer that will pass muster, and a 
 seeming quickness is attained by a few at the expense of the 
 solid improvement of all. There is also an unreality about 
 such a display which is still more distressing. These evils 
 would have been avoided if the children, when questioned, 
 had been habituated to hold out their hands in silence, in 
 cases where they believed themselves capable of giving a right 
 answer ; the master has then the opportunity of detecting the 
 laggards, and the children of slower parts are encouraged and 
 helped to exertion. In cases where simultaneous answering 
 appears to be the rule of the school, I have commonly, after 
 a short interval for such a display, removed those who ap- 
 peared to be the most ready, and set them to an exercise in 
 composition, when, on preceeding with the examination of 
 the rest, it has frequently been revealed to the school- managers 
 that a large proportion of those children who appear, in com- 
 pany with others, to play their parts so well, habitually suffer 
 their companions to supply, on their behalf, almost the entire 
 sum of mental activity developed by such a method of teaching. 
 The simplest questions in religious knowledge put to children 
 at the top of the class, unless exhibited in that form according 
 to which answers have been learned by rote, will occasionally 
 elicit either no answer at all, or answers that give tokens of 
 astonishing ignorance. Even in such a matter as arithmetic, 
 wherein the children's progress can be more exactly tested, I 
 have known (in a school where the master was doing his work 
 to the entire satisfaction of those managers who express an 
 opinion, the master being highly trained, and receiving an 
 adequate salary) half the first class of boys, taken alternately 
 as they stood, being tried in numeration, and required to set 
 down, from dictation, four lines of figures, neither of which 
 exceeded four places, and yet the result showed that only one 
 boy out of twelve could express in numerals aright such a 
 
b QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 number as 4050. In the same school, consisting of four 
 classes, no child in the second class could read a verse in the 
 Gospel with tolerable accuracy, the reading-lesson having 
 been left habitually to the care of an incompetent monitor ; 
 no child also in the same class (although the Catechism was 
 repeated with fair accuracy) could explain the meaning of 
 such words as succour, slandering, member, and the like. In 
 such cases something must be allowed for the flurry of the 
 children on being placed in a new position, and much also 
 may perhaps be laid to the charge of the Inspector in making 
 an unhappy start in the examination ; perhaps by a question 
 too easy or too difficult at the outset, he may have caused 
 perplexity, instead of giving confidence and assurance to the 
 children : but after every drawback that can be fairly made 
 on these grounds, it is hoped that an honest teacher will, on 
 reflection, be convinced that he has not done his duty. One 
 ivho is fertile in excuses wiU occasionally come forward, and 
 urge that he has so many hindrances with the parents, that, 
 in fact, it can only be expected of him that he will succeed 
 where his endeavours are seconded with the parents' care ; at 
 the same time, he will point to the more forward children and 
 say, "This is the gardener's son, that the carpenter's, the 
 third is the policeman's," (for, in a neglected school, the 
 quicker children will generally be found to belong to one or 
 other of these families) ; but the teacher, in such a case, for- 
 gets that it is not his part to take credit for the pains that 
 are bestowed at home, but to set before him, as his aim, to 
 do all that can be done to raise the condition of the mass. 
 One or two children who have made advanced progress aff'ord 
 no proper evidence of a teacher's faithfulness ; where pains 
 are rightly bestowed on a school, the instruction will, in a 
 great degree, be found to be diff'used equably, and the labori- 
 ous teacher will often be rewarded by marked success in cases 
 where, if he had judged from the condition of the parents, 
 success would have appeared most hopeless. The experience 
 of every one who has had much to do with schools will supply 
 examples, of this, and, in such cases, success may have a 
 double value when, as it does sometimes happen, the parent's 
 heart is reached through the instruction given to the child. 
 
 Sometimes, on the detection of an unexpected amount of 
 inertness and ignorance in the children, a teacher has come 
 
THOROUGH TRAINING 7 
 
 forward and said,' ''Only a short time since I was explaining, 
 for a considerable time, that very point to these children/' 
 But one wishes then that the teacher should consider well 
 whether he be sufficiently careful in assuring himself that his 
 children apprehend the substance of that which he desires to 
 communicate to them. It is a common error to suppose that 
 because one has told children the same thing a number of 
 times, they may be expected to have learned it. Many a 
 good teacher would, perhaps, say of himself, *'/ tell my child- 
 ren nothing." However this may be, certainly one of the 
 main objects to be aimed at in instruction is the cultivation of 
 habits of investigation in the children, to lead them to search 
 for themselves. He who questions well, so as to stimulate the 
 desire for information, and to suggest the proper fields for 
 inquiry, undoubtedly teaches well. 
 
 Our training-schools have strongly impressed on the pupils 
 sent out from them, the necessity for daily and careful pre- 
 paration of the lessons to be delivered ; and those teachers 
 who do not attend to this recommendation cannot expect any 
 reasonable amount of success from their pains. Labour is 
 needed for the continual acquisition of fresh stores, as well as 
 for the skilful arrangement of such as we possess in our 
 endeavours to be the teachers of others. An anonymous 
 writer on the work of catechising, observes : — 
 
 " One qualification for a good catechist is, to have a lar^e stock 
 of information whence you may draw your instructions. But here 
 you must exercise your judgment in the choice of materials. Study 
 each part of the Catechism before you begin to explain it, and 
 examine what is the most essential point in it to be explained. 
 Dwell most upon that; turn it in different points of view till the 
 children understand it ; then they will have the substance. After 
 that, you may explain to them points which are not essential, but 
 which will give them a more enlarged knowledge of religion. But 
 be sure to give them the substance, the solid essential matter first, 
 otherwise you may say many fine things, and leave your hearers, 
 after all, in ignorance of what is necessary to salvation. To do 
 what is here recommended, it will be necessary to go through the 
 different parts of the Catechism in your private studies, and gain a 
 correct knowledge of what is most essential in each part. Impress 
 that knowledge most strongly on your own mind, and it will then be 
 always ready for practice. In catechising, use plain language, avoid- 
 ing hard dictionary words. There is a language quite classical which 
 is intelligible to most people, even to the uneducated. That you 
 should adopt, if you wish to be understood. If you find that you 
 are not understood, vary the expression in every way you can until 
 
 ■ 
 
O QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 you have expressed yourself intelligibly. Till you experience it, you 
 can hardly credit the stupidity of some persons. Follow the same 
 method of explaining the Catechism in each course of instruction 
 upon it. After teaching the whole of it several times, you will see 
 the method most proper and best suited to convey the meaning, and 
 you cannot do better than follow that through life, always, of course, 
 striving to improve upon it by adding what you may learn from study, 
 or what the Holy Spirit may suggest. If you had no regular system 
 of instruction, you would be frequently at a loss when called upon to 
 catechise, and might often leave out what is essential." (The 
 Christian Teacher, Dublin, 1846, pp. 102, 103.) 
 
 There are some schools which cannot, on the whole, be 
 considered as ill taught, in which, from the first glance at the 
 children, one is inclined to judge that the master exercises 
 very little authority. On further examination, it may perhaps 
 be observed, that the master has a severity of aspect and 
 manner, that he is continually speaking to the children, often 
 in a harsh or querulous tone of voice, and singling out the 
 boys by name ; and, perhaps, a closer inspection may show 
 that there is a total want of method in the arrangements of 
 the school, — the time-table is not adhered to, the necessary 
 school materials fe. g. the slate pencils) are not readily pro- 
 ducible, the transition from one exercise to another is made 
 without any mechanical skill, the book- cases, cupboards, or 
 boxes, not excepting even the master's own desk, are mere 
 receptacles or hiding-places for lumber. 
 
 Now the value of punctuality and order is acknowledged 
 by all, and of these the school ought to be a pattern. Also 
 among the chief virtues of a good schoolmaster, next after 
 gravity, De la Salle places silence. By gravity, he would 
 understand such a quality as produces seriousness of manner, 
 mild and modest, but always even ; and by silence, he under- 
 stands a wise discretion in the use of speech, which indeed is 
 the foundation of good discipline in a school. A venerable 
 clergyman (than whom, as I imagine, no one would have 
 greater weight in pronouncing as to the qualifications of a 
 good schoolmaster) said to me, in reference to a teacher 
 whom he was commending, "His voice is never heard in his 
 school, and his influence is fully felt out of it J* 
 
 A quiet and well-arranged system of signs contributes 
 much to good discipline in a school. The teacher, being 
 thereby relieved from the necessity of frequent speech, is 
 spared agitation and fatigue. The scholars, too, are in this 
 
DISCIPLINE 
 
 way reminded of their duty in the gentlest manner, and ari^ 
 inattentive pupil is not driven to stubbornness, as is too fre- 
 quently the case when he imagines his character for good 
 order lost by his name being repeated aloud as that of a 
 refractory pupil in the hearing of his fellows. A good disci- 
 plinarian will, in ordinary cases, keep his children quiet by a 
 glance of kindness ; and when the need for speech arises, the 
 words will be the fewest possible uttered in the gentlest tones. 
 Such an observation as "One little boy is speaking louder 
 than is necessary," if heard by a score of offenders, will probably 
 be applied by the consciences of each, and produce immediate 
 silence. 
 
 The harass of spirits necessarily attendant upon constant 
 intercourse with a large number of children, makes that pre- 
 servation of an even temper which is absolutely requisite for 
 the good management of a school, a sore trial to many 
 teachers. An old-fashioned schoolmaster, John Brinsley, 
 writing on this subject in his Ludus Liter arius, published 
 1612 (p. 293), exhorts his brother schoolmasters specially to 
 remember three things : — > 
 
 "1. So much as ever we are able to have our eye continually 
 round about the school upon every one, and namely, the most unruly 
 to keep them in awe ; and that we keep order strictly in every thing 
 at all times, as specially in all examinations and tasks, and our times 
 for every .thing most precisely , that they may look for it ; for omitting 
 them sometimes makes the best too careless, and some bold to 
 offend, in hope that they shall not be seen, or not called to an 
 account ; whereas, by the contrary, they grow into a habit of pain- 
 fulness and obedience. 
 
 "2. Studying to put on a fatherly affection, and to deal so with 
 them as a good father among his children. This shall a.lso bring 
 them, or many of them, to the affections and dutifulness of loving 
 children, to do all of conscience. 
 
 "3. Labouring to be like Enoch, to walk in all our plans with 
 God, as ever in His presence, His eye always on us, that He 
 observes all our ways, and will reward and bless us according to our 
 conscience herein : thus to walk before Him until He translate us 
 hence, being as little absent from our place and charge as possible 
 may be, cutting off all unnecessary occasions. Oft absence of the 
 master is a principal cause of the scholar's negligence and not pro- 
 fiting, with the grief and vexing of the master arising therefrom.'' 
 
 This writer, in another passage, utters a strong protest 
 against a practice which, I regret to say, has not yet disap- 
 peared from our schools — I mean that most objectionable one 
 of the master having always at hand a cane, or some other 
 
10 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 instrument of corporal punishment. If any schoolmaster 
 read these lines, and feel that he is not clear of this charge, I 
 would earnestly beg of him to reconsider his conduct in this 
 respect. Although one should commit an error in deciding, 
 without further inquiry, that such a schoolmaster was a bad 
 one, I would readily stake the value of all the experience that 
 an observer in my condition might be supposed to acquire, on 
 the assertion, that such a schoolmaster is not nearly so 
 efficient as he might be if he would lay down for himself the 
 rule that he would keep a record of every coi-poral punishment 
 administered, and in no case suffer himself to inflict it except 
 after the interval of an hour or two for reflection. I know 
 one schoolmaster of admirable integrity and seriousness ot 
 character, whose diligence in his work has been most success- 
 ful, but who was, when young, accustomed to a sea-faring 
 life, and perhaps, therefore, from early associations he was 
 less thoughtful as to the effects produced by rough handling 
 on the characters of children. This master has produced an 
 entire change in the administration of his school by adopting 
 the above-mentioned rule. His scholars were often treated 
 with some severity ; it was supposed that there was a daily 
 need for the cane ; but when 1 last visited his school, there 
 had been only two occasions for its employment during the 
 lapse of several months, and while the discipline of the school 
 was far more equable and satisfactory, the master's own hap- 
 piness was sensibly increased by the results produced in his 
 temper and feelings by the change. 
 
 I know of another school in sad disorder where the cane is 
 daily made use of, and where, on my expressing a doubt as to 
 the wisdom of such a licence, it was urged that there was a 
 peculiar wilfulness in the boys of that town which required to 
 be kept under by habitual severity. I felt that means were 
 being taken to perpetuate this wilfulness, but that to those 
 who could use such an argument my representations could 
 be of little avail, and I did not press my suggestion. But 
 a friend has since pointed out to me a passage in the first 
 book of Eadmer's "Life of Anselm,'* which seems to me to 
 put the matter happily, and which, I hope therefore, to be 
 pardoned for briefly noticing here. Eadmer relates (fol. ed.. 
 Par. 1 721, p. 8) that Anselm, being at a monastery, the abbot 
 consulted him as to the education of the boys there, complain* 
 
PUNISHMENT 11 
 
 ing, at the same time, that they were sadly perverse, indeed 
 incorrigible, and yet night and day they were continually 
 beating them, but still they grew worse and worse. At which 
 Anselm, being astonished, said, "Do you never give over 
 beating them ? When they grew up to be men how do they 
 turn out ?" '*Dull and brutish," (Hehetes et bestialesj was 
 the reply. On which Anselm' observed, that it was but a 
 poor return for all the pains and expense they were at in the 
 education and maintenance of these children, if the end 
 attained were the transmutation of human beings into brutes. 
 *'But," rejoined the abbot, "What must we do then."* we 
 keep them as tight as we can, yet we do not succeed." "Keep 
 them tight," said Anselm ; "suppose you were to use the 
 young trees in your garden thus, and allow them to freedom, 
 what sort of timber would you get ?" "None but what was 
 crooked and useless." "Are you not," rejoined Anselm, 
 "producing the same effects in your boys } as they do not 
 observe any love or kindness in your dealings with them, they 
 think that you have no other motives in your discipline than 
 envy and hatred, and so it turns out, most unhappily, that 
 they grow up full of hatred and suspicion. He who is but 
 young needs gentle treatment — he must be fed with milk ; 
 cheerfulness, kindness, and love are the means whereby such 
 are to be won to God ; " on which it is recorded, that the 
 abbot fell on his face, and confessed his error, and asked 
 pardon of God. 
 
 As an appendage to this history, perhaps the following 
 notice of what passed in a ragged school at Bristol, extracted 
 from the newspapers, may be pardoned by your Lordships : — 
 
 "Whilst one of the visitors was at the school during last week, a 
 boy of about thirteen was seen to be extremely violent and refractory,, 
 a teacher endeavouring to lead him to the bottom of the class 
 for inattention. He obstinately resisted, and stamped with rage. The 
 master observing the conflict, went to the boy, patted him gently on 
 the head and cheek, and begged him to be a good boy. In a minute, 
 before the master had quitted him, it came again to his tnrn to be 
 asked by the teacher one of the arithmetical questions of the lesson, 
 when he cheerfully and promptly cried out '48,' the proper answer. 
 The crimson flush of anger had left his face ; his countenance was as 
 bright and placid as if the last few moments had not witnessed the 
 storm that had agitated his passions, and he became quiet and docile. 
 The visitor asked the master about him. He replied, 'That boy is 
 the most unmanageable one in the school ; he is clever, but very 
 
12 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 passionate. He has kicked my lepjs (happily he has no shoes) ; he 
 has pelted me with mud in the streets. I have dismissed him from 
 the school, but allowed him to come again on his earnest entreaty 
 and promise of good conduct. If I had struck that lad when he was 
 so irritated, or spoken harshly and angrily to him, his fury would 
 have been quite ungovernable, but he can't withstand a word oj 
 kindness.''' 
 
 The matter of punishment is confessedly one of great diffi- 
 culty. It is a maxim as old as the time of Augustine, that 
 punishment should be regarded as the work of the physician 
 who loves the patient, and who simply desires to root out the 
 evil, and that Nihil sic prohat spiritualem virum quam peccati 
 alieni tractatio. Certainly, therefore, punishment should not 
 be administered without a good deal of thought and observa- 
 tion as to the characters of those on whom it is inflicted. 
 Habitual severity has a tendency to stultify the mind, and to 
 debase the heart. It has been observed, that a scholar should 
 never be struck unexpectedly, for, by such treatment, the 
 children are filled with fear and inquietude whenever they see 
 the master approach. ('*The Christian Teacher," p. 55.) 
 That a punishment which is not cared for does more harm 
 than good ; that it is not desirable, therefore, that a trivia] 
 punishment should be shared by two offenders at once ; they 
 will almost enjoy it. (''Advice to Monitors in National 
 Schools.") That it is not the punishment itself that is so 
 much to be regarded as the mode in which it is administered. 
 That there is an advantage in giving tasks to be done at 
 home, where the teacher is able to^enforce their performance, 
 as these tend to improve the offender while they separate him 
 also from his bad companions ; that although an offender 
 should be reproved for any particular fault, all general com- 
 plaints of naughtiness should be avoided ; the pupil should 
 rather be dealt with as one who w^as struggling to do right, 
 and the admonition should be given as a help to self- correc- 
 tion, which he would himself value as arising from a spirit oi 
 true charity on the teacher's part. Opportunities should be 
 taken also of private expostulation ; love wins love even in 
 those who are apparently most impracticable ; nothing that 
 springs out of this pure source is ever utterly lost ; many 
 times the counsel, that has appeared fruitless at the time, has 
 taken effect in the character in later years, when he by whose 
 affection it was administered is laid silent in the grave. 
 
NOT ATTEMPTING TOO MUCH 13 
 
 If a teacher is to stand in this paternal relation to his 
 scholars, and to feel himself, in some degree, responsible for 
 all of them, so that no one should pass from his school to 
 habits of idleness and misconduct without causing to his teacher 
 some emotions of regret, our school must not be of that over- 
 grown size which are still being erected, and the expenditure 
 on which is, in my judgment, sadly unprofitable. I have pre- 
 viously had occasion to notice buildings that are attended by 
 barely a tithe of the number which they are calculated to 
 contain, and I believe that my experience in this respect can be 
 paralleled by that of some of my brother Inspectors. In such 
 cases, the interest of the money lavished on an empty struc- 
 ture would go far towards providing means for the support of 
 an efficient teacher. I wish to see no school-room, except, 
 perhaps, such as are built for infants, constructed for more 
 than 100 children, and I beheve that a smaller number, as 
 eighty, will afford sufficient work for a good master, assisted 
 by a pupil teacher. 
 
 It may be said that, supposing this to be assented to, such 
 a state of things is not practicable, and that we must do the 
 best that is practicable under the circumstances. The child- 
 ren must be instructed, educated, and, as w^e cannot afford to 
 do this in the best way, we must supply such means as are 
 in our power. 
 
 But my experience leads me to believe that, while in very 
 many cases the children are not assembled to fill these large 
 rooms, even in those cases where they are so assembled, no one 
 who fairly examines them would, in one instance out of ten, 
 say that the lower part of the school was properly brought under 
 instruction. It is comparatively easy for a master, out of a 
 large number of boys, to work up a showy first class ; but, 
 in very many such cases, the fluctuation in the attendance of the 
 lower children will be found to bear witness to the sense enter- 
 tained by the parents of the little advantage received by their 
 children from attendance at such a school. 1847, 1. 132 — 141. 
 
 Our ordinary teachers have very little sense of how much is 
 intrusted to them. 1845, II. 90. 
 
 There are, I know, men on whom their solemn responsibility 
 sits more lightly, — who are content if their school look well. 
 Ignorant of their holy mission of Teachers, they are good drill- 
 sergeants ; accurate observers of time and place and order. 
 
14 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 they set off to advantage the outside of their schools, and 
 regard with complacency the pretty bubble, till, as it surely 
 will, it bursts ; and behold ! there is nothing in it. Such men 
 will not do for the educational wants of our, or indeed of any, 
 days. 1846, II. 112. 
 
 And it must be remembered that the educator (whether the 
 clergyman of a parish, or the schoolmaster, or the happy union 
 of both ) not only has the school, but is the school. Yes, 
 much more truly than the French king's boast, "moije suis 
 r etat ;" the real teacher of the school, is the school. This is 
 often evident enough in our public schools and in places of 
 education for the richer classes ; but in our elementary schools 
 its truth is most striking and at times sufficiently painful. I 
 have, during the last year, seen schools which only six months 
 before had been flourishing under a good teacher, entirely 
 altered by his or her removal, their numbers melted away, 
 their intelligence extinguished, their whole character gone. 
 This was the case in one of the most promising schools in 
 Manchester, and in another at Leeds. At a village school in 
 Northumberland, where at a previous visit I had occasion to 
 remark a master of singular abilities and surprizing persever- 
 ance, impressing his character on the children, and leading 
 them on in a most satisfactory manner ; there was not, at my 
 last inspection, a single trace to be found of all his labour and 
 abihty ; the new master and the few children seemed to have 
 nothing in common with those who had filled their places so 
 worthily only a year before. It was then a very thriving and 
 cheerful school — it is now one of the worst, if not the worst, 
 in the whole district, in dulness, dirtiness, and ignorance. 
 1846, II. 171. 
 
 The amount of moral training afforded by a school must 
 depend mainly upon the character of the teacher. Too much 
 stress cannot be laid on the importance of our schoolmasters 
 being men who love their work, and live in the fear of God. Even 
 in an intellectual point of view, it requires but little experience 
 to be assured that no natural qualifications nor acquired 
 advantages can compensate for the absence of faithfulness 
 grounded upon a religious sense of duty. It is comparatively 
 easy for a teacher fresh from the training establishment, with 
 the excitement of a new position and the interest created by 
 his first efforts, to go on well for a time ; but after a year or 
 
TEACHING NOT TRAINING 15 
 
 two the trial comes, and all observers can then see whether 
 the teacher has fixed his aim with seriousness, and labours to 
 attain it in self-denial. 
 
 Whereas the formal teacher becomes gradually contented 
 with a continually decreasing measure of success, and, degen- 
 erating into habits of routine, presents the same front to every 
 member of his class, he who. loves his work is continually 
 profiting by past experience, and acquires daily new skill : 
 instead of letting his mind lie stagnant, he takes care to keep 
 it evermore replenished with new supplies, so that his scholars 
 (to borrow an illustration from Dr. Arnold) may drink, not 
 from a pond, but from a spring. By a discrimination, almost 
 involuntarily exercised, he adapts himself to the several cha- 
 racters and acquirements before him, varying the tone, manner, 
 form, and substance of his questioning, as if he would throw 
 himself into the separate mind of each child : such a teacher 
 needs no mechanical help from medal stands, or taking of 
 places, to ensure the attention of his class, and his school will 
 require no bribery to keep it always full. 
 
 There is the highest authority for using the rod, and, in 
 cases of moral delinquency, I should wish to go to it as a last 
 resource. But for such necessities the best teachers will, as 
 I imagine, feel shame as well as sorrow. The idle and worth- 
 less may strive to cover their own faults by its frequent use ; 
 but in the cases of schools so afflicted, the boys will be found 
 to be the most wilful. 
 
 Love melts almost all hearts, effecting that which no harsh- 
 ness can ever accomplish. It is said that more flies are caught 
 with a drop of honey than with a tun of vinegar. I have always 
 admired that history written by Camus, Bishop of Bellay, of 
 the Prelate his friend, who, when questioned, '' How should 
 advice be given ? '' — " How may reproof be best administered } '* 
 ever prefaced his reply with these words, '* In a spirit of love '* 
 - — the secret of whose government was, " not hy constraint but 
 willingly ; " and who was wont to say that such as would force 
 the will of man strive to exercise a tyranny hateful to God. * 
 * Under this conviction, I have been long desiroiiis to get rid 
 of the use of monitors, except for such parts of school discipline 
 as approach to what is purely mechanical. * * Right training 
 cannot be looked for from our ordinary monitors, and is seldom 
 found in our large schools ; the money that in England has been 
 
16 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 spent in raising such has commonly, as I believe, been ill spent. 
 I have seen buildings calculated for 600 Avith less than 80 
 children in them : dispirited teachers, untidy cheerless school- 
 rooms, and the conviction that the interest of the money 
 lavished on the fabric would have gone far to support the school, 
 naturally associate themselves with such a spectacle. In some 
 of our schools, had less been attempted, more would have been 
 done. The proverb says, *' That little which is good fills the 
 trencher." 1846, I. 88, 89. 
 
 One great obstacle, perhaps the greatest in the point of 
 instruction, is the inefficiency of the instructors. It appears 
 impossible to speak of this too frequently or too strongly ; for 
 upon this hangs all reasonable hope of improvement. A good 
 master, if he be not burthened with too many scholars, will 
 have a good school. One system may probably appear to assist 
 more in developing the intellectual faculties ; another the 
 disciplining of the moral powers. But the master can in 
 reality reverse this : and, under whatever external circum- 
 stances he may he placed, a man of intelligence and firm 
 resolve will become the genius of his school, and mould his 
 pupils almost according to his will. How very important is 
 it, then, to obtain for our elementary schools, not merely men 
 of sound information, but of practical skill, able to impart to 
 others the knowledge they themselves possess ! From want 
 of this, many of the evils attendant on the present system of 
 monitorial instruction spring. The masters are incompetent, 
 not only in information, but in school tactics, and of course 
 the monitors are incompetent also : not, indeed, that I would 
 venture to say that the monitorial system as generally under- 
 stood, under any set of masters, however talented, can be 
 thoroughly effective. No doubt children, taken in rotation 
 from a well-instructed first class, may be taught to give junior 
 children the usual routine of mechanical instruction ; but 
 beyond this, it is scarcely wise to expect them to go. If 
 the moral powers are to be disciplined, if a reverence of 
 mind, and a gentleness and humility of heart, together with 
 quick intelligence and sound judgment, are to he cultivated, 
 without which education is scarcely worth its name, some 
 well- disciplined mind, with superior intelligence, must be 
 brought to bear upon the pupil. For this purpose, it seems 
 absolutely necessary that assistant masters and pupil teacher?. 
 
TRAINED MONITORS 17 
 
 or paid monitors , selected on account of their superiority with 
 reference to their respective attainments, should be parts of 
 the machinery in every well organized school. By this the 
 additional advantage would be gained, of establishing personal 
 intimacy and unbroken interest between the monitor and each 
 child of his class. The self-respect of the former would be 
 wholesomely raised ; he would learn to regard himself as an 
 important part of the school machinery, responsible not only 
 for his own conduct, but, to a certain extent, for that of the 
 children in his class ; reciprocal feelings of respect and regard 
 would spring up, which could not but prove very beneficial 
 to both parties. In this place, I think it important to observe 
 that in some schools an excellent plan is adopted of encourag- 
 ing the paid monitors to meet at the school 30 minutes before 
 the usual school hours, during which time they receive 
 instruction from the teacher — also for an hour during the 
 forenoon, when the children generally are under the care of 
 the senior class, learning such things as may be mechanically 
 imparted ; this, with the retaining of the senior class from 
 12 to 12^ (when the junior children are dismissed) for extra 
 instruction, would seem to meet all objections that cftn be 
 urged by parents against the employment of their children 
 for monitorial purposes. 1846, II. 186, 187. 
 
 I should venture to classify teachers of schools thus : — 
 1. Trained. 2. Self-taught. 3. Partially trained. 4. Un- 
 taught. In the first class, a considerable majority are masters and 
 mistresses of great excellence, of good attainments, and some 
 professional knowledge, united with deep interest in their work, 
 and above all, of truly Christian character and conduct. * * 
 One great excellence in the characters of the '* self- taught'* 
 is this, that they have a real love for their work. They have 
 felt their calling and have come to it, and followed it gladly ; 
 and, with some blunders, and even with partial views and 
 stout prejudices, they proceed with their work. One can 
 often see much fruit of their labours. Their chief deficiency 
 is their inability to put questions weU and readily ; nor are 
 they in general good tacticians in moving their children, — 
 The third class is that of the partially trained. Amongst 
 them also are some of the "self-taught," who are determined 
 to improve themselves, and benefit by the greater experience 
 and better- arranged knowledge of others. Of them we can- 
 
 i 
 
18 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 not speak too highly. But the majority of this class are not 
 such men. They are often persons whom vanity, or mis- 
 fortune, or inability to succeed in other ti'ades, or caprice, or 
 the mistaken kindness of their friends, or what is called 
 ** accident," have placed in the deeply responsible situation of 
 teachers. I do not speak of them all, but of the general body. 
 In this class the most obvious defect, as it is the greatest 
 hindrance, is self-conceit. How often in them is exemplified, 
 "a Httle knowledge is a dangerous thing;*' and from this 
 cause the short time that they have spent at their place of 
 training has been mischievous rather than profitable to them. 
 They not only rest upon it as it were for themselves, but they 
 obtrude it on others as a distinction and a superiority. They 
 have not been in general long enough at the training-school 
 to be permanently affected by those enlightening, as well as 
 humbling, influences which abound and are cherished there. 
 But they bring away with them, if anything, only the lifeless 
 forms, and not the living spirit of the place. There are, I 
 know, pleasing exceptions to this general statement. * * 
 The fourth class comprises the untaught. There are yet some of 
 these left in the land — some who are very ignorant. And 
 with them I include also the grossly immoral ; not that they 
 are alike in character or conduct, but in either case they are 
 obviously incompetent as teachers of Christian children. * * 
 In this class of teachers the spelling is frequently very incor- 
 rect ; ** believe" and ''receive" are as great puzzles to them 
 as to the children. Time-tables are badly arranged and 
 little observed ; in some cases unknown. * * In four instances 
 I saw ebullitions of violent temper, and in two or three of a 
 revengeful spirit, which equally disqualified their possessors 
 for their important situations. I always pointed out these 
 cases to the clergyman. In three schools there were notori- 
 ous drunkards ; I trust that they are now removed from their 
 posts. * * In one case I had some reason to suspect that 
 the mistress had been drinking spirits. 1845, II. 288 — 290. 
 There is no truer aphorism than that which assigns intox- 
 icating effects to shaUow draughts of learning, and I have 
 rarely or ever found that offensive pride in an elementary school- 
 master, and self-sufficiency, which are said to characterize 
 men of his profession, but which so specially unfit them for it, 
 except in alliance with shallow attainments. 1850, I. 28. 
 
VERBAL ACCURACY 19 
 
 If there be any subject in respect to which, rather than the 
 rest, the attainments of the elementary schoolmaster should 
 have a character of verbal precision and accuracy, it will be 
 admitted to be this : [viz. the text of scripture.] An intimate 
 textual knowledge, extending only to a single Gospel, would be 
 more satisfactory than less definite acquirements spread over 
 a larger surface. 1848, II. 407. 
 
 There is no system of moral control or method of element- 
 ary instruction of which some individual adaptation is not 
 required to the circumstances under which it is applied. To 
 the teacher, therefore, an enterprising character, an original 
 cast of mind, a habit of independent action and fertility of 
 resources, are not less important requisites than an abundant 
 store of information. There are few things more disheartening 
 to a friend of education than the spectacle of a schoolmaster 
 who has nothing to oiFer to his scholars but a system. 1846, 
 I. 327. 
 
 There is.... a vivacity with which the child sympathizes, an 
 energy which fixes his attention and absorbs his interest, and 
 which, bringing his faculties into active exercise, makes the most 
 of them. * * It is the triumph of the art of the teacher to break 
 down the separation interposed between his own and the 
 uneducated mind. From his own ample stores to select those 
 adapted to form the first elements of the knowledge of a child, 
 and so to present them as best to lead the child to reason 
 upon and to understand them. The real test of the merits of 
 a lesson is involved in the inquiry, **How far have the child- 
 ren to whom it has been addressed been led to reason upon 
 and to understand the subject matter of it, and hoiv much have 
 they carried away of it P" The principal object of the lesson 
 has obviously been lost in respect to any child on whose mind 
 no impression remains when the lesson is over ; and an 
 obstacle has been interposed to its further progress if its 
 reasoning powers have not been exercised, and its intelligence 
 gathered strength from it. The child's mind has been unjustly 
 tasked, and its attention, claimed where it was not due, has 
 been simulated.* Thus the efforts of the teacher, which 
 ought to accustom it to apply its thoughts and to reflect on 
 
 * This deception is carried on perhaps to direct falsehood, when on a subsequent 
 examination the child is made to profess to have understood that which it did not 
 understand. 
 
20 QUALIFICATIONS OF^ TEACHERS 
 
 what it has learned, result in giving it the habit of a feigned 
 attention and a wandering mind. 1846, I. 329, 330. 
 
 A man of a quiet habit may be a very good man, and equal 
 to the work required of him in a subordinate position, but a 
 schoolmaster having the rule, care and direction of others, 
 must be quick, lively, and active if he would succeed ; and it is 
 better he should err on the side of too great energy if he err 
 at all. He must have a lively manner to interest children, and he 
 must interest them if he would teach them. A good school- 
 master should possess firmness and decision ; if he is vacillating, 
 and without system or management, whatever his talents, his 
 school and his pupil teachers will fail. It is a great evil where 
 ignorant masters have attempted to adopt what they fancy to 
 be the plan recommended by some authority, but which is 
 not fitted to their circumstances, and for the due carrying out of 
 which their mental resources, or perhaps also their school 
 materials, are not sufficient. * * Almost each school differs in 
 circumstances, and has peculiarities to which the master must 
 manage to accommodate his system, and it is seldom a system 
 adapted for one place is entirely fitted for another. The 
 ability of a master is best shown by his power of adaptation : 
 if his children be young, a sort of infant system ; if irregular, 
 from circumstances not too strict, a time-table. If parents 
 insist on writing, too much neglected by many masters, 
 particularly from training colleges, he should pay attention to 
 it, while a conciliatory spirit smooths many difficulties. 
 1850, I. 315. 
 
 An indolent or inactive person can never make an efficient 
 schoolmaster or schoolmistress. 1847, II. 335. 
 
 To do justice to every section of a large school during 
 school hours demands much exertion out of them, and the 
 undistracted concentration of the ablest master's energies ; 
 and yet some of the masters are permitted and encouraged to 
 seek, by subsidiary occupations, to eke out a better subsist- 
 ance than their school emoluments afford them ; and the 
 invariable result is an enfeebling conflict of purposes, and a 
 diversion of his affections into other channels of exertion. 
 1847, II. 59. 
 
 Tht3 inexhaustible energy and industry of the teacher, and the spirit 
 which he infuses into the monitors and maintains throughout the 
 school, cause a strong current of useful instruction to pervade the 
 
WANT OF INFORMATION 21 
 
 whole, which, with the greater accuracy and more equable distribu- 
 tion which would be given by improved methods, promises to raise 
 the school to eminence in its kind. The discipline of the school is 
 very good, although, owing I think to its ordinary noisiness and the 
 mutual striving to be loudest, it is wanting in that gentleness of 
 manner which is a very important element, and which the master 
 seems yet scarcely enough to cultivate. He has great natural re- 
 sources, and knows how to attach to him both the children and their 
 parents ; and he labours very hard to eradicate all traces of an early 
 
 want of education in himself. Report of School, IS^S, II. 
 
 266. 
 
 Instances have occurred in my district of masters who, 
 having become aware of their deficiencies, have recommenced 
 their education, and within the last two or three years have 
 made such progress in their knowledge of the usual subjects, 
 that, although I formerly believed them to be quite incompe- 
 tent, I now feel relieved from all embarassment in recommend- 
 ing them as qualified to train pupil teachers. While the 
 greatest credit is due to them for their exertions, it is obvious 
 that no young man of fair abilities should be disheartened by 
 the consciousness of deficiencies, which, as is thus proved, can 
 be supplied by persevering exertions. 1848, I. 59. 
 
 The first point to which I would allude, is want of in- 
 formation. If a man is able to read and write tolerably well, 
 and possesses a fair knowledge of arithmetic, he frequently 
 considers that he has sufficient qualifications for conducting a 
 school. In consequence of this opinion (much more prevalent 
 perhaps than is generally supposed) many masters are very 
 ignorant in Scripture history, in the general doctrines of 
 Christianity, in the meaning of the Church Catechism, and 
 the Liturgy of the Church ; unable to spell correctly, or to 
 explain to their scholars the meaning of words. * * * 
 Every lesson should be attentively studied by the master, so 
 far as he might require information thereon, before he pro- 
 ceeded to instruct the children in it. By this means he would 
 be able to bring forward such information — historical, geo- 
 graphical, etymological, &c. — as would awaken the intelligence 
 of the children, teach them to think, and supply them with 
 intellectual food. 
 
 From want of information springs a poverty and inability of 
 interrogation, a defect very apparent in many schools. A com- 
 mon method of interrogating children is by means of a book 
 of ' Questions ; ' for this purpose there are books of ' Questions 
 
22 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 on Holy Scripture/ 'Questions on the Church Catechism/ 
 &c. &c. From these the children are interrogated on the 
 lesson in which they are engaged, and no further explanation 
 or inquiry is attempted ; if they answer in strict accordance 
 with the words of the book, it is considered that they know 
 all that is needful ; frequently no other answer, however cor- 
 rect it be in sense, is accepted ; and this work of interrogation, 
 as it is termed, becomes in a short time, on the part of the 
 children, a mere eiFort of memory, but no exercise of the 
 understanding. If the master is conversant with his subject, 
 he will require no book of questions from which to interrogate 
 his scholars. 
 
 Our present parochial schoolmasters generally have little 
 idea that instruction in itself is an art. If they had chosen 
 the trade of a shoemaker, or a tailor, or a carpenter, they 
 would of course be fully alive to the necessity of learning the 
 art of the trade they had chosen before they would attempt to 
 practice it. The same may be said generally of professions : 
 no man would undertake the profession of a lavryer, or a 
 physician, until he had made himself in some degree conver- 
 sant with the several branches connected with his occupation. 
 But with regard to education, a man imagines that he may 
 rush at once into it, and that no previous instruction or study 
 is requisite to enable him to fulfil properly the office he has 
 chosen. 1845, II. 233, 234. 
 
 A teacher should be able not only to keep up the attention of 
 the particular class to which he is giving instruction, but should, 
 at the same time, possess an accurate perception of everything 
 that is going on around him. If he would have the hearty 
 co-operation of his pupil teachers or monitors, he must impress 
 them strongly with the idea that he can do this ; and that 
 because he possesses this power, he can at any time appreciate 
 the exertions they are making. For a master to do this tho- 
 roughly, to teach a class, and atthe same time to superintend the 
 working of the whole school, is the perfection of teaching. To 
 do this effectually requires a keen eye and a master mind ; to 
 accomplish it in its fullest extent is what few attain to ; and many 
 are prevented from even attempting it, owing to the defective 
 organization of their schools. The children, whilst writing or 
 working their sums, sit with their faces to the wall ; the others 
 are placed upon benches, with their backs turned to the 
 
TEACHERS ENGAGED IN OTHER EMPLOYMENTS 23 
 
 master, so that he cannot see what they are about ; and the 
 consequence is that the greater part of the school is doing 
 nothing, or playing with their monitors . 1848, II. 189. 
 
 In many places, from actual Inability to pay a superior 
 teacher, an inferior one is retained, at less charge to the man- 
 agers of the school ; and b}?- these means its funds do not 
 appear to be very deficient, • not so deficient as those of a 
 school where a better master is employed at a higher salary 
 and with greater inconvenience and embarrassment to its 
 pecuniary resources. But no one who reflects for a moment 
 will doubt which of the two is the most lamentable case. 
 1847, I. 415. 
 
 In order to make a better income, many masters hold offices 
 and are busied with employments which interrupt in a greater 
 or less degree the work of the school. At one place in York- 
 shire I found a knot of *' private pupils" seated at one end of 
 the room, whilst the other children were standing in class, to 
 whom the master gave the greater part of his thoughts and 
 time, as the most profitable objects, to the great hindrance 
 of the other and poorer children, who were very ignorant. 
 He acknowledged the impropriety of this arrangement, but 
 pleaded the insufficiency of his allotted stipend as his excuse. 
 At two places in Lancashire the masters are weavers ** between 
 whiles" as they call it. At two others they had, at the time 
 of my visit, been carried away, nothing loath, by surveyors 
 for railways, by the irresistable bait of two guineas per day 
 for their work. It will probably be a long time before these 
 schools produce so much in a month. Other teachers are 
 parish -clerks, sextons, organists, postmasters, registrars, 
 lecturers at mechanics' institutes ; two are farmers, one is a 
 brewer, another has a druggist's shop, and all, or the greater 
 part of them, for the same reason — that they can hardly live 
 by their scholastic labour, and must do the best in their 
 power to eke out a sufficient maintenance for their families. 
 1847, I. 414. 
 
 "Do the teachers keep up any intercourse with the parents, 
 or confine their attention to the children during the hours 
 they are in school?" In general the answers convince us 
 that they do not keep up any intercourse with the parents. 
 They know not what they lose by this neglect ; how much 
 comfort to themselves and influence over others, and assistance 
 
24 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 in their own peculiar sphere of labours. They have a way to 
 the parent's heart, which not even the clergyman, unless he 
 takes his proper place in the religious instruction of the school, 
 possesses. They may work powerfully for the good of a 
 whole family, by means of the one or two little living levers 
 which are placed under their control. 1845, II. 287. 
 
 My own opinion is that a sincere and earnest interest in 
 the welfare of their children, shown by a labour of industry 
 and love, will overpower every other consideration in the 
 minds of the poor, and that however great may be the advan- 
 tage which a close association with them, and an intimate 
 knowledge of their condition, give to the schoolmaster, it will 
 in general, be dearly purchased by a conformity with their 
 habits of life and modes of thought and action. It is an inter- 
 course in which, whatever they may gain, he will probably 
 lose. 1846, I. 370. 
 
 I hold it to be of great importance to employ the pupils 
 [in a training school] in works that tend to increase their 
 sympathy with the poor. But surely it is of not less impor- 
 tance that young women intended for a really liberal profession 
 should have ample opportunities of learning the cost of mater- 
 ials, the best and cheapest modes of preparing them, and the 
 cora*parative expense of various modes of housekeeping ; and 
 so of acquiring experience which will be available to them, 
 both in the management of their own aiFairs, and in convers- 
 ing with the parents of their pupils, who will be glad to 
 consult them if they find them practical guides. 1 848, II. 518. 
 
 Some of the village schools are in the hands of persons 
 crippled from their youth : but not being cripples in heart or 
 mind, their schools are rather above the average of their class. 
 1847, II. 60. 
 
 It is not an uncommon opinion that the work of a school- 
 mistress may be undertaken by those whose constitution un- 
 fits them for other more active employments. The truth is 
 that the drain upon the constitution and spirits of a schoolmis- 
 tress is very great, and none but those whose lungs are quite 
 healthy, and whose constitution is in all respects good, can 
 discharge its duties with any comfort, or for any length of 
 time. 1848, 11. 515, 516. 
 
 A melancholy experience has convinced me that the labours 
 of the schoolmaster tend to shorten life. * * I believe the 
 
PHYSICAL HEALTH 25 
 
 evil often to be aggravated by a neglect of some of the simplest 
 precautions for the preservation of health, and particularly of 
 walking exercise. 1848, I. 37, 38. 
 
 If we are Christian men, we are bound to do with all our 
 might whatever is fit for us to take in hand ; and most of all 
 in the matter of a school, if it be thought right to have one, 
 it is most earnestly to be desired that that school should be a 
 good one. Where there are a number of boys got together, 
 if some good be not going on, much evil is sure to arise from 
 the mere aggregation of numbers. In our prisons, where the 
 ability to read and write is almost the only test of education 
 made use of, a very small proportion (about 1 in 12) are found 
 who have been taught to do this thoroughly well, while those 
 who have acquired some imperfect skill in this way are to be 
 found there in more than equal proportions with such as are 
 absolutely illiterate. A bad school, the building ill ventilated, 
 while yet many of the younger children are compelled to sit 
 still therein without any provision being made for their em- 
 ployment or amusement, the teacher occasionally threading 
 his way through the crowd, and repressing with blows the 
 more obtrusive ebullitions of disquiet, — a school wherein what 
 little is communicated of mechanical skill in reading is so 
 communicated as that the intelligence of the children should 
 be left as far as may be wholly quiescent, — a school, there- 
 fore, where those who are enabled to read the Bible are taught 
 to read it without understanding and without reverence, — 
 where, perhaps, also the memories of one or two of the older 
 inmates may be crammed with certain answers, to be repeated 
 by rote when elicited by certain questions which, for all that 
 appears, might as well be inarticulate sounds : such a school 
 may perhaps seem to the parents in some respects better than 
 no school, for b)^ sending the children to it in the summer 
 their clothes will be less spoiled and torn than in the lanes 
 and hedges, and in the winter it will offer a refuge against 
 their being . locked up at home, with the chance of being 
 either starved or burned. Yet to others, if tliere be nothing 
 remarkable in the character of the teacher, such a school may 
 seem worse than none, as standing in the way of something 
 better, and as being in itself a practical lie, in that it pretends 
 to accomplish what it does not aim at. * * 
 
 Lessons are required in many long- established schools that 
 
26 QUALIFICATIONS OP TEACHERS 
 
 seem to have been devised for no other end than to occupy 
 the scholars' time with as small a demand as possible on the 
 pains and attention of the teacher. * * Schools that are 
 not properly superintended may be a very doubtful good. 
 There may be, for example, a show of external discipline and 
 regularity, the same movements being gone through at a beck 
 from the monitors by the entire school with the precision of a 
 regiment at drill, while yet the master is aware that in the 
 most sacred employments, in reading the Scriptures, or at 
 prayers, the stronger boys are habitually engaged in furtively 
 tormenting their weaker neighbours. There are also cases in 
 which exhibitions are got up for display, a class being called 
 up as knowing, for instance, a chapter in the Bible by heart, 
 while yet the upper boys are acquainted only with the earlier 
 verses, and the lower boys with the latter verses ; and in such 
 schools, doubtless, habits of deceit must be effectually fostered 
 in the children's nature, who will quickly enough perceive 
 whether or not they are on common occasions permitted to 
 run riot if only they will appear orderly under a visitor's eye ; 
 and w^ho will in countless ways be made sensible what are the 
 real aims of their teacher in the instruction imparted, — whether 
 to communicate such acquirements as will enable them to 
 pass an examination with credit, or whether the aim be 
 indeed, what should be the first great aim of all teachers, to 
 be the means of renewing the soul after the image of God, 
 and of leading those intrusted to them to the know^ledge and 
 love of their Saviour. But the happiest results may with 
 confidence be looked for where there exists a rightly -directed 
 and honest endeavour after them, and therefore one is chiefly 
 anxious to find (what is almost always possible, and is 
 increasingly the case in our rural parishes) the clergyman 
 habitually in the school. * * 
 
 With all the aid now offered from public bodies, there are 
 very few parishes (as I have noticed above) that need remain 
 without a school- room, and it is much to assemble the child- 
 ren in a properly-fitted and ventilated building. The want of 
 teachers, which is the great want at the present day, is far 
 less easy to be remedied, but the most imperfectly qualified 
 dame now at work might be induced to act upon such obvious 
 suggestions as that — (1.) The children should come clean to 
 school, or be provided with a basin, soap, and towel on the 
 
WHAT ALL MAY DO 27 
 
 premises. (2.) Every moment of the children's time should 
 be employed, and for the little ones a constant succession of 
 employments is desirable, each being taught to write as soon 
 as it can hold a slate pencil or a piece of chalk. (3.) When 
 the reading lesson is given, an English dictionary should be 
 at hand, and the attempt be made to lead the children to 
 attach correct ideas to every word that occurs. (4.) Provided 
 the children are diligently questioned, the less they are told 
 the better. (5.) The memory being one of the first faculties 
 that comes to perfection, should be daily exercised, care being 
 taken to store it with the most precious things — the youngest 
 children learning by oral repetition from a monitor, verses of 
 good hymns, or those passages of Scripture most likely to 
 affect their hearts. 
 
 If these suggestions appear trivial, it must be remembered 
 that, until we can procure better instruments, we must 
 endeavour to turn to good account such as we have. In this 
 
 respect, I was greatly pleased with the school. The 
 
 clergyman spends in it two mornings in a week, and taking all 
 the children that can read into a class, after they have read a 
 passage of Scripture, he carefully questions them thereon. 
 The mistress, who was originally a dame of very scanty 
 acquirements, would to a by-stander appear only remarkable 
 on account of the scrupulous neatness of her appearance, and 
 the cleanliness and order of her children and school. But 
 while the clergyman is at work she diligently notes all that 
 falls from his lips ; and on his departure, she goes over the 
 same passage of Scripture, asking as nearly as she is able the 
 same questions, by which means she not only perfects the 
 children in what has been taught them, but she also continu- 
 ally improves herself, becoming week by week more fitted for 
 
 her work. The school at appeared to me a still more 
 
 remarkable instance of what might be effected for the instruc- 
 tion of the poor by the pains of the clergyman. On visiting 
 the incumbent, he said that as his school children and their 
 mistress were unused to strangers, I might perhaps form a 
 better estimate of the school if I allowed him to commence 
 the examination — an arrangement to which I was glad to 
 accede, as giving me the opportunity to profit by his experi- 
 ence in catechising his children, as well as furnishing fuller 
 means for judging of the school. The children began to read 
 
28 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 and the first few questions and answers were nearly as 
 follows : — Q. Do you recollect, children, any instance in 
 Scripture of a person's name being changed? — A, "Yes, 
 Jacob's name was changed to Israel ; " (from another child) 
 *'Abram to Abraham." Q. In that case of Abraham was 
 there anything remarkable in that letter h being introduced ? — 
 A. Yes, it was a letter in the Hebrew name of God. Q. You 
 have given me an instance of a change of name, in which the 
 name of the true God had an influence in the change ; have 
 you any example in Scripture of a person being named after 
 a false god ? — One child answered *' Nebuchadnezzar," and 
 another '^Belteshazzar." Q. You are right in Belteshazzar. 
 As to Nebuchadnezzar, I do not know ; but have you any 
 knowledge that there were idols in those countries called by 
 similar names ? — After a little pause, the answer came from a 
 girl in the middle of the class, ''Bel howeth down, Neho stoop- 
 eth." The above is the substance of what passed during the 
 first few minutes of our being in the school-room ; the clergy- 
 man was a stranger to me, and perhaps the thought may have 
 crossed my mind, '*Is this a fair specimen of the knowledge 
 of the children } or at least might they not have been taught 
 with the same pains something in reference to Scripture, 
 likely to prove more practically useful?" But as the examin- 
 ation went forward, all suspicion, if such had ever been in my 
 mind, of the children having been specially prepared for such 
 questions, was effectually dissipated. The children showed 
 so full an acquaintance with Scripture, that when the clergy- 
 man requested me to take up the examination, I found a 
 difficulty in searching for questions that should elicit informa- 
 tion more satisfactory as to their acquirements herein than 
 what had been already produced. 1845, II. 10 — 14. 
 
 1 have observed, in several cases, a whole school committed, 
 for its entire instruction, to the pupil teachers, the master 
 himself taking no part in it, either seated at his desk, or walk- 
 ing up and down, beckoning here, calling there, *'the monarch 
 of all he surveys," but neither the teacher nor the trainer of 
 his little kingdom. This is called *' superintendence :" its 
 proper name would be *' neglect." I have invariably found 
 that, where the master is much occupied at his desk, or where 
 he is constantly marching about the room with an eye for 
 everything at once, and nothing in particular, there is little real 
 
EXAMf»tiE6 OF l^ilACHilRS 29 
 
 work done in the school. The work, so to speak, is either 
 neutralized by the friction of the machine, or absorbed by its 
 inertia. 1850, I. 143. 
 
 The master is skilful, and delights in his work ; the boys 
 seem much attached to him, work in his garden, and keep it 
 in good order when he is absent — "would be glad to spend the 
 whole day in school.'' 1847,1. 387. 
 
 Severity on the part of the master, and a stem system of 
 discipline, I have found to be perfectly compatible with great 
 inefficiency in the school. Of a village school thus tyranni- 
 cally ruled, I have made the following record : — "I never saw 
 the discipline of a school enforced in so overbearing and 
 tyrannical a manner, and 1 never examined children more de- 
 plorably and more grossly ignorant. It is not, however, an 
 uncommon thing to find severity in the master associated with 
 efficiency as to technical matters of instruction. The rod or 
 the cane is an obvious and a simple expedient for getting the 
 children's lessons learned, to which a teacher, unskilled in the 
 higher resources of his art, invariably resorts, with the more 
 energy as he is the more zealous for their welfare, and the 
 more ignorant of the best means of promoting it.* The de- 
 moralizing influence of a course of discipline like this outweighs, 
 in my judgment, any amount of technical knowledge of which 
 it may be the price. Among other records of it in my notes, 
 I have the following, having reference to the school of a 
 large manufacturing town : — **The master has an abundant 
 command of language, energy, quickness, aptitude of illustra- 
 tion, and a knowledge of the minds of children. His fault is 
 in his notions of discipline. His method is violent and 
 tyrannical. The parents appreciate his capabilities as a 
 teacher, but the children, I suspect, hate him. All his eflforts 
 do not produce order, and the school has but reached, on the 
 whole, a low standard of efficiency." 
 
 Sometimes I have found occasional outbreaks of severity 
 tmssociated with a too facile disposition in the master, and a 
 
 * In the lower school at Greenwich Hospital, which contains 400 boys, the sons of 
 common saUors, there was not a single corporal punishment inflicted during the last 
 half yecur for lessons, or in respect to any offences committed during school hours. 
 The only other punishments are impositions (of which 57 were set) , and the depriva- 
 tion of one half-holiday in the week. In the upper school, composed of a like num- 
 ber of boys, one corporal punishment was inflicted, and the number of impositions 
 set was 63. These schools rank, neyertheless, among the most efficient in this 
 country. 
 
30 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 customary laxity of discipline in the school. The secret of 
 managing a school without severity seems indeed to lie in the 
 union of a good temper with a steady self-command. It is 
 the master who has himself to watch rather than the children. 
 In respect to a school otherwise deserving of commendation, 
 I have recorded as follows : — **The master does not exercise 
 an easy moral ascendency in the school. The boys appear at 
 times to take advantage of his good nature, and the careless- 
 ness with which he discards the conventional restraints 
 proper to his office. He then recovers his ascendency by 
 loud threats and violent punishment, and thus his discipline 
 is made up of fits of indulgence and severity. This is bad 
 tact. Otherwise, he appears an earnest and good teacher.' * * 
 
 At a period when higher attainments are sought in the ele- 
 mentary schoolmaster than heretofore, it is not to be wondered 
 at, if some are to be found who lay claim to more knowledge 
 than they possess. Such men are usually deficient, not less in' 
 native power and ability for the management of a school, than 
 in acquired knowledge. In a school taught by a man thus 
 showy and vapid in his attainments, and flippant in his man- 
 ners, I found that only 2 boys out of 63 could read with ease 
 and correctness ; and in another, similarly unfortunate in its 
 teacher, only 6 out of 54. These men bustled about with 
 great appearance of professional zeal and no little self-com- 
 placency ; but they had done nothing for the children. * * 
 
 Of the records I have made of efficient schools, I transcribe 
 
 the following : — "Of 50 boys in the school, 3 only 
 
 could read with ease in the Epistles, and one only knew the 
 multiplication table ; 2 only could spell the word * piece,' and 
 one the word 'wheel.' None knew the names of the quarters 
 of the globe ; only one knew the name of the country in which 
 he lives ; and yet, by a- strange contrast, these children knew 
 a good deal of the geography of England. Only one knew 
 who governs the country in which he lives, or, when told it 
 was the Queen, could tell her name. Only one could repeat 
 the answer to the question in the Catechism, 'What is your 
 duty towards your neighbour ? ' And not one could tell the 
 name of any one of our Lord's parables." In the girls' school 
 not one child could read with ease in the Epistles ; none 
 could spell *'piece," and one only could spell "loaf." The 
 master is from a training institution, conducted under high 
 
EXAMPLES OF TEACHERS 31 
 
 sanction. He belongs to a class of men who can do nothing 
 out of their system, and their system cannot be worked in schools 
 like this. It is a characteristic of the bad teaching of this 
 school that the children are incapable of attending to anything 
 that is said to them, or of reflecting upon it, or of under- 
 standing it. The following specimen of their answering will 
 illustrate this remark. It is an example of that vagrant state 
 of mind, approaching to idiotcy, which it is the direct ten- 
 dency of bad teaching and strict discipline to produce : — 
 Q. "Who came into the world before our Saviour *to prepare 
 his way before him?'" A. " Our Saviour." Q. **Tell me 
 of some of the miracles our Lord wrought?" A. "Com- 
 mandments !" 
 
 By the side of this record of a bad school, I will transcribe 
 that which I have made of a good one. It was composed of 
 52 boys and 38 girls, taught, together, by a master, assisted 
 occasionally by his wife.* The children were arranged in 
 three groups at parallel desks, but were occasionally brought 
 out on the school -room floor in subdivisions to be taught by 
 monitors. The moral aspect of the school was excellent, the 
 discipline easily maintained, the relation of the master to the 
 children friendly and cheerful, the religious instruction of the 
 best kind. The first class, composed of 13, wrote from my 
 dictation two sentences from the History of England, publish- 
 ed by the Society for Promoting Christian Know^ledge ; 7 of 
 them without any error, and 5 making only one error. Of 
 the second class, composed of 25, 16 wrote a sentence with- 
 out any mistake, and none with more than 4. Of the first 
 class, 9 have reached the rule of three in arithmetic, and 4 of 
 them worked the sum I gave them correctly. The penman- 
 ship was remarkably good. Several of the elder children 
 wrote, indeed, an excellent running hand. At the request of 
 the master, I took no precautions to prevent them from copy- 
 ing from one another ; and having observed them very narrowly, 
 I am convinced that none made the attempt. I attach the 
 more importance to the estimate which this fact supplies to 
 me of moral standard aimed at in the* school, as I have never 
 had the like experience in any other. Indeed I have seen — 
 it would be in vain for me to attempt to describe with 
 
 * Having a young child, she could, however, attend but little in the school. 
 
32 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 what indignation — the very teachers lend themselves to the 
 deceits which, in such matters, children have a tendency to 
 practise, and the visitors prompt them. If there be anything 
 which is expedient early to teach to a child, and deeply to 
 implant, it is surely the abhorrence of ''whatsoever maketh a 
 lie" — the acting, or the telling of it. A thousand other good 
 qualities will attach themselves securely and permanently to 
 this one, and the perils of life are comparatively few to him 
 in whose bosom it is firmly rooted. 1847, I. 174 — 177. 
 
 In a town in -shire, I was told that the master was 
 
 so far known to be addicted to liquor, that when one of the 
 trustees (a man of considerable station) was expostulated with 
 on account of the master's being seen drunk in the streets, it 
 was answered that the quarterly payment of his salary from 
 the endowment had just been made, and one must not be too 
 severe in one's expectations at such a season. I saw this 
 schoolmaster, and telling him what I had heard of his character, 
 I represented to him that I must use every effort with the 
 trustees to get him removed from his post. He answered, in 
 effect, that **he would not deny that he was occasionally 
 under the influence of liquor — who was not ? but that when- 
 ever he was so drunk as not to be able to go into his school, 
 he took care to prevent his scholars from seeing him in that 
 state, and to provide a proper substitute in his place." As 
 yet, I believe that this master retains his post ; perhaps feelings 
 of commiseration sway the trustees, and it must be expected 
 that such feelings should have weight ; but one's strongest 
 commiseration should doubtless be for the children and the 
 real welfare of the district ; nor is it a true kindness to retain 
 any one in a post for which he is unfit. 1846, I. 121, 122. 
 
 The qualifications of this master, who was 70 years of age, 
 may be judged of from the statement he himself made to me 
 that **if he had not been crippled in his arm, he should not 
 have been at that work," obviously considering the duties of 
 his office as village schoolmaster inferior in dignity and im- 
 portance to the exercise of his craft as a shoemaker. Labours 
 thus irksome and degrading, this poor man was accustomed 
 to cheer with an occasional pipe, of the fumes of which the 
 school- room was redolent. 1847, I. 167. 
 
 The really wise and thoroughly conscientious master thinks 
 it his duty to do justice to all his scholars, and not to give an 
 
EQUAL TEACHING 33 
 
 undue proportion of his time to the clever boys, because they 
 are more likely to enhance his own repute. Where the 
 younger children are thus comparatively neglected, while the 
 master is intent upon driving a smattering of algebra into the 
 first class, for the sake of the name of the thing — and where, 
 consequently, the first steps in reading are badly taught, and 
 the children are detained for years poring over uninteresting 
 letters and monosyllables, the unhappy infants acquire a 
 distaste for school and for learning, which never leaves them. 
 Moreover, I have invariably observed, that where the lower 
 classes were not carefully attended to, the upper classes were 
 inaccurate in their minds, however many subjects they had 
 nominally mastered. 1850, II. 179, 180. 
 
 A good teacher, whose heart is in the matter, takes care 
 that every word shall convey a meaning — or, in using words 
 which express truths above the intelligence of children, that 
 they should at least be made aware of the fact, and should 
 never regard the form merely as a lesson to exercise their 
 memory. And as every truth has a direct application to the 
 conscience so far as it is understood, the practical teacher does 
 not rest until he has found such an application. He illustrates 
 every doctrine by an appeal to the child's own consciousness, 
 and every precept by the example of men whose history is 
 recorded in Scripture, or of whose character the children are 
 likely to have heard out of school. Every point of duty to 
 God and man will then be made to assume a living aspect ; 
 and care wdll be taken to ascertain, so far as is possible, 
 whether a child has so understood the precept as to be able 
 to refer to it in praying for grace and forgiveness. It may be 
 thought that such teaching is very rare, but I acknov/ledge 
 that nothing has caused me so much surprise and gratification 
 as the answers which a large proportion of children, both in 
 infant and National schools, have given to questions of a 
 simple practical character, even where the system was ex- 
 tremely defective in other points. There can be no doubt 
 that such teaching must leave a deep and lasting impression 
 upon the character of children. * * In some schools the 
 elder children are well advanced in religious knowledge, while 
 the younger are left ignorant of the most elementary facts — 
 whereas in others the infants repeat hymns and prayers, and 
 have simple, clear, ideas upon these subjects, but the upper 
 
34 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 classes are comparatively ill informed. 1846, I. 138, 139. 
 
 There is no point where the influence of the trained master 
 is so perceptible as in the substitution of an intelligent, in 
 the place of a rote-system, of imparting and impressing know- 
 ledge. He is not afraid of leaving the beaten back (I might 
 almost say the deep ruts) of printed question and answer. 
 1846, II. 162. 
 
 I do not know a successful master, who habitually takes 
 up a question hook when he proceeds to examine his class. 
 It is the first step towards the dreary and barren system of 
 *'rote." 1845, II. 260. 
 
 In many cases, persons unfit for their situation remain. — 
 Irreligious, ill-tempered, without information or intelligence, 
 and with no desire to remedy their defects. — In such instances, 
 of course, the only mode of improvement is dismissal — ^The 
 importance of such a step is not sufficiently acknowledged, 
 from the defective views so frequently entertained on the 
 office of a schoolmaster, and the immense power he wields 
 over the young for weal or woe. 
 
 In other cases I find men who, although fairly intelligent 
 and desirous of improvement, are ill-informed, and without 
 tact in the management of a school. — For the improvement 
 of these I would suggest, that to every parochial school there 
 should be a library for the master's use ; and that, along with 
 other *books, there should be a selection of works upon school 
 tactics. — The minutes published by their Lordships the Com- 
 mittee of Council on Education would form a useful part of 
 such library. — The visits of an organizing master should be 
 sought for. — Of the effects of these visits upon the improve- 
 ment of masters I am able to speak, having witnessed them 
 in my district during last year. — The abilities and exertions 
 of Mr. Tearle, the gentleman appointed to this work by the 
 National Society, in the West, appear to entitle him fully to 
 the responsible office he holds. 
 
 Schoolmasters' unions, when properly conducted, seem to 
 oflfer considerable advantages to those members who are desirous 
 of improvement. — At the annual or quarterly meetings, when 
 the members assemble at some school where the children are 
 examined by a competent person, peculiar excellences and 
 existing defects, with suggestions thereon, are brought before 
 their notice in a practical way, which cannot but be beneficial. — 
 
schoolmasters' unions, 35 
 
 The mere conference of persons engaged in the same work 
 seems to be advantageous ; as in the conversations which will 
 naturally take place upon the common object they have in 
 view, information will be obtained, plans of proceeding ex- 
 plained, and hints for improvement thrown out, together with 
 mutual encouragement and advice. — In connexion with such 
 unions, it seems desirable that circulating libraries, and an 
 Educational Magazine, should be provided. — Means should 
 be found for enabling the masters to visit periodically the 
 best-conducted schools in their district. — If a man's eye be 
 confined exclusively, to the object close before him, it will 
 grow contracted and his vision limited. This is practically 
 the case in many of our parochial schools. An extended 
 acquaintance with other schools, and those of a superior order, 
 would enable many a man to see defects in his own school 
 which now he does not suspect, and which, from the experi- 
 ence and encouragement of others, he would be induced and 
 enabled to rectify. 1847, 1. 472, 473. 
 
 Deficiencies of teachers, which depend either upon imper- 
 fect information or defective training, may in some measure 
 be supplied by adopting the following plans, which have 
 succeeded in various schools, and are calculated to increase 
 the efficiency of all : — A small library of well- chosen books 
 should be kept in the school-building, under the care of the 
 master or mistress. This library ought to be the property of 
 the school- managers or trustees, and an inventory of the 
 books should be furnished to the teachers, on their appoint- 
 ment, who will be responsible for their condition, &c. The 
 library should be inspected at the meetings of trustees, and a 
 small sum may be set aside annualh'- for the purchase of new 
 books. This library ought to be distinct from that which is 
 accessible to the children ; but the pupil teachers and elder 
 monitors may be allowed to use such books as the master and 
 managers consider to be be adapted to their capacity. — When 
 the teachers, male or female, are anxious to improve them- 
 selves in composition, grammar, and orthography, they cannot 
 do better than to present the clergyman, or active manager of 
 the school, with an abstract of some work which they are 
 reading ; or a written account of the religious and secular 
 information which they propose to give to their pupils. This 
 should be done regularly every week, or month, and their 
 
 ■^ 
 
36 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 composition should be examined and corrected. It may be 
 remarked, that when I have had occasion to examine candi- 
 dates for schools, the necessity of such a course has been 
 clearly demonstrated ; and that it has been tried, and found 
 to be exceedingly useful in some instances. This suggestion 
 applies to young women in infant or mixed schools ; to young 
 men, who feel that their education has not been completed ; 
 and may be of advantage to well-informed and experienced 
 masters, who will neglect no means by which they may keep 
 themselves in advance of youthful competitors. 
 
 At harvest time the teachers of country schools will derive 
 much benefit from a visit to the training or model schools in 
 their several districts. I have in many cases, suggested visits 
 to Norwich, London, and Cambridge. The expense is incon- 
 siderable ; and a small sum can hardly be laid out in a more 
 profitable way. If the teacher can affbrd it, he should 
 remember that his future prospects may be materially improved 
 by the outlay ; but when his salary is too small, it may be 
 expected that the patrons of the school will advance the 
 requisite sum. Applications to local societies, such as branches 
 of Diocesan Boards, would probably be successful ; it is 
 certain, that such an employment of their funds would be 
 approved by all contributors who are anxious to increase the 
 efficiency of existing schools, and are aware of the main causes 
 which interfere with their success. 
 
 The master should keep in mind that it is his first duty to 
 bring his own abilities and acquirements to bear upon the 
 minds and hearts of each and all his pupils : that he is 
 responsible not only for the general proficiency of his boys, 
 but for their individual improvement. The progress of the 
 children of every age, and in each class should be equable. 
 Examiners will take into consideration the age, time in school, 
 and fluctuations of attendance, but will not exonerate the 
 master from blame if they find that the younger children are 
 less advanced than in a dame-school, or that the instruction 
 of the first class and monitors has been sacrificed in the 
 attempt to preserve an appearance of general activity. I would, 
 therefore, suggest that the master should make himself per- 
 sonally acquainted with every child, without referring to his 
 books or to the monitor, that he should be able to give an 
 exact account of his conduct and attainments. There is 
 
EXAMPLES OF TEACHERS 37 
 
 hardly any point in which greater differences are found between 
 teachers under similar circumstances. Since the lessons are 
 necessarily conducted at times by monitors, the master must 
 so arrange his own work as to have frequent opportunities of 
 watching their conduct. At least half an hour each day will 
 be well spent in this duty. If the master observe any fault, 
 he will not correct it at the time, but consider how far it is 
 owing to the neglect of the monitors, or the imperfect direc- 
 tions which he has given them. In the former case, he will 
 admonish or correct the monitor after school -hours ; in the 
 latter case, he will explain with great care the method which 
 he wishes him to pursue. 1845, II. 181, 182. 
 
 Another fault 1 have frequently witnessed in masters, is a 
 want of reverence when instructing the children in the Holy 
 Scriptures, or in other religious knowledge. 1845, II. 235. 
 
 A school which I visited, which was in connexion with the 
 Diocesan Board, and which, with another of the same char- 
 acter, costs its benevolent supporter 301. per annum, is held 
 in a cottage under a woman of excellent character and of 
 great exactness and diligence, but who is so incapable of 
 anything beyond the merest rote teaching that she forces the 
 children, after they have read a parable, to learn by heart all 
 the answers published in Mr. Iremonger's Book of Questions 
 on the Parables. I found the children perfectly prepared with 
 these, but the lesson had been so taught that I was not able 
 to vary the questions, either in words or in the order in which 
 they had been printed to succeed each other, without bring- 
 ing the children into a hopeless puzzle, and getting, in the 
 case of the order of the questions being changed, the wrong 
 answer to fit my question. In this case, a curate who had 
 recently come to the parish had considerably mended matters 
 with regard to tvv'^o or three children that were in the first 
 class of the Sunday-school, but apart from these the most 
 anxious inquirer could, as I believe, have hardly detected a 
 ghmmering of intelligence ; for the conscientious precision 
 with which the dame had done her work had laid fetters upon 
 the children's minds, binding them down to a literal accuracy 
 which seemed more pertinaciously obstructive of growth in 
 intelligence than the freer discipline of even a more negligent 
 teacher. I would not undervalue the good derived to the 
 children from being constantly in the company of one who 
 
 ■ 
 
38 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 faithfully did her work according to her ability, and who, 
 possessing excellent qualifications of temper and character, 
 had she been herself educated, might have proved a most 
 efficient teacher ; but I could not help feeling that much was 
 thrown away, and especially (if need were that the children 
 should be confined to rote work) that it would have been un- 
 speakably more profitable, as well as more delightful, for the 
 children to have learned by heart with the same pains some 
 passages of Scripture directly inculcating practical principles, 
 in the place of the questions and answers of Mr. Iremonger's 
 work. 
 
 Let me give an example or two more. I visited a parish 
 where the clergyman informed me that he had a school, where 
 also there was a small endowment, a wealthy landed proprie- 
 tor disposed to do whatever might appear desirable for the 
 poor of the place, and a clergyman who, from all I heard of 
 him, seemed both able and willing to supply the temporal 
 w^ants of the flock instructed to charge. Here, however, under 
 the name of the school, I was directed to a room, in the rear 
 of a shop about ten feet by twelve, in which, with my hat 
 on, I could barely stand upright ; the floor was crowded with 
 benches, on which some two dozen children were sitting in 
 ranks closely packed, many without any visible means of 
 employing their time. The mistress was in the shop, having 
 left the children in the care of a girl who was standing amidst 
 the crowd with an infant in her arms ; the atmosphere so 
 oppressive and disagreeable that I could not wonder at the 
 teacher finding excuses for being absent from her post. I did 
 not stay here to examine the children ; the room was so 
 imperfectly ventilated that it was not possible for the children 
 to apply themselves to their work, and I was glad to escape 
 to the fresh air ; but I have little hope, from what I saw both 
 of teacher and pupils, that any satisfactory results could have 
 been elicited in such a place. 
 
 In another parish, where there was an endowment of 12/. 
 per annum, I found it enjoyed by a middle-aged female, who, 
 at an hour when she should have been teaching, was busy at 
 her wash-tub, while one or two children, unable to tell their 
 letters, lay* on the floor. On questioning the teacher as to 
 her qualifications, I found that she had been imperfectly 
 educated, and had received no training ; but she had been a 
 
EXAMPLES OF TEACHERS 39 
 
 domestic servant in the family of the acting Trustee, who on 
 her marriage supplied her with the income of the school as a 
 help towards her maintenance, the school being kept in her 
 cottage. 
 
 In another parish that I visited, in the expectation of find- 
 ing the teacher at work (where the endowment has hitherto 
 been considered as worth 251, per annum, but where, by bet- 
 ter management, it is now likely ro realize more than 100/. 
 per annum), I found the school-room empty and locked at 
 eleven in the morning, and I was credibly informed that it is 
 no uncommon thing for the teacher to be away for days 
 together, and that once in particular, during a long frost, he 
 absented himself for 30 days in succession, under the plea 
 that, having but one leg, he was afraid to venture along the 
 road that led from his house to the school-room until the ice 
 should be dissolved by a thaw, 1845, II. 8, 9. 
 
 One of the chief obstacles to success in the moral and 
 religious condition of our parochial schools is the injudicious, 
 if not unprincipled, way in which punishments are frequently 
 administered. 
 
 In many schools, from the course generally adopted, one 
 would imagine that nothing but severity could induce children 
 to do what is right, or that the master really found pleasure 
 in punishing his scholars. On some occasions, I have observed 
 him walking about the room, cane in hand, brandishing it 
 over the heads of the children, who, trembling under the 
 anticipated stroke, have lost all sense of the lesson in which 
 they were engaged, and with eyes wandering from their book 
 to the avenging rod, have brought upon themselves, as they 
 caught their master's eye, the blow. At other times, I have 
 witnessed a master step into a class where was some little 
 inattention or disturbance, and deal out boxes on the ear, 
 blows on the head, and cuffs on the back, promiscuously on 
 all within his reach, and then, as though he had done all that 
 duty required him, return to his seat. 
 
 Sometimes abuse is uttered in the same way, as, e. g., 
 
 '*You, John , are the worst boy in school; everybody 
 
 knows it, and I am sure you will come to no good V &c. &c. 
 
 In more than one instance I have been pained with hearing 
 the faults of parents cast forth publicly before the school, as 
 matters of reflection upon their children. 
 
40 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 On the subject of punishment in general, I would quote the 
 remarks of Locke, whose views on this matter seem to be entitled to 
 a careful consideration : — 
 
 "The usual lazy and short way by chastisement and the rod, 
 which is the only instrument of government that tutors generally 
 know or ever think of, is the most unfit of any to be used in education, 
 because it tends to both those mischiefs which, as we have shown, 
 are the Scylla and Charybdis, which, on the one hand or the other, 
 ruin all that miscarry. 
 
 "I. This kind of punishment contributes not at all to the mastery 
 of our natural propensity, to indulge corporal and present pleasure, 
 and to avoid pain at any rate, but rather encourages it, and thereby 
 strengthens that in us which is the root from whence spring all vicious 
 actions and the irregularities of life. For what other motive, but of 
 sensual pleasure and pain, does a boy set by, who drudges at his 
 book against his inclinations, or abstains from eating unwholesome 
 fruit that he takes pleasure in, only out of fear of whipping ? He in 
 this only prefers (he greater corporal pleasure, or avoids the greater 
 corporal pain. And what is it to govern his actions, and direct his 
 conduct by such motives as these ? What is it, I say, but to cherish 
 that principle in him which it is our business to root out and destroy. 
 And therefore, I cannot think any correction useful to a child, where 
 the shame of suffering for having done amiss does not work more 
 upon him than the pain. 
 
 "2. This sort of correction naturally breeds an avertion to that 
 which it is the tutor's business to create a liking to. How obvious 
 is it to observe that children come to hate things which were at first 
 acceptable to them, when they find themselves whipped and chid, 
 and teased about them ; and it is not to be wondered at in them, 
 when grown men would not be able to be reconciled to anything by 
 such ways. Who is there that would not be disgusted with any 
 innocent recreation, in itself indifferent to him, if he should with 
 blows or ill language be hauled to it when he had no mind ; or be 
 constantly so treated for some circumstances in his application to it? 
 This is natural to be so. Offensive circumstances ordinarily infect 
 innocent things which they are joined with : and the very sight of a 
 cup, wherein any one uses to take nauseous physic, turns his stomach 
 so that nothing will relish well out of it, though the cup be never 
 so clean and well shaped, and of the richest materials. Frequent 
 beating or chiding is therefore to be avoided, because this sort of 
 correction never produces any good farther than it serves to raise 
 shame and abhorrence of the miscarriage that brought it on them ; 
 and if the greatest part of the trouble be not the sense that they have 
 done amiss, and the apprehension that they have drawn on them- 
 selves the just displeasure of their best friends, the pain of whipping 
 will work but an imperfect cure. It only patches up for the present, 
 and skims it over, but reaches not to the bottom of the sore; ingenu- 
 ous shame, and the apprehensions of displeasure, are the only true 
 restraint. These alone ought to hold the reins and keep the child in 
 order ; but corporal punishments must necessarily lose that effect, 
 
CORPORAL PUNISHMENTS 41 
 
 and wear out the sense of shame, where they frequently return." 
 1845,11.234,235. 
 
 If corporal punishments are necessary in boys' schools, and 
 I am far from denying this to be the case at present, it is at 
 least equally necessary that they be administered without a 
 suspicion of caprice or partiality. The faults for which the 
 master is allowed to use the cane should be distinctly explained. 
 I think that vicious or rebellious habits alone should be so 
 punished. The cane should be furnished to the master by 
 the school managers, and he should on no account use any 
 other instrument — should never strike a boy — pull his ears or 
 his hair — or even touch him in anger. One such act would 
 deserve a severe reprimand ; the habit would be a sufficient 
 cause for dismissal. The punishment ought to be inflicted 
 after school-hours in the presence of the monitors, and of those 
 boys who show a tendency towards those specific offences for 
 which the culprits are chastised. The cane should be applied 
 on the hand ; if a boy will not submit, the case must be 
 reported to the committee ; but it is, on many accounts, 
 unadvisable to let the master beat him on the back, or struggle 
 with him ; and every stripe should be registered in a book 
 kept for that purpose. The committee will thus be able to 
 form an estimate of the conduct of the boys, and of the suc- 
 cess of the master in checking bad propensities and eradicating 
 bad habits. They may be disposed, upon inquiry, to recom- 
 mend a diff'erent course as likely to succeed with violent or 
 obstinate children. They will admonish bo^^s whose names 
 are frequently entered on the black list ; and few parents will 
 disregard judicious and kind remonstrances from their clergy- 
 man, when he proves to them that the habits acquired, or not 
 corrected at home, compel the schoolmaster to chastise their 
 children as a warning to themselves and their companions. 
 Many clergymen, with whom I have conferred upon this plan, 
 are convinced that it is likely to diminish the frequency, and 
 . increase the efficiency of the punishments, which they are 
 unwillingly induced to permit. It should be observed that, 
 the object being attained, the book specifying the names and 
 offences of individuals should be destroyed ; the general 
 results, however, should be recorded, in order that the mana- 
 gers may judge of the state of the school at diff'erent times, 
 and under different masters. 1845, II. 188, 189. 
 
42 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 I attach the more value to the improvement of order, since 
 I regard it in general as a pretty sure indication of increased 
 efficiency in the instruction and of improvement in the 
 methods of governing children. Idle talking, listless and 
 insolent gestures are best stopped by giving the children 
 sufficiency of interesting occupation, and when these have 
 disappeared from a school, even for a season, it may be pre- 
 sumed that their remedy has been successfully applied. * * 
 I could point out schools in and near London in which frequent 
 and severe punishments were inflicted under former teachers, 
 while the children were notoriously coarse, quarrelsome, and 
 insolent out of doors, and utterly insubordinate in the school ; 
 whereas the present masters have effected a thorough reform 
 in the manners, and, as I am informed, the character, of the 
 children, without restoring, in any instance, to severe bodily 
 punishments. I must be greatly deceived if the birch has not 
 entirely disappeared, and the cane lost much of its terrors in 
 the schools which are inspected by me either in town or 
 country. * "^ It would be desirable in all cases, where 
 they are permitted, to adopt some such form of registration 
 as was suggested in [the last extract.] The clergy who have 
 tried it say that it acts extremely well. 1846, I. 146. 
 
 Corporal punisbm^ent has no existence in the girls' schools, 
 unless in an occasional "pat on the arm," to a "little one." 
 In the boys' schools it is almost universally retained as a final 
 appeal, with a conviction in the minds of the teachers that 
 the extent to which they can dispense with it, under given 
 circumstances, is a measure of their capacities and reputation 
 for moral government. It is usually administered by a blow 
 on the hand ; and only in one or two ruder schools assumes 
 any other character, such as hopping round the room for a 
 great length of time in punishment of truancy, or holding 
 something at arm's length for a like continuance. Keeping 
 in, after school hours, with nothing to do, is the severest pun- 
 ishment employed, or perhaps that can be employed, in the 
 better schools. The discipline of the schools, however, 
 nowhere approaches to a character of severity, except under 
 some of the older masters of earlier training, whose schools 
 are more remarkable for the almost military exactitude of 
 their evolutions than for the intellectual life or moral tone 
 which pervades their classes. The teachers pursuing gentler 
 
CORPORAL PUNISHMENTS 43 
 
 plans, through the attachment of their monitors and the 
 general sense of their justice, have always the public opinion 
 of their little realms in their favour ; and the delinquent 
 under an unwonted infliction has therefore no perverse satis- 
 faction in an appeal to the rebellious discontent of his fellows. 
 Where a master combines with these advantages the personal 
 acquaintance and respect of. the parents of the children, the 
 latter find themselves so completely handed over to him, that 
 there is left to them no room for the exercise of any little 
 subtlety at home, against a school which they happen, how- 
 ever wickedly, to dislike. So completely is the master, by 
 such means, placed in loco parentis that he sometimes prefers 
 altogether to do without rewards, even to his monitors. But 
 it is seldom that he has the vigour, resources, and opportuni- 
 ties to obtain a sway so complete ; and his principal subordin- 
 ate agency, therefore, consists in the distribution of rewards, 
 in the shape of tickets, bearing a certain number and a con- 
 ventional value, which he takes up quafterly, or half-yearly, 
 in books, penknives, and other simple articles, prized by the 
 children. A certain allowance of these tickets is made to the 
 monitors in the nature of payment, besides those which come 
 to them in rewards ; and sometimes they are wholly restricted 
 to the monitors. Sometimes it is a small sum of stated 
 amount which has to be divided, perhaps in coin, and then 
 the proportion of it obtained by each affords a fractional test 
 
 of their respective exertions. In a few cases, as at the 
 
 school, special rewards are distributed by the patrons of the 
 schools at annual examinations, to encourage industry. But 
 the first requisite for high discipline in every school, is to 
 provide constant occupation for all, and maintain the pursuit 
 of it. To this end emulation, elicited in the taking of places, 
 is almost universally employed, although, in one or two of the 
 best schools, the master dispenses with this, as well as with 
 rewards. Generally speaking, however, the schools in which 
 it is discarded are markedly inactive with a proportional 
 backwardness among the children. The taking of places, as 
 already stated in reference to the reading, may be abused as 
 well as used ; but its moderate use appears to be essential to 
 the working of a monitorial school, since only the energy and 
 authority of a skilled adult or adolescent teacher, directly 
 exerted, can keep classes in active operation without it. The 
 
 ■ 
 
44 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 taking of places among the children likewise helps to keep a 
 monitor to his duty by their competition, without which, his 
 constant tendency is to relax first into "telling," instead of 
 making mutual appeals, next into "individual instruction," 
 and finally into indolence and trifling ; tendencies which an 
 average teacher, with average monitors, cannot resist, without 
 a moderate use of competition for places. When employed to 
 excess, it spoils all consistency in the teaching, and is apt to 
 exasperate the spirits of the bolder children, and depress those 
 of the more timid. The abler teachers, in their top class, 
 well know how to use a spirit of curiosity in partial super- 
 sedence of that of emulation. Everywhere it is surprising 
 how the teacher's character is reflected, in the tone which pre- 
 vails throughout his classes, making allowance for the difi'erent 
 circumstances and character of the surrounding population ; 
 for in some of the remote districts there is among the parents 
 a rudeness of character which renders it very diflicult for a 
 teacher to entertain a beneficial intercourse with them. The 
 extent to which a teacher, devoted to his work, and to the 
 welfare of the children, can, by the whole tone of his inter- 
 course with them, cause his spirit to prevail among and 
 control the great body of a large school, even to its remotest 
 drafts, is very remarkable and very gratifying ; and seems 
 obviously to result from an all-pervading, firm, and aff*ection- 
 ate superintendence of every part of it. The tone of a good 
 modern school is as superior in its modest and subdued 
 propriety to that of the large old Lancasterian schools, as their 
 intelligent teaching is to the merely technical instruction 
 which still prevails in some of the latter. Children coming 
 from a distance all take their little mid- day meal in the school- 
 house; in cold weather, around the fire or stove, which is 
 never calculated to warm their food properly, though the little 
 folk often try to make it do so. 1847, II. 108, 109. 
 
 The methods employed in are perfect ; the discipline, 
 
 consequently, is maintained with ease ; industry is the prac- 
 tical rule of the school ; idleness is employed as the principal 
 punishment, to which the late comers, who are very few under 
 this regimen, are invariably condemned for the rest of the 
 half-day upon which they have encroached. Corporal punish- 
 ment is not utterly abolished, but its administration is restricted 
 to the head teacher on serious occasions, and confined to a 
 
CORPORAL PUNISHMENTS 45 
 
 blow on the hand. 1848, II. 261. 
 
 I take the 27 places returned in the Table, where corporal 
 punishment is used most frequently, and, as far as I can judge, 
 the most severely. What is the result ? At 20 of them are 
 schools which are notoriously deficient in discipline, some of 
 the worst, if not the very worst in the whole Northern district. 
 Of these, 15 are in an equally, wretched state, as to moral tone 
 and intellectual progress. At the other seven places, the schools 
 of three are in a satisfactory state in all respects, and may be 
 called good. The remaining four are only tolerable, with a dis- 
 cipline of fear rather than of love ; where the children are not 
 making great progress in their studies, but are not remarkably 
 
 backward in them The instruments of punishment are the 
 
 cane, stick, ferule or ruler, strap or taw (i. e., strap with 
 three, five, or seven tails), and birch rod. * * The offences 
 for which it is inflicted are many and various ; they are 
 chiefly these, as returned by the teachers of the schools : — 
 ** Talking or laughing in school;'' '* gross inattention and 
 disobedience ;'' "coming late frequently ;" *' playing truant;" 
 *' telling lies ;" "bad language." In comparatively few cases 
 "stealing ; " "robbing orchards ; " "trespassing on neighbours* 
 property ; " "being mischievous in the streets," &c. There are, 
 I think, very few of these off'ences which would not be much 
 diminished by an increase of the number and improvement in 
 the character of teachers, by inclosed play- grounds, and by 
 cheerful companionship of the teachers with the children 
 during their times of relaxation. In girls' schools, it is now 
 the general opinion, that corporal punishment is not only 
 unnecessary, but actually mischievous. In the best of those 
 which are under my inspection,.... it is, I believe, a thing 
 unknown, or almost unpractised. A mistress who cannot 
 rule her school without the rod may well doubt whether she 
 
 is fitted for that particular situation It is plainly the duty 
 
 of a master to attempt to win them by all other means ; and 
 it is plain, thot the charm of the rod loses its power in pro- 
 portion to the frequency of its use. I have seen schools in 
 which the master never lays the cane down, but walks about 
 with it, as his sceptre, bestowing a smart tap with it here 
 and a sharp cut with it there, as may seem to him most need- 
 ful. Such schools are almost always of an inferior description. 
 The boys are cowed by the master's eye and the master's 
 
 ■ 
 
46 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 hand ; but when he is absent for a moment, or his back 
 turned, it is easy to see how little education is progressing 
 there. 1846, II. 164—166. 
 
 Articles of clothing, stockings, shirts, &c., made by the 
 children, the materials being furnished at the expense of the 
 school, are in some instances given to the parents of the most 
 desening children. I am inclined to believe that the best 
 effect is produced by a liberal distribution of instructive and 
 entertaining books ; but each child should present those he 
 has already received when entitled to another ; this will suffice 
 to prevent neglect or abuse of the books ; the children ought, 
 however, to be made to understand that the book should bear 
 evidence of its being used. Handsomely bound books ought 
 not, in my opinion, to be given to children ; although, on 
 leaving school, a bible and prayer book, with the name of the 
 owner, and a testimonial of character from the visitor, will 
 be a welcome memorial of the past, and may be of permanent 
 
 benefit. It is usual at and in other parishes, to give 
 
 rewards to boys and girls who bring certificates of good con- 
 duct from their employers after a year's trial from the time of 
 their leaving school. 1845, 11. 187, 188. 
 
 Of the nature and object of rewards, there seems to be con- 
 siderable confusion in the minds of some persons, who speak 
 as if children cannot be expected to exert themselves with 
 proper energy unless this stimulus be held out. Whatever 
 may be said in favour of rewards, it should be remembered 
 that the first principle to inculcate on children is, that they 
 are to do what is set them from a sense of duty. 1845, II. 240. 
 
 At all times, it is important that the pupil should be clearly 
 instructed in the great rule, that it is not quite so much his 
 duty to excel others, as to perform well his appointed task ; 
 although in doing so, others should, perchance, be privileged 
 to excel him. 1848, II. 376. 
 
 A public examination is not an inspection There are 
 
 disadvantages attending these examinations in the dissatis- 
 faction of the parents of unrewarded children, and in the 
 inducement which they hold out to a teacher, to qualify super- 
 ficially a certain number of his top children to the comparative 
 neglect of the rest, and of their own sound instruction ; so 
 that whatever is asked, shall find some child to answer, though 
 the collective knowledge of the whole be ever so little. 
 
PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS 47 
 
 1847, II. 109, no. 
 
 In no part of a school's affairs,... is the vigilance of its man- 
 agers more urgently required than in the preparations for a 
 public examination. 1845, II. 436. 
 
 I should state that the examination of elementary schools by 
 Her Majesty's Inspectors consists of an inquiry into all the 
 subjects taught in it, and ivQm. every child present. Much 
 time is requisite, that this be done carefully with the patience 
 that young and timid children require. Such an examination 
 has little charms for the amateur who is accustomed to exhi- 
 bitions where upper classes only of a school are examined, and 
 in subjects previously studied for this purpose. Several of 
 these ** public examifiations," as they are called, I have attend- 
 ed in the course of my late tour ; and as this is a subject of 
 much importance to the well-doing of schools, I shall take the 
 liberty of making a few remarks on them, First ; the time 
 which is lost in making preparation for them, as they are at 
 present conducted in some places, is no small portion of the 
 *' quarter's schooling." I have found the 1 st class of a large and 
 very important school six weeks before the annual examination, 
 preparing for it ; cramming — to use the common phrase — the 
 different subjects under the skilful hand of the master. It is, 
 I know, said that the time spent in such preparation is not 
 wasted, for the particular lessons thus prepared are well and 
 therefore profitably learned. But it seems very doubtful if 
 this be the case ; for a lesson thus separated from the usual 
 subjects of instruction, and losing its connection with them, is 
 rarely received with intelligence, and is therefore retained with 
 difficulty. But there are other evils of these public examinations ; 
 the examiners on such occasions are usually the clergymen, 
 or committee of management, friends to the school, naturalty 
 desirous that it should appear to the best advantage, disposed 
 to judge favourably of it, and unwilling to probe too deeply 
 into its weak points, if any should appear before the eyes of 
 the public. I shall not be misunderstood to say that there is 
 anything unfair or at all deceptive in their conduct ; but I 
 speak simply of the well-known fact, that we are all bad 
 judges in our own case, and that it requires an unusual 
 amount both of self-denial and earnestness to exjDose, even for 
 their future benefit, the deficiencies of those in whom we are 
 much interested. At an examination which I attended of a 
 
48 QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 large school in one of the mannfactnrinj]^ towns of Lancashire, 
 the followinp; were the proeeedinu^s, accordini^ to the "pro- 
 gramme," which was caix^fully arrane:ed hy the master and 
 mistress. The sole examiner was the incumhent of the dis- 
 trict. The infants sans^ a hymn, and were questioned in the 
 history of Moses. Their answers were correct, hut mechanicid. 
 The Collect for the week w'as then repeated hy the 1st class 
 of tj^irls. and some leading questions asked, ver\'^ few of which 
 were answered correctly. Some questions also on the Lord's 
 Prayer received like answers. The Catechism was then 
 repeated hy heart ; the 1st class heing idlowed to say "Spon- 
 tius Spilate" and **haptiz** without corrcction. The girls 
 (1st class) then read a chapter of the book of Genesis, on 
 whieh no questions were a^ked. Many children were inaudi- 
 hie — sevenxl made gross mistakes, which were not pointed 
 out to them. The 2nd class read a chapter in the Gospel of 
 Sivint John in the same manner. It was merely a reading 
 exercise, and might as ])rotitably have been in a newsi)aper jvs 
 in the liihle. The boys then sang one or two glees ! pleasantly 
 enough, and afterwards proceeded to read a chapter in Saint 
 John's Gospel very incorrectly — the second cla:^s were unable 
 to read it — no corrections were attempted either by the 
 master or the examiner. Some questions then, in its own 
 w^ords, were i\sked out of the chapter, imd miswers were made, 
 jdso in its words. Two questions only were given which 
 were not in the book before the children's eyes — neither of 
 them was answered correctly. Exiunination in geography 
 came next, which consisted in one boy pointing out the 
 diffenMit countries in Europe, and tlie others — inie always 
 leading them — calling out the names of their chief cities. 
 The 1st class of girls then answered •'questions in the Old 
 Test?vment," always in the wonls of the book. When one or 
 two simple questions, not conhiined in it, were asked, the 
 mistivss quietly said, **They hav'nt learned any further.'* 
 '•Scripture History in Verse,'* luid ** Faith luid Duty," were 
 monotonously re}>eated by the upper children, which, with 
 the exhibition of their copy-books, the repetition of pence and 
 multipUcation tables — *'not to the end" — imd a hymn, coi.^- 
 pleted the morning's proceedings. Is this to bo ctUlod 
 examination? And Uiere were others, mutatis mutana,., 
 much like it. Or is it only a solemn and self-deluding 
 
rUllLIC EXAMINATIONS 49 
 
 mockery of what an examination should be — an encourage- 
 ment to the ancient rote-system — and at least a negative 
 hindrance to all intelligent and useful teaching ? If, year 
 after year, the managers of the school are satisfied with such 
 a counterfeit, what likelihood is there that the schoolmaster 
 will endeavour to produce the reality ? I may add, that in 
 three schools where I have w^ituessed such an exhibition, the 
 progress is lamentably small. 1847, I. 4();3, 404. 
 
 These examinations have, however, been much simplified by 
 the expert assistance of the clergy, and by their disdain of 
 those ainuud impostures which consume time merely in 
 putting into chilth'cn's mouths a mechanical series of answers 
 to ama/e a Midsiunmcr row of visitors not accpiaintod with 
 the secret. I can hardly express too heartily my thanks, that 
 1 have never yvi \)(\'u ca\Uh\ \\\nm to be accessory, even as a 
 witness, to so prr[)()slrr()iis an exhibition. 1850, II. 71. 
 
 The child has, I think, a(upiired at school a certain and not 
 despicable amount of instruction ; but how long does he retain 
 it ? I believe a very short time. I judge of this by the igno- 
 rance which yoiuig people who have been at our schools as 
 children manifest when they come to their clergymen to be 
 examined previous to confirmation. I judge of it further l)y 
 the indifferent spelling, writing, and little knowledge of arith- 
 metic, which the middle-aged men who have been at our schools 
 very frecpiently show. Hut then, why is this ? JJecause some 
 of their instruction was almost entirely given and obtained by 
 rote, whilst the mechanical part has passed away from want of 
 practice. But does not this acknowledgement, that very mucli 
 has been taugiit by rote in our schools entirely condemn tiiese 
 teachers ? It is an imi)ortant (piestion, and must not be hastily 
 answered. In the majority of eases where this evil prevails, 
 lie master does not altogether deny that it is so. He ac- 
 knowledges it, deplores it and states its cause : — " I have not 
 bme for breaking up the subjects, and cpiestioning sufficiently. " 
 
 this a fair plea ? 1845, II. 306. 
 
 [The discipline of the mind] is not in effect to be accom- 
 
 (jlished simply by attaching a "moral" in so many didactic 
 
 ^rords to the information, but by building up the mind and i)re- 
 
 ■panug the heart to its deduction and acceptance. 1848, II. 252. 
 
 k 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 I REALLY believe that many children repeat the Lord's 
 Prayer, Creed, &c., for years without its even occurring to 
 them that the words have a meaning ; at school it is a lesson — 
 it is a form in after-life, associated with religious impressions, 
 not perhaps without some effect on the consciences ; yet which 
 never can be attended by the quickening and enlightening 
 influences experienced by those who have learned to pray with 
 the spirit and with the understanding also. 1845, II. 160, 
 
 The present purpose of a Christian education, as contem- 
 plated by the ablest supporters of the schools which I have 
 been commissioned to inspect, appears to be, to make its 
 recipients good ; to make them wise ( wise unto salvation and 
 therefore unto virtue ) as a means ; and great, as a consequence , 
 so long as ** righteousness exalteth a nation, and sin is a 
 reproach to any people." Such an education does not con- 
 template merely the developement of physical strength and 
 intellectual vigour, and their combined application to arts, 
 enabling men to contend with the elements of nature and 
 society for an individual subsistence on the earth ; but it 
 likewise has regard to their passions and their affections, 
 under the conviction, that, overborne by the intoxication of 
 the former, amidst the wiles to which our inborn pride exposes 
 us, they will never refrain from doing evil that fancied, selfish, 
 illusory good may come of it, unless nurtured, in affections as 
 well as in principles, in habits as well as in words, to aspire, 
 with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, to that glorious career 
 of growing purity and peace promised by their Creator and 
 opened by their Redeemer to every contrite and believing 
 heart. Education, in this, its highest sense (embracing 
 physical, intellectual, industrial, moral and religious educa- 
 tion), they are well aware is not the work of the school only. 
 
EVERY THING EDUCATES 51 
 
 but likewise of the church, the Sunday-school, the home, the 
 play- ground, the street, the workshop, the field, the mine, 
 the tavern, and the court-house. They are equally aware 
 that no sane individual, in any conceivable state of society, 
 can escape education in every branch, either to truth or 
 error, to good or evil ; that the choice to be made for them 
 is not between ''education" and ''no education,'' but between 
 "good" and "bad" education. Distrusting, and with reason, 
 the education which is given to the poor by the "world," — 
 by the unregulated influences which bear upon them in the 
 scenes of their daily life, — their conception of a school for the 
 children of the poor, is, that it should be a little artificial 
 world of virtuous exertion, in which, with God's blessing, 
 every available influence of good should be brought to bear 
 upon them for as many hours as possible, to nerve them, under 
 the armour of humility, against the present, the future, the 
 inevitable dangers and temptations which daily attend their 
 "going out" and their "coming in." * * 
 
 "The first great and leading principle of all sound educa- y 
 tion," [states the Manual of the British and Foreign School 
 Society,] "is, that it is a teacher's duty to pay more regard to 
 the formation of the character of Ms scholars, than to their 
 success in any, or in all the branches of learning professedly 
 taught. With a view to enlighten their judgment, and to 
 bring them under the influence of right impressions with 
 respect to moral good and evil, it is considered to be of the 
 utmost importance that they should, from the first, be taught 
 to distinguish betw^een matters of permanent and immutable 
 obligation, and mere comparative degrees of attention and 
 dihgence. Every manifest infraction of the Divine law ought, 
 therefore, to be treated in a very diflbrent manner from slow- 
 ness in the common school exercises, or, even from the petty 
 misdemeanors of unthinking and volatile minds. On occasions 
 of the former kind, teachers are expected to show that visible 
 concern and sorrow, which such off'ences will undoubtedly 
 excite in every virtuous mind ; and, if possible, to bring the 
 oflfender, by earnest remonstrances, to a conviction of his sin. * 
 
 * Deference to parental authority, united with regard to 
 parental assistance, is another important principle not to be 
 lost sight of. Parents are the natural guardians of their 
 children ; and, however they may occasionally be sunk in 
 
52 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 ignorance and vice, they seldom entirely lose a sense of their 
 responsibility, or become altogether incapable of exercising 
 authorit)^ to some good purpose ; so that, in a great majority 
 of instances, the most beneficial results may be derived from a 
 clear acknowledgment of their claims, and a sedulous courting 
 of their assistance. * * Teachers are recommended to main- 
 tain a constant communication v^ith parents respecting the 
 habits and principles of the scholars ; by v^hich means they may 
 greatly improve the influence of parental authority, and also 
 strengthen both that authority and their own ; as their pupils 
 will thus perceive that there is a cordial co-operation between 
 their natural guardians at home and the authorities they are 
 taught to respect in school. * * Respect for the teacher, 
 and implicit obedience to his commands, are principles which 
 should be assiduously cultivated ; but it must be the respect 
 of dutiful aiFection, not that proceeding from slavish submis- 
 sion. Higher motives will, doubtless, grow up, as the scholars 
 become better acquainted with a good teacher's character, 
 and more capable of appreciating qualities that command 
 respect ; but, even before they have all advanced thus far, 
 habits of prompt obedience must be universally established. 
 With children who are restless, volatile, and unused to 
 restraint, mechanical motions of the body, as they are at once 
 easily understood, and readily performed, afford the best 
 means of inculcating these habits ; and no teacher ought to 
 rest satisfied until he has brought every child to sit, stand, 
 speak, or be silent, on the instant of the command being given. 
 Until this point be gained, time is daily lost, not only to the 
 careless and disobedient, but to the whole school ; and when, 
 habits of partial obedience have once been tolerated, the 
 difficulties to be overcome are greatly increased. If, on the 
 other hand, teachers will respect their own authority, by 
 never giving commands which they do not expect to be im- 
 mediately obeyed, nothing will be found more easy than to 
 make obedience the general and settled habit of the school. 
 1847, II. 49—52. 
 
 We are too much accustomed to confound our notion of a 
 religious education,* and not to consider that a place should 
 
 * "That education is the training of the whole man, and that without religion 
 there can be no such thing as education, in the just sense of the world, are truisms." 
 The Privy Council and the National Society, p. 39. 
 
PARENTAL FUNCTIONS 53 
 
 be sought for religion in the hearts and affections of children, 
 as well as in their memories and their understandings. 
 1850, I. 2. 
 
 Mere intellectual excitement in any class does little for 
 morality, and nothing for peace and happiness, if it do not 
 lead to the ''beginning of wisdom/' and that practical humility, 
 guided by consistent thought, which will evince its attainment. 
 1848, 11. 242. 
 
 Notwithstanding the favourable view which I have been 
 led to take of the progress of religious instruction m our 
 schools, there are some elements in which it appears to me to 
 be deficient. I have found in it, for instance, nothing to 
 represent those admonitions which a religious parent is ac- 
 customed to address to his children, with a personal applica- 
 tion to the conscience of each, and an individual knowledge 
 of its necessities, and which, appealing to the heart and the 
 affections, have an influence with children greater than that 
 which they yield to reason or to authority. I have moreover, 
 thought, that in the exclusive direction to religious objects 
 which the teaching in some schools receives, the exercise of 
 that discretion was wanting, by which a pious and judicious 
 parent would provide, in respect to the education of his own 
 children, that due care should be taken to encourage a venera- 
 tion for the Scriptures, and impress them with a due sense of 
 their importance, and that, of all the subjects in which they 
 are instructed, religion should be made the least burdensome 
 to them. I am well aware how many are the practical 
 difficulties which surround this question ; but the cause of 
 elementary education now ranks among its friends so many 
 men of piety and of zeal, and of great ability, that it is 
 impossible not to hope for some well-considered revision of 
 this, the most important element of it. An influence might 
 thus, I believe, be given to our schools on the moral condition 
 of the people, hitherto unknown to them. In any such 
 influence, the schoolmaster must be a principal agent. The 
 value of that time which the cleryman may be enabled to 
 devote to the labours of the school, it is, I know, impossible 
 to overrate ; but these labours are only a part of those pro- 
 per to his office, and it is, after all, upon the schoolmaster, 
 under whose control the conduct of the child is placed during 
 so many hours of the day, that the place of the parent, in 
 
54 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 respect to its religious training, if not his responsibilities, will 
 be found principally to devolve. Is is upon his character, the 
 ascendency of which the child is made to feel so constantly, 
 that his own will be found to form itself, and it is to his 
 admonitions that he will be predisposed to give his assent in 
 religious matters by the habit he has acquired of yielding it in 
 secular things. I cannot convey to your Lordships the ade- 
 quate expression of that importance which, from these consi- 
 derations, and yet more from the observations I have made, 
 and the facts which have come to my knowledge in the 
 course of my inspection, I have been led to attach to the 
 personal character of the schoolmaster in its influence on the 
 well-being of the school. 1847, I. 159, 160. 
 
 One source of additional strength to the schools would be 
 found in a more careful vivifying of the text of the reading- 
 lessons, and exposition of the meaning of each word, than is 
 practised by many of the least disciplined teachers. Thus, in 
 their efforts to give analytical clearness, as they consider it, 
 they very frequently spend much time in giving the roots of 
 words, and the meaning of those roots, without at all impress- 
 ing strongly upon the children's minds the meaning of the 
 derivative itself ; and hence the root and its meaning, instead 
 of helping to define and fix the sense of the derivative, has 
 helped only to confuse it. * * In a word, it is the worst 
 educated who are the most abstract teachers, and least quali- 
 fied to train the minds of the children to elaborate a truth 
 from their own observation and experience, or to define one of 
 which they have got only a rude conception. 
 
 The Sacred Text presents boundless scope for the exhibition 
 of the excellencies and defects to which I now refer ; and both 
 are conspicuous according to the qualities of the teacher. I 
 have often, indeed, been morally under the necessity of testing 
 the reading of the whole school upon the text of Scripture, 
 wherever the school had no reading-books but Bibles and 
 Testaments, or these were actually in hand at the time of my 
 visit . * * Whatever may be the imperfection which 
 attaches to the Scripture reading, in British and other schools 
 designed for the education of the poorer classes, I cannot 
 imagine that it is nearly so defective as the religious instruc- 
 tion given at the home of the labourer, to supply the deficiency 
 of which it is chiefly designed. Religious instruction by a 
 
USE OF THE SCRIPTURES 55 
 
 parent to his child, upon the text of Holy Writ, to the best 
 of his ability, will not be disparaged in a country where that 
 book is open to justify it. And the schoolmaster, though a 
 very imperfect agent, yet occupying the place of the parent 
 for a certain number of hours, is very properly required to 
 attend to it, within limits either tacitly or expressly stated. 
 The committee who appoint him, and sometimes the parents 
 who send their children, would do neither one nor the other, 
 if they did not know him to be a recognised member of some 
 Christian church or congregation ; and the conditions with 
 regard to religious instruction upon which all parties co-oper- 
 ate in the support of a British school, are, that the Scriptures 
 shall be used daily, and, being so introduced, shall therefore 
 be used with the intelligence now demanded in all reading, 
 and likewise with a reverence peculiarly due to their sacred 
 character. It appears to be left to the master's sense of 
 propriety and integrity to select such passages, and so far 
 confine himself to the subject-matter of them, as not to incul- 
 cate aught inconsistent with the doctrines of the parents of 
 the children. I am bound to add, that the most backward of 
 the British schools that I have visited, even in regard to this 
 reverent intelligence in reading the Scriptures, are those in 
 which their language is the only text that has yet been em- 
 ployed for every exercise ; and next to them, those in which 
 the secular reading books of the British and Foreign School 
 Society have but just been placed in the hands of teachers 
 untrained to use them ; while the schools of best tone in 
 every respect are those of highest intelligence, with every 
 modern appliance, in the hands of zealous, tender-hearted, and 
 Christian masters. These are observations, however, which I 
 make under correction ; not being authorized to examine into 
 the religious instruction given in the schools. 1847, II. 89 — 91 . 
 The essential idea of all religious education will consist in 
 the direct cultivation of the religious feelings. Independently 
 of this, it falls simply under the character of an intellectual 
 exercise, which can be carried on to any extent without involv- 
 ing of necessity any religious element whatever. In the diverse 
 schools amongst which my labours are carried on, there are 
 some in which the Bible is the sole basis of rehgious instruc- 
 tion ; and there are others in which catechisms, or other ab- 
 stracts of doctrine, are employed. * * I have seen the 
 
56 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 happiest and I have seen the most unsatisfactory results alike 
 under both systems. In each case the mere instrument of 
 teaching is of small moment compared with the spirit which 
 is infused into it by the teacher. The danger in each case is 
 that of employing the instrument simply as the basis of an 
 intellectual exercise, and losing sight of the moral and religi- 
 ous sentiment it is intended to draw forth. In many schools 
 where the Bible alone is used, the children learn sacred geo- 
 graphy, history, topography, &c., but very little else ; and so, 
 in many schools where a catechism is taught, they learn the 
 words of the propositions, but attach very little, if any, signi- 
 fication to them. Here more than anywhere else, the observa- 
 tions I ventured to make upon real and technical knowledge 
 have their full force ; so much so, indeed, that unless a certain 
 amount of religious experiences be first developed, as the basis 
 of the intruction to be afforded, every subsequent step is simply 
 an exercise of memory with regard to words, or an exercise of 
 the understanding merely upon those outlying subjects which 
 encircle but do not enter the domain of sacred truth. 1 850, 
 II. 474, 475. 
 
 All [the National] schools, with two or three exceptions, 
 are opened and closed, or opened only with prayer, and 
 generally with singmg a hymn. * * In many cases the 
 conduct of the children is decorous ; the responses are made 
 with solemnity and earnestness. Wherever this was not the 
 case, it seemed to be owing to the conduct of the master. If 
 he was careless and irreverent, the children were also careless 
 and inattentive. If, as it sometimes happens, he did not 
 kneel down, or testify by the posture of his body the posture 
 of his soul before God, the children lounged rather than knelt ; 
 they played more than they prayed. There is, I think, an 
 unwise custom in many of our schools of making the children 
 close their eyes before the prayer begins. This seems to me 
 a lesson in formality, if not in hypocrisy. * * 
 
 Where the Sunday-school is so wisely and affectionately 
 conducted that the idea of school, if I may so speak, is not 
 present to the child's mind, the benefit derived from it is 
 doubtless very great ; but if it impress the child with the 
 notion of work rather than of rest, of unpleasant restraint 
 more than of happy and innocent freedom, its ultimate advan- 
 tage may well be questioned. In places where sound religious 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOLS 57 
 
 instruction is daily given in the school by the master or 
 clergyman of the parish, the length of time spent in the 
 school on Sundays may be beneficially shortened. In all cases, 
 the managers of Sunday-schools should well consider how far 
 the time spent in the school, and the attention required for 
 its studies, are likely to aid or to hinder the child's devotion 
 at the public and more important services of the Church. It 
 seems to me too much to require from children that they 
 shall enter school at nine o'clock on Sunday morning, be 
 attentive to their studies there, and then, with only a few 
 minutes' intermission, give their serious undivided attention 
 to the solemn duties of public worship until one or half-past 
 one o'clock. Four hours of nearly constant occupation of the 
 thoughts with one subject are too much for those who are at 
 a thoughtless age, and with little power of fixing their atten- 
 tion to one point. * * 
 
 In some places the children are in the habit of reading [the 
 Bible] two and three times a- day. At one school in North- 
 umberland the master assured me that the second class (of 
 little ignorant children) read it six times daily ! What is the 
 natural, almost inevitable consequence ? That in a great 
 majority of these schools where Holy Scripture is thus made 
 a reading lesson, — a lesson just like all other lessons, — a long, 
 tedious, often unintelligible lesson — the children turn to it 
 with weariness, receive it with irreverence, and derive none 
 of that solemn and peculiar instruction from it which it is 
 intended to convey. How often have I seen them counting 
 their place in the class that they might learn which verse 
 they should have to read ! How often, when the chapter was 
 finished, have they gone on without pause to another, as if 
 the only object in reading the Sacred Writings was to get 
 through as much as possible of them within their allotted period 
 of time ! The answers, too, which are made to very simple 
 questions, — answers some of which would be blasphemous if 
 the children were not grossly ignorant, are such as painfully 
 to convince the inquirer that to read the Holy Scriptures in 
 our schools does not always mean '*to mark, learn, and 
 mwardly digest them." There are, I am thankful to say, 
 exceptions not few, and increasing yearly in number, to this 
 mistaken state of things. * ^ 
 
 On the subject of *' private prayer," i, e., ''whether the 
 
58 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 children are taught private prayers wliich they may repeat at 
 home ?" there is much the same unsatisfactory answer which 
 I had to report to your Lordships last year. At only about 
 one-fourth of the schools is any attention paid to this impor- 
 tant point, and in these cases also the means used are few. 
 They consist for the most part in teaching (chiefly) the 
 younger children some short prayers from Grossman's and the 
 Broken Catechism, and from a collection of prayers published 
 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In other 
 cases the children repeat the collects of the Church, but often, 
 I conceive, without any instruction as to their scope and pos- 
 ition, and their applicability to the purposes of private devotion. 
 Is this sufficient on such an important point for the children 
 of people, like our lowest classes, whether in manufacturing 
 or agricultural districts ? Surely not, if we consider in what 
 positions some of our schools are placed. * * Of a school 
 in Yorkshire I find the following note in my diary: *'Sad 
 state of ignorance and apathy. Five boys of, or above, the 
 age of 13 (two were 15 years old) could not say the Lord's 
 Prayer ; never prayed at all ; were never taught to pray ; 
 never saw their fathers or mothers pray ; did not know how 
 many commandments there are." At a school in Lancashire 
 there were 29 children above the age of six years, 23 of whom 
 had no idea of the Lord's Prayer ; could not repeat its words 
 when suggested ; had, as far as I could judge, no notion of 
 the meaning or necessity of prayer. * * It seems plain 
 that, until a rightly- educated generation of parents has been 
 raised up, the poor child's best home is its school. In this 
 most important point of true education, in teaching the child 
 to pray, the teacher must for a while take the parent's place. 
 1846, II. 158—162. 
 
 If I might respectfully offer a shght suggestion connected 
 with religious teaching in Church of England schools, it would 
 be that immediately after prayers every morning all those 
 classes which can read the Bible fluently should be collected 
 together seriously for that purpose, and that the junior children 
 should sit around to hear it read. Another suggestion is, that 
 the form of prayers used in schools should contain some re- 
 ferences to places of education and the work in hand. I have 
 only noticed one school in which there is any special applica- 
 tion of this kind. I have pleasure in adding, that in most 
 
PRAYER IN SCHOOLS 59 
 
 schools prayers are conducted by the head teachers, reverently 
 and devoutly, and that the tinkle of a small hand-bell is now 
 for the most part happily substituted as a summons to devotion, 
 in the place of an impatient smack of the cane upon the desk, 
 which used to be so prevalent. An excellent collection of 
 sacred music for schools has been edited by Mr. J. Tilleard, 
 and published by Novello, Dean street, Soho, at I5. 6d. — 
 1850, 11.182. 
 
 In far the greater number of schools the Scriptures are read 
 in classes by the children as one of the reading-lessons. This 
 is intended as, and doubtless is, in many cases, the most simple 
 means of religious instruction ; yet it cannot be denied that in 
 some schools it degenerates into nothing more than a reading- 
 lesson, with no peculiar interest, nor profit, nor object. I have 
 seen cases where the task is gone through without a single 
 question being asked, and where, when the chapter was 
 finished, the books were shut, and spelling commenced out of 
 it ! I have seen other cases, where the class has been left 
 entirely under the charge of an ignorant and thoughtless mon- 
 itor : and when I have enquired, ** What part of Scripture are 
 you reading?" the answer has been, "Anywhere." And it 
 was true : without any direction from the master, they read 
 just where the monitor pleased to •' set them on." I found 
 one little class in the Epistle to the Galatians ! Indeed it is 
 not unfrequently the case that the lower classes are reading 
 the Epistles ! It is obvious that in these cases there can be 
 no religious instruction, nor peculiar benefit in reading the 
 Word of God. It would seem desirable that a lesson in Scrip- 
 ture should be conducted on a very diffierent plan, and in a 
 very different spirit. 
 
 As is the case in many schools, the Collect (second Sunday 
 in Advent) should be repeated, the passage of Scripture then 
 carefuUy read, and, if it seem desirable, repeated; the meaning of 
 words should then be inquired into, and explained ; then ques- 
 tions should be proposed about the persons mentioned in it, their 
 characters and conduct analyzed and illustrated by other pas- 
 sages of the Bible ; the places should then be sought for ; their 
 geographical position ascertained, and the remarkable circum- 
 stances of which they were the scenes recalled ; then the stori/ 
 should be examined, its connexion with the other parts of Scrip- 
 ture shown, its object plainly discovered, its bearings at the time. 
 
60 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 and in future ages, laid down ; and, finally, simple application 
 of its doctrines and peculiar instruction made to those who 
 have just read it — ''What are we to learn from this? what 
 does it teach us ? by precept, example, or warning ?" 
 
 This is, indeed, only a very imperfect sketch of what a lesson 
 in Scripture should be ; but something of this kind we should 
 expect from teachers in the religious instruction of our child- 
 ren. And it is owing to a want of explanation and questioning 
 that we find so many and such gross blunders in examining 
 children in Scripture history and doctrine, — blunders which it 
 is painful to hear, and would be inexcusable to repeat. But 
 it is not unimportant to observe, that these blunders are 
 generally of two kinds. The first may be called alliterative, 
 where a child is led into error from likeness of sound in 
 sameness of name ; such as the very common mistake of 
 '*Mary Magdalene" for "Mary, the mother of our Lord." 
 Such errors, I believe, to arise from the masters allowing the 
 lesson to proceed without any inquiries at all. The second 
 may be termed hypocriticaly where the child answers an 
 obvious question correctly, but knows nothing whatever of its 
 meaning: as, "Which of the Apostles denied our Lord?" 
 All children answer, "Peter." "What do you mean by 
 denied ?" or, "How did he deny him ?" All are silent, and 
 evidently ignorant. This arises, I conceive, from questioning 
 by rotey perhaps a greater evil than not questioning at all. 
 But there is another method of reading Scripture adopted in 
 some of our schools, chiefly in the diocese of Chester, where 
 the clergyman, or, in his absence, the schoolmaster, reads a 
 portion of Scripture to the whole school, collected in the 
 gallery after morning prayers. He then briefly explains it, 
 
 and examines the children in it ; and when, as at , 
 
 Manchester, and other places, the children best qualified for 
 it take a part in reading the lesson, this maybe, on the w^hole, 
 the very happiest method of imparting religious instruction to 
 our schools ; but this will depend much on the frequent 
 presence of the clergyman, on his practical conviction of that 
 truth which seems to be gaining much ground in our church, 
 that the most important spot in his parish, after the House of 
 God, is the children's school. * * 
 
 We observe that in very few instances (not one-fourth of 
 of 6ur schools) are the children taught any prayers to repeat 
 
PRAYER AT HOME 61 
 
 at home. They learn the Lord's Prayer as a part of the public 
 devotions of the school ; but they are not, I think, sufficiently 
 impressed by tlieir teachers that it is a prayer for home as 
 well as for school ; that they may use these words of Divine 
 teaching when they lie down to rest at night, and when they 
 rise in the morning to the duties of a new day. And when 
 one thinks of the homes from- which many of these children 
 come, — from the abodes of the drunkard, the infidel, the very 
 ignorant and very sinful, where the name of God is only used 
 in mockeiT or in hatred, we cannot but be anxious that the 
 sounds of prayer should be heard there, and carried there by 
 those who are most likely to affect a parent's hardened heart — 
 the children taught to pray in our Church- schools especially 
 that they may "pray at home." — It is rare to find even young 
 children who cannot repeat the Lord's Prayer. In the few 
 cases which have come under my notice they did not from 
 their dress seem to be the children of the poorest poor, but of 
 a class above them ; less poor, but more negligent. * "^^ 
 
 In a considerable number of schools [the Church Catechism] 
 is repeated, whole or in part, every day ; in some instances twice 
 each day, in the morning and afternoon ; but these are not of 
 the number who are * 'well- instructed'* in it; they have, it seems, 
 repeated it too often, merely as a repetition ; they have said the 
 Catechism. y hut have not been catechised. And, I believe, that 
 what I have said above with regard to direct Scriptural instruc- 
 tion, may be applied equally to instruction in the Catechism. 
 Children are frequently taught it by rote. They repeat it 
 sometimes without a single additional question; sometimes their 
 knowledge extends to the answers of the broken catechism. In 
 perfect agreement with an opinion expressed in his Report by 
 a brother inspector, the Rev. J. Allen, "I could wish that the 
 broken catechisms were banished from our schools." If any 
 one attempts to break the broken catechism with children who 
 can repeat it without a mistake , he will generally discover how 
 completely it has acted as a hindrance to all further questioning 
 and right understanding of the truths which it contains. * * 
 
 Parents often desire progress in the arithmetic ; masters 
 exhibit children's acquirements in geography and grammar ; 
 children themselves are proud of their writing ; but, notwith- 
 standing all, the staple commodity (if I may without irreverence 
 so express it) of our schools is religious knowledge, however 
 
62 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 imperfect it may be. 1845, II. 263— -267. 
 
 Scripture history.,,.!^ generally taught in detached portions, 
 more or less biographical, and is rarely so presented as to afford 
 a connected view of its entire range, or of its range through 
 any given period, much less of the relations in time which the 
 principal events bear to each other, or to other events of con- 
 temporary history. And yet all this, with proper helps, is prac- 
 ticable, and not unnecessary, even in a class of schools much 
 below the highest. The teaching of the Shorter [Assembly's] 
 Catechism by Scripture proofs, which is so excellent a feature of 
 many schools, suggests an extension of that practice of Scrip- 
 ture reference to every sort of moral lesson which the oppor- 
 tunity occurs of inculcating. It is not usual to give lessons 
 of this kind, accompanied with such references, in a very full 
 or systematic manner. And yet, while the fitness of such 
 instruction to all schools is certain, its importance is unequalled; 
 and this, though no more effect were produced than to lodge 
 in the memory a store of sentences from the word of God, 
 applicable to all occasions in human life, and to every state of 
 the human heart, — more, of course, may always be accom- 
 plished by a proper mode of teaching. 1846, II. 342, 343. 
 
 I have often heard repeated (who has not?) — '*0h! we 
 don't want our poorer children to be made astronomers and 
 engineers ; we are quite contented if they learn to write 
 legibly, to cast accounts, and read their Bibles with intelli- 
 gence." A very comprehensive aim, I would in all sincerity 
 reply, to be contented with ; and may they never rest con- 
 tented till every effort has been strained to realize it : an aim 
 much more extensive than (excepting cases utterly exceptional) 
 has hitherto been compassed, and the utmost that is likely to 
 be compassed by any process that I see in operation. ''To 
 read their Bibles with intelligence /" But will they read their 
 Bibles at all in the cottage or the servants' hall, if they be 
 nauseated with it through their childhood as the task-book ? 
 is it likely that they will recur voluntarily and in a commend- 
 able spirit to the only book which stands associated in their 
 minds with all the irksomeness, the drudgery, the sadness, 
 the stupidity, the dull mechanical teaching, the dull mechanical 
 learning, the wearisome, undiscriminating discipline, through 
 which the faculty of reading must be struggled to in those 
 more obsolete schools in which exclusive Scripture reading is 
 
USE OF THE BIBLE 63 
 
 prescribed ? Will not the holy book itself stand in great 
 jeopardy, not of dislike only, but even of irreverence by being 
 the familiar hand-book at a time when childhood is so prone 
 to seek relief from listlessness in levity ? For listless and 
 uninteresting most assuredly will that reading be which is 
 enlivened by no illustration, no explanation as to social and 
 domestic habits, natural history, and the pecuharities of time 
 and place ; and the material for all these is refused by that 
 hypothesis which excludes all secular instruction and insists 
 on Scripture and on Scripture only. For if it be replied, 
 "It is reading Scripture with intelligence, which we insist on 
 as sufficient,'' I can only say that the word ''intelligence," 
 concedes the whole matter in dipute. * * Meantime, it is 
 an undoubted fact, that in schools where Scripture onhj is 
 taught, it is learned with almost no intelligence. The mis- 
 conceptions as to time and place, and the relation of one 
 event to "another in the minds, not of children only, are 
 amazing and too ludicrous for me to record them in connexion 
 with so grave a topic. I have been frequently disappointed 
 too, in schools where great and conscientious labour has 
 evidently been devoted to exclusive reHgious instruction, 
 where children have learned to quote remote prophecies and 
 doctrinal texts with surprising accuracy, to find how little 
 they were acquainted with the simple words, the doings and 
 example of their Saviour, and the relation of these to each 
 other and to human life. I do not think either, that there is 
 nearly enough learning off by heart, and frequent repetition of 
 those plain, popular texts which are profusely scattered over 
 Scripture, easily intelligble, easily remembered, easily applica- 
 ble to the various predicaments of life ; compact and portable 
 resources in its sorrows and temptations ; cruizes of oil and 
 barrels of meal, which the heart in after time may feed upon or 
 pour into its wounds. There should, however, be frequent 
 repetition of these texts as well as a judicious selection, or they 
 can hardly be expected to become so indented in the memory, 
 as to be found there ''after many days/' I should wish at the 
 same time, to suggest well-chosen hymns, of which there are 
 so many that combine didactic purposes in their least repulsive 
 form, with the attractions (frequently) of the sweetest poetry, 
 and that assistance to the memory which is supplied by rhyme 
 and rhythm. 
 
64 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 I cannot but think, that somewhat more judgment might 
 be exercised than I have sometimes found in the selection of 
 portions of Scripture for the children's daily reading. It is 
 but a small portion of the Bible that they can read between 
 7 years of age and 12 ; and surely those parts ought to have 
 the preference which exhibit the easiest practical adaptation 
 to the minds of children. I very frequently find them occupied 
 on what, to say the least, might very suitably be postponed 
 till other portions are exhausted ; and it has more than once 
 happened, on my saying to a class of girls, from 12 to 13 
 years of age, ''Suppose you read me the lesson you read with 
 your governess yesterday," that they have turned immediately 
 to a chapter in Leviticus, which might have been embarrassing 
 to bystanders, but for the total absence of intelligence with 
 which the little maidens gabbled a few verses before I had 
 time to direct their attention to a chapter more suited to their 
 apprehension and my purpose of examination. Yet these 
 young people were very ignorant of the Gospel narrative, its 
 examples and its inculcations. 1850, II. 73 — 76. 
 
 I am convinced that the only method of impressing Scrip- 
 tural truth on the minds of children is to convey it not in a 
 desultory manner and indirectly through the medium of a 
 reading-lesson, but as a whole, under a systematic form, and 
 directly by oral instruction. Such oral instruction in 
 Scripture is called a Bible-lesson. It is something wholly 
 irrespective of reading, and may and ought to be given, 
 under a simple form, even to children who cannot read at all. 
 1845, II. 526. 
 
 I believe that great benefit would result, if more pains were 
 taken to have well- selected portions of Scripture committed 
 to memory ; if the children of the first class had each a R-efer- 
 ence Bible, which they could take home, and use in the 
 preparation of the next Scriptural lesson ; and if they were 
 always required, after the lesson, to write down an account of 
 suitable portions of what had been learned, and to which their 
 attention had been specially directed. 1848, II. 9. 
 
 There were thirteen pupils present on the day of inspec- 
 tion ; I examined them all, and requested the master also to 
 conduct the business in the usual way ; the whole was very 
 unsatisfactory ; the reading was slovenly , inaccurate^ and 
 spiritless, and the utility of the examination instituted by the 
 
USE OF THE BIBLE 65 
 
 master may be judged of from the following specimens : the 
 class had read a chapter of the New Testament, and after I 
 had failed in getting any intelligent answers from them, either 
 in the substance or words of the passage which they had read, 
 I requested the master to give me a specimen of the mode 
 which he usually adopted ; the result was literally thus : — 
 What is the meaning of *'to ?" — In addition to. — What is 
 the meaning of ''the ?'* — Particular. — What is the meaning of 
 "and?" — Added to. — What is the meaning of "by }" — Denot- 
 ing the first cause or means. — ^These were the only questions 
 put, and the answers were all given by one boy, who was the 
 teacher's son. The only other branches were writing and 
 arithmetic, which had been taught in a most unsatisfactory 
 manner. 1842. 117, 118. 
 
 That is no ordinary sacrifice which is made of the veneration 
 due to the word of God, when it is constantly applied to a 
 secular use. Looking at a religious education as comprising, 
 in its largest sense, the whole result for which we are labouring, 
 it is impossible not to lament that, by an indiscretion which has 
 no parallel in the education we give to our own children, we so 
 associate the use of the Scriptures with the years a labourer's 
 child spends at school as to render the neglect of them a pro- 
 bable result when he leaves it. 1848, I. 3. 
 
 Having myself examined some thousands of children whose 
 entire Scriptural instruction is comprised in thus learning to 
 read (mechanically) from the Scriptures, I can state as the 
 result of my experience that the entire school occupation of a 
 child continued for years may have been the perusal of the 
 Scriptures, and yet no elementary Scriptural truths have been 
 stored up in its mind; and the child be found as utterly 
 unacquainted with the subject-matter of their simplest nar- 
 rative portions as with their fundamental doctrines. Never- 
 theless the power to read them fluently may have been 
 acquired, together with a prompt recognition of their peculiar 
 forms of expression, and an abundant familiarity with their 
 language — a familiarity which, whilst it is made to serve no 
 useful purpose of instruction, tends, it is to be feared, to 
 exclude from the child's mind a due sense of their authority, 
 to obliterate the perception of those sanctions under which 
 they have been given, and to diminish that awe with which 
 it is not less natural than it is necessary that they should 
 
66 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 be received. 1845, II. 521. 
 
 A large number of schools which I have visited possess no 
 books whatever, save the Bible and extracts from the Bible, 
 which are consequently made the common task-books for child- 
 ren of all ages. The very infants are taught to read out of 
 these extracts from the Bible. The irreverence fostered by 
 such a system, and the utter hopelessness of teaching children 
 to read with any effect from the Bible alone, are now generally 
 allowed by all persons in any way conversant with the subject 
 of education ; but with the bare admission of this evil the 
 matter too frequently rests, in consequence of the limited 
 funds at the disposal of the school managers, which do not 
 admit of their purchasing any but the cheapest books ; and, 
 owing to the aid afforded by certain societies, the Bible and 
 the New Testament may in reality be considered to be the 
 cheapest. Hence it is that these holy books are so commonly 
 and so painfully desecrated. 1848, II. 72. 
 
 In giving instruction to the advanced classes on Scripture, 
 I have found it a help, not taking a large portion at a time, 
 to have some plan of catechising in my head, such as the 
 following. 1. To go over all the more difficult words, 
 requiring the children to spell them, and to express their 
 meaning in other terms. 2. To go over the names of persons 
 and places mentioned, and to connect them with the leading 
 features of their history, as given in other passages. 3. The 
 books being shut, to ascertain whether the children have 
 recollected the substance of what has been read. These 
 three classes of questions are merely mechanical, and can be 
 entered on without preparation ; but, 4. The most important 
 matter remains, namely, reminding the children that all Scrip- 
 ture is given for our learning, to inquire of them what lesson 
 ought we to get from this passage } Do we read of any 
 examples in Scripture of persons who have carried out this 
 lesson in their conduct.^ Are there any examples, on the 
 other hand, of persons who have failed in their conduct from 
 not remembering this lesson } * Do you remember any short 
 
 * The following extracts, from two very different writers, exhibit forcibly the 
 effect that is given to a moral lesson by its being illustrated by examples of opposite 
 character. 
 
 "Asa was sick, but of his feet, far from the heart; yet because he sought to the 
 physicians, not to God, he escaped not, Ezechiah was sick to die ; yet because he 
 trusted to Grod, not to physicians, he was restored. Means without God cannot 
 
USE OF THE BIBLE 67 
 
 text of Scripture impressing thi& lesson ? It is obvious that 
 this class of questions ought not to be put without serious 
 study of the passage beforehand. I believe that most teachers 
 would derive assistance from Miss Mayo's 'Lessons on Scrip- 
 ture/ and from Mrs. Breay's publications, 'The Teacher 
 Taught/ *The Mine explored/ How much may be done in 
 getting children to learn Scripture hj heart is instanced in 
 
 the School, where the youngest children are exercised 
 
 in this way, and the upper class learn from 30 to 40 verses 
 every week. One boy of 11 was in the habit of learning 100 
 verses a- week at the time of my visit. The school is very 
 intelligently taught. I have commonly discouraged the 
 reading of such books as Ostervald's 'Abridgment,' although 
 some experienced teachers have assured me that it is difficult 
 to give children a knowledge of the relative bearings of the 
 different parts of Scripture without the use of some historical 
 abstract. I have been unwilling for the facts in the history 
 of the Bible to be dwelt upon apart from the instruction with 
 which they are clothed in the sacred text ; and it has seemed 
 to me that a constant reference to some chronological chart 
 (such as that drawn up by Bishop Short, and sold for 4d. by 
 
 help ; God without means can, and often doth. I will use good means, not rest in 
 them." — Bishop Hall's Meditations and Vows, the First Century, No. 69. 
 
 "The good effects of a soft answer, and the ill consequences of a peevish one, are 
 observable in the stories of Gideon aud Jephtha. Both of them in the day of their 
 triumphs over the enemies of Israel, were causelessly quarrelled with ; the Ephrai- 
 mites (an angry sort of people, it seems,) who took it very heinously, when the 
 danger was past, and the victory won, that they had not been called uj)on to engage 
 in the battle. Gideon pacified them with a soft answer. (Judges viii. 2.) What 
 have I done now in comparison of you 1 magnifying their achievements, and lessening 
 his own, spealdng honourably of them, and meai3y of himself. Is not the gleaning 
 of the grapes of JSphraim better than the vintage of Ahiezar ? In which reply it is 
 hard to say whether there was more of wit or wisdom, and the effect was very good ; 
 the Ephraimites were pleased, their anger turned away, a civil war prevented, and 
 nobody could think the worse of Gideon for his mildness and self-denial ; but, on 
 the contrary, that he won more true honour by this victory over his owti passion, 
 than he did by his victory over aU the host of Midian ; for he that hath rule over his 
 own spirit is better than the mighty. (Prov. xvi. 32.) The angel of the Lord has 
 pronounced him a mighty man of valour ; (Judges vi. 12 ;) and this his tame submis- 
 sion did not at aU derogate from that part of his character. But Jephtha (who by 
 many instances appears to be a man of a rough and hasty spirit), though enrolled 
 among the eminent believers, (Heb. xi. 32,) — for all good people are not alike hap- 
 py in their temper, — when the Ephraimites in like manner pick a quarrel with him, 
 rallies them, upbraids them with their cowardice, boasts of his own courage, chal- 
 lenges them to make good their cause. (Judges xii, 2, 3.) They retort a scurrilous 
 reflection upon Jephtha' s country (as it is usual with passion to taunt and jeer one 
 another. Ye Gileadites are fugitives, (v. 4.) From words they go to blows, and so 
 great a matter does this little fire kindle, that that goes no less, to quench the 
 name, than the blood of two and forty thousand Ephraimites, (v. 6.) All which 
 had been happily prevented if Jephtha bad had but half as much meekness in his 
 heart as he had reason on his side. — Matthew Henry on Meekness, ch. i. 
 
6S RELIGIOUS INSTEUCTION 
 
 the Christian Knowledge Society), which would sensibly 
 illustrate the comparative duration of different periods ; might 
 accomplish all that is sought for in the use of a mere outline 
 of the events. 
 
 In questioning on the catechism, I have found it give 
 freshness to my thoughts, if before entering on a particular 
 portion thereof I have looked continually at some fresh 
 expositor ; amongst our elder writers I have derived great 
 help from Bishop Nicholson's, Bishop Kenn's, Bishop Will- 
 iams', and Bishop Beveridge's 'Expositions.' 
 
 During the reading lesson, a longer time will naturally be 
 devoted to the questioning of the elder classes, than to prac- 
 tice in the more mechanical work of enunciation and expression. 
 Yet it will require constant pains in a teacher to make his 
 pupils thoroughly good readers ; and when a sentence is read 
 in a slovenly manner (having first, perhaps, questioned the 
 class as to what were the defects), it is good to read the 
 passage properly as a pattern to the children, and then to 
 encourage the deficient pupil to a fresh attempt. It may be 
 advisable frequently to break up the youngest class into small 
 draughts of eight or ten, under monitors, so as that the 
 mechanical act of reading should come over 'repeatedly to the 
 same pupil ; but throughout the school the last few minutes 
 of the lesson should always be devoted to the endeavour, by 
 proper questions, to bring under review and to re-impress the 
 instruction communicated. 
 
 In questioning a class, I have recommended that all who 
 think they can answer should be encouraged to hold out a 
 hand in silence, and that the master should then fix on one 
 and another of those who thus indicate their readiness to 
 reply, for the answer. — For teaching little children to read, 
 the frame and movable letters sold by Mr. J. W. Parker, 
 West Strand, under your Lordships' sanction, will, as I 
 believe, prove very useful. Some teachers use with great 
 advantage the series of lessons called * Reading Disentangled.' 
 
 I have strongly recommended lessons in composition ; and 
 it seems to me that with a proper exercise book as a guide, 
 these might be practised throughout the school. I think it 
 is a suggestion of Mrs. Tuckfield's, that as soon as children 
 can speak plainly, they should be encouraged to name the 
 things that are before their eyes in the school- room, the 
 
INTELLECTUAL TRAINING 69 
 
 things that are in their parents' cottages at home, the things 
 that they saw on their way to school, &c. ; and that when 
 they have been thus exercised in nouns, a famihar noun should 
 be taken, and they should be encouraged to qualify it with 
 fitting adjectives. For example, if the word day were taken, 
 the children might be asked. What sort of a day can we 
 have ? — A dirty day, a short day, a happy day, &c. 
 
 In some schools, it is one of the Monday exercises for 
 
 the first class to write on their slates all that they can recollect 
 of the sermon of the previous day. When the children are 
 catechised during service, it may be good to follow the example 
 of the clergyman of Abbott's Ann, the working of whose 
 arrangements appeared to me very admirable in their results. 
 He hangs up on the church- door on the Sunday morning some 
 three or four summary questions on the subject to be taken up 
 in the afternoon, and he finds that several of his parishioners 
 between the ages of fifteen and twenty attend with the greatest 
 interest to the catechising, and answer the questions on paper 
 during the following week. These answers are taken to the 
 clergyman on Saturday, and by him they are looked over, and 
 notes are made in pencil. By these means the Sunday teaching 
 is carried home ilito the cottage, both children and parents 
 being interested in working out answers to the proposed 
 questions. In a lower point of view, the 'results must be 
 Very gratifying ; I know of no more eff^ective means of 
 cultivating the understanding than the giving orally sound 
 instruction, which the hearers write out afterwards, and 
 submit to the teacher for correction. 
 
 I have recommended the instruction in etymology and 
 grammar to be simply oral, accompanying the reading lesson ; 
 and that the memory should by no means be loaded with 
 anything of secondary value. — It seems to me very desirable, 
 after storing the memory with the catechism, and with those 
 passages of Scripture most likely to affect the heart, to teach 
 the pupils to learn occasionally some passages of poetry, care- 
 fully selected with reference both to their moral teaching and 
 to poetical merit. — For spelling, I have discouraged the use 
 of cards, and I have recommended that it should be taught 
 by assiduous questioning after the reading lesson, and by the 
 correction of slate writing, whether from dictation, memory, 
 or in original composition. * * 
 
70 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 With regard to infant schools, I believe that there is scarcely 
 a suggestion made in Dr. and Miss Mayo's * Practical Remarks 
 on Infant Teaching' which does not appear to me to have 
 worth. In my examination of these schools, I have commonly 
 requested the teachers to show me specimens of what had 
 been given in the way of gallery lessons, manual exercises, 
 marching, singing, and the like; and, in addition to the 
 impressions that I received as a spectator, I have been chiefly 
 anxious to ascertain ; 1 . Whether the children caught the 
 meaning of the words used in their instruction ; 2. how far 
 they had got in learning to read ; and, 3., whether their 
 memories were daily stored with verses of good hymns, or 
 the simplest and most affecting passages of Scripture. One 
 wants to see young children, under a sound, cheerful, and 
 affectionate moral discipline, taught the most obvious duties 
 of the relations in which they stand, clean, orderly, and happy. 
 They should be encouraged to put out all their powers, both 
 of body and mind ; and if this be done, healthfully without 
 any overstrain, they will be found to enjoy the lessons of a 
 judicious and lively teacher as much as the most noisy game. 
 Meanwhile, the character is being formed, and the hearts of 
 the parents are reached most affectingly through the teaching 
 of their little ones. 
 
 Of positive arrangements in infant-schools, I think I have 
 scarcely discouraged anything decidedly, except the bringing 
 forward one child before the rest to repeat pieces, or in any 
 sense to play the part of a prodigy. I have previously hinted 
 my belief that the ball- frame might be less used than it is ; 
 and I have some impressions as to other matters which I 
 scarcely feel myself as yet sufficiently clear in holding to justify 
 a statement of opinion. I have always regretted the presence 
 of children above seven or eight years old in an infant-school, 
 where the teacher is single-handed, and receives no help from 
 the clergyman or the visitors. 
 
 I have strongly felt the importance of taking pains with the 
 fabric of our schools. Handsome structures are not uncom- 
 mon in the district allotted to me. But while these are luxuries 
 which the majority of school promoters cannot indulge them- 
 selves in, there is a certain beauty, arising from simplicity, 
 proportion^ and fitness, which, with a little care, is within 
 the reach of all. Pretention, stucco, unnecessary ornaments. 
 
SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS 71 
 
 especially those that are likely soon to fall into bad repair, 
 should be carefully avoided. In addition to publishing plans, 
 your Lordships have liberally given the gratuitous services of 
 an experienced architect, v^herever such aid has been requested. 
 It is a help towards cultivating self-respect in the children, 
 when the schools at which they attend are so built as that 
 they cherish habits of order and neatness, and connect them- 
 selves with pleasurable associations. It serves a moral end, 
 therefore, to have a closet or lobby for cloaks and hats, and 
 to make arrangements for teaching dirty children the comforts 
 of cleanliness. I have recommended boarded floors ; asphalte 
 is often damp, and the dirt of brick acts unfavourably on the 
 discipline of the children. No ladies can, with comfort, visit 
 a flagged school ; and in winter the health of delicate children 
 will be found to suffer from standing on stones. Although 
 much has been lately ^.said and written on the necessity of 
 fresh air, especially for the young, schools are still being built 
 where the ventilation is not self-acting, or where the apparatus 
 may be closed at the will of the inmates ; in which latter 
 case, nine times out of ten, I believe that the schools will be 
 habitually close. 1845, II. 95—97, 99—101, 108. 
 
 A good deal of time is spent in some of our schools in 
 learning ** First Steps to the Catechism," ''The Religious 
 Primer in Verse," ''Easy Hymns for National Schools." 
 These are not books the use of which I am incHned to recom- 
 mend. The time spent in this learning might, as I think, be 
 better spent. If an Introduction to the Catechism be needed, 
 it seems to me that a good one might be formed by any clergy- 
 man for the use of his school, by arranging some of the 
 simplest practical texts of Scripture as answers to a series of 
 questions on those matters concerning which it is most neces- 
 sary that children should be instructed aright.* * * Every 
 little child, so soon as it can speak distinctly, may daily learn, 
 from oral repetition, one verse of some good hymn suited to 
 his years, together with one verse of Scripture. The parents 
 would be greatly interested by such acquirements. In some 
 schools, children remain for months near the bottom, being 
 taught to repeat only the Lord's Prayer, one or two collects, 
 
 * For example, if the first question in such a catecMsm were, "Who are truly 
 happy ? " the answer might be some of the beatitudes from the opening of the 
 Sermon on the Mount. 
 
72 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 and the graces before and after meat, and these very imper- 
 fectly. It may be thought to be essential that the children 
 should never forget what has once been learned, and that 
 therefore they should not go beyond these collects and graces 
 until the whole can be repeated perfectly ; but a daily lesson, 
 such as that recommended above, would form an agreeable 
 change ; if written on the black board, it might partially 
 serve as a reading-lesson, and as a writing lesson so soon as 
 the children had made progress in the use of their slates ; and 
 it would not, as I think, interfere materially with the lessons 
 that are now committed to memory. * * Wonderful as it 
 may seem, there are schools in existence where children, 
 without having learned the Catechism with intelligence, can 
 repeat the ''Broken Catechism" and *' Crossman's Introduc- 
 tion " by rote, while yet they are unable to repeat any one of 
 the Psalms, or indeed any connected passage of Scripture, 
 with the exception of the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Com- 
 mandments. 1847, I. 144, 145. 
 
 In reference to the other points, viz., clear explanations 
 and practical application of the Catechism, very much remains 
 to be done. In the upper part of some schools the answers 
 of the children are very often full of intelligence, and extremely 
 gratifying as indicative of the existence of a moral sense, and, 
 we may hope, of a moral and religious principle. But in the 
 lower classes, I may even say frequently in no less than four- 
 lifths or two- thirds of the school, scarcely an attempt is made 
 by the master to explain the meaning of the words, much 
 less to illustrate them by Scriptural or familiar examples. 
 In the infant-schools, on the contrary, this is often done with 
 great success, and, I am convinced, with highly beneficial 
 results. Children from 5 to 7 years of age instructed by 
 competent teachers by means of the gallery, can give a 
 clear and complete outline of the life of our Saviour, and are 
 acquainted with the leading facts of the Old Testament. 
 When transfen*ed to the National school, they too frequently 
 lose what they have acquired before they are raised to the 
 classes in which similar instruction is given. The reason 
 assigned by teachers for this important omission is the want 
 of time, the difficulty, amounting almost to a physical im- 
 possibility, of personally superintending the instruction of 
 so large a number. By means, however, of collective 
 
THE SABBATH 73 
 
 lessons and various methods, of which I shall presently have 
 occasion to speak, it may reasonably be hoped that these 
 difficulties may be surmounted ; that the developement even 
 of the youngest children's intelligence will be considered as 
 an indispensable portion of the teacher's work ; and, what is 
 of still higher importance, that in every instance due care will 
 be taken to awaken their consciences, to correct misapprehen- 
 sions connected with their moral duties, and to enlist their 
 feelings and sympathies in the cause of virtue and religion. 
 In the mean time it is certain that the defective modes of 
 teaching are, in no slight degree, prejudicial to the improve- 
 ment of children in our National schools. 1845, II. 144. 
 
 In a considerable number of schools not only is the 
 
 attendance of each child on the Sunday at some place of 
 worship or Sabbath- school, inquired after, and checked by 
 the testimony of their parents, and of other children attend- 
 ing the same place, but, in a few instances, a register of it is 
 kept at the several Sunday-schools, and transferred to the day- 
 school ; and generally the parents are visited, and warned if 
 they be lax in this matter. 1847, II. 107. 
 
 One other point I will mention, which, connected as it is 
 with elementary education, ought not to be passed over, a jDoint 
 which appears to be worthy of much more serious attention 
 than it has hitherto met with — I allude to the attendance of 
 children at public worship. On this matter, I feel that I 
 echo the sentiment of very many right-minded persons, when 
 I say that with scarcely an exception the conduct of school- 
 children at church is most unsatisfactory and distressing. 
 Their irreverence during the prayers — their carelessness 
 and inattention during the sermon — their disturbance of all 
 harmony in the psalms when they attempt to sing — their 
 irreverent mode of speaking when they engage in the re- 
 sponses — their rudeness and noise in entering and leaving the 
 sacred edifice — all have a painful eff*ect upon the mind, and 
 excite very perplexing thoughts. Many reasons might doubt- 
 lessly be alleged to account for this evil — the irreligious and 
 irreverent conduct of parents and friends at home — the general 
 neglect of public worship among the labouring poor and the 
 contempt for it generated thereby in the minds of their off- 
 spring. The indiff^erence of the children to a long service, 
 with the nature of which they are unacquainted ; their 
 
74 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 inability to understand the sermon ; the bad situation in 
 which they are frequently placed, where, from the impossi- 
 bility of hearing, they lose all interest in the service ; the 
 inefficient means taken to preserve order in church ; the 
 injudicious way in which attempts are frequently made by 
 the master or teachers to preserve quiet. All these in turn 
 have their weight, and seem to combine in more or less pro- 
 portions to produce the fault complained of, and which would 
 seem to be fit subjects for the consideration of all school- mana- 
 gers, who should also, I conceive, investigate, with a careful 
 attention, the rule which exists in many schools, obliging all 
 the day- scholars to attend the Sunday-school, and, as a 
 school, to attend the church. The propriety of the attfendance 
 of children at church I would not question ; but it appears 
 probable that circumstances may exist where a religious parent, 
 in the habit of attending public worship, may wish to take 
 his children with him that they may be under his own eye, 
 which is denied to him, if they are obliged by the rules of 
 their school to acompany the master and other scholars to 
 church. To what extent such rules may be relaxed I am 
 incompetent to say. The subject appears to be one of great 
 difficulty, and as such I would hope it may be taken up by 
 the managers and conductors of parochial schools. 1845, II. 
 243, 244. 
 
 They have little knowledge of language, except under its 
 colloquial forms ; and to judge of the difference between 
 colloquial and written language, we have only to write down 
 our thoughts, and to compare the words in which we write 
 them with the expression we give to the same thoughts in 
 conversation. Nevertheless, if their children are hereafter to 
 follow, with the understanding, the Liturgy of the Church ; 
 if they are to be instructed by sermons ; if their minds are to 
 be enlightened, their manners humanized, and their leisure 
 hours usefully and pleasantly occupied by the perusal of books ; 
 they must be rendered familiar with the resources of written 
 language. This is not to be done at school by the rules of 
 grammar, valuable as these are in their application to the 
 purposes of elementary instruction ; nor yet by directing their 
 attention to the derivation of one language, with which they 
 are comparatively unacquainted, from another, of which they 
 are profoundly ignorant, nor by endeavouring to gather their 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP 75 
 
 recollections of a reading lesson which they have not under- 
 stood ; hut by examining them on the construction of its 
 sentences, and its subject-matter with their open books before 
 them ; and by directing and encouraging their efforts to con- 
 vey the ideas they associate with it in precise and accurate 
 language. 1846, I. 230. 
 
 I have often felt glad that the questions furnished to me 
 compelled me in every instance to endeavour to ascertain 
 whether inquiries were made of the children how far they 
 had profited by the public ordinances of religion. This is 
 not the place to dwell upon the importance of such inquiries ; 
 but if we regard the spiritual culture of the children, in the 
 lowest sense of the terms, we should be very anxious that 
 they might join with understanding in the prayers of the 
 Church, and be taught to value and think over the sermon. 
 Sunday is the day when the minds of the poorer classes are 
 most exercised ; and to many of them it is the only day when 
 they have a stated opportunity of being addressed by persons 
 of greater intelligence and better education than themselves. 
 It would be a good writing exercise, in most schools, on the 
 Monday morning for the upper classes to be given their Bibles, 
 with a view to their writing out the text, and what they could 
 remember of the sermon of the previous day ; at first little 
 would be done, but as more was produced, a mere reference 
 to the passage of Scripture would leave a larger space for the 
 summary * of the sermon. * * 
 
 The first object in mental training is to teach children to 
 read with intelligence, so that in after-life they may have less 
 temptation to sit stupidly indolent over the fire in their cot- 
 tages, or to seek for sensual gratification in the alehouse. 
 And yet if we were to take the use that is made of lending 
 libraries, or the tones with which the reading lesson is gone 
 through in our schools by even the most advanced children, 
 as a test of their capacity for understanding their native lan- 
 guage, we should be led, I fear, to draw very unsatisfactory 
 conclusions. * * The mode in which children in schools, 
 even where considerable pains are taken, are usually questioned 
 on their lessons (where the answer is given by a mere glance 
 
 * The girls in the upper classes at write out, on the Monday morning, what 
 
 they can recollect of the sermon heard on Sunday, and in many instances the abstracts 
 so transcribed are such as must prove of real value in after-life. 1842. 178. 
 
76 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 at the book, and in many instances by simply reading the 
 clause that comes next to the leading word in the question) 
 seems to be seriously defective, if no other pains are taken to 
 set the minds of the scholars at work. Children should never 
 be allowed to meet a word in their lessons more difficult than 
 ordinary without being asked to put another in its place as 
 nearly as possible of the same meaning. Something, perhaps, 
 would be gained also in the way of teaching children to read 
 with interest the books of the school- lending library, if it was 
 occasionally permitted as a reward to the more intelligent 
 children to employ an hour in school-time over an amusing book 
 selected by the master ; but it would be a much greater step 
 in leading them to use their understandings if the reading 
 lessons were tested by requiring written answers to written 
 questions, or by requiring an abstract of the lesson to be 
 written from memory. 1842. 164, 165. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 DISCIPLINE. 
 
 THE greatest reliance to check the risings of offence, is 
 placed upon the impersonal notice of every observed violation 
 of Scripture precept, and of its consequences, in the gallery 
 lessons, for which purpose the superintendent hands a note of 
 them, in a customary printed form, to the teachers in the 
 several class-rooms. There is no system of rewards to any 
 class of the children. 1847, H. 365. 
 
 On entering the school-room, the attention of the visitor is 
 at once attracted by its cheerful aspect. Accustomed to see 
 poor children taught, standing, with a scrupulous regard to 
 their symmetrical distribution upon the school-room floor, 
 and to associate these circumstances with a high state of 
 discipline and mute attention, he is surprised to find the 
 children of this school seated, in easy attitudes, at desks, — 
 arranged with little regard to regularity — in groups three or 
 four deep ; each such little group of desks giving space to a 
 class of about 20, intrusted to the charge of a single teacher. 
 He observes a variety of posture about these children, an 
 independence of attitude, and a contented expression of coun- 
 tenance, which perhaps is associated in the estimate he forms 
 of the school with indifference ; he is, therefore, astonished to 
 learn, on the authority of all those persons who have carefully 
 examined it, and whose judgment is on record, that the 
 school is surpassed by no other of the same class in the 
 progress which each child, from the lowest, makes in the 
 technical branches of instruction (reading, writing, and arith- 
 metic), or in the success with which those higher objects of 
 education are pursued whose direction is to the formation of 
 the religious character, and the development of the faculties 
 of intelligence and observation. The fa;ct is, that a certain 
 amount of independent action — elbow-room and breathing- 
 
78 DISCIPLINE 
 
 space for the individual character — is necessary to the health- 
 ful and vigorous activity of a school. And however unpleasant 
 it may be to a person v^^hose eye delights to contemplate it as 
 a machine of imposing magnitude, having its parts disposed 
 with a due regard to regularity, and awful in the sympathy 
 of its numbers, or as a huge animal having a single volition — 
 one great heart and one mighty pulse — the inspector who 
 views it under a simpler aspect, as a means for the education 
 of each individual child, and who analyzes it with reference to 
 that object, and judges of it by the degree in which that 
 single object is accompUshed, looks upon such matters with 
 comparative indifference. 
 
 To children a state of nervous sensibility and restless 
 muscular action is natural. The senses are with them in 
 process of education, and all the physical as well as the 
 intellectual elements of the future man in progress of develop- 
 ment. They are perpetually stimulated to that exercise which 
 is necessary to this process of development. Whoever holds 
 for a few minutes an infant in his arms will be conscious how 
 soon the stimulus is applied ; and whoever has watched its 
 progress from infancy to childhood and maturity, will be 
 aware how constant and how powerful is the influence which 
 it exerts. To keep children always under drill, to compel 
 them to a motionless position and a simulated attention, is 
 to oppose and to do violence to it. To be real, their attention 
 must be pleasurable. The most unfavourable circumstances 
 in which they can be placed in respect to their instruction are 
 surely associated with that state of physical discomfort which 
 takes away all interest from their lessons. 
 
 It is one thing for the teacher to win to himself the child's 
 fixed attention — to bring about that state in which all the 
 elements of its physical being are absorbed in its intellectual 
 activity — and it is another to compel the semblance of this 
 attention. The one is the resource of an unskilful, and the 
 other of a skilful, teacher. The former puts down that viva- 
 city of spirit which is proper to a certain stage in the growth 
 of the mind ; and when he has done violence to an instinct, 
 and trampled out a light which Nature had kindled, he calls 
 it discipline. To the other it is a resource ; he turns the very 
 joyousness of the children to his account — giving it that 
 direction in which he most desires that their knowledge should 
 
ATTENTION 79 
 
 fructify — ministering with it new life to their flagging atten- 
 tion, and winning their steps along the painful road by which 
 it is his function to lead them. And that restlessness, which 
 is natural to the expanding mind not less than the growing 
 body, he knows how to satisfy ; permuting continually the 
 elements of instruction, and shifting, through an endless 
 succession of scenes, its sphere of observation and its point of 
 view. — A man like this lives in the moral elements of his 
 school, not less entirely than in the discharge of its technical 
 duties, and soon learns to sway the minds of his children 
 almost as readily as he directs their school movements. 
 1846,11.26—28. 
 
 It will be remembered, that in the best schools a large pro- 
 portion of children are taken out of the streets, in which they 
 are exposed to the most disorganizing influences, and that few 
 of them are trained in habits of regularity and subordination at 
 their homes. At the same time their success in after-life will 
 materially depend upon their respectful demeanour and prompt 
 obedience to orders, while that external submission can hardly 
 be enforced without producing a corresponding, though less 
 complete change in their characters. Again, the noise made 
 by a few refractory children is often sufiicient to interrupt the 
 business of a school : for sounds and movements which 
 occasion little disturbance in a room of moderate size, or even 
 in a large school, where several masters are surrounded each 
 by his own pupils, cause so much confusion in these echoing 
 rooms, that the teacher's attention is of necessity called off 
 from the important duties of instruction by every breach of 
 order reported to him by the monitors, or otherwise forcing 
 itself upon his observation. Admitting therefore that a school, 
 where children who enjoy the blessings of good example and 
 careful training at home are kept in subjection without sub- 
 servience, and allowed considerable latitude in matters of 
 minor importance, conveys a far more pleasing impression to 
 the mind, and indicates the prevalence of higher principles 
 and more thorough cultivation, I am still for my part convinced 
 that such exactitude, which is maintained with least severity 
 in those schools where it is most conspicuous, cannot be 
 relaxed without danger to the children's character and im- 
 provement ; that it is highly creditable to the skill, temper, 
 and firmness of the teachers, and that it is one principal cause 
 
80 DISCIPLINE 
 
 of the general efficiency of the schools now under considera- 
 tion. * * In some places children are not allowed to 
 enter school after prayers, which are read punctually at a 
 quarter past nine in the morning. This regulation would be 
 impracticable or mischievous in any schools which are not so 
 popular as to make parents regard the loss of schooling as a 
 serious misfortune for their children : and I am somewhat 
 doubtful as to the advantage of enforcing it ; for although the 
 school may not suffer in numbers, and may be improved in 
 efficiency, the children are seldom reclaimed, and lose all 
 opportunities of instruction, save such as may be offered in 
 the wretched dame-schools which still exist in London. It 
 should never be forgotten that there is a large mass of child- 
 ren, who are either altogether excluded or soon expelled from 
 national schools by over-strict regulations. 1847, 1. 259, 260. 
 
 A custom which forms the very portal of all this discipline 
 is that of assembling all the boys in the play-ground, morning 
 and afternoon, in regimental order, according to their classes, 
 for inspection as to cleanliness, and then marching them to 
 their several stations in the school-room. 1848, II. 253. 
 
 I turn with great satisfaction to the consideration of the 
 model school : 120 children were present in it on the day of 
 my inspection. In the morning they are collected before 
 entering the school into a solid square in the play- ground : one 
 of the school songs — generally a patriotic song, of which they 
 have an excellent selection — is then sung ; and as they sing 
 they march to their places in the school in single file. At 
 the opening of the school they are collected in two groups, 
 each forming a soHd square — an arrangement which is also 
 adopted very advantageously for smaller groups or subdivi- 
 sions, when under instruction in the class-room. A collect is 
 then read, followed by a psalm or the lesson for the day. 
 This is followed by an appropriate prayer and a short anthem. 
 A text of Scripture having been appointed on the previous 
 evening to be committed to memory, some of them are called 
 upon to repeat it. This is followed by a short explanation of 
 the text. — The doors having been up to this time closed, 
 those boys who have since arrived are then admitted ; and 
 the names of all being called over, these answer, *'Late." — 
 They then sing a marching song, and, as they sing, form their 
 classes. I have thus particularly described the way in which 
 
PUNCTUALITY 81 
 
 the school is opened, because I have nowhere seen it done in 
 so pleasing and so decorous a manner. 1847, I. 574. 
 
 Physical exercises in and out of school, marching, a weU- 
 arranged system of elementary movements for hands, feet, &c., 
 are exceedingly conducive to good order, prevent or coreect 
 listless and lounging habits, and there is no reason why they 
 should be confined to infant-schools. 1845, II. 194. 
 
 The attendance is good because the reputation of the school 
 permits strict rules in this matter to be enforced. The doors 
 are closed punctually ; five minutes after school-time is marked 
 as ''late \" and none who come after the lapse of a quarter of 
 an hour can join their several classes; but, with the few 
 who do not come at all, are made the subject of an absentee 
 notice sent to the parents, by some other boy who has to 
 return home in the direction of their habitation. 1 847, II. 364. 
 
 Another subject of deep importance, and well worthy of the 
 earnest consideration of those who are interested in the right 
 education of the poorer classes of our countrymen, is the 
 length, or rather I should call it, the shortness of time during 
 which the children remain in our elementary schools ; the 
 average duration of this seems to be (as I have had occasion 
 to state before) less than two years — one year and three- 
 quarters is probably the time — in which the chief instruction 
 of their whole life is to be given. I speak here of the time 
 spent in the juvenile school, and not in the infants'. If a 
 child be brought into the former at the age of seven years, he 
 is, in a great majority of cases, removed from it — or continued 
 in it with frequent interruptions — before he is nine years old. 
 At that age he is considered by his parents old enough and 
 strong enough to contribute somwhat by his earnings to the 
 scanty income of the family. In agricultural places this is 
 generally the case. Fle is sent out into the fields, often by 
 himself, in lonely or unsheltered spots, to watch cattle, or to 
 scare away birds, &c., for 10 or 1 2 hours of the day. It is 
 piteous to comtemplate the effect of this "solitary freedom" 
 on a child's mind and heart : he has no means of inprovement, 
 the face of Nature is a sealed book to him, and other books 
 he has none. If he were willing to read, it would be hardly 
 compatible with his uninteresting employment ; or if he could 
 do this, he very rarely has any taste for it. He drags through 
 the weary hours of the day without a thought or hope but of 
 
82 DISCIPLINE 
 
 its end. He inquires anxiously of any chance passer-by 
 **What o'clock is it?" He whistles through the day truly 
 enough, for want of thought. * * Nor is it only the 
 shortness of time at school, but, (as I took occasion to observe 
 before) the method in which this time is shortened by idleness 
 and want of punctuality. I find in my notes, that at one 
 school prayers do not commence before 10 o'clock ; as the 
 masters say, "It's no use, we are so disturbed by children 
 coming in late." It should be said, that the hour of opening 
 school is nine. I have not unfrequently observed 50 children 
 late, i. e. too late for prayers, in a school of not more than 
 three times that number. The most successful method 
 (I believe) of remedying this great evil, is to close the doors 
 as the clock strikes, and not open them at all to any children 
 who come late, whether in morning or afternoon. This 
 method is practised in several of our best schools. The cause 
 of the unpunctuality, no doubt, in the majority of cases, is 
 the parent ; if the child be sent home again, the parent is, as 
 far as he can be, punished. * * Under such circumstances, 
 the teacher must have an unusual amount of good temper to 
 bear rightly the often- repeated annoyance, and of cheerful 
 diligence to continue his work with energy and in hope. He 
 must, indeed, be gifted with that from which true forbearance 
 to others and devotion of self alike proceed, and by which 
 they are abundantly nourished ; he must have faith, simple 
 faith, that he is doing his work in that state of life into which 
 it has pleased God to call him. 1846, 11. 178—180. 
 
 Notwithstanding that so many valuable results might be 
 collected from the registers at present in use, they are defi- 
 cient in the following respects : — 1. They supply, in respect 
 to each child, no information as to the means of its previous 
 instruction, the time it had been under such instruction, or 
 the know^ledge it had acquired when it entered the school. 
 2. They make no record of the child's progress, from class to 
 class, to be consulted whilst the child is yet at the school, and 
 whilst, therefore, any neglect may yet be remedied. 3. They 
 preserve, after the child has left the school, no evidence of 
 the benefit it has derived from attending it, or of the alleged 
 causes of its withdrawal, or of its future destination. * * 
 
 There is in every school a mass of children whose tendency it 
 is to gravitate, and who are allowed to do so, and to become 
 
THE DEAD WEIGHT 83 
 
 the dregs of the school. To raise them would be a severe 
 task upon the master's patience or his industry, or, with his 
 other occupations, he finds it altogether beyond his ability ; 
 and he has the less reason to bestir himself in the matter, as 
 it is the part of his school of which nobody takes notice. It 
 is in respect to this mass — making from month to month no 
 progress in the school — remaining perpetually at the bottom, 
 and under the influence of that monotonous and mechanical 
 system which characterizes the teaching of the lower classes — 
 that the school principally changes its occupants. The more 
 forward and promising children remain ; their parents are 
 commonly those best to do in the world, and there is the 
 more reason to keep them at school, as they are getting on 
 well with their learning ; besides, they are the most useful 
 monitors, and the utmost influence of the master, and some- 
 times of the clergyman, is therefore used to retain them. But 
 the mass of which I speak, representing the dulness and 
 ignorance of the little community, composed for the most 
 part of those children whose parents are the poorest, and 
 amongst whom education is in the lowest estimation, is in a 
 state of perpetual change, unobserved by the managers, and 
 seen without regret by the master ; for it relieves him con- 
 tinually of the heaviest portion of his responsibilities. It is 
 to this mass that I am desirous to direct the attention of the 
 clergymen on the school committee by those columns of my 
 register, in which I propose that ''the date of the child's 
 admission into each successive class of the school should he 
 recorded ;'' convinced that the instruction of the children who 
 compose it is more important than any other function of the 
 school, and that if it be duly attended to no other useful 
 object of the school will be neglected.* 1847, I. 155, 156. 
 
 There is another circumstance which may also have con- 
 tributed very materially towards the improvement of discipline. 
 The registers are now more complete, and much better kept. 
 In many schools inspected this year I have been furnished 
 
 * I speak in this matter from experience. As Inspector of the Koyal Naval 
 Schools at Greenwich 1 received twice a-year from those schools returns including 
 the particulars referred to in the text. Very important results have followed from 
 the attention which the masters have thus been induced to give to them. A class 
 of boys who were formerly suffered to remain unheeded in the lowest classes are now 
 absorbed into general circulation, and find their way to the highest ; and if asked 
 to assign a cause which more than any other has contributed to the high standard 
 of instruction attained in those schools, I shoidd fix upon this. 
 
84 DISCIPLINE 
 
 with a list of the children in each class, stating the name, 
 age, date of admission, class at entrance, and the total num- 
 ber of absences since the last examination, or during the last 
 year. On another column special remarks upon the conduct 
 of each child are made by the teacher, and revised by the 
 clergyman. The effects of this systematic registration must 
 be felt by the parents and children in many ways. It shows 
 them at least what importance is attached to the children's 
 progress by the managers of the schools, and it enables the 
 teacher to single out on every occasion the parents of the 
 most irregular children, in order to expostulate with them. 
 They are generally surprised to find to what extent their own 
 irregularities have proceeded ; and, if not dead to the sense 
 of shame, are inclined, so far as depends upon themselves, to 
 correct the fault. 1846, I. 147. 
 
 I have observed how the various good quahties in a school 
 (like Christian graces in an individual character) usually, 
 though not invariably, hang like links in the same chain 
 together ; insomuch that one is not unfrequently the exponent 
 of the whole. Thus modesty, personal neatness, quietness 
 of demeanour, obedience, regularity, diligence, and satisfac- 
 tory attainment are generally found in company. Discipline, 
 it is true, is sometimes seen in the more obsolete kind of 
 schools without attainment ; but rarely anywhere attainment 
 without discipline. — And here shall I be pardoned, if I men- 
 tion what may seem a very trivial thing ; but one which seems 
 to me so inconsistent with that cleanliness of habit which it 
 is the most desirable to maintain in schools (and most especially 
 in those for girls), that I am surprised it should have hitherto 
 escaped more peremptory notice. I allude to the offensive 
 method almost universally prevalent with school children, of 
 cleaning (as it is called by courtesy) their slates. An easy 
 substitute is practicable. A halfpenny worth of sponge attached 
 to each slate by a string, and a bowl of water placed fresh 
 every morning in each corner of the school, might without 
 difficulty be adopted. 1850, II. 73. 
 
 The discipline is admirable, it is maintained apparently 
 with great ease, and affords the evidence of a subordination, 
 influenced by moral causes, and cheerfully yielded. So far as 
 this is apparent in the order and regularity of the school, it 
 is greatly promoted by the school songs which accompany all 
 
ROUTINE 85 
 
 the changes of the classes, and which the children sing as 
 they assemble and when they leave. The singing is the more 
 remarkable, as its character is maintained apparently with 
 very little effort, and the sacrifice of very little time. Accus- 
 tomed to oral instruction on the gallery, the children exhibit 
 great power of attention, much quickness of apprehension, 
 and greater resources of language than I am accustomed to 
 find in schools of this class. They appear to be interested in 
 what the57- are taught, to appreciate the value of learning, and 
 to take a pleasure in it. That listlessness of manner and 
 dreaminess so intimately associated in the mind of an inspector 
 with the aspect of an elementary school, had certainly no 
 place here on the days of my inspection. The children, not 
 less thafi their teachers, seemed to be in earnest in the business 
 of the school, and the fervour and vivacity apparent on the 
 one part, is at least commensurate with the zeal and ability 
 exhibited on the other. 1846, I. 376. 
 
 In many schools great defects exist in the cleanliness and 
 tidiness of the children, for which the poverty of their parents 
 is generally urged as an excuse ; such an excuse, however, 
 can scarcely be received, when the means of removing these 
 defects are within the reach of all. In some instances, indeed, 
 it may not be within the power of the poor to provide their 
 children with unpatched clothes, or shoes and stockings ; but 
 clean hands and mendings are withm the reach of all ; and 
 dirt or slovenliness should under no circumstances be allowed. 
 1845, II. 240. 
 
 is a village school ; the better learning of the children, 
 
 obvious in the intelligence of their looks, has not taken away 
 their rusticity ; a school crowded with sturdy, healthy, shy- 
 looking, cottagers* children, clad somewhat better, perhaps, 
 than the children of other schools, but in garments of the 
 same rude fashion and coarse texture. In regard to cleanliness 
 a marked difference is, however, on closer observation, ap- 
 parent. It is particularly to be seen in the hair of the girls ; 
 down to the least child in the school, the head of each is as 
 cleanly, and the hair as glossy, as though a nursery- maid had 
 bestowed daily care upon it. All this cleanliness is the 
 result of the attention which the governess has been directed 
 to give to the subject, and of a public opinion favourable to 
 it, which has, by judicious management, been created among 
 
86 
 
 DISCIPLINE 
 
 the children themselves. Every girl is provided with a hair- 
 brush and comb, purchased by herself, and wears her hair 
 separated in front, and long enough to be placed behind the 
 ears. * * Personal cleanhness is not, however, encouraged 
 among these children in the matter of their hair only, but in 
 other things not less likely to make it habitual. 
 
 Twice, for instance, in every week every child is asked 
 whether it has washed its feet, and there is reason to believe 
 that ablutions of this kind are general in the school. 
 
 Every child has, moreover, a tooth-brush, and washes its 
 teeth daily, a practice which Mr. Dawes was led to introduce 
 in the school, thinking it would more firmly fix habits of 
 cleanliness in regard to other things, and because he was 
 informed on the authority of an eminent dentist that it was a 
 precaution tending greatly to the preservation of the teeth, 
 and, therefore, of the general health. 
 
 It is a characteristic distinction of this from other village 
 schools, that it includes with the children of labourers those 
 of shopkeepers and farmers. It was made up of these classes 
 in the following proportions at my two visits : — 
 
 station. 
 
 Payments. 
 
 May, 1847. 
 
 May. 184fi. 
 
 f 
 
 Farmers and tradesmen -^ 
 
 Labourers* .... 
 
 Sent by Trustees of a small 
 fund for education . . 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 10 per quarter. 
 
 10 
 
 6 ,, 
 
 3 
 
 3 per week. 
 
 2 & Id. per week. 
 Gratis . . . 
 
 1 
 28 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 112 
 
 30 
 
 36 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 136 
 
 7 
 9 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 • ' 
 
 163 
 
 222 
 
 1848, I. 9, 10. 
 
 * There is a penny clothing club in the school, which is now in its fourth year. It 
 consists at present of 129 chudren, who pay Id. per week for 43 weeks in the year, 
 and the rector adds 1«. to the whole sum thus paid in by each. A week or two 
 before Christmas orders are given by the schoolmaster for useful articles of 
 clothing to the amount of their deposits on three shops, two in the village, and one 
 in a neighbouring town, to give them the choice of a market. 
 
PLAY-GROUNDS 87 
 
 The village school teachers have generally little appreciation 
 of a play-ground as a place of moral discipline, but, if possible, 
 appropriate the small area attached to the school-house for a 
 garden, well aware that on the contiguous roads or commons, 
 the children will find ample and more acceptable space for the 
 exercise for which alone they would regard it as of any value 
 to them. 1847, II. 13, 14. 
 
 To very many schools there is no play- ground attached ; 
 and in many instances where there is one, it is altogether 
 disused. A judicious, cheerful-minded master may learn very 
 much of the character of his scholars in the play- ground ; 
 and may moreover impart to them moral lessons there, which 
 he wiU rarely have the opportunity of doing in the school- 
 room. 1845, II. 219. 
 
 The general want of play-grounds, and their disuse when 
 existing, is a grievous defect in the management of an elemen- 
 tary school, especially in towns. Of the advantages resulting 
 from a proper use of the play- ground, I have spoken in my 
 
 Report of the School : and would only here express a 
 
 hope that the subject may be carefully considered by those 
 managers of schools, especially in towns, who consider the 
 health of the children, moral discipline, and periodical recrea- 
 tion, as important features in a sound education. On the 
 last matter, it should be borne in mind that the intellects, 
 particularly of the young, will not bear a long continuous 
 strain without injury. To what precise extent relaxation should 
 be carried in parochial schools I am scarcely prepared to say. 
 At the same time I would observe that, in my opinion, an 
 interval of ten minutes every hour and a half, would hardly 
 be time lost, if at such periods the recreation of the children 
 was properly directed. 1845, II. 240. 
 
 Proper recreation for the children is unattended to : in 
 many instances there is no break in the lessons from the time 
 the children enter school until they quit it. 1846, 11. 189. 
 
 The greatest of these [evils which are common to the whole 
 manufacturing districts] because the most general hindrance 
 to the intellectual progress of schools — and, it must be feared, 
 also, in some instances, to their moral growth — is the existence 
 in them of a class of children, called from the hours of their 
 employment ''short timers.'' They are those employed in the 
 miUs under the age of 13, who, by the late Factory Regulation 
 
88 DISCIPLINE 
 
 Bill, are onl}^ allowed to work short time, the other parts of 
 the working hours of the day they are to spend at school. 
 They come accordingly to school, alternately morning and 
 afternoon, for three, or, in a few cases, by an equally wise 
 and kind arrangement of the masters of mills, for four hours 
 of a day. The appearance of these poor children, for they are 
 both girls and boys, is painfully interesting. 'Where others are 
 clean in person, and neat in dress, and happy in expression, — 
 these are dirty and labour- soiled, in ragged and scanty clothes, 
 with heavy eyes and worn faces. In the clothing districts, 
 their faces, necks and hands, are deeply stained with the blue 
 of the dye used for the cloth. From the spinning mills they 
 come covered with the ** flock,'* or as it is termed, '*the fluff" 
 of the yam — their hair thickly powdered with it — tangled, 
 especially that of the girls, as if no comb could ever penetrate 
 it ; the black velveteen dress of the lads, and the thick brown 
 dresses of the girls, bearing on them plentiful memorials of 
 the scene which they have just left — the mill, with its ^'flufi*- 
 laden" atmosphere, and its continual whirl of machinery. 
 They seem to take their places in the school as if they did 
 not belong to it, and had no business there. I thought that, 
 in some cases which came under my observation, the masters 
 did not strive much to make these poor children feel them- 
 selves at home. In one instance they were all huddled 
 
 together in a large class close to the door, in the coldest and 
 most comfortless part of the room. I fancied, perhaps wrongly, 
 that there was little notice taken of them in the business of 
 the school. They were too closely packed to be at ease ; and 
 they either looked idly about them, or talked together, with 
 their books at their mouths. I was struck with their appear- 
 ance, and inquired the reason of their separation from the rest 
 of the school. The plea was that of necessity. The master 
 professed himself unable to include them in the various classes, 
 without materially injuring the progress of the other children. 
 There was some show of reason in this answer. Yet one 
 thing seems plain — both charity and justice seem to demand 
 it, that, whatever be the consequence, such an arrangement 
 should not be allowed in our Church- schools. It surely can 
 neither be expedient nor right, that these poor, hard-working 
 children, should thus have a wall of separation built up between 
 them and their more fortunate school-fellows — if it be not a 
 
SHORT-TIMERS 89 
 
 mockery to use this word — that they should have a mark set 
 upon them as if they had done something deserving of punish- 
 ment ? I fear that they have enough of suffering and sorrow, 
 both at home and in their work, without adding any feelings 
 of shame or bitterness in those which are, probably, the 
 quietest hours of their lives, the hours spent at school, w^hich 
 are intended to raise them above the weariness and the priva- 
 tions of their daily existence. I have often sat amongst them, 
 and questioned them as to their little stores of knowledge ; 
 and thougli frequently very ignorant, I have always found 
 them respond to a kind word or friendly look, whilst they 
 seem to be humble and docile, and in many cases exceedingly 
 
 attentive to any effort made to instruct them. At the 
 
 school, where the majority of children were of this class, I 
 had much cause to be pleased, both with their intelligence 
 and general conduct. The master there seemed to be interested 
 in them, and pointed out to me one or two boys of great 
 quickness and considerable acquirements. I remember, that 
 he lamented the singularly wayward temper of one of them. 
 If he did not answer the first question proposed, he would be 
 silent during the remainder of a lesson. Now this is just the 
 character of the uneducated animal man ; easily elated, easily 
 cast down — noisy, or sulky. It is plain that comparatively 
 little can be done for them by the most willing and able 
 master, in the few hours of their short school -life. Yet some- 
 thing more may be attempted ; and something more may 
 surely be done by better arrangements, and by a more earnest 
 superintendence of this portion of a school ; whilst it must not 
 be forgotten, that, in their present state, they are a serious 
 hinderance to the general progress of a mixed school. I mean 
 a school where they are mixed with other children. 
 
 I would venture to suggest an arrangement, by which the 
 evil may be remedied, and at comparatively small inconvenience. 
 I take for granted, that there are some branches of instruction in 
 our schools more important than others. In schools of different 
 rank these wiU vary ; but there will always be a relative pro- 
 portion in them. Let us call these "primary and secondar}^ 
 branches." In good schools, Xhe primary branches will con- 
 sist of religious instruction, reading, writing, and arithmetic ; 
 the secondary of geography, grammar, history, drawing, 
 music, &c. In moderate schools, the primary will remain the 
 
90 DISCIPLINE 
 
 same ; the secondary will consist of one or two subjects only. 
 In inferior schools, the primary might be religious instruction, 
 reading, and writing ; the secondary arithmetic only. With 
 regard then to these mixed schools, I would recognise this 
 principle and act upon it — that all the children should learn the 
 primary branches, and the ** full- timers" only the secondary ; 
 and that they should be learning the secondary branches 
 when the "short timers'* were absent. Now this would be 
 easily done if the short timers came only at one time of the 
 day, the morning or the afternoon. But the arrangement, 
 which cannot be altered, is, that half come in the morning 
 and half in the afternoon. I must, therefore, endeavour to 
 accomodate the school to their circumstances. And T must, 
 all through the school, divide the classes into two parts, that 
 a part may work with either set of short timers. Call the 
 morning short timers A, the afternoon B ; call the first division 
 of classes Ay the second B ; then (in each class) A and^ will 
 work together, so also B and B. When A is present, then 
 A and A will learn together **the primary subjects ;'* when 
 A is absent, A will learn the ''secondary." So again, when 
 B is present, B and B will learn together the ** primary sub- 
 jects ;" when B is absent, B will learn the "secondary." It 
 will plainly be convenient, in order to avoid too many classes, 
 from the divisions of which I have spoken, to arrange the whole 
 school in a few classes — four or five at the most. And also, 
 in order to save time, which is doubly precious to the short 
 timers, I would not change the subject of lesson so frequently 
 as is the case in our National Schools. 
 
 I subjoin a time-table for two days, which shows generally 
 the order of proceeding and the measure of time to each 
 occupation. It will be seen at a glance, that all the school 
 learn the "primary branches" the same number of hours in 
 the week ; and half of the school learns the "secondary" for 
 equal time. 
 
 Here the time, with one exception, is divided into shares of 
 three-fourths of an hour. For reasons given, this would be 
 the arrangement for a good school, but might easily be altered 
 to suit the circumstances of an inferior one. All the short 
 timers have religious instruction, and are present at prayers 
 once in the day. 
 
 There are also what may be called minor evils to which the 
 
SHORT-TIMERS 
 
 MOENING- 
 
 91 
 
 
 H 
 
 9f 
 
 lOJ 
 
 IH 
 
 12 
 
 
 PIB8T DAY. 
 
 KA 
 
 B 
 
 SECOND DAY. 
 BB 
 
 A 
 
 fl 
 fl 
 
 1 
 
 Catechism. 
 Drawing. 
 
 Catechism. 
 Drawing. 
 
 Beading. 
 Geography. 
 
 Reading. 
 Geography. 
 
 Arithmetic, 
 Grammar. 
 
 Arithmetic. 
 Gramimar. 
 
 Writing. 
 History. 
 
 Writing. ^ 
 History. 
 
 
 AFTERNOON. 
 
 
 
 Hi 
 
 3i 
 
 4 
 
 4| 
 
 5 
 
 
 FIRST DAY. 
 A 
 
 BB 
 
 SECOND DAY. 
 B 
 
 AA 
 
 Drawing. 
 Catechism. 
 
 Drawing. 
 Catechism. 
 
 Geography. 
 Beading. 
 
 Geography. 
 Eeading. 
 
 Grammar. 
 Arithmetic. 
 
 Grammar. 
 Arithmetic. 
 
 History. 
 Writing. 
 
 History. 
 Writing. 
 
 CO 
 
 i 
 
 
 schools in the manufacturing districts are exposed ; little, it 
 may be, in appearance, but, from theit frequency, very des- 
 tructive both of discipline and progress. One of these I 
 
 noticed at . At about half- past three in the afternoon, 
 
 I observed several boys going up to the master, and then 
 leaving the school. I inquired the reason ; it was that they 
 might go with the ''baggings," that is, the tea, or the coffee, 
 or afternoon meal, to their relatives in the different mills. 
 For this purpose they were to lose an hour's schooling, that 
 is, one- sixth of the already short time in which they are to be 
 instructed in useful knowledge, and learn their duties to God 
 and man. 1845, II. 280—283. 
 
 The upper class makes a good abstract of a previous lesson. 
 The short time girls are bad at first ; but, after they have 
 been a little time in the school, more anxious to improve than 
 others. 1847, I. 355. 
 
 In some instances the spectacle presented was of a less 
 unsatisfactory description. For example, I find from my 
 diaries, in a report upon an excellent school consisting chiefly 
 of factory children, the following remarks : — "With special 
 
92 DISCIPLINE 
 
 attention to the point, I could discover but little difference 
 between the whole- day and half- day scholars of the upper 
 classes. All are fused together, and the whole- day scholars 
 sacrificed to the greater number. The master says that the 
 half- day scholars are very anxious not to be left behind. In 
 the lower classes there was many a sad instance of backward-, 
 ness and ignorance; e, g., boys of 11 and 12 years old 
 scarcely able to read monosyllables." 1848, II. 15. 
 
 A little girl in the school, of stunted growth, puny and 
 precocious, having attracted my attention by the industry 
 with which she was learning her lesson, I asked her age ; she 
 told me that 'she was going of six/ that she stayed at home 
 every other week to turn the engine for her mother, her sister 
 then coming to school, and that she began to turn after break- 
 fast in the morning, and went on until she went to bed at 
 night. The girls commonly leave school to go to work when 
 between eight and nine years of age. There was not one child 
 in the girls' school so old as W years. 1847, I. 171. 
 
 Many of the millowners have already given an earnest of 
 the spirit which will one day, I trust, inspire all of them ; 
 when they will duly recognize that their ''hands*' have hearts 
 to feel, minds to think, and souls to be saved. The work of 
 education here is very mainly dependent upon this good and 
 conscientious feeling, which I believe is growing up among 
 the master manufacturers. But in truth their interest also 
 will, I am sure, in this matter be found in the long run to be 
 on the side of their duty. They will find it cheaper to 
 contribute largely to education than to have unintelligent, 
 immoral, or ill-disposed workmen. If the people of that day 
 had been well-educated, Arkwright and Hargreaves would 
 never have had to fly from Lancashire for their lives — the one 
 for contriving the water-frame, the other for inventing the 
 spinning-jenny. * * But next there are the impedi- 
 ments arising from the social state and habits of the parents. 
 They work hard, but they also drink hard. They earn good 
 wages, but they also spend them, and acquire no property. 
 1850, II. 188, 189. 
 
 A movement is going on in which seems to promise 
 
 well. The members of 127 firms have announced their deter- 
 mination to give a preference in employment to such hands as 
 can read and write. This will overcome, to a great extent, 
 
EARLY LABOUR 93 
 
 the indifference to education so prevalent among the parents, 
 and which has been the greatest hinderance to education 
 among the working classes ; and perhaps it is going as far in 
 encouraging education as is possible without making it com- 
 pulsory. 185Q, I. 322. 
 
 The opportunities of giving instruction to the children of 
 the poor, either in urban of agricultural schools, are more 
 limited than seems to be generally understood, even by those 
 
 who have bestowed great attention upon the subject I have 
 
 no hesitation in asserting that in most places the children of 
 either sex leave school at so early an age, that it would not 
 be reasonable to expect that the lessons learned there have 
 made any deep impression, much less that such habits have 
 been formed as may act as effectual restraints and safeguards 
 to them in after-life. 1846, I. 153. 
 
 The children of these [agricultural] counties ordinarily must 
 work in the fields at an early age, or their parents cannot sup- 
 port them. I believe that 11 years will be found the outside 
 average period that the population generally can attend the 
 schools, though the girls may be retained perhaps a little later ; 
 and that even during this period there will be many interrup- 
 tions to the course of education at different seasons of the 
 year, when the farmers employ the younger population in 
 dropping seed, minding birds, pulling turnips, picking hops, 
 and other such employments. The question then that the 
 managers of schools in these counties have to consider, is, how 
 can we under these circumstances instil into a child of 11 
 years the greatest amount of knowledge, which shall have a 
 beneficial influence both on his moral and religious character, 
 and on his secular pursuits — which shall educate him, for 
 this world and the next, as a Christian and as a citizen } 1 
 hardly think it is yet answered. I have seen no school which 
 in every respect satisfies me that the utmost has been effected, 
 which under the circumstances could be accomplished, though 
 there are many in which laudable attempts have been made 
 and considerable progress obtained to a right conclusion. — 
 The managers of schools appear to me to have scarcely suffi- 
 ciently studied what is appropriate to their own peculiar 
 locality. They either satisfy themselves with adopting some 
 certain system generally adopted in the neighbourhood, or 
 they strive to render their schools equal to others, which have 
 
94 DISCIPLINE 
 
 attained an eminence to which from circumstances their own 
 never could arrive. Thus their efforts are often wrongly- 
 directed, much valuable labour and energy is fruitlessly ex- 
 hausted, and disappointment necessarily results. * * 
 
 The employers of labour complain, either with reason or 
 without, that the children attending National schools are 
 unfitted for the work required of their condition ; and, there- 
 fore, occupiers of land generally are not merely indiiFerent, 
 but frequently entirely opposed to all education of the operative 
 classes. The only method of overcoming this feeling, it 
 seems to me, is to make the schools really practically efficient, 
 by teaching in them such subjects only as may conduce to 
 form the mind of a labourer, and fit him for his future career. * 
 * I am, therefore, led to think, that if it were possible to 
 attach to every school land for the scholars to be trained in 
 agricultural pursuits, it would be a very great improvement. 
 The employers of labour would then see, that a positive 
 advantage was attained, and the parents might also be induced 
 to make some further sacrifice to procure an evident worldly 
 benefit, which, however it may be regretted, is to most of 
 them the only, or at least chief object why they send thei^ 
 children to school. 1850, I. 324—326. 
 
 I find that in the dropping season, as it is termed, the boys 
 between 7 and 9 years earn from Zd. to 5c?. a- day ; and in 
 parishes where straw-plaiting has been introduced, children of 
 both sexes are kept constantly at work from infancy ; and at 
 the age of 8 or 9 years, the most expert can earn about 35. 
 a- week. These are difficulties which it is impossible altogether 
 to overcome. We cannot expect the parents to relinquish 
 what is in some places their principal, and in all an important, 
 source of income. This, however, should only induce us to 
 try every means of giving the best instruction possible. In 
 some parishes evening- schools may succeed ; in others it may 
 be advisable to admit yoimg persons into the schools when- 
 ever they are set at liberty by a cessation of their ordinary 
 work. And finally, it seems highly desirable to establish 
 within an easy distance of small parishes good district schools, 
 conducted by masters of reputation and talent, where, as is 
 the case in Scotland, well disposed youths may continue, and 
 complete the studies begun in childhood. 1847, 1. 280, 281. 
 
 The long cessation of school business during the autumn. 
 
EARLY LABOUR 95 
 
 much as it is to be regretted for the children's sake, might be 
 turned to good account by the teachers. Some of them would 
 do well to spend the time in Norwich ; others might apply 
 themselves diligently to some neglected branch of study ; and 
 I know not whether it would be practicable, but it has occurred 
 to me it would be very desirable, that the master should 
 occasionally seek his children in the fields, make himself 
 acquainted with the nature of their occupations, and, without 
 withdrawing them from work, take some opportunity of 
 alluding to subjects learned in school. If this were done 
 judiciously — for it would obviously require great discretion — 
 it seems not improbable that a master might persuade his 
 elder pupils, and some of their companions, to attend an 
 evening school. The experiment of such a school is now 
 made in a village of Norfolk ; and in the summer I shall have 
 an opportunity of learning the result. 1845, II. 165. 
 
 The girls' school [has on the books] about 80 They are 
 
 in a building which is tolerably convenient, having been 
 erected as a little silk-factory, but it is situated in a back 
 
 court. This is rented by the patronesses of the schools, 
 
 who have maintained them liberally for a number of years, in 
 spite of all the discouragements arising from the existing 
 ignorance and lethargy of the surrounding population, which 
 is more than usually estranged from any conception of the 
 proper use of schools, by hereditary addiction to pillow-lace 
 making and analogous petty manufactures by hand, in which 
 the little ones are frequently employed so soon as they can 
 sit on end, and to which they devote an almost exclusive 
 attention, however wretched the remuneration of their cease- 
 less twirl of the bobbins, to the great neglect of domestic 
 duties and school instruction. Thus is created a race of 
 mothers who in their turn make their children pursue the 
 same hopeless and thriftless course to such an extent, that 
 heretofore it has been thought necessary not only to admit 
 the work of lace-making (or, as it now is, ^mp-making) into 
 the girls* school, but to permit it to engross the whole of the 
 school-time, with the exception of only one hour per day for the 
 entire course of the school instruction in reading, writing, 
 and ciphering, and Scripture ; the average time for each of 
 which subjects is, therefore, about a quarter of an hour per 
 day. Not only is this the case with the upper section of the 
 
96 DISCIPLINE 
 
 school, only five of whom are earning 1^. per week, but the 
 middle section of it, the children composing which are not 
 engaged in the trade, but in learning to sew, are employed 
 for as long hours with the needle, to the exclusion of all other 
 lessons, the parents having no idea of a school but for work, 
 though nothing is directly to be got by it, and therefore 
 insisting upon this employment of the children's time. Still, 
 with a skilled mistress, the ^'little ones," it must be supposed, 
 must receive a large share of good and happy instruction ; but 
 as the mistress is required to be always present with the elder 
 children, and has no means of curtaining- off the younger, she 
 has been obliged almost entirely to relinquish their proper 
 instruction, because she has the unfortunate habit of making 
 it too interesting, and thereby exciting the attention of the 
 rest of the school, to the neglect of the work. No wonder 
 that a young woman, able and desirous to do something, is 
 rather out of spirits with her office. Still she does the best 
 that she can during the five- sixths of the school- time which 
 is given to work (without too much attracting the attention of 
 her charge from their manual occupations), by a little oral 
 instruction addressed simultaneously, or by reading aloud, 
 occasionally teaching the little ones quietly, and now and then 
 singing; ''but they cannot attend to two things at once." 
 1848, II. 264, 265. 
 
 Since, however, it cannot reasonably be expected that poor 
 parents should relinquish the earnings of their children, even 
 did they possess sufficient authority over them to compel their 
 attendance at school, and since no school can succeed in com- 
 petition with claims so urgent, and in opposition to habits so 
 deeply rooted, it becomes a question of grave importance 
 whether it be possible to give valuable instruction to the 
 children without insisting upon regulations which virtually 
 preclude the estabhshment, or speedily suspend the operation 
 of National schools for girls. And excepting in those parishes 
 where the resident proprietors are able to constrain tiie attend- 
 ance of children, or to attract them by pecuniary rewards, 
 which of course must be rare and exceptional cases, the only 
 way by which this can be effected would seem to be the com- 
 bination of industrial and remunerating employment with a 
 system of sound religious teaching, addressed to the heart and 
 conscience, together with interesting and useful information. 
 
EARLY LABOUR 97 
 
 If the children learn to work equally well, and with equal 
 profit, the parents will surely prefer that they should be 
 instructed in warm, well- ventilated, and commodious rooms, 
 under the superintendence of persons responsible for their 
 conduct, who would inculcate the duty of filial obedience, 
 than that they should continue to acquire their art in the 
 crowded, unwholesome chambers where they are exposed to 
 influences which, to say the least, are not calculated to raise 
 their moral character. It is objected that the occupation is 
 not that which the supporters of schools are generally desirous 
 of encouraging, and that it is incompatible with the system 
 to which the teachers are accustomed, who have been trained 
 in National schools. But the real question is not what is 
 desirable, abstractly speaking, but what is practicable under 
 existing circumstances. Half the school- hours are devoted 
 to some industrial occupation in all the gkls' schools which I 
 have visited, and it does not appear that straw-plaiting or 
 lace-making requires closer attention, or a larger ])roportion 
 of time. Nor would there be any great or insurmountable 
 difficulty in introducing some lesson, such as the repetition of 
 hymns, plain discourses upon moral duties, or interesting and 
 instructive narratives, read or delivered by the teacher, while 
 the hands of the girls are employed in a work so mechanical 
 as hardly to require any mental application. I hope that, 
 after a fair trial of the methods usually pursued, if they he 
 found ineiFectual to draw girls to school, or to retain them 
 there, these suggestions will be taken into consideration ; for 
 it would be painful to be compelled to admit that in so popu- 
 lous a county as Bedfordshire all attempts must be abandoned 
 to educate the sisters and daughters, who will be the mothers 
 and first teachers of the poor. 1845, II. 172, 173. 
 
 This general contempt for the day-school is most disastrous 
 in its effects upon the home of the labourer as well as upon 
 his character. The little arts of domestic industry which 
 should be acquired by the girls are very ill acquired. Of 
 domestic economy they have little conception. A spirit of 
 rude '* independence," as it is called, restrains them, as they 
 grow up, from acquiring that better domestic training which 
 service in. well regulated households of the middle and upper 
 classes would give them ; insomuch that the districts most 
 notorious for their poverty and periodical distress, are precisely 
 
98 DISCIPLINE 
 
 those in which it is most difficult to obtain household servants. 
 They are, indeed, districts of a sort of industrial gipsydom, in 
 which the young women, boys, and girls can find employment 
 in some simple manufacturing occupation, without submitting 
 to the discipline of an employer's family, while the ** little 
 ones'' are employed in nursing the ''babies," and vainly 
 endeavouring to discharge household offices which belong 
 customarily to the elder females, and are never therefore 
 properly performed ; the children being thus deprived of both 
 domestic and school training. 1847, II. 31, 32. 
 
 There are places where parents are utterly indifferent 
 whether their children be instructed at all or not ; such places, 
 for instance, as some villages near Huddersfield, where "the 
 parents profess themselves to be unable to pay the child's 
 school fee of twopence or threepence per week, but will, at 
 the very same time, spend 5/. or even 10/. in matches of 
 pigeon shooting." * * But the places of indifFerentism or 
 gross neglect are few in the mass of my district. The very 
 general feeling amongst the parents of poor children is, that 
 they should be better instructed than themselves. 1850, 1. 153. 
 
 [Statistics] tend greatly to strengthen the impression which 
 I have derived from other sources, that, around the moderate 
 amount of really efficient instruction and really Christian 
 training which prevails even in our best educated districts, 
 there exists a wide margin of spurious schooling, without any 
 good effect either upon the intellect or the heart ; and that in 
 the remotest of the agricultural, as of the mining and manu- 
 facturing districts, it is this doubtful twilight that generally 
 prevails, with no compensating superiority of vigorous educa- 
 tion among the middle and upper classes. 1848, II. 239. 
 
 The great point accordingly to be aimed at, as things now 
 are, in the primary school is this : — How to give the greatest 
 possible amount of mental instruction and moral discipline in 
 the brief period through which the education of the scholar 
 lasts ; and how to render this amount of the greatest practical 
 service for the entire remainder of human life. Viewed in 
 this light it will be seen at once that it is not the school which 
 can bring forward a few showy and perhaps really successful 
 pupils, that is doing the greatest service to the community ; 
 that it is not the school where a master with certain literary 
 tastes is conducting his elder class into branches beyond their 
 
THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE 99 
 
 probable sphere in after-life, which is accomplishing the most 
 real and beneficent purpose. Such schools, it is true, will 
 oft-times make a striking impression upon a stranger, especially 
 when arranged for a simultaneous examination. The know- 
 ledge drawn out will seem quite surprising, and the ready- 
 answers of the few will shed a false light upon the many ; 
 while the masses of minds which fill up the lower and central 
 forms, and never rise at all to the higher, if observed in their 
 after-progress, might give a very different turn to our whole 
 judgment. 
 
 If for the sake of example, we suppose the case of a school, 
 placed in the centre of a district from which 150 or 200 child- 
 ren require to receive daily instruction ; — then the true object, 
 which such a school should aim at is — to exert the greatest 
 influence for good upon the largest number possible. If a few 
 scholars are stimulated and the rest comparatively neglected, 
 ths whole amount of benefit done to the neighbourhood is 
 very inconsiderable. On the contrary, though no striking 
 results should appear at an examination, yet if a master be 
 placed in such a locality who is really devoted to his work, 
 who feels teaching and training to be his proper destiny, who 
 succeeds in gaining the affections of his pupils, who softens 
 them by kindness, moulds them by a friendly sympathy with 
 their wants, instils the knowledge of things rather than words, 
 and awakens wholesome sentiments in the minds of the entire 
 mass, such a school is assuredly accomplishing a great work 
 in connexion with the mental and moral improvement of the 
 community. I feel it important therefore to state that this 
 consideration has always been one element in the judgment I 
 have been called to exercise upon the efficiency of different 
 institutions ; and I would here record my belief, that many 
 schools by no means taking the highest intellectual standing, 
 if tried by such a test will be found amongst the best in their 
 aggregate effect on the population around them. 
 
 To keep such an end as this strictly in view, demands I am 
 aware, considerable self-denial and self-restraint on the part 
 of the teacher. There is almost always a tendency to aim at 
 something that will tell upon an outward observer, and many 
 parents unfortunately encourage and almost necessitate a course 
 of this kind by their looking rather at what their children 
 can do, than considering what they are becoming in their moral 
 
100 DISCIPLINE 
 
 principles and mental habits. It is impossible therefore to 
 impress upon parents too strongly the more solid purposes of 
 education in reference to the future life of their children — or 
 to imbue the schoolmaster too deeply with the sentiment that 
 he is not merely preparing boys to pass an examination on 
 certain subjects, but training a pliant mass of human thought, 
 feehng, emotion, impulse, and moral purpose for the great and 
 uncertain future. This is the best antidote to the disappoint- 
 ment he experiences, when his best scholars leave him just as 
 they are doing him credit ; and when he has, like Penelope, 
 to renew a task which seems ever completing and yet never 
 completed. 
 
 Real and Technical Knoioledge. — Another consideration I 
 have found it requisite to keep constantly in view as a ne- 
 cessary element in school inspection, is to distinguish in each 
 case between the amount of real, and the amount of technical 
 knowledge imparted. The tendency to allow school- instruc- 
 tion to run into the mere inculcation of words, phrases, and 
 technicalities, though by no means so general now as formerly, 
 yet prevails to a very considerable extent throughout the 
 country. The temptations to such a course are so great, and 
 the immediate advantages to the teacher so obvious, that it 
 requires a constant watchfulness to repress it — and a constant 
 restraint upon the apparent progress of the children to let 
 their actual perceptions of things keep pace with their memory 
 for words. 
 
 Words we know are but the symbols of ideas, and it is 
 impossible that such symbols should signify or convey more 
 to the mind of the child, than he has been enabled by proper 
 training to think under them. Hence all explanations, all 
 proofs, all analyses, of whatever kind, as they are carried on 
 by means of words, presuppose in the mind of the hearer a 
 certain amount of mental experience already gained — a certain 
 capacity already developed of grasping the meaning of terms, 
 and of seeing by the eye of the mind the thing which is sig- 
 nified by them. This fact is I fear too often lost sight of by 
 the teacher. It is forgotten that a technical knowledge of a 
 subject does not necessarily involve any real knowledge of it 
 at all ; and that the power of acquiring words, which is so 
 remarkable in the child, may easily cast a veil over the real 
 ignorance which lies hidden behind them. To deal with the 
 
REAL AND TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE 101 
 
 memory of the child is infinitely easier than to deal with its 
 perceptive faculties and its intellect. The amount of verbal 
 information which may be stored there in a short time is quite 
 extraordinary : but it is not possible that it should be as 
 quickly digested, arranged, and rendered vital. The words 
 which a child so readily employs in answer to set questions 
 may seem to indicate the most precise and complete acquain- 
 tance with a subject ; but I have been convinced by many 
 observations, that frequently no ideas whatever are attached by 
 him to the terms he employs, and that if he do attach any, 
 those ideas are to a great extent incorrect, and to a still greater 
 extent inadequate. The consequence of this will always be 
 that Yit\\e permanent good is effected. Knowledge digested, 
 reduced to experience, made a part of our whole system of 
 thinking, is never lost ; verbal knowledge on the contrary 
 passes away almost as rapidly as it is acquired. Hence the 
 superior importance of learning a little really and fully over 
 the acquisition of whole sciences if they are but technically 
 inculcated. 1850, II. 464—467. 
 
 It cannot be too strongly urged on the attention of those 
 who are interested in this most important subject, that a 
 great number of children, probably one -fourth of those who 
 ought to be under education, are not attending at all in ele- 
 mentary schools ; that at least one half of those included in 
 them are there for a short period and at irregular intervals ; 
 such that their actual school-time is not one- third of their 
 apparent school-time ; and that the average stay of those 
 attending regularly at our National Schools does not exceed, 
 if indeed it reaches, the term of two years. * * i must 
 express my conviction that, unless some means be devised for 
 securing a longer and more regular attendance of children in 
 elementary schools, all other improvements, whether in the 
 number and fitness of the teachers, in the quality of books, 
 in the quantity of other apparatus, in the size and convenience 
 of rooms, &c., will produce very little effect. A great ma- 
 jority of children will go from them without any solid 
 instruction, with not one good habit formed, nor one tendency 
 to evil suppressed ; with some power of acquiring evil know- 
 ledge, to which they will be always most prone ; but with no 
 taste for higher literature, the difficulties of which will not, 
 by the little learning of the school, be at all removed from 
 
1 02 DISCIPLINE 
 
 them. 1847, I. 452—454. 
 
 The degree of application proper to be given to each branch 
 ought plainly to depend on the length of the period during 
 which the child is likely to attend school, as well as on the 
 comparative importance of the branch : yet very often these 
 circumstances are not considered, so that the boy who is to 
 leave school at eight or nine years of age is no otherwise 
 instructed than the one who will remain six years longer ; 
 and perhaps his attention is much turned to some things 
 more properly forming parts of a lengthened and varied course 
 of education. Thus in one elementary school, there is a 
 minute acquaintance with the geography of the Holy Land, 
 while yet there is much ignorance of the first truths of 
 religion. * * On the other hand, there are some schools 
 in which it cannot be said that one subject is studied to the 
 prejudice of another, for all are brought forward in nearly 
 equal degree, and, what is more, simultaneously ; so that the 
 lesson cannot be called a lesson of reading, spelling, grammar, 
 geography, or Scripture history ; for, short though it be, it is 
 a lesson on all of these subjects at once, seldom two questions 
 in succession lighting upon the same province of knowledge. 
 It is unnecessarv to observe, that the first and last effect, if 
 not the very intention of this wilful confusion, is to prevent 
 everything like a steady exercise of attention upon the matter 
 so transiently presented. Occasionally, from some prevailing 
 bias in the teacher's mind, the lesson is completely transferred 
 from the subject with which it professes to be occupied, and 
 settles upon ground altogether different. The lesson in 
 religion, in this manner, sometimes becomes a mere lesson of 
 etymology, natural history, or grammar. * * It is well 
 that every possible facility should be given for the acquire- 
 ment of any branch of knowledge : and whatever virtue there 
 may be in the toil of the acquirement, it is always right to 
 seize the result by the easiest and shortest process. Some 
 teachers, however, would escape the still inevitable difficulty 
 by simply over-looking its existence, and by encouraging in 
 their pupils much of the same temper of mind with which 
 they would address themselves to any mere amusement. 
 Effort, however, it must always be remembered, is the neces- 
 sary condition under which all education takes effect ; and all 
 effort is essentially serious. It is better, therefore, for real 
 
EFFORT ' 103 
 
 instruction, and better as a preparation of habit or the future 
 pursuits of life, that the school-room should be a scene of 
 strenuous application and of earnest feeling in regard to every- 
 thing which is there presented to attention. * * Faults of 
 method may be expected at least as frequently as they are 
 found, when it is remembered how few of the teachers have 
 any opportunity of seeing other schools, not to speak of better 
 than their own. The Normal institutions are of too recent origin 
 to have yet had any considerable influence throughout the 
 country ; and it is only within the last few months that they 
 have commenced with those arrangements for greater usefulness 
 which the public grants have enabled their directors to make, 
 1846, II. 337—339. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 AT there is a large play- ground, surrounded by- 
 small gardens, which are cultivated by the children who 
 have earned the privilege by their good conduct. This plait 
 cannot be too strongly recommended. It promotes habits of 
 cheerful industry, gives a practical illustration of the laws of 
 property, and affords a ready and satisfactory test of the 
 discipHne, and even of the feelings of the school. I have 
 strongly recommended the introduction of this system in 
 
 village -schools, as, for instance, at , where there is a 
 
 site of more than an acre in extent. I am, moreover, of 
 opinion, that more extensive benefits may be secured by 
 gradually making such allotments the foundation of an indus- 
 trial school. 1845, II. 163, 164. 
 
 [There are] 18 garden allotments awarded to the most 
 deserving boys. These allotments appeared skilfully culti- 
 vated under the superintendence of the master, Mr. . 
 
 I was informed that the boys worked in their gardens during 
 their leisure hours only, and that they enjoyed the produce 
 of their own allotments. 1850, II. 173. 
 
 The average wages of the labourer are 9s. per week. The 
 allotment system is adopted in the parish, as it is also in the 
 school. A large field is set apart for this latter pm-pose by 
 
 two ladies, the Misses , who let the land to the best boys 
 
 of the school on the following conditions : — Each boys at the 
 school — considered eligible above 12 years of age — is allowed 
 to rent four perches of land, at a halfpenny per week — to be 
 paid weekly. He is not restricted as to cropping, but of 
 course is liable to be ejected if he neglect to cultivate his land 
 properly. At the time when I visited this school in August 
 last, there were 11 of these young tenants, all of whom ap- 
 peared to be working their gardens well. The appearance of 
 
GARDEN ALLOTMENTS 105 
 
 the crops, consisting of potatoes, cabbages, and turnips, &c., 
 was very promising. One little fellow, about 13 years of age, 
 told me that, after paying his rent and other expenses attend- 
 ant on cultivation, lie had saved 5s. since Lady-day last. 
 The boys keep a regular debtor and creditor account, which 
 is always open to the inspection of the managers of the school. 
 1845, II. 216, 217. 
 
 The Industrial School at [writes the Curate of the Parish,],.... 
 
 was grafted on the National School, chiefly in order to give the 
 elder boys a longer time for receiving education. About 20 have 
 thus been retained for a longer or shorter period, at school, the pre- 
 sent number employed being 10, of whom most have been so retained 
 for the full period, two years. Our average number at the National 
 School is between 50 and 60. The industrial school commenced in 
 October, 1847; 7 acres of land were taken into cultivation, and a 
 gardener engaged, at 15s. per week, to act as general manager and 
 instructor of the boys in gardening, &:c. The boys work under him, 
 and are sent to school as often as they can be spared, which, for the 
 elder ones, is generally half of every day ; for the younger, more. 
 By this method they have the opportunity of learning all kinds of 
 gardening and farm-work ; which is much better than if they had 
 merely a little plot of ground to cultivate separately. Several of 
 them have thus become very good gardeners. They are paid regular 
 wages, in proportion to their age; and some are boarded with the 
 above-mentioned gardener in the place. Of the 7 acres, from 2^ to 3 
 acres are kept for garden crops (for which there is a good market in 
 Leamington), and on th« rest are grown wheat and beans. The former 
 pay far the best ; particularly such crops as lettuce (early in the 
 year), potatoes, and cauliflowers. Every kind of garden stuff, how- 
 ever, is grown. Our vegetables gained the first prize at the last 
 Leamington garden show. Pigs are kept, and are essential, both for 
 their manure and in order to consume much of the refuse of the 
 garden, which would otherwise be wasted. They serve to consume 
 also all our crops of beans, turnips, mangel wurzel, &c. The land 
 has been altogether cultivated by the spade, which has made it very 
 expensive ; but regard was always rather had to future, than immedi- 
 ate success ; and it will be seen by the accounts, that expenses have 
 much decreased the second year in comparison with the first ; and 
 this decrease will certainly be very much greater in the coming year. 
 In fact, we hope that henceforth it will do more than remunerate us. 
 The boys' wages vary from 3s. 6d. to Is. per week, according to their 
 age. The 10 now regularly employed vary in age from 16 to U. 
 Three of them have been latterly boarded at an expense of 2s. 9d. 
 per week, instead of receiving wages. Some others, taken out of 
 the National school, are occasionally employed. The plan of 
 boarding them answers best, as there is a great deal of superfluous 
 garden produce which they can eat. * * 
 
106 INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS 
 
 Total Expenditure from October, 1847, to October, 1849. 
 
 [Expenditure variable from year to year, including Extra 
 Labour, Manure, Seeds and Pigs boxight, Food for 
 Pigs, Carting Manure, &c., 1st year, 147 14 9 
 
 2nd year,* 88 1 9 £. 8. d. 
 
 ^]235 16 6 
 
 [Non- variable Expenses, including Wages to Gardener j 
 Boys' Wages, Boarding and Beer; Tools, Tolls, .fee, 
 
 2 years,] 193 17 
 
 Kent (2years) 27 
 
 Pigsties, &c. built 30 £. s. d. 
 
 486 13 6 
 
 Deduct Eeceipts [for the first year only,] 272 18 
 
 Balance ..,.213 15 6 
 
 All the crops of the present year (1849) are to be added to this 
 account in favour of the receipts ; they are very good, and the pota- 
 toes promise well. 1850, 1. 123, 124. 
 
 The school is that of the pauper union of , and 
 
 consists of 32 hoys and 19 girls, who occupy a private dweU- 
 ing-house, rented, with four acres and a half of land, in the 
 
 rural village of , ahout four miles from the workhouse. 
 
 It is placed in charge of a master, acting in the double capa- 
 city of master of the house and schoolmaster, and of his wife, 
 who is the matron. The girls are occupied in household 
 work and dairj^ work, and in washing, ironing, and baking, 
 and making and mending their own clothes. Three, and 
 occasionally four cows are kept, and from four to eight pigs 
 and a pony. Of the boys, 17 are above 10 years of age, but 
 not above 13; and 15 of these, with the assistance of the 
 master, cultivate the land, and look after the cows, the pigs 
 and pony. * * 
 
 [These 15 boys] earn a good deal more than the cost of 
 their dinners daily ; and I think I am justified in assuming, 
 that the like number of boys of similar ages in any village 
 school aided by the master, having the same facilities for 
 cultivating the same number of acres of ground, and devoting 
 to the cultivation of it the same number of hours daily, might, 
 in like manner, earn for themselves, and for three or four of 
 the elder girls employed in the work of the dairy and the 
 kitchen, a meal daily, of much humbler fare perhaps than that 
 of the school of which I have spoken; but probably more 
 substantial and more abundant than they could get at home. 
 It might improve with any improvement in the cultivation of 
 
 * £11 10s. of this was in consequence of potatoe failure in 1848. 
 
GARDEN ALLOTMENTS 107 
 
 the land or with any increase in the industry of the little 
 labourers. The value of improved methods of cultivation and 
 greater industry could scarcely be brought home to them 
 under any other form, indeed, in which they would be so 
 likely to understand it. Whilst by this arrangement the 
 training of the children in habits of fore -thought and industry 
 would be provided for, the removal of a portion of the burden 
 of their maintenance from the parent would probably secure 
 their attendance at school to a more advanced age. Thus, 
 what was sacrificed of their school learning on the one hand, 
 by setting apart only half the day to it, instead of the whole 
 day, would be gained on the other hand by their continuing 
 at school longer. 
 
 The value of that moral influence which might, by a judici- 
 ous master, be exercised over the boys when associated with 
 them during their hours of labour and at their meals,* will, I 
 am sure, be appreciated by every practical educationist. It 
 is during these hours that the real characters of the children 
 become known, and at such times that the springs of action 
 among them may be influenced and controlled, and the public 
 opinion of the school brought over to the side of the school- 
 master. 
 
 It is, however, after all, necessary that some provision 
 should be made for those labours upon a farm which are 
 performed by children. The birds must be driven from the 
 fields of growing corn, the cattle, the geese, and pigs must at 
 certain seasons be watched, and in certain counties the wheat 
 must be dibbled and the potatoes picked. Any attempt 
 to deprive the farmer of the labour of the children in these 
 times would not be reasonable in itself, and would probably 
 fail of its object. Peace should be made between him and the 
 schoolmaster. To this end it might be arranged, that when 
 the farmer wanted any such assistance upon the farm, he 
 should come to the schoolmaster, who would be bound to 
 provide for him (so far as the numbers in the school admitted 
 
 * At the school of , the boys breakfast with the schoolmaster, each 
 
 bringing his bread and butter, and the clergyman providing the cocoa. I doubt 
 not that this meal, eaten in common by the teacher and children, has contributed 
 
 largely to the high moral tone and discipline of that remarkable school The 
 
 most perfect idea we can form of a school approaches most nearly to that of a well- 
 ordered family, and, of the proper relation of the teacher and his scholars, to 
 that of a parent and his children. It is perhaps difficult to conceive this idea to l)e 
 realized unless they take their meals together. 
 
108 INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS 
 
 of it) the services of as many boys not under 10 years of age 
 as he might need ; with this condition, that the same child 
 should not be employed more than one-half of tlie day, being 
 relieved, when his half- day was finished, by another boy ; and 
 that then, returning to the school to take his meal, he should 
 give the afternoon to his books Thus every child above 10 
 years of age working half the day, either for the school or the 
 farmer, would devote the other half to his learning. In the 
 arrangement I have proposed, the farmer would probably find 
 his advantage as much as the boy. That kind of labour which 
 the boy has to do, and which depends upon his attention and 
 watchfulness, would probably be the better done when he is 
 relieved of half the wearisomeness of it ; and when, for any 
 neglect of it, he is made responsible, not only to the farmer 
 but to the schoolmaster. 
 
 There are times when very few boys are required on the 
 farm, and others when the farmer is glad to get as many as 
 he can, it would therefore be an advantage to him to suit 
 himself in this respect, and not to be compelled to ])ay the 
 children wages all the year round when he only wants them 
 at certain seasons. The wages of the boys he employs, vary- 
 ing in amount from Is. 6d. to 2,9. 6d. per week, the farirter 
 would be required to pay to the school-fund ; this being about 
 the sum which the boy would earn by labour on the school- 
 farm, and which would pay for his board. 1850, I. 10 — 14. 
 
 Scheme of Industrial Instruction in the National School of . 
 
 Every boy aged 11 years or more has a garden of two poles, vent 
 free, to cultivate for his own use; and keeps a debtor and creditor 
 account of the value of the produce and of the expences of his gar- 
 den. Every boy is employed one hour and a half in the afternoon, 
 daily, except on Saturday, in cultivating his own garden, or in 
 cultivating a plot of ground for the benefit of the school establishment, 
 or in some other industrial occupation. On Saturdays the boys are 
 employed from 9 o'clock a. ui. till noon in cultivating their own or 
 the school garden, or in some other industrial occupation. The boys 
 are encouraged in working in their own gardens in play-hours and 
 before and after school-hours. The bovs are employed in classes of 
 four, alternately, every Friday, from 8 till 9 o'clock a. m., in clean- 
 ing knives, pumping water, and chopping wood, for the girls' indus- 
 trial school. Pecuniary and other rewards are given to thos(; boys 
 who cultivate most successfully their own gardens, who keep the 
 best account of the cost and produce of their gardens, and who are 
 most punctual in attendance. On some occasions, when the boys 
 work in the garden at extra hours, they are paid for their labour. 
 
GARDEN ALLOTMENTS 109 
 
 The hours for industrial occupations of the girls, in addition to those 
 commonly employed in knitting, sewing, &c., are, on Monday after- 
 noon, not exceeding one hour, in making an inventory of clothes to 
 be washed, in sorting and putting them in soak ; on Tuesday morning 
 not exceeding three hours, in washing and cooking; on Wednesday, 
 not exceeding half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the 
 afternoon, in drying clothes ; oa Thursday, not exceeding one hour 
 in the afternoon, in damping, folding, and starching ; on Friday, 
 not exceeding two hours in the afternoon, in ironing, mangling, ^c. ; 
 on Saturday, three hours in the morning, in baking, sewing, knit- 
 ting, cleaning, ^c. 
 
 Names of boys who have gardens, and value of the produce of their 
 plots, siuce July, 1849, to Michaelmas, 1849 : — 
 
 
 
 
 
 £. 5. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 
 
 £. s. 
 
 d. 
 
 1. 
 
 R. H. 
 
 July 
 
 10 
 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 10. 
 
 A. L. 
 
 Aug 15 
 
 10 
 
 ok 
 
 2. 
 
 T. H. 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 11. 
 
 J. L. 
 
 Aug 23 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 8. 
 
 C. C. 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 12. 
 
 T. G. 
 
 j"» 
 
 10 
 
 21 
 
 4. 
 
 C. W. 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 G 
 
 13. 
 
 J. E. 
 
 }j 
 
 6 
 
 H 
 
 5. 
 
 J. G. 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 14. 
 
 A, L. 
 
 )> 
 
 6 
 
 H 
 
 6. 
 
 D. C. 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 15. 
 
 W.J. 
 
 Sept. U 
 
 13 
 
 101 
 
 7. 
 
 E. S. 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 IG. 
 
 F. W. 
 
 J) 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 8. 
 
 D. G, 
 
 Aug. 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 17. 
 
 A. L. 
 
 fi 
 
 G 
 
 H 
 
 9. 
 
 R. S. 
 
 »> 
 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1850, I. 70, 71. 
 
 One great obstacle to their [Industrial Schools] establishment 
 seems to be, the late hour at which our children are assembled, 
 namely, nine o'clock. In France, 1 understand, the children 
 very frequently meet at eight. If this plan were adopted, an 
 additional hour would be gained for intellectual exercise during 
 the morning, when the mind is best iitted to receive impres- 
 sions. Four hours* mental work, with short intervals, is I 
 imagine, as much as children of the age of 10 to 12 years can 
 sustain with success during the day. In corroboration of this, 
 it will usually be found that girls in schools receive instruction 
 under the same teachers as the boys, and are their equals in 
 proficiency, although they are always employed during the 
 afternoons in industrial occupations. By this means the whole 
 of the afternoons might be devoted to works of industry ; boys 
 might be instructed in those branches of agricultural pursuits 
 which would be useful to them in after-life ; the master of the 
 school would be benefited by the relaxation and out- door 
 employment in which he was engaged ; moral teaching and 
 discipline would be as eflfectually carried on in the field as in 
 the school-room, and the farmers would not have to deplore. 
 
110 INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS 
 
 which is now so frequently the case, the inability of the boys, 
 when they leave the school, to perform properly the work 
 allotted to them. 1846, II. 185. 
 
 Some good elementary books on agriculture are much 
 needed to put in the hands of children in village schools. 
 Something which applies to their own daily life ; the best 
 method of gardening, of draining, of manuring ; the habits 
 and qualities of animals ; the way to fatten beasts, poultry, &c. ; 
 how to preserve meats, eggs, &c. ; the application of horse 
 power in tillage ; the succession of crops ; good methods of 
 irrigation. And for girls, hints on domestic matters applica- 
 ble to their own sphere as farm servants, not the household 
 servants of towns. 1850, I. 317. 
 
 The expediency of some form of instruction which should have 
 for its object to impress upon the minds of the children of 
 elementary schools the principles of integrity in the common 
 affairs of life, the necessity of providence and forethought, the 
 rules of discretion in the ordinary dealings of man with man, 
 and the laws which govern our social and political relations, 
 has often been insisted upon. 1850, 1. 15. 
 
 I do not want [writes the Vicar of ] to teach them 
 
 political economy, and talk to them much about productive 
 and unproductive labour ; but I want them to understand, that 
 the man who needlessly throws himself on the parish for sup- 
 port, partakes in some measure of the character of a thief, and 
 is not doing his duty in the situation in which God has 
 placed him, — in the way which Christianitv requires. 1846, 
 I. 104. 
 
 It is of great consequence to make every child understand 
 that the penal laws are intended, and do operate for the 
 benefit of the weak and unprotected ; that only his breach of 
 what common sense will tell him are duties can make those 
 laws his enemies ; that the magistrates and all the subordinate 
 officers of the law are in reality his true friends, and his worst 
 foes are those who would persuade or lu-ge him to a fruitless 
 and criminal opposition. 1846, I. 145. 
 
 "After the school," says Mr. , ''had been opened 
 
 rather more than two years I began giving to the teachers, 
 and the more advanced of tbe school children, short explana- 
 tions of a philosophic kind, and in a common sense sort of 
 way, of the things almost daily passing before their eyes, but 
 
NEEDLEWORK 111 
 
 of the nature of which they had not the slightest conception." 
 "In subjects of this kind, and to children, mere verbal explan- 
 ations, as every one will perceive, are of no use whatever ; 
 but when practically illustrated before their eyes by experi- 
 ment, they become not only one of the most pleasing sources 
 of instruction, but absolutely one of the most useful." 1850, 
 I. 16, 17. 
 
 It has often struck me, and the observation has been 
 frequently made to me by those who are conversant with the 
 subject, that the instruction given in it [needle work] is very 
 unmethodical and clumsy. As much time seems to be lost in 
 its elementary parts as in learning the alphabet on the old 
 method. A needle and thread and a small piece of calico are 
 put into a little girl's hand, and she is often left much at liber- 
 ty to prick her fingers or make holes in the calico as she 
 pleases. Little positive instruction is given to her. Bad 
 habits are formed, habits of inattention, unreadiness, and tar- 
 diness in her work. Nor is it in general the case that the 
 mistress is not qualified to give instruction, or that she herself 
 is an unskilled needlewoman, but the work is allowed to 
 proceedfor some time without methodical and constant teaching. 
 When the child has wasted months on that which might have 
 been acquired in as many days, and taught herself in a clumsy 
 way that which ought to have been imparted skilfully, then 
 some attention is paid to her, and some trouble is taken that 
 she may, in a great measure, unlearn what she has acquired. 
 Yet there are some schools where this branch of industrial 
 instruction is rightly undertaken from its first elements. 
 1850, I. 156. 
 
 A steady progression is observed from the simplest to the 
 more difficult operations of fixing and stitching, of darning 
 and marking ; but it seldom appeared that even the eldest 
 classes received specific instruction in the economy of materi- 
 als, to the extent contemplated at the central school. The 
 order, assiduity, and progress universally exhibited in this 
 department, make me hesitate to criticise proceedings in a 
 mystery of which I know so little ; but it has always struck 
 me that a little waste paper, in these times so abundant, 
 might very beneficially be cut up in each school in the course 
 of the year, in illustrating the practical geometry of ** cutting 
 out," in the top sewing class. Knitting is still taught in 
 
112 INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS 
 
 most of the schools, being yet much practised in the remoter 
 parts of the country ; and in proportion as a school is feeble 
 and neglected, did I find "fancy-work" to abound in it, how- 
 ever wretched the character of the neighbourhood; for the 
 teacher, under such circumstances, seeks to please only the 
 children and their parents, who are often exceedingly fond of 
 the little meretricious cleverness thus exhibited. * * In 
 the girls' schools generally, the children are allowed to sew 
 for their parents, one or more days in every week, but for the 
 rest of their time they are employed on the school account. 
 Hence sometimes arises at the end of the year, a trifling pro- 
 fit towards its expenses, which, however, is very dearly earned 
 in the unfrequent instances in which the making of Hnen takes 
 precedence of the making of women ; or in other words, when- 
 ever the completeness of the course in this invaluable branch 
 of domestic education is at all sacrificed to expertness, merely 
 in some one or 'two operations, obtained by a division of labour 
 more worthy of a factory than of a school. * * A good 
 course of instruction in domestic economy ; the economy of 
 food, fire, clothing, health, and cleanliness, is exceedingly 
 wanting in these schools, and would prove the best possible 
 antidote against indolence and vanity, while it would offer 
 occasion for much healthful exercise of all the faculties of the 
 mind. A proper manual of such a course has yet to be pro- 
 vided ; but I think it would very gladly be adopted when once 
 drawn out, and made familiar to the teachers ; for it is not to 
 be supposed that the ladies who are most sensible of the 
 danger to which I refer can object that their protegees should 
 be qualified to exercise, in all gentleness, as much and as good 
 an influence as possible upon their future companions in life, 
 to say nothing of the qualifications for domestic service which 
 they would thus acquire. 1847, II. 105 — 107. 
 
 ITie children in the higher classes are provided with lap- 
 bags, made of brown hoUand. * * The monitor of each 
 desk is furnished with a pair of scissors, thread-paper, needle- 
 case, and a bag large enough to contain all the implements 
 that belong to her desk. They are also supphed with a few 
 thimbles and needles, for which they are responsible to the 
 platform monitor. The children in the lower classes use 
 coloured cotton for the class work, as it renders the stitches 
 more conspicuous, and consequently facilitates general inspec- 
 
NEEDLEWORK 113 
 
 tion. It also excites an interest, as the promise of a choice of 
 some pretty colour is a strong inducement to a child to perform 
 her work neatly. * * For the details of the instruction in 
 each class, I must refer to the "Manual. The first class is 
 for hemming, in two divisions, one composed of those who 
 have not learned to fix a hem, and who are taught on waste 
 paper, as heing less expensive than linen or cotton, and 
 answering the purpose just as well ; and a second, in which 
 they practise hemming on small pieces of calico. The second 
 class, also in two divisions, is for sewing and felling, and run- 
 ning and felling ; the first division learning to fix their work in 
 paper, and the second to execute it. The third class is for 
 drawing threads and stitching ; the fourth, for gathering and 
 fixing gathers ; the fifth, for button-holes ; the sixth, for 
 making buttons and sewing them on ; the seventh, for her- 
 ring-bone stitching ; the eighth, for darning ; the ninth, for 
 making tucks, and whipping ; and the tenth, for marking. 
 The eleventh is the finishing class. There is at present no 
 knitting or netting class ; and fancy work is expressly exclud- 
 ed and discouraged. 
 
 ** As it is highly desirable that the children, as soon as they 
 have learned to work, should be employed in something useful, 
 this class comprises the girls who have passed through the 
 preceding, and are here engaged in making and completing 
 garments. The children in this class are taught economy in 
 purchasing, cutting out, and repairing various articles of 
 wearing apparel ; they are made acquainted with the waste 
 occasioned by the want of proper consideration and exactness 
 in domestic arrangements, and the miseries frequently pro- 
 duced by mismanagement and inattention. In order to impress 
 upon their minds this useful branch of female instruction, they 
 are interrogated, in various ways, on the common concerns of 
 life. When the teacher proposes a question, she waits until 
 each child in the class has had an opportunity of returning an 
 answer, according to the knowledge she possesses. She then 
 comments upon each of these answers in a way that will 
 enable the children to decide which is the most suitable course. 
 To assist the teachers in these exercises, they are furnished 
 with a few examples of questions and answers, which they 
 may carry out to a much greater extent.*'* These also will 
 
 * L^^^ Quotations are from the British and Foreign School Society's] Manual of 
 the System of IS"eedlework, p. 44—54. 
 
114 IITDUSTEIAL OCCUPATIONS 
 
 be found in the *' Manual," together with engraved patterns 
 for cutting out the commonest garments. The highest indus- 
 trial section of the school forms in fact a class for collective 
 teaching of the most practical and improving kind, including 
 as many ideas on household management generally as can be 
 conveyed. Specimens of needlework, made up in portfolios 
 for the use of teachers, and arranged in the order of the above 
 classes, are sold at the Society's Depository ; and the beauti- 
 ful patterns of every variety of garment, made up in tissue 
 paper by the finishing class against the time of the annual 
 meeting, are quite little works of art. 1847, II. 415 — 417. 
 
 The rule [of the School] is, that the girls shall be 
 
 taught the various stitches required in plain needlework, 
 separately, on small pieces of calico, linen, &c., before they 
 are permitted to work for the school. They are taught the 
 stitches in the order specified in the book " Progress in Needle- 
 work," and learn each perfectly before they go on to the next : 
 the last specimen of each stitch is kept in a paper packet 
 marked with the girl's name. 1850, I. 163. 
 
 Among the most interesting features of the girls' school is 
 the needlework. The elder girls are taught not only to work, 
 but, by paper patterns, to cut out work for themselves ; and 
 the dresses of the first class, on the day of my examination, 
 were many of them thus cut out, and all made by themselves. 
 There seems to be no reason why the economical cutting out 
 of work should not thus enter, as a part, into the ordinary 
 instruction in needlework in our schools. The cost of paper 
 for patterns would be little. The fitting of different articles 
 of clothing to the children of the school would supply an 
 inexhaustible variety of subjects for patterns ; and for such an 
 object the school might well afford a good many failures. The 
 exercises of the girls in arithmetic might even be associated 
 with this useful object. It is, for instance, a good question in 
 the Rule of Three, knowing what the length of the sleeve of a 
 dress for a person of a given height is, to determine what that 
 for a similar dress for a person of another height should be ; 
 or, knowing how many yards of cloth would be required to 
 make the dress in the first case, to determine how many would 
 make it in the other. There can be no reason why the girls 
 should not know that this last proportion is as the square of the 
 height in the one case to the square of the height of the other ; 
 
NEEDLEWORK 115 
 
 that, for instance, the cloth in a dress for a person 4 feet high 
 is to that in a similar dress for a person 5 feet, as 16 to 25. 
 ^hen a girl has cut out for herself the dress she has made, 
 she has associated her labour, in a natural relation, with the 
 exercise of her judgment ; she has taken one step towards her 
 emancipation from a state of pupilage. 1848, I. 15. 
 
 I visited this school [maintained and superintended by 
 
 Miss ] unfortunately on a day when many children 
 
 were absent owing to a heavy rain ; but I could not but 
 remark the affectionate yet reverent manners of the children 
 towards their benefactress, and saw enough to convince me 
 that the religious, and secular instruction is limited only by 
 the age and capacity of the pupils. Two peculiarities, how^ 
 ever, chiefly attracted my attention ; first, that the boys, as 
 well as the girls, are employed regularly for a portion of each 
 day in netting. It is singular that this should be a peculia- 
 rity ; it is remarkable, that in every place where parents object 
 to what, themselves uneducated, they regard as a waste of time 
 in learning, some industrial occupation is not connected with 
 the school, which may be at once useful for the future and 
 profitable for the present. In this school, however, the experi- 
 ment has not been sufficiently extended to show what would 
 be the probable result. The other peculiarity is that the girls, 
 3,nd as I believe many of the boys, do not lose sight of their 
 teachers on leaving school. The girls, when placed out in 
 service, are in the habit of corresponding with the lady, of 
 applying to her for advice, and expressing their sense of the 
 advantages derived from an early education. I have mentioned 
 this fact in several schools, and shall be glad to find in course of 
 time that similar proofs of grateful remembrance are preserved 
 more generally ; certainly none could better show the pains- 
 taking te&,chers that their labour is not lost, and that the 
 bread cast upon the waters, after many days, will be foimd 
 again. 1845, II. 158, 159. 
 
 *'The farmer,'' says Mr. , *'has no notion of worth 
 
 in the labourer as a man or as a fellow- creature ; but only 
 values him as a machine or instrument by which a certain 
 quantity of work is performed, and does not think that al- 
 though he professes to be a Christian, it is any part of his duty, 
 as such, to endeavour to improve the moral condition of the 
 labourers under him, by making them more intelligent." 
 
116 INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS 
 
 Such being the industrial training of the agricultural la- 
 bourer at that period of his life, the impression of which is 
 the most durable, it is scarcely to be considered strange that 
 in every parish there should be so large a portion of labourers 
 trained up to be paupers — men without the intelligence or the 
 energy, or the moral courage, or the spirit of independence 
 necessary to pursue with success the humblest calling. 
 
 Having made many inquiries on this subject, I have learned 
 with surprise how large a class there is, of men who burden 
 the rates, not by reason of inability to labour, or of profligacy, 
 or dishonesty, but for the want of aptitude, a spirit of inde- 
 pendence, thriftiness, and industry. It is difficult to explain 
 this, except by supposing that at some early period of their 
 lives indolence and apathy, and a sense of moral bondage, had 
 been allowed to grow upon them. 
 
 The occupations of children of both sexes in town districts, 
 and in rural districts which have some staple manufacture, 
 are, of course, different, but in all I have found the opinion to 
 prevail, that the period when they first leave school is fraught 
 with danger ; that the seeds of profligacy are then sown, and 
 the foundations of pauperism laid ; and that nothing is more 
 to be desired than that some educational supervision should 
 be exercised over them during the period which intervenes 
 before they enter upon a life of active labour ; associated with 
 some well-considered course of industrial training. With this 
 view the attention of the friends of education has been much 
 directed to industrial schools. Several such schools have 
 been established in my district, and among them the Royal 
 Schools in the Great Park at Windsor. Fifty boys and 50 
 girls are there instructed in various branches of useful know- 
 ledge, and trained to habits of industry. The school-buildings, 
 which are most conveniently arranged, include a kitchen and 
 a washhouse ; and two and a half acres of ground adjacent to 
 them are set apart for a school- garden. The children are 
 clothed by Her Majesty, and dine at the school. It being 
 understood to be Her Majesty's wish that the girls should be 
 so trained in the school as to fit them for service, and to enable 
 them to discharge in after-life the duties of wives and mothers, 
 to the usual instruction in religious and secular knowledge a 
 good deal of useful teaching in domestic economy is added 
 Besides making their own clothes and those of the boys, they 
 
THE ROYAL SCHOOLS 117 
 
 do (assisted by one maid- servant) all the household work of 
 the schools — the cleaning, cooking, washing, and baking. 
 The schools are placed under the care of a master and a mis- 
 tress, each of whom is assisted by two apprenticed pupil- 
 teachers, and whose residences form part of the school-build- 
 ings. The mistress, besides her duties in the school, is 
 charged with the industrial training of the girls, and w^ith the 
 entire management of the household department. The child- 
 ren are assembled at 8 o'clock. The boys continue at their 
 lessons until 12 o'clock. From 10 J to 12 the girls work in 
 the kitchen. At 12 o'clock they dine. From 12j to 2 o'clock 
 the girls devote to needlework, and the boys to their lessons ; 
 and from 2 till 5 the girls are at their lessons and the boys 
 work in the garden. On one day in the week the lessons of 
 the girls are in domestic economy ; on another their industrial 
 work consists in cooking "cottage dinners." The manner in 
 which this is managed appears to me very judicious. They 
 are divided into groups, each of which cooks, under the 
 direction of the mistress, a separate dinner, as for a separate 
 family. The variety of these dinners affords the opportunity 
 of instructing them in different expedients for the frugal 
 management of a household. Whilst so large a portion of 
 the time of the girls is thus devoted to industrial occupations, 
 I can bear testimony (in this as in other similar cases) to the 
 fact, that nothing is thereby lost on the side of their learning. 
 1850, I. 7^9. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ORGANIZATION AND MONITORIAL TEACHING. 
 
 ALL the unmarried life of the lower classes, is one of much 
 danger and trial. * * They seem to have neither ties nor 
 duties. And it is to save our children from this state, that 
 some watch should be kept over them, even if they go into 
 distant places. The machinerj^ of parishes (where not alto- 
 gether of overgrown population) affords facilities for this 
 purpose. Certificates of good conduct might be given at school, 
 and taken into the world. They might be presented to the 
 clergyman of the parish, and become a recommendation, as 
 well as an introduction to him ; they might be shown to the 
 schoolmaster, and be a means of obtaining certain privileges in 
 his school, as well as of securing his friendship and assistance ; 
 and, far beyond this, they would impart and encourage that 
 valuable feeling for a young man or woman to j)ossess, '*I have 
 a good character to sustain ;" and "I am not left to myself." 
 This is but a poor suggestion, in a subject of such importance. 
 But I can look on the answers given to the question itself, 
 from 1 20 schools — that the present means are by Sunday and 
 night schools, by singing classes, and public catechising — 
 rather as hints of what may be done hereafter, than as tokens 
 of what is actually done now ; for in every part of our land 
 the complaint is the same, — '* Children leave our schools, we 
 lose sight of them, and know not what becomes of them." 
 There might be in many places school, anniversaries, when all 
 within reach might meet and spend a happy and profitable 
 day (or half day, if more convenient) . Our public schools 
 have their meetings and their dinners. * * Why should 
 not our National schools, in a more humble way, have their 
 day of happy reunion and renewal of connexion with clergy- 
 men and masters } I fear that it has been the practice to look 
 upon the lower classes as machines, rather than men ; and to 
 
REUNIONS OF SCHOLARS 119 
 
 forget that their good feelings may be as usefully encouraged, 
 and beneficially directed, as their vices may be censured, and 
 their crimes punished. 1845, II. 267, 268. 
 
 In speaking of the importance of keeping up connexion 
 with young people after they had left our national schools, I 
 suggested that they might have annual meetings with their 
 clergymen and teachers, and spend a happy day or half- day 
 together. The Rev. W. Sinclair, Incumbent of St. George's, 
 Leeds, acted upon this suggestion. In conjuction with the 
 clergymen of the new districts which have been formed out of 
 St. George's — viz. St, Andrew's and St. Philip's — he insti- 
 tuted inquiries about the young people who had been brought 
 up in the schools under his charge. This inquiry was, in itself, 
 very instructive and interesting. Many of them had already 
 been removed from this earthly life ; not a few had departed 
 from it in the faith and hope of the gospel ; others were gone 
 into distant lands. Some to Canada, some to Australia ; 
 many were settled in Manchester, at Bradford, and in other 
 manufacturing places of the north of England. A considera- 
 ble number still resided in Leeds and its vicinity. They were 
 invited to meet together on the 6th of June, for a pleasurable 
 and profitable re-union. None were invited under the age of 
 17. 210 young people (90 men and 120 women) with 30 
 teachers, the 4 clergymen of the districts, Mr. W.^ Gott, with 
 other influential laymen, and many ladies interested in the 
 schools, assembled in the school-room of St. George's, at 
 seven p. m. : the proceedings began with an address to the 
 young people, from the Rev. W. Sinclair, and a hymn ; after 
 which grace was said, and tea and coffee were partaken of; 
 after some general conversation, which was very animated 
 amongst the young people, many of whom had not met for some 
 time, and were glad to recall their school-days, addresses were 
 delivered by the Rev. W. Sinclair on '* Education, by Mr. Gott 
 on the ''Objects of the meeting," by the Rev. B. Crosthwaite 
 on the "Study of Holy Scripture," by the Rev. T. Sturgeon 
 on the ** Probable Results of the meeting," and by the Rev. 
 R. Wolfe on "The Church." Between these addresses, which 
 were delivered with much spirit and received with great 
 sympathy and applause, were pauses for conversation and 
 music ; some hymns were then sung and the party separated, 
 after an evening of sober and profitable enjoyment. An annual 
 
120 ORGANIZATION 
 
 meeting of this kind is to be held on Easter Monday. 1846, 
 II. 171, 172. 
 
 Before the time when the present more highly- organized 
 systems were brought to bear upon the instruction of the poor 
 in this country, the usual plan followed was for the master to 
 set lessons to each child, and then to overlook the acquisition 
 of them in every case individually. This kind of school still 
 exists in many localities throughout the country ; and although, 
 with very hmited numbers and unwearied assiduity, it may 
 become tolerably successful, yet in the majority of cases it can 
 only give a very unsatisfactory result. If a master has 60 
 children under his care, five minutes individual attention to 
 each will consume five hours, which is about equal to a whole 
 school- day ; and during each five minutes that one is occupied, 
 he has no guarantee that the other 59 are not wasting their 
 time in idleness. 1848, II. 333. 
 
 A schoolmaster in Lancashire, in speaking of the objection 
 of parents that their children should act as monitors, says — 
 '*They fancy that the boys would be kept back by acting as 
 monitors. It was proposed to give them extra lessons after 
 school as a compensation for their labour. But the parents 
 would not allow them to be kept beyond time. The conse- 
 quence is, that the school suffers in education and discipline 
 through the inefficiency and constant change of monitors/' 
 In nine-tenths of the schools under my inspection, the moni- 
 tors are children of the first, second, and sometimes third and 
 fourth classes, taken in turn, *'as they come," without any 
 preparation for their work ; without any peculiar qualifications 
 for it. The only reason is, that it is their turn ; and it must 
 be confessed that they often shew the unreasonableness of 
 this reason by staying at home when their turn of teaching 
 arrives. It is well to remark, that the parents, in most cases, 
 encourage their child in thus absenting himself from the 
 school. They have often expressed to me their feelings. 
 "They did'nt wish theirs to teach t'others ; they want them 
 to larn." Nor, on the other hand, do they wish their children 
 to learn from others. For, as they say, ** What's master 
 for ?" The feelings of the poor on this subject may perhaps 
 guide us to the truth on a point which has often been observed 
 but not sufficiently explained, viz., the not unfrequent unpop- 
 ularity of our National schooLs. I have often been told that 
 
OBJECTIONS OF PARENTS 121 
 
 the regularity of attendance, the cleanliness of person, and 
 neatness of dress, required of them, operate unfavourably 
 against them in the minds of the poor. The first objection is 
 easily answered by the fact, that where the attendance is 
 allowed to be irregular it is by no means more numerous than 
 in those places where the rules of the school are more strictly 
 observed. With regard to the second point, there is no doubt 
 that the majority of parents (even the untidy and the unwash- 
 ed) would rather see their children neat and clean than the 
 reverse. * * 
 
 To return to the Monitors themselves. They are in general 
 very young — rarely 13 years of age. I have found a boy of 
 9 teaching children of his own age. But their average age 
 in boys' schools is 1 1 . In girls' schools it is rather higher 
 and may reach 12 years. What and how shall they teach 
 others } They are ignorant of the subjects taught. They go 
 heavily and unlovingly to it. A card in one hand, the other 
 in their pockets, they go singly or in pairs to their work. 
 What is it ? a reading lesson, seldom with any questions, but 
 with spelling afterwards. I have often stood by in silence 
 and heard the grossest blunders made in both — words mis- 
 called — left out — half said — others substituted for them. — 
 The monitor takes no notice. He frequently does not recog- 
 nize the blunder if he hear it. In general he does not hear 
 it. His thoughts are elsewhere — ''Mens est in patinis." Or 
 if he be, as is at times the case, a sharp lad, and attentive as 
 a teacher, then he is almost invariably too sharp and too 
 impatient of the slowness of his class. He pushes one back 
 to the chalk-line, and pulls another forward, and disturbs all. 
 He corrects an error in a rough assuming tone, as if he had 
 rather expose the ignorance than guide the helplessness of the 
 learner. At such an age, and with so little self-knowledge, 
 it can hardly be otherwise. Nor is it, as I am informed, an 
 unfrequent occurrence in the intercourse between the monitor 
 and his pupils, that he should receive bribes from them, 
 either that he may advance them in the class, or screen them 
 from punishment. Marbles, apples, oranges, nuts, and some- 
 times a penknife have been mentioned to me as the price of 
 the monitor's favour ! trifles they may seem, yet heavy enough 
 to weigh down all the truthfulness and honesty of the cha- 
 racter of childhood, and to impress upon it the first deep 
 
122 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 marks of hypocrisy and falsehood. On the other hand, also, 
 if the boys in the class are bigger and stronger than the 
 monitor, they are not less prodigal of their threats to him 
 when out of school, than the more timid are of their promises. 
 In a school in which I was interested for some years, the 
 monitors made several complaints that the bigger boys ** bullied 
 them for putting them down." 
 
 The following are notes on a teacher's class, i. e. monitors 
 in a girls' school in Yorkshire : — "Teacher's class unworthy 
 of the name — generally inattentive to the business of the 
 school — much silly laughing when questions were put — read- 
 ing, only indifferent — few questions intelligently answered — 
 foolish guesses. Q. 'Who was Joseph's own brother ?' A, 
 * Pharaoh' — * Egypt' — 'Isaac,' &c. Writing coarse, and books 
 not clean — little arithmetic, only a few in Long Multipli- 
 cation — no girl wrote correctly from dictation, 90,002,074 — 
 Catechism learned by rote." Again, in another school : — 
 **The monitors took no notice of the children working and 
 knitting during prayers. None of the girl- teachers could do a 
 sum in Compound Multiplication which they professed. One 
 of them brought me a sum in Simple Multiplication incorrectly 
 done." I have frequently, when examining the class, and 
 unable to obtain an answer from the children in it, put the 
 same simple question to the monitor, or monitors, as the case 
 might be, and received no answer, or a very incorrect one. 
 Under such teaching it would be useless to expect much 
 intelligent progress in our schools. It is still less likely that 
 any improvement in moral or religious tone will arise from 
 such a source. 1846, II. 113—115. 
 
 Where a school is thoroughly under the master's control, 
 any boy of steady character is able to direct the change of 
 lessons in accordance with the time-table, and to note down 
 and report to the master any irregularities of conduct, neglect 
 of duty, or waste of time in the school. 1845, II. 147. 
 
 In some schools the children are called out by the monitors 
 one by one, and while they are repeating their lesson, the 
 others are without any occupation. There are frequently not 
 less than thirty in each of the lower classes, in which case 
 the children receive severally one minute's instruction in the 
 course of half an hour ; nor, though an extreme case, do I 
 believe that it is uncommon. Some masters do not appear 
 
VALUE OF TIME 123 
 
 to be thoroughly sensible of the value of time, and not many 
 are sufficiently acute in detecting the causes which occasion 
 loss of time, or ingenious in devising modes of constant and 
 varied occupation. These remarks apply with more or less 
 force to the methods of teaching penmanship, spelling, and 
 writing, from dictation. In the last very important subject, 
 for instance, I have had occasion to remark that ten minutes 
 are usually taken to write down sixty words (of which time 
 much is lost in unneccessary repetitions, and still more 
 because of the unequal progress of the children), and that at 
 least twenty minutes are required to correct the errors upon 
 the slates, during which time the children are sometimes 
 entirely without employment. 1845, II. 142, 143. 
 
 In another school, in which 158 boys were present at my 
 inspection, I found a monitor of 1 1 years of age, teaching 
 Arithmetic to a class 0/31 other children, * * The 
 unfavourable influence of the monitorial system in small schools 
 iSy however, in my opinion, yet m,ore obvious than in large ones. 
 In the one case it is inadequate, in the other it is prejudicial. 
 The following are examples ; — "I found 44 boys and 63 girls 
 assembled in the school-house, erected by the aid of a large 
 public grant, of the principal parish of a great manufacturing 
 town. The master is a zealous and laborious man, and received 
 a high character from a great public training school, but he 
 teaches on the monitorial system ; accordingly his 44 little 
 boys were arranged in six classes, six little monitors and him- 
 seft being employed in teaching them. To my inquiry, why 
 he did not teach these 44 children all himself, or by the aid 
 of a single monitor, as he certainly would if he taught the 
 school for his own private emolument, his answer was, that 
 then, anybody coming into his school would say that it was not 
 on the National system. * * In another school, 26 boys 
 were placed in charge of a master recently appointed from * 
 one of the diocesan training schools. These 26 boys were 
 arranged, according to ''the system, in five classes, with a 
 monitor to each." The absurd notion that an arrangement 
 like this is essential to the very nature of a National school is 
 all but universal. 1847. I. 172, 173. 
 
 Monitors are allowed to strike the children under their care. 
 Altercations frequently occur between the monitor and some 
 child in his class. This should not be allowed. In all cases 
 
124 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 where the pupil refuses to submit to the monitor's directions, 
 he should immediately be referred to the master. 1846, 
 II. 189. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the smart ready boy of 1 3 
 has not always the most genius, and is by no means always 
 likely to prove eventually the best guide and instructor of 
 youth. 1850, II. 185. 
 
 It is now acknowledged that a person cannot teach others 
 what he does not know and thoroughly understand himself. 
 This is now felt to be a truism, which however was denied, 
 or forgotten, when many of our largest school-rooms were 
 built. From this it follows, that masters who really wish ta 
 have decent schools, will adopt every method of bringing the 
 greatest number of children under their own personal influence, 
 and will not voluntarily employ young monitors, in any but 
 purely mechanical occupations. When an inspector has 
 acquired sufficient practice to ascertain the qualifications of 
 young children in National and infant schools, he soon per- 
 ceives that there is a vast disparity of acquirements between 
 children of 5 to 7 years old in the latter, and others of 8 to 9 
 or 10 years old in the former. While the infant-school child 
 can read any narrative fluently, and has made fair progress 
 in all elementary subjects, the other child in a National 
 school is often unable to put three letters together, or to do 
 anything but repeat tables, and some answers of the catechism 
 by rote. On examining further, it appears that the disparity 
 is more remarkable in matters of higher importance. The 
 infant-school child has received practical religious instruction, 
 its reason and feelings have been influenced, while the other, 
 in most cases, is a mere piece of mechanism, somewhat quieter, 
 and more easily managed than the other, until by rotation 
 and progress in mechanical studies, he arrives at that part of 
 the school where the master's personal influence is felt. I 
 speak advisedly when I say that this is no exaggerated account 
 of the lower classes in some large schools, where the masters 
 deserve all praise for making the best of an imperfect system. 
 1846, I. 148. 
 
 To take the registration immediately after prayers, gives the 
 children very low notions of the importance of prayer, because 
 attendance at prayers is thus apparently rendered of small 
 importance. If children learn to attach little importance to 
 
PUNCTtJALITY 125 
 
 prayer at school, they will soon learn to attach little import- 
 ance to it at home. Again, if children are permitted to enter 
 the school-room uncensured after the commencement of any 
 definite portion of the day's work, confusion will arise in their 
 minds as to the nature and necessity of order and regularity, 
 and regular attendance will rarely be effected. Another point 
 to be attended to is the noise and disturbance which in many 
 schools so much prevails. One great cause of this is doubt- 
 lessly the inefficiency of the monitors employed. When a 
 certain degree of intelligence and attainment have been in- 
 troduced into a school, the last test of its excellence is the 
 cheerful activity of the children without noise. This condition 
 pre- supposes excellence in the management of every class in 
 all the details of organization, discipline, and method. Cheer- 
 ful activity without noise are the iiower and fruit of the 
 master's labours. 
 
 Something may be done to correct the fault of which I am 
 speaking by the exertions and judgment of the master alone, 
 but much will remain undone unless he have monitors possessed 
 of — 1. Knowledge. 2. Skill in teaching. 3. Patience and 
 kindness in the discipline of their classes. 4. Self-respect, 
 and the respect of their pupils by their own character and 
 conduct. — If a master can obtain monitors with these qualifi- 
 cations, which alone are to be effected by separate instruction, 
 experience, and training, he will, other circumstances com- 
 bining, possess a quiet, orderly school, which can scarcely be 
 expected when the monitors, as may sometimes be seen, 
 beat and box their pupils ; or, as on other occasions, drag 
 them up for punishment to the master's desk, and in divers 
 ways betray a want of knowledge and self-command utterly 
 at variance with order and good discipline. 
 
 Bawling and very loud reading are again sad hinderances 
 to the due discipline of a school. On this point it is difficult 
 to lay down any precise rules, but there certainly does appear 
 to be a via media in the nature of sound which is peculiarly 
 fitting for school-rooms, when the voice of each child may be 
 distinctly heard by its teacher, and yet no confusion of noise 
 exist. Distinctness of articulation, which properly belongs to 
 the subject of instruction, may be said to have much to do 
 with this. 1845, II. 239, 240. 
 
 The observations made upon public teachers will be more 
 
126 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 or less applicable to monitors, according to their age, acquire- 
 ments, and to the character of their employment. It seems to 
 be allowed universalh'- that all monitors who are permanently 
 employed in that capacity should be paid, trained, and 
 instructed. 
 
 1 . The payments are usually very small ; I understand that 
 they are rarely sufficient to induce parents to keep the boys 
 at school beyond the usual age. The weekly payment should 
 vary according to the capacity and diligence of the monitors. 
 They may receive one halfpenny, one penny, or twopence 
 daily, and provided that the master report favourably upon 
 their conduct, and that they forfeit no one day's payment for 
 absence, neglect, or other faults, they should receive in addi- 
 tion two days' allowance at the end of the week. Thus, 
 supposing a monitor to receive twopence a-day, his weekly 
 earnings will be lOd. plus 4d., which one absence or bad mark 
 would reduce to eightpence. So, if the monitor receive one 
 halfpenny, he will earn threepence-halfpenny by regular 
 attendance, &c., and forfeit three halfpence for the first serious 
 offence. In small schools it will be far better to pay one, or, 
 at the most, two monitors at the higher rate, than to make a 
 small payment to half a dozen. The causes for which a 
 monitor loses his reward should, of course, be distinctly 
 specified beforehand, and the regulations should be steadily 
 adhered to. I consider that absence from school — or even 
 late attendance — talking in school — striking a child — neglect 
 in preparing black board — in distributing books, slates, pencils, 
 &c., or in the general conduct of the lessons, are sufficient 
 reasons for stopping payment. I do not mention lying, 
 swearing, or other vices, because no honest master will employ 
 a boy as monitor who is known to be guilty of them. The 
 monitor should be made to feel that he is earning money for 
 work done, and that it must be punctually and carefully done. 
 
 2. By training, I mean that a monitor should be instructed 
 in the management of a class, and in the method of teaching 
 to read, to repeat the Catechism, to write on slates and paper, 
 &c., and that this should be done by the master out of school- 
 hours. No monitor ought to be paid who is not trained to 
 his work. Before the payment of a monitor is decided upon, 
 the superintendent, or active manager of a school, will do 
 well to watch him during the management of a class. If he 
 
TRAINING 127 
 
 speaks unnecessarily, pushes the boys, scolds them, puts 
 ridiculous or unmeaning questions, he is not fit to be employed, 
 much less deserving to be remunerated. Proper training may 
 not indeed suffice to make intelligent teachers of mere boys, 
 but it ought and will enable them, if attentive, to conduct 
 much of the business without confusion or loss of time. The time 
 assigned by the schoolmaster for the training of the monitors 
 ought to be entered upon the time-table, since it is probable 
 that the visitors would be especially desirous of witnessing 
 this part of his work. The master will be amply repaid for 
 any trouble he may bestow upon the monitors' training, by 
 their increased usefulness in school. 
 
 3. Monitors should also receive special instruction, in order 
 to compensate them for their loss of time, while assisting the 
 master. It is a great mistake to suppose that they generally 
 learn by teaching. At present they often unlearn by idle and 
 negligent repetitions or acquire a rooted dislike to some of 
 the most important subjects. They require such instruction, 
 moreover, in order to conduct those portions of the lessons 
 which are intrusted to them with any degree of efficiency. 
 For this purpose, arrangements may be made (1) to allow 
 them time for arithmetic, writing, &c., whenever their several 
 classes are writing from the black board, or receiving instruc- 
 tion from the master ; and (2) to send them into the first 
 class for the most important lessons, especially for those which 
 are conducted by the master himself, or by the visitor of the 
 school. This, however, will n6t be sufficient, unless they 
 have instruction out of school-hours, which I hold to be so 
 indispensable that, if their attendance cannot be secured at any 
 other time, I would dismiss all the school, excepting the 
 monitors and those boys who are nearly equal to them, half 
 an hour each day before the usual time. If, however, the 
 instruction be useful and interesting, and the master be in 
 earnest, I believe that, either in the evening or early in the 
 morning, the best monitors could be got together for this 
 purpose. They should also be encouraged and desired to 
 prepare lessons at home. A monitor who is in school from 
 nine to four o'clock, with an interval of two hours, ought to 
 learn a great deal out of school-hours. When he receives 
 his weekly pay, he should produce written abstracts, or give 
 some proof that he has acquired some useful knowledge in 
 
128 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 the interval. The memory and invention of boys are not 
 sufficiently exercised in our schools. A monitor may be 
 ex])ected at the end of each week to repeat some instructive 
 passage by heart, or to display greater skill in the analysis 
 of a sentence. The monitors should have access to some 
 books under the special directions of the master ; for unless 
 they acquire the habit and love of reading, they will never be 
 intelligent teachers. 
 
 The monitors should undergo frequent periodical examina- 
 tions. The questions proposed to them should be entered in 
 a writing-book, together with their answers. This will 
 enable examiners to estimate the rate of their improvement. 
 
 Considering that the most intelligent and attentive moni- 
 tors have a fair chance of being selected for pupil teachers, 
 and thus put in the way of attaining a permanent and honour- 
 able position in after-life, it seems highly probable if these, 
 or similar, regulations are adopted, that parents will be induced 
 to leave their sons at school until the age of 14, at least, in 
 sufficient numbers to aid the masters in the management of 
 the school, and to keep up a constant supply of youths pro- 
 perly qualified for that office. 
 
 The above suggestions apply to girls as well as boys. There 
 will be less difficulty in many places in retaining intelligent 
 and well-conducted girls. In addition to the instruction 
 above specified, girls should be expert in needle- work. The 
 points in which they are most likely to be deficient are, 
 ciphering, English composition, and general information. The 
 importance of these subjects cannot be too strongly pressed 
 upon the attention of teachers in girls* schools. 1845, II. 
 184—186. 
 
 After all that has been said, there can be little doubt, I 
 suppose, of the general inefficiency of existing monitors — or 
 that this is one great cause of our present deficiencies. To 
 remedy this, apprenticed pupil teachers should be introduced 
 into our schools. Where these cannot be had, a certain 
 number of the most intelligent children should be selected 
 from the senior classes, who should be regularly paid for their 
 work and properly instructed for it by the master. And here 
 I would observe that it is not enough for a master to impart 
 to his monitors the same information he does to the other 
 children. We must recollect that these are his chosen agents 
 
SUPERINTENDENCE 129 
 
 for a certain work, the officers of his school, and must there- 
 fore be properly instructed and duly exercised in that particular 
 business in which they are to be engaged. To accomplish 
 this it will not only be necessary for the master to instruct 
 them in extra hours when the other children are dismissed, 
 but he must also stand over them, as occasions offer, when 
 they are examining their respective classes, must watch their 
 mode of interrogation, listen to their remarks, &c. ; and then, 
 at a convenient time, must convey to them his impressions 
 upon what he observed. * * 
 
 One consequence of older monitors will be, that of retaining 
 the junior children ; for, as the unfitness of monitors is one 
 great cause of the inefficiency of schools, which again causes 
 the withdrawal of children — (the poor are acute discerners in 
 this point, and see little advantage in keeping their children 
 at schools where, as they term it, they *'get nothing") — so 
 with the removal of these defects will depart that apathy of 
 parents to the education of their children which induces them 
 to sacrifice what they deem a doubtful good for some trivial 
 pecuniary gain. 
 
 In many instances I find the parochial clergy undertaking 
 to some extent the superintendence of the instruction of the 
 monitors, not only on general subjects, but also especially in 
 the art of teaching. This has been attended with consider- 
 able benefit. 
 
 In several cases where the master has stated to me that his 
 limited time would not allow of carrying out any plan for the 
 instruction of his monitors at extra hours, I have discovered 
 that an hour, or an hour and a half, sometimes more, is spent 
 every night in ** setting copies." How very desirable it is 
 that such time should be devoted to something more than 
 mere mechanical work, which can be performed far better by 
 printed copies — such, e. g.^ as those of Mulhauser, published 
 by Parker ; and in what better way could it be devoted than 
 improving the minds and exercising the intelligence of those 
 who are to carry out a great part of the school system ? 
 1847, I. 473—475. 
 
 I cannot at all understand why so late an hour as nine 
 o'clock should have been all but universally fixed upon for 
 opening school. At any rate, some hours both before and 
 after school might be turned to account. It is certain that 
 
130 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 the deficiencies observed in the instruction of the monitors 
 can never be supplied unless the masters are willing to under- 
 take the trouble of teaching them at extra hours. Five hours 
 and a half passed in school may fatigue a man, but cannot so 
 far exhaust his bodily and mental energies as to incapacitate 
 him from such exertions as these — that is, provided that all 
 his time is really devoted to his school, which appears to be 
 generally the case from the returns made in answer to a 
 question on this point by the clergy. 1847, 1. 273. 
 
 In a very few schools, the master has had recourse to some 
 expedients for exciting emulation among the monitors them- 
 selves in their monitorial work ; and this has been well done, 
 by conferring distinctions upon them, according to the ascer- 
 tained proficiency of the sections respectively under their 
 charge, after these have been thrown together and tried upon 
 the common lesson. 1846, II. 336, 337. 
 
 The masters take pains, as far as they find it practicable, 
 to restrict the monitors to those employments which they are 
 competent to discharge. They can watch their classes, 
 report cases of neglect or disorder to the master, hear the 
 reading lessons which have been previously explained by the 
 master, give out sums in arithmetic and correct the answers, 
 dictate words and sentences for writing, not to speak of the 
 purely mechanical business of the school, which they do as 
 well or. better than adult assistants. When monitors are 
 well trained, sufficiently instructed, and paid in proportion to 
 their skill and attention to their duties, they are found to be 
 so useful that it is likely they will be altogether suspended, 
 whatever changes may be made in the organization of national 
 schools. But great precautions are requsite to prevent them 
 from injuring the minds and dispositions of other children, 
 and contracting bad habits themselves. They are not to be 
 depended upon for any department of the religious instruction. 
 I would not let them hear the Catechism, having observed 
 that in some good schools a false, vulgar, or inaccurate repeti- 
 tion of the Catechism in the lower classes is entirely owing 
 to the neglect or incompetency of the monitors. The hearts 
 of children are too delicate to be touched by their rude hands, 
 and their minds too subtle and powerful machines to be 
 controlled and directed by such clumsy instruments. The 
 first great difficulty to be encountered in the management of 
 
COLLECTIVE LESSONS 131 
 
 a large school is the regulation of monitorial teaching ; the 
 importance of which depends upon the facts that the school 
 cannot be kept at work constantly without their assistance, 
 and that this class of pupils is at present, and will in future 
 be, a nursery of teachers. 
 
 There is a gallery in one school only of this class ; but many 
 teachers have found that collective lessons, in which rapid 
 questioning of individuals is varied with simultaneous reading 
 and repetition, are of great service in bringing a large number 
 of children under their direct influence. The suggestions 
 made upon this subject have been generally attended to ; but 
 this lesson above all requires liveliness, presence of mind, 
 patience, skill, and careful training. 
 
 Much use is made of of black boards and swing slates in 
 these schools, both for teaching arithmetic and the rudiments 
 of composition. Texts of Holy Scriptures, facts in history, 
 geography, &c., rules of grammar, and difficult words, gener- 
 ally selected from the day's lessons, with concise explanations, 
 are written upon these boards before school- hours by the 
 teacher or assistant. A fixed time is allowed for the children 
 to copy these lessons on slates, when they are corrected by 
 the monitors, or when the class is sufficiently advanced by 
 the other children, the number of errors noted down, and the 
 whole reviewed by the teacher. Another use of the black 
 board is both novel and ingenious. Questions are proposed 
 orally by the master to several classes at once, and the cor- 
 rect answer is written on the black board by a monitor ; the 
 other children in the mean time writing the answer as well as 
 they are able on their own slates. The black board is then 
 placed where all can see it, and the children, having changed 
 slates, compare each other's work with what is on the board, 
 marking and counting the mistakes. This method is found 
 very successful in testing the progress of the children in 
 spelling, grammar, history, geography, and especially in 
 arithmetic ; but care must be taken not to propose ambiguous 
 questions, or such as cannot be answered in one or two words. 
 Writing from dictation and memory is very good in many of 
 these schools. So much of English composition as may be 
 required to write letters on business and ordinary matters, or 
 abstracts of simple lectures, is taught with some success. I 
 am, however, disposed to think that time is wasted, even in 
 
132 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 the best schools, both in giving out and in correcting these 
 lessons, and that greater skill in the use of the black board 
 would contribute very much to their efficiency. Great scope 
 is afforded for the display of a teacher's abilities in giving 
 such a lecture as may interest and instruct the children, and 
 supply them v^ith materials for writing abstracts. He should 
 note down the heads of each division, or some leading word 
 in every sentence, as he proceeds, in order to guide the pupils 
 in their attempts. The best abstracts sometimes are, and 
 always ought to be, written out carefully on paper, and pre- 
 sented to the committee or visitors of the school, with proper 
 notice of the child's age, and the circumstances under which 
 the work has been done. 
 
 These few notices may be useful ; but it will not be sup- 
 posed that the secret of a teacher's success lies in the adoption 
 of any methods which can be described in a few words. That 
 depends upon the mental qualifications and the moral character, 
 upon the zeal, intelligence, and industry of the chief instructor; 
 and praise should be awarded chiefly on these grounds to 
 those who are successful. 1847, I. 257, 258. 
 
 It must be obvious that in hearing to read, hearing to spell, 
 and questioning upon the meaning of each passage, to the 
 extent of inverting the words in a sentence, and making each 
 principal one the object of a question, there is a large amount 
 of labour which a fairly- trained monitor may perform for the 
 service of the ^^ounger classes, nearly as well as an adult 
 master ; quite as well as many. To despise monitorial agency 
 for this labour, is to breed an amount of intellectual dulness 
 in regard to the commonest elements, which it takes many a 
 subsequent effort of direct teaching to eradicate, seldom with 
 complete success ; and habitual neglect of the lower parts of 
 a monitorial school, is commonly to be detected in the unclear 
 syllabication, and other perversities, still exhibited by the 
 upper parts, and even by the highest class. Every well- 
 trained monitor will perform what is above assigned to him, 
 without special instruction on the lesson for the day ; but he 
 will not explain the meaning of each important word analyti- 
 cally to his little audience, unless he have been specially 
 instructed upon the lesson ; and though so instructed, he will 
 not, unless a a boy of genius, employ effectively analogical 
 illustrations of their meaning, build up his subject syntheti- 
 
master's superintendence 133 
 
 cally, or draw practical conclusions, however vigilant he may- 
 be to enforce the repetition of a dogmatic axiom. It is often 
 attempted to get all this performed by monitors, but it demands 
 faculties which generally belong to an age beyond that of 
 absolute childhood ; and success therefore is the exception 
 and not the rule. Hence the importance of training the 
 monitors upon their several lessons as much as possible ; of 
 the teacher carefully superintending and revising their work ; 
 and of his making the class under his own direct instruction 
 as numerous as possible, and performing himself all the labour 
 of instruction, which, to make it complete and effective, 
 requires analogical illustration, inductive or deductive reason- 
 ing, synthetical combinations, or experimental knowledge. A 
 monitor will convey very expertly anything that he has ac- 
 quired himself, but he cannot be calculated upon to originate 
 anything. There is for his agency, therefore, a wide field of 
 mechanical usefulness ; but it is an abandonment of duty to 
 bring it where it must fail, and a subterfuge to allege a "sys- 
 tem" in the defence of such a practice ; for "system," so far 
 from superseding labour, merely clears the ground for its 
 employment ; a fact which appears sometimes to be forgotten 
 as well by the most indolent adherents to old ideas as the 
 most lively employers of new arrangements. 
 
 It is owing to this necessary limitation of the powers of 
 monitorial agency that very large British schools, tliough 
 under the best masters, exhibit in their middle classes a level 
 of mediocrity which is not consistent with the excellence of the 
 processes and the consequent rapidity of advancement shown 
 by the children in the lower drafts, nor with the superior 
 cultivation given by the master himself to the monitors' class. 
 Commencing from the top of a school, there is always to be 
 found, therefore, a sudden decline of acquirements, even within 
 the limits of this very class (for there are always in it some 
 newdy admitted from below) ; and it is only a double set of 
 well- trained monitors, such as a master is seldom allowed to 
 retain, that will enable him to keep a vigorous life, even of 
 technical instruction, throughout the whole mass of a large 
 school. Still he struggles against the difficulty and has some- 
 thing profitable doing in every class ; but the schools of the 
 feebler and less- devoted masters, exhibit only the sudden 
 descent without the compensating satisfaction of good methods 
 
134 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 and unceasing industry, employed on behalf of the younger 
 children, to the full extent that imperfect monitorial agency 
 will advance them. Hence there are a number of British 
 schools among those classed as bad and imperfect, beyond the 
 body of which, perhaps, not one-fourth of the children in 
 them will ever rise, yet in which body there is not that moral 
 and intellectual training which would at all satisfy the sub- 
 scribers if they examined into it ; while in the lower drafts 
 there is so little doing as fully to justify the indifference of 
 the parents as to sending their children at all. I am so 
 convinced, indeed, that much of this fickleness of the parents 
 has the origin to which I allude, that to do his duty by the 
 *' little ones,'* would be my advice to any young master 
 desiring as soon as possible to fill his school, and then to 
 
 keep it full. * * Under present circumstances, most 
 
 British schools have, at the bottom of their array, some 20 or 
 more of children who want putting through a rapid course of 
 infant instruction, but whose only exercises consist alternately 
 of a mechanical acquiring of letters and syllables at drafts, 
 and a listless devotion of whole hours to the undirected 
 scrawling of lines and letters upon slates, ostensibly from a 
 board at the further end of the room, but, in fact, as little 
 notice is taken of them during this protracted excuse for their 
 idleness, they seek an employment in drawing awful caricatures 
 of men, houses, trees, &c., in place of letters and figures. * * 
 Next to the little children, whom the teacher considers 
 really unprepared to take a proper part in the operations of a 
 British school, comes the middle mass of about one-half, or 
 one -third, forming, with the lowest section, about three- 
 fourths of the school ; these are the children properly under 
 monitorial instruction, in drafts ofiicered by the top fourth or 
 eighth of the school, according to the master's vigour and the 
 size of the school ; the best masters in the best schools having, 
 generally, as large a section as possible under their own direct 
 instruction, appointing out of it a double set of monitors to 
 serve in alternate weeks, and endeavouring, if the convenience 
 and character of the parents will permit it, to compensate the 
 boys for this consumption of their time, not wholly profitless, 
 by extra instruction at over-hours ; in the course of which, 
 as also of his circulating round the classes, he gives them 
 instructions in teaching, as well as in the subject-matter 
 
THE MIDDLE MASS 135 
 
 before them. The weaker masters, in the worse schools, on 
 the other hand, have generally as few as possible under their 
 own personal instruction, and give no instruction to their 
 monitors in over-hours, and very little in teaching, stating 
 that the parents will not permit their children to be kept after 
 the ordinary school-hours, and are very jealous of their being 
 employed as teachers at all. In these schools, therefore, the 
 drafts are often of&cered by monitors nearly as uninstructed 
 as those whom they teach : and the number of boys who 
 have been instructed in anything well is no more than will 
 serve to lead the rest in answering, with apparent simultaneity, 
 at a public examination, and to be quotable in the neighbour- 
 hood as evidence of what the school can produce. But any 
 village school can do as much for these few as a bad British 
 school ; the British school ought to be tested by what it is 
 doing for the greater number : the statistics of attendance, 
 if they are collected in a complete form, will show that, even 
 in the best schools, it is only a minority who never attain to 
 the monitors' class and to the master's frequent personal 
 instructions ; and in nearly all, therefore, the test of what the 
 school is doing for the body of its scholars, and therefore for 
 the mass of the surrounding population, is the state of its 
 classes immediately below the highest ; and to these I would 
 beg especially to invite attention. * * 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the children best qualified 
 to teach others are not always the most advanced themselves : 
 children of peculiar aptitude are employed as soon as possible 
 by the master in the lower duties of the monitorial office. * * 
 The most valuable agents are the boys of fair aptitude to 
 teach who remain at school to 13 or 14 years of age, when 
 they are no longer wholly dependent upon the master's con- 
 stant attention, but can, in some degree, think and work for 
 themselves, as they do with ** grammars" and "calculators" 
 of their own, both at home and in school ; at least those who 
 are most happily circumstanced. * * 
 
 The monitors are either general monitors or teaching 
 monitors. The former are the general monitor of order, who 
 has the superindence and ordering of the whole school, under 
 the master ; the general monitor of reading, who superin- 
 tends the working of the whole of the reading drafts ; and 
 the general monitor of arithmetic and writing, who, in like 
 
136 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 manner, superintends the operations of the arithmetic drafts 
 (circulating from one to another) and likewise the copy-book 
 writing ; while the slate writing is sometimes, but not always, 
 under the general superintendence of monitors who dictate the 
 words to be written by the children seated in seyeral contigu- 
 ous desks. Under these again, in the several exercises, are 
 the teaching or draft monitors, for reading, arithmetic, and 
 writing respectively ; the latter called sometimes inspectors, 
 from their duties of inspecting and pointing out requisite 
 corrections and improvements in the writing of the children 
 seated in their several desks. These monitors report to the 
 general monitors the children who misconduct themselves, 
 and the orders of the general monitors in regard to ^them 
 must be obeyed ; but these, again, are required to repeat 
 every material thing to the master, who encourages free but 
 not frivolous appeal from the whole school. The class mon- 
 itors are thus his chief instruments of technical instruction ; 
 and on the extent to which he can get them to employ good 
 methods with zeal and activity, and the industry with which 
 he will himself circulate through the drafts, revising their 
 labours, teaching himself, and setting an example to his little 
 delegates, depends the progress of his school in all its element- 
 ary operations. 
 
 Various modifications in the numbers and duties of the 
 monitors are incident to variations in the number and ages of 
 the children ; but the principles of the organization are 
 unchangeable ; and it is obvious that they permit the master's 
 own character freely to be felt to the furthest extremity of 
 the school, if he really be discharging his duties. If he be 
 neglectful, or incapable, liis virtual presence in every draft is 
 no longer felt, and its operations are abandoned to the undis- 
 ciplined efforts of a child, teaching as best it may, and there- 
 fore individually, badly, and indolently. In this state of 
 things every draft is a separate little school, under a very bad 
 master indeed ; and the whole is a moral nuisance of the most 
 dangerous kind. But this is not the state of things contem- 
 plated by a monitorial school ; and when one is put through 
 all its various exercises and operations, a practised eye can 
 readily estimate the character of its teacher as an educator of 
 youth from its manners and conduct throughout, no less than 
 from the style of his own carriage and teaching. To some 
 
THE MASTER REFLECTED 137 
 
 extent, indeed, the master's character is reflected in the very 
 countenances of the children ; and I have become convinced, 
 from the character pervading a large proportion of the schools, 
 that there is nothing in a monitorial arrangement necessarily 
 fatal to the moral tone of a school, though much that is 
 injurious in overcharging the teacher with excessive numbers, 
 and the consequent neglect of them, which an over-reliance 
 on that arrangement has tended to conceal. The character 
 and the efficiency of the monitors, cceteris paribus, reflect in 
 each school those of its master ; and there is, consequently, 
 every gradation of efficiency and inefficiency, of dutifulness 
 and disorder, according with the classification of the schools 
 and their teachers already given. * * 
 
 The best masters, know how to treat their monitors as 
 
 their young friends, privileged as such above the mass of the 
 school, and yet completely amenable to discipline, where the 
 friendship of their teacher brings them in contact with a mind 
 itself humble, pure, aff'ectionate, and earnest. Their schools, 
 consequently, are the best, whether the monitors are or are 
 not paid a few pence weekly for their services, upon the value 
 of which payment there is a diff'erence of opinion among them. 
 In few cases, however, is some trifling consideration withheld, 
 where the committee permit it ; and usually that consideration 
 is given in tickets, bearing a certain number, taken up half- 
 yearly or quarterly. * * In every good school the monitors 
 are taught to teach by mutually questioning each other under 
 the master's correction, but seldom to convey every lesson 
 with which they are intrusted. * "^ 
 
 The whole of the instruction to the upper half of the moni- 
 tor's class, and most of the instruction to the whole of it, is 
 conveyed by the master himself, and wherever he has any 
 energies, and is in a neighbourhood where he can retain a few 
 boys at school until they are 13 or 14 years of age, some in 
 this class will have received as much technical instruction as 
 children of the middle classes of the like age generally. Indeed 
 there is less diff'erence between schools in regard to the ac- 
 quirements exhibited by a few top boys than in the extent to 
 which such acquirements pervade the whole of the monitors' 
 class, or to which the mass of the children are well grounded 
 in the rudiments of their education. It is in the body of his 
 school that the best teacher sinks the capital of his talents, 
 
138 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 strength, and spirits, although he well knows that the casual 
 observer will never appreciate the amount invested. And in 
 the general progress which is taking place in the public views 
 regarding education, all the most active and most favourably 
 circumstanced teachers are bent more upon making this invest- 
 ment by a larger amount of direct teaching to each section of 
 their several schools, in the conviction that they ought to 
 effect, and can effect for the children, services of which their 
 monitors can never be the instruments. Great and animating 
 is this field of exertion to those who have the vigour to scan its 
 space and breathe its air. Here, in lessons on material 
 objects, or on moral principles, for which he will never be 
 without a text, either in the secular lesson books or in the 
 narrative of Holy Writ, he can awaken them to habits of 
 patient and thoughtful observation : in the former, he can get 
 them to frame those elementary inductions which are essential 
 to an intelligent pursuit of their rudimentary exercises in 
 number, form, and magnitude ; in the latter, he can awaken 
 the conscience to an habitual sense of responsibihty for every 
 thought and action ; in both he can analyze at once each 
 subject, and the language in which it is couched, and recon- 
 structing it, lead the mind outward, by analogy and compari- 
 son, to the detection of distant resemblances, and the pursuit 
 of new truths. Pausing at the height of some simple 
 hypothesis, he can show them the emptiness of man's presump- 
 tion in wandering through God's glorious works without a 
 patient revertal to his first and humblest labours of patient 
 observation, and a never-failing reliance on the light of Divine 
 Truth. * * And, in fine, he may be constantly revising 
 the work of his whole school, and assuring himself that he is 
 sending forth from it, not only good readers, writers, and 
 calculators, but, if they leave him with prayerful hearts, those 
 also who are in a fair way, with God's blessing, to become 
 good, able, and Christian men ; men in a more hopeful condi- 
 tion to struggle with necessity and temptation than too many 
 who are educated less perfectly on a more ambitious scale. 
 The '* classics" of the poor in a Protestant country must 
 ever, indeed, be the Scriptures : they contain the most useful 
 of all knowledge ; and so far from being foreign to the daily 
 experiences of life, they especially and pre-eminently demand 
 that acquaintance with the moral and physical elements sur • 
 
THE POOR man's CLASSICS 139 
 
 rounding them, which it is the purpose of our best modern 
 school-books of "useful knowledge" to convey, in constant 
 connexion with and reference to the Word of God. Those 
 who best know the intellectual lifelessness of the homes of 
 the poor, or the trashy fictions and criminal narratives which 
 form the favourite reading of the majority of the vagrant 
 minds which use their capacity to read, will not hesitate, as 
 some yet do, to require as much as possible of this severer 
 mental discipline. For after all, the children of the more 
 educated classes, living in an atmosphere of comparative 
 mental excitement, will acquire as much of this knowledge 
 unconsciously, even in their amusements, as the children of 
 the top classes in the schools of the poor will ever require in 
 all their lessons. And to implant some acquaintance with 
 sober truth in the mind of the workman's child, will be to 
 him the dawn of a cheerful world, with which he will endeav- 
 our to keep up a humanizing and useful acquaintance under 
 all the depressing circumstances of his laborious life. Un- 
 wearied attention to the religious instruction of the children 
 of the poor in the day-school, is, for the same reason, in the 
 defectiveness of the home influences, more essential even than 
 to that of the children of the more educated classes. And 
 whether it be divine or human wisdom that is conveyed, the 
 lessons for children, whose schooling is to terminate so soon, 
 should, as much as possible, be so selected that they will 
 admit of immediate application to the experience, feelings, 
 and conduct of the pupil ; a course which must conduce to 
 those habits of practical wisdom, which are the best antidote 
 to self-deception, and to the delusions of the visionary, at the 
 same time that they are among the most characteristic features 
 of the christian character. The very few ardent minds which 
 nature scatters in every class will thus be placed in a position 
 for healthful eflPort, while all would be nerved for the neces- 
 sities of their station. It is the children of the wealthier 
 classes only, that, extending the period of education to half a 
 hfe, can expressly be trained as scholars and men of science ; 
 but much may be done to bring up the children of the poor 
 to be good servants, good parents, good neighbours, good sub- 
 jects, and, if it please God, good members of Christ's church. 
 With a view of getting more and more of direct access to 
 the minds of the children, the ablest teachers are grouping 
 
140 
 
 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 their drafts into sections, generally three. * * Some, again, 
 address to the whole school simultaneous lessons in grammar, 
 geography, the rudiments of natural science, and Scripture 
 explanation ; but it is quite impossible to adapt their subjects 
 and their language to the comprehension of the whole school 
 at once ; and two- thirds of it, therefore, are merely ** keeping 
 quiet," while a conversational lecture is being given to the 
 elder children, whose answers, closely followed by the voices 
 of others possessed of the quickest hearing, appear to be the 
 simultaneous responses of a large portion of the children, to 
 the equal delight and deception of the uninitiated, and some- 
 times even of the teacher himself. * * Still this tendency 
 to simultaneous teaching is marked and good, though not 
 unattended with the hazards and defects attaching to all 
 changes of which every bearing is not at first understood. 
 Thus in several instances where talented masters have thrown 
 an unusual amount of their energies into simultaneous teach- 
 ing, it has been accompanied by a neglect of their monitorial 
 agency, which has greatly enfeebled the body of the school ; 
 for masters untrained to the collective instruction of large 
 numbers of children of every age, fall readily into the instruc- 
 tion only of the most advanced, whose minds are most nearly 
 on a level with their own, and with whose opening faculties 
 they have most sympathy. Thus a dulness rapidly creeps 
 over the body of the school, which breeds discontent among 
 the parents of the younger children ; and even should these 
 not be withdrawn, the master presently finds them coming 
 up with faculties less prepared than formerly to receive his own 
 more lively instruction : a result which either compels him to 
 the arduous task of relaying the monitorial foundations of his 
 school, or entails its ruin ; for his better teaching of a limited 
 number will neither find him bread nor satisfy his com- 
 mittee. * * 
 
 It is important to bear in mind, that children seated in a 
 gallery before a teacher addressing them, are not necessarily 
 all of them learning, any more than all the children in a 
 British school seated for a simultaneous lesson, not even when 
 they are a section of nearly similar ages and advancement. 
 The system of simultaneous instruction, so far from justifying, 
 as I have sometimes seen it regarded as doing, any relaxation 
 of personal effort, merely demands the more ; for unless every 
 
SIMULTANEOUS INSTRUCTION 141 
 
 requisite of collective instruction be plied with an increased 
 activity, fertility, and vigilance, proportioned to the numbers 
 assembled, a general indolence is the result, and the teacher 
 is merely maintaining a conversational intercourse with a few 
 clever children, whose words, when the rest are called upon 
 by the master to answer *'all at once," or even without that 
 injunction, are repeated, parrot4ike, by the rest, without their 
 minds having been put through a single useful exercise. No 
 surer or more rapid destruction is possible, indeed, than that 
 which awaits a school in which the instruction is wholly direct 
 and collective, when the teacher is indolent, or unskilled 
 enough, thus to perform his task ; for his committee is gener- 
 ally too little accustomed to gallery teaching to detect the 
 deficiency until its results have come to maturity, which they 
 do with great rapidity, when the master's powers are thrown 
 wide of their proper focus by either the vanity of teaching or 
 the vanity of system. 
 
 The girls' schools have made less advance in simultaneous 
 instruction than the boys' ; and this is a subject of regret in 
 regard especially to the lower section of each, which, in the 
 absence of convenient infant-schools, very often comprises a 
 number of little ones of both sexes brought hither by their 
 elder sisters, fit only for an infant-school routine, and quite 
 unprepared to profit by an exclusively monitorial instruction 
 in technical rudiments. A little gallery, in one end of the 
 room, which should occasionally be curtained off, and a read- 
 ing-frame, with a few picture cards and objects, in addition 
 to the British and Foreign cards of the First Reading Book, 
 and the use of the Scripture cards, would afford opportunity 
 for doing ample justice to these little people, if the teachers 
 had some ideas of infant management to guide an elder moni- 
 tor in the use of the various means. In several schools these 
 means have been partially provided, but more knowledge of 
 their use is yet required. Elsewhere the simultaneous instruc- 
 tion is Hmited to occasional ^lessons, addressed to the whole 
 school, and understood by a small number of the children 
 only. The state of the village schools, with regard to organi- 
 zation, or rather to the want of it, has already been sufificiently 
 noticed. * * 
 
 Some of the most pleasing schools which have come under 
 my notice are included among those in which both sexes are 
 
142 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 under the instruction of a master aided by a female teacher, 
 commonly his wife, or other relative, or, where the population 
 is very small, under that of a misti'ess only. The arrangement 
 in the former is for the boys and girls to be assembled in the 
 same room, but in se])arate classes, under the master in the 
 morning, while the children, of both sexes, of the ages com- 
 monly found in an infant-school, are in a separate room under 
 the mistress, who is pursuing an infant school system ; while 
 in the afternoon the boys, including the elder of those who 
 were in the infant-school department during the morning, 
 pursue the usual British school course under the master, while 
 the mistress, in her room, is teaching sewing to the girls, and 
 superintending the management of the ''babies,'* or youngest 
 of the infant children, by an elder girl. 
 
 The organization, arrangements, and methods of the 
 
 school present a yet more interesting study to the promoters 
 of education in rural districts, not less in the rustic simplicity 
 which pervades the whole, than in the completeness of the 
 routine which they embrace. The habitations of the labouring 
 people for whose use it is designed are much scattered, and 
 consequently it is not frequented by infant children. All who 
 come, therefore, are prepared at once to enter upon its course, 
 which devotes one-half of the school hours to a healthy 
 industrial training, while the other is employed in elementary 
 instruction, with a perfect luxury of books and apparatus. 
 The elder children are instructed in a gallery of parallel 
 desks on the Battersea plan, under a master, as usual, of 
 limited early education, but made efficient to his task by 
 training, and who, at the same time, superintends the remain- 
 der whose turn it is to be at their books, while working in 
 little monitorial drafts, like those of a British school. A 
 matron, resident, as well as the master, and of earnest gentle- 
 ness and activity, has both the girls and boys, half of them at 
 a time, under her direction during that half of the day in 
 which they are exempt from the master's lessons. The girls 
 take by turns the several departments of her little household 
 work, and occupy the rest of their time out of class in needle- 
 work and knitting. The boys, on the other hand, are 
 instructed at the proper seasons, by a labourer sent for the 
 purpose, in working and cropping a contiguous piece of land 
 with the common culinary vegetables, and at other times in 
 
SCHOOL FOR BOTH SEXES 143 
 
 keeping their own play- ground and the matron's garden in 
 order, and in plaiting straw for hats under her direction ; the 
 most advanced and best conducted of each sex being encouraged 
 by little presents and privileges. Although at books for only 
 half of their school time, the children make a progress in 
 reading, writing, arithmetic, &c., far beyond that which is 
 generally seen where no proportion of time whatever is given 
 to industrial training, but where, it must be allowed, it is 
 impossible to command the regularity of attendance which is 
 made the sole condition of enjoying the advantages of the 
 ■ school. * * 
 
 Where there are superior monitors, or assistant teachers,. . . .a 
 break in the desks, which would permit the room to be divided 
 
 into separate portions by a thick curtain, as in , would 
 
 often be found of advantage ; and the increasing use of collec- 
 tive teaching dictates the propriety of this division. Otherwise, 
 the arrangement of the space is exceedingly well adapted to 
 the system which has heretofore been pursued. It is not 
 desirable to encumber the main school-room with a gallery, 
 but wherever there is a good class-room it ought to have one 
 fitted up with desks as well as seats (not occupying too great 
 a depth so as to strain the teacher's voice), which might be 
 alternately used by the lowermost and uppermost sections of 
 the school, if not by every portion of it in rotation. Indeed, 
 if it were only for resort to such a gallery, schools of any 
 magnitude ought each to have their class-room, which a 
 teacher of energy, with no more than monitorial assistance, 
 would keep constantly employed ; and find in it an incalcul- 
 able relief from the distraction to which, even with his prac- 
 tised nerves, he is occasionally liable, at the same time that 
 it would enable him to deliver the smaller children from many 
 a listless hour in the great room for some more profitable 
 occupation in the smaller. ^ * 
 
 Few of the schools have a belt of black surface along the 
 interior face of their walls, like the Model School at the 
 Borough-road, but almost every one has a large plain black 
 board, frequently with a second ruled for music ; and a num- 
 ber have smaller black boards, suspended in the manner of 
 lesson cards, at the several drafts stations, the chief use of 
 which, and it is a very important one, is to enable the monitors 
 to work sums in arithmetic round their several classes. * * 
 
144 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 The collective reading and explanation of a passage of 
 Scripture with which the proceedings of the day should be 
 opened, is frequently deferred until 10 o'clock, that the 
 exercise may not be interrupted by the entry of boys a little 
 after time, or too many of them be kept exposed to the 
 weather, and be excluded from it, by the closing of the door 
 at 9 o'clock. Nearly all the good schools have well-digested 
 schemes of daily duty, to which a strict adherence is given ; 
 but the defective schools commonly show a great deficiency in 
 this respect ; no written scheme is kept by the master himself, 
 and the momentary convenience of the day is apt to encroach 
 very much upon the ultimate economy of time and of energies 
 attainable by a fixed system and a firm adherence to it. * * 
 In all the schools which have a defective supply of books and 
 
 materials, a proper gradation of exercises, and a proper 
 
 routine of duty, is rendered impossible by this deficiency, 
 which, in many cases, sacrifices the best energies of the schools 
 for the saving of two or three pounds, which the master has 
 not courage to ask from a treasurer to whom he well knows 
 that the school account is already much in debt. * * 
 
 Spelling short words of known or explained meaning is the 
 introductory step with the lowest classes in a British school, 
 who then read the whole of the little sentences in which these 
 words occur, and should be required to attach a meaning to 
 them ; but in the feebler schools, owing to the want of special 
 provision for the little ones, this is too much overlooked. 
 There is commonly, at the bottom of the school, a class learn- 
 ing their letters from an alphabet card, in the old method ; 
 and the children then proceed to the simplest of the graduated 
 set of Scripture lessons on cards published by the British and 
 Foreign School Society, in alternation with which the cards 
 printed from the pages of the pretty "Daily Lesson Book, 
 No. I.," of that Society, are rapidly coming into beneficial use. 
 Where the children in this stage are very numerous, as in 
 some of the girls' schools which have an infant- class, one elder 
 monitor, with a reading frame and black board, as in the 
 infant-schools, would be a far more efiicient teacher than 
 several little ones at drafts. It always appeared to have a 
 beneficial effect, however, to give the upper draft or drafts of 
 this section of the school the little book itself, that they might 
 acquire the habit of keeping their places and reading in a 
 
LESSON BOOKS 145 
 
 book — a very important one — before they proceeded any 
 further. * * 
 
 Some of the children reading in the Second Book will also 
 be reading in the book of Scripture Lessons of the same Soci- 
 ety, or in the Testament. The low price at which the latter 
 can be procured is a temptation to its exclusive use, in yielding 
 to which it is incumbent on committees to pay such a regard 
 to the operations of the classes as shall prevent a *' by rote " 
 reading of the Sacred Volume, without any discriminating 
 selection of parts to form a course which would be the best 
 introduction of childhood to the whole library of saving truth 
 which it presents. Until of late years, indeed, the Scriptures 
 with the Scripture Lessons, were the sole text book in the 
 British schools ; and an inducement still to rely exclusively 
 on the Testament as a lesson book in this part of the school, 
 has been somewhat fostered by the too great transition from 
 the Second to the Third Secular Lesson Book (due regard 
 being had to the capacities of the child) ; a defect which, 
 however, is about to be removed by the publication of a 
 supplement to the former. * * 
 
 The Third Lesson Book of the British and Foreign School 
 Society is of such a character that a child who can read with 
 readiness in any part of it, may read as readily in any moder- 
 ately easy standard work of general information. ''Each 
 day's lesson has been made to include, first, a text of Holy 
 Scripture which, being committed to memory, may serve as a 
 motto for the day ; secondly, a brief poetical extract, adapted 
 to improve the taste and excite the aiFections ; and lastly, a 
 portion of useful knowledge, intended as a general exercise in 
 reading ; to each of which portions analyses and practical 
 lessons have been appended ; to each week's set of lessons, 
 hints for recapitulatory and simultaneous lessons ; and to the 
 whole, lists of the commonest prefixes, afiixes, and Latin roots." 
 This may be said to complete the course of '* reading" lessons, 
 though it is followed by a Fourth Book, which, like the most 
 advanced book of almost every other school series, seems to 
 have for its aim much more to give information than to give 
 a lesson in language and its uses. **The -lessons are all con- 
 nected and systematic, forming, when read, a Course of 
 Instruction in English and General History, the Elements of 
 Physics and Natural History ; with geographical questions 
 
 o 
 
146 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 and chronological notes, together with definitions and roots, 
 explanations of scientific terms, and various statistical and other 
 tables. The book is thus eminently a text book, complete in 
 itself, yet affording facilities for additional teaching to the ut- 
 most extent of the teacher's capacity/' Indeed books of so 
 condensed and encyclopaedic a character as these top reading- 
 books, demand from the teacher a large amount of explanation 
 and illustration to awaken the children of uneducated parents 
 to clear conceptions of the subjects upon which they treat ; 
 for without such explanation and illustration, the interrogation 
 upon them has a constant tendency to degenerate into a sort 
 of verbal catechism of ''useful knowledge." * * 
 
 I must reserve, until some future opportunity, an examina- 
 tion of those numerous details of process, their uses and their 
 abuses, which make or which mar success in the work of the 
 various classes, according as they are employed to the extent 
 of their real value, or neglected, or abused. Such are the sim- 
 ultaneous reading, which is occasionally used with effect to get 
 children to speak with a sufficient body of voice, but is more 
 commonly a blind for total inattention on the part of nine-tenths 
 of the children ; — the viva voce spelling of a whole sentence dic- 
 tated by the monitor, each one round the class taking a word, 
 which is a good exercise of attention and memory, as well as 
 in spelling ; — the dictation of sentences to be written down, 
 which is not sufficiently practised, the dictation in British 
 schools being chiefly of single words, merely for the purposes 
 of a writing lesson ; — the taking of places on mutual correc- 
 tion in reading, which may be carried to such an extent as to 
 prevent any one sentence being ever clearly uttered, or be 
 totally neglected, on the plea of discouraging emulation, which 
 generally breeds dulness, indifference, and mental vagrancy in 
 classes which are not under the direct control of a skilled and 
 adult mind, and in regard to which a proper medium is abso- 
 lutely requisite, one involving sufficient emulation to keep up 
 attention, without causing confusion ; — the exemplar reading 
 of the monitor, which may be so unceasing that the children 
 are not called upon to look closely enough at the words they 
 utter, but is more commonly a very valuable part of the read- 
 ing exercise, improving to all parties ; — the employment of 
 younger children only to teach the younger, which, without a 
 vigilance which can scarcely ever be expected, is only one 
 
SELECTION OF LESSONS 147 
 
 step above the use of monitors in the village schools, described 
 to me by a Welsh master as being merely **to plague the 
 young ones ; ' — the selection of the lessons and the appoint- 
 ment of the quantity to be read and studied, which is neglected 
 in the feeblest schools, as the training of the monitor to the 
 very lesson to be taught is in almost all of them; — the 
 inspection of the school by the master himself, which, in the 
 feeble schools, is neither sufficiently frequent, nor followed by 
 an emendation of their processes ; — and the training of the 
 monitors, which, in the best schools only, is such as to keep 
 them universally to the first essentials of class discipline 
 and progress ; viz., retaining their own places ; allowing 
 only one boy to read, speak, or spell at once, while all the 
 rest are kept sensibly liable to appeal ; telling nothing until 
 they have tried round the class to see if some one of the 
 children cannot answer ; and when they have told, questioning 
 the whole of the class again, to be sure that the information 
 was received, as the boy who first made the blunder should 
 be questioned, if he had been told by another child. 1847, 
 II. 65—86. 
 
 I have almost universally been met with lamentations, in 
 the case of British schools, over the early removal of the 
 monitors to their various industrial employments. * * 
 Against this evil it is felt, I believe almost universally by 
 those who avail themselves of it, that the apprenticeship of 
 pupil- teachers presents an effective and the only effective 
 antidote. 1848, 11. 337. 
 
 is one of the large British Schools for boys, conducted 
 
 by a master of the earnest old school — kind, honest, and 
 unaffected, but without much mental alacrity, and, in this 
 instance, without that superior sense of order which is usual 
 in those of his standing. He is evidently popular, however, 
 and has assembled around him a great hall full of remarkably 
 fine children, whose countenances beam with health and good 
 nature, if not with intelligence derived from their books. The 
 amount of this is, in fact, very limited, except in the case of 
 four or five top boys, who do all the answering in the top 
 classes, while the others take up their words mechanically 
 or neglect them altogether. Some of the monitors question 
 their classes in the same manner, while others circulate round 
 their classes and have a whispering question and answer with 
 
148 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 each child, just as they have a sentence read by each in a 
 whispering tone, while all the rest of each numerous class is 
 idle, and therefore falling into disorder. Slowness, therefore, 
 prevails through all the classes on every subject ; and yet the 
 master has ability enough to teach up to the standard of a 
 stipendiary monitor- school, and energy enough to do his duty 
 to the whole number, if he could be prevailed upon completely 
 to revise his methods and reconstruct his classes, first throw- 
 ing off the dominance of mere habit, under which he has 
 somewhat succumbed. 1848, II. 302, 303. 
 
 A very early effect of the augmentation of the teaching power 
 of the schools by the apprenticeship of pupils will be a general 
 enlargement of the classes, and augmentation of collective 
 teaching in sections. This is altogether a healthy progress : 
 but, first, as the monitorial subdivision of a school has its 
 own especial defects, so has the collective teaching in large 
 sections its own especial places of weakness, the prevailing 
 ignorance of which jeopardises its success, and calls for a few 
 observations towards its removal ; for it threatens to entail 
 equal injury upon the children and upon their new pupil- 
 instructors. * "^ 
 
 The mere fact of 30 children or upwards being arranged 
 before a teacher in gallery does not insure their instruction 
 by him, however clear his own apprehension may be of the 
 subject-matter of his discourse, and however fluent and pleas- 
 ing a lecturer he may prove himself. It is essential that the 
 little people should not be removed too far from each other in 
 mental stature, and yet further that they should all and 
 severally be required to carry on a course of mental effort 
 addressed to the matter before them. The former requisite is 
 v/anting wherever a whole school receives the most essential 
 parts of its instruction simultaneously; and the latter is wanting 
 wherever, as in nine cases out of ten, it is supposed to be 
 obtained by requiring simultaneous answers, or answers which 
 are supposed to be simultaneous, and which are at least 
 indiscriminate, from the whole assembly, that is, wherever 
 the questions which occur in the conversational lecture are 
 thrown before the class indiscriminately, and any, or all 
 who can, may answer. The character of this answering will 
 be understood on a moment's reflection, when it is perceived 
 that it commonly comes, from all who speak, in precisely the 
 
SIMULTANEOUS TEACHING 149 
 
 same words, and that it is sometimes simultaneously wrong in 
 the same words, as well as, more frequently, simultaneously 
 right. In effect, the words of a few older children, who alone 
 are really following the teacher, are caught up by the rest 
 with a rapidity which an uninitiated ear is unable to detect ; 
 and the result is so cheerful a noise that the teacher himself 
 often believes he is instructing the whole section, especially 
 when, now and then, he requires an unusually long or hard 
 answer, given only by an elder boy or two, to be repeated by 
 *'all together." Now in this case the gallery or section is 
 matched against the master to learn as little as possible ; for 
 boys no more than men will think more than they can help ; 
 and the greater number always hide themselves from instruc- 
 tion by a rapid transference from the ear to the lips of the 
 answers of a few elder quicker boys, or simply a very 
 obedient repetition of them **all together" when desired. But 
 how is this defect to be remedied p * * Children will sit 
 amused or calmed by the voice and manner of a lively teacher 
 for a long time, even though going through no mental effort, 
 and receiving no consistent set of ideas whatever ; while the 
 insufficiency of the moral appeal to industry, where idleness 
 is allowed to pass without detection, is, in the case of child- 
 hood, obviously unavailing. 
 
 The most skilful teachers, however, well know how to 
 convert a thriftless coUectiveness of vocal utterance into a 
 fruitful coUectiveness of mental effort, by employing, in addi- 
 tion to the preceeding means, not only a well-digested system 
 of progress from the known to the unknown in their simulta- 
 neous lessons, but also a method of individual questioning, to 
 which all are held liable in rapid and irregular succession on 
 the failure of any one to make answer ; and the consciousness 
 of this liability compels each to follow the course of the 
 teacher's facts and reasoning for himself. When the right 
 answer is at length obtained on this plan, its repetition by 
 **all together," as the complement of a general effort, is a 
 useful climax ; but unless the questioning generally be thus 
 individualized, it is impossible to render the teaching really 
 collective, A common practice is, on the contrary, to make 
 the greater portion of the questioning general for simultaneous 
 or indiscriminate answering, with an occasional interrogation 
 addressed to an individual boy ; but the masters by whom I 
 
150 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 saw it used did not by this means effectually break up the 
 tacit combination of the boys for the perpetuation of their 
 ignorance ; for they were placed at such a distance, that each 
 boy thus unfrequently challenged had the advantage of a 
 considerable radius of whispers to enable him to answer that 
 which, however correct it might be, he would not, thus 
 ])rompted, retain with any distinctness or intelligence. 
 
 I beg to point out these defects in relation to the simulta- 
 neous instruction, because it is a rising element in the schools 
 which are now absorbing my whole attention, and because 
 the same defects are very prevalent, though not to so great an 
 extent, in the monitorial classes. It is obvious that the same 
 vice may prevail in a monitor's class of ten, nearly as much as 
 in a master's gallery of a hundred children, in all the inter- 
 rogatory exercises. A genuine collectiveness of attention , 
 however, is more frequently lost in these drafts, by the proper 
 system of individual challenge, under liability to mutual cor • 
 rection (whether with or without the taking of places) being 
 superseded, not by simultaneity of answering, but by the 
 opposite vice of purely individual instruction. This arises 
 from the want of proper training among, or superintendence 
 over, the monitors, and is not unfrequently witnessed in the 
 master's own class. It consists in the teacher or monitor 
 doing all the work of correction himself, whether in reading, 
 arithmetic, or any other lesson, whenever a fault is committed 
 or a wrong answer made, instead of using first some proper 
 system of mutual correction on the part of the children, 
 whether with or without the taking of places from each other, 
 by which to compel a true simultaneity of attention. In this 
 case the instruction is purely individual to each child in suc- 
 cession, while all the others await their turn in ill- disciplined 
 indolence of mind. Thus, in a class of twelve, they are at 
 work only one-twelfth of the time that they are assembled, 
 and that twelfth in but a half-aroused and slovenly disposition. 
 In the reading exercises, for instance, when all the correction 
 is done by the monitor, each boy, when his turn arrives, finds 
 out his place, reads in as low a tone as possible, and constantly 
 strives to "bolt" the words which he does not know in half- 
 uttered state ; a combination of perversenesses which no 
 monitor has the moral energies steadily and continuously to 
 resist ; for the public opinion and fixed habits of the whole 
 
MUTUAL CORRECTION 151 
 
 drafts are against him, and he hopelessly slurs over his duty, 
 which is the next step to giving it up altogether and proceed- 
 ing to play with the boys before him. 
 
 In a well- organized school, on the contrary, the boys would 
 have been required to correct each other's reading, or answer- 
 ing, or processes in working round a sum in arithmetic, by 
 being individually challenged by the monitor, and being 
 required silently to hold up their hands if they thought they 
 could make a correction ; and not only would their collective 
 attention be thus secured, but their eagerness would spur on 
 the monitor himself, and not allow him to pass over a blunder, 
 which would be made sufficiently audible by the changed 
 opinion in favour of distinct instead of indistinct utterance, 
 when every boy is looking to correct the one who is speaking. 
 In fact, it will be obvious that, in a monitorial school of 
 elementary instruction, there is room, with a small staff of 
 good monitors, either for very considerable success, by the 
 employment of methods which secure collective attention, or 
 for every degree of failure, where it is missed either by a 
 noisy simultaneity of reading or answering, or a scarcely less 
 defective plan of successive individual instruction, by an agency 
 which is destitute of the moral energies to carry it out. 
 
 In the schools expressly of monitorial organization may be 
 witnessed every grade of failure or of success in the processes 
 of technical instruction which form so large a proportion of 
 the duties of an elementary school ; and according as the type 
 of a monitorial school, carried in the mind of the critic, is 
 one of the most successful or the most failing in regard to its 
 methods, does its system generally receive unlimited praise or 
 unhmited condemnation. But that the latter is as unwise as 
 the former I receive daily evidence in many of the schools 
 whose teachers are struggling in the van of Christian education 
 among the poor. For in the schools in which simultaneous 
 instruction in sections, or to the whole school, has made most 
 progress in the imperfect manner already described, a rather 
 premature contempt for all monitorial agency, which it is not, 
 therefore, thought worth while to train and discipline, causes 
 the whole of the monitorial work in them to be of an inferior 
 character ; while yet, composed of a considerable number of 
 children of very various ages under only one teacher, as these 
 schools are, a large proportion of their exercises are necessarily 
 
152 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 made over to monitors thus unprepared for any useful effort. 
 The consequences are obvious. They drop into slow, slovenly, 
 and incorrect individual instruction ; the monitors going from 
 child to child, and having a sentence imperfectly muttered by 
 each in succession. Except that which is given by the master 
 individually to the higher boys, the instruction throughout the 
 body of these schools is therefore frequently wanting both in 
 accuracy and in distribution, as compared with that pervading 
 the better monitorial schools. This is a grievous disappoint- 
 ment where so much has been sacrificed to get the adult or 
 adolescent teachers into more direct and constant intercourse 
 with the children generally, in lieu of their being left so much 
 to a weak monitorial agency ; and is by no means a necessary 
 result of the change, but a mere accident of transition, which 
 may be repaired by the careful employment of proper methods 
 of compelling collective attention, and by carefully training 
 the monitors to their use, so long as monitorial agency of 
 some kind continues to be rendered necessary by the limited 
 pecuniary resources of our popular schools. The competition 
 for places in the class may form a part of those methods, or 
 may be omitted from them : but with a monitorial agency I 
 have generally found its moderate use to be valuable, as a 
 wedge to the practice of mutual correction. * * The 
 
 relative superiority of the school, consists mainly 
 
 in neither monitorial nor simultaneous instruction being 
 despised, but each being used in the great body of the school 
 to its proper purpose, with a set of methods that make the 
 instruction thoroughly collective in both. Indeed, without 
 such methods the young teacher of a gallery is in almost as 
 demoralizing a position as the little monitor of an unorganized 
 or disorganized class ; for the perpetual clangour of his 
 lecturing, and the children's seemingly simultaneous replies, 
 without his having to encounter the labour of compelling each 
 and all to independent mental effort, give a show of success 
 and progress which is exceedingly encouraging to the sug- 
 gestions of self-conceit, and may entail many a painful trial 
 or absolute ruin on the victim of them ; a danger sufficiently 
 great, around all young people brought up through the whole 
 period of adolescence in the practice of teaching much more 
 than of learning, to dictate their protection from it in every 
 way that may be available. * * 
 
WANT OF MENTAL ACTIVITY 153 
 
 The extent to which a vigorous instruction pervades the 
 generality of schools is far too limited, owing to the want of 
 sufficient funds, and therefore of greater teaching power, in 
 the shape of adolescent if not adult assistance to the master 
 or mistress. Hence results a practical neglect of the mental 
 training of the younger children in too many of the boys' and 
 girls* schools, whether of monitorial or simultaneous instruc- 
 tion, for successive years of their attendance in them, and a 
 very justifiable doubt on the part of the parents whether it be 
 worth while to send the children to school at all or not. If 
 to this large portion of the school attendance we add those of 
 the elder children who virtually lose nine-tenths of their time 
 through defective methods in their classes, we get a mass of 
 dulness, sometimes qualified by a conceit of verbal progress, 
 which should awaken us to the fact that the real frontier of 
 ignorance lies too often within the schools, and that we ought 
 not to estimate the progress of education so much by the 
 number present, as by the proportion who attain to certain 
 classes in them. It is with this view that I have frequently 
 taken the liberty of directing the attention of visiting mem- 
 bers of the committees rather to exemplar drafts of the middle 
 and lower sections in their several schools than to the top 
 draft, or the apparently simultaneous answering of the whole 
 mass, to which attention is usually restricted ; for it is in 
 the former alone that they can really witness what their 
 institution is doing for the majority of the children who 
 frequent it ; and if they will compare the attainments of 
 children in such drafts with the time they have been in school, 
 they will not always find ground for satisfaction with what 
 they are doing to elevate the general population around them. 
 This defectiveness is by no means limited to the monitorial 
 schools ; it attaches quite as much to those characterised by 
 their profession of almost exclusive simultaneous teaching : 
 and merely to change the pattern of our cheap schools is but 
 to give a new lease to the flattering error that we can really 
 educate a people without teachers ; teachers, that is, in some 
 reasonable proportion to the numbers to be taught, and them- 
 selves well grounded in the elements of an English education, 
 and well trained to the use of the best methods. If such 
 were universally to be found in the girls' schools, for instance, 
 the ladies would be less sensible of the degree of conceit 
 
154 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 which they complain of being sometimes bred in them. That 
 years spent in mental indolence and vain utterances should 
 be accompanied by feebleness, well satisfied with the case of 
 its fancied progress, is not surprising any more than that the 
 few top girls who do all the public answering for a whole 
 school, of which they are quite conscious themselves though 
 the spectator is not, should believe themselves preeminently 
 accomplished. Had earnest attention and genuine exertion 
 been constantly required from them, in exercises consistent 
 with their years, and having a constant leaning towards a 
 knowledge of common things, and of the duties and resources 
 of their homes and their station, there would have been little 
 ground for such a complaint ; but that it is too often well 
 founded under present circumstances I cannot deny. 
 
 So, likewise, in the boys' schools, the waste half of the 
 time of the "slate- writers,*' with the aids now offered by the 
 Government to those which have the abler class of teachers, 
 might be profitably employed to the awakening of habits of 
 careful observation and of grateful inquiry, which would find 
 boundless exercise in the trees, plants, animals, birds, insects, 
 stones, earths, and implements or products of industry, which 
 they see in their daily paths. To what a new being of 
 innocent enjoyment would such a training awaken their now 
 dormant and listless minds, if redeemed from the barren 
 verbiage to which the lessons in the elements of science, 
 taken crudely from works of too encyclopaedic ''a character, 
 are so frequently restricted, to the stultification of the children, 
 and the needless horror of persons who believe that they are 
 being made *'too wise," when their good hearts would be 
 filled with delight to witness the far humbler and more genu- 
 ine progress which the children might easily make in an 
 acquaintance with the common things around them ! What 
 broader, what safer, what more hopeful basis shall human 
 effort lay down, even for their instruction in that self-know- 
 ledge which can be derived only from the words of revealed 
 truth, applied to the heart by divine grace supplicated in a 
 Redeemer's name, than a habit of gratefully contemplating 
 the beauties and wonders which surround them, with hearts 
 directed to the Creator's praise ; a Creator whose beneficence 
 is thus brought home to them, not as a barren dogma but a 
 vivid truth, in which they live, and move, and have their 
 
DAY AND SUNDAY SCHOOLS 155 
 
 being ! The day-school, in lieu of being the rival of the 
 Sunday-school, as in some of the manufacturing districts, 
 ought, indeed, to be its great helpmate. 
 
 However essential such a training may seem to any course 
 claiming the name of education, it has yet to be commenced 
 for all the children in our schools, except a few in the top 
 classes of the best of them. And grateful indeed as we ought 
 to be for the degree of instruction which has been spread 
 among the poorer classes, their '* day-school education'* is still 
 in its infancy, even in the most favoured places ; while in 
 remote, though often not less densely populated districts, its 
 existence is little more than nominal, whatever may be the 
 exceeding number of infants "kept quiet" in the kitchens of 
 the dames, or of uneducated and untrained teachers earning a 
 scanty pittance under permission to assemble a few children 
 on week-days amidst the superfluous desks and benches of 
 the Sunday-schools. Even under more favourable circum- 
 stances it is too much the habit of committees, as well as of 
 teachers, to estimate the success of their schools merely by the 
 numbers in attendance, and the increased facility which this 
 attendance gives them of keeping out of debt without overstrain- 
 ing in the collections ; and I have encountered one or two 
 painful instances of the misuse of popular confidence, by both 
 teachers and committees relaxing instead of redoubling their 
 efforts, under the augmented charge. 1848, II. 228 — 236. 
 
 The masters in some of the most important institutions 
 have distinctly expressed their opinion that the additional 
 labour of instructing the apprentices is compensated by the 
 assistance which they afford in the management of the schools ; 
 and even when they feel that the work is too severe a pressure 
 upon them, they have generally declared that it would be 
 impossible to carry on the instruction, or maintain the disci- 
 pline in its present condition, without such aid. 1850, I. 58. 
 
 Considerable observation has given me the conviction, that 
 the monitorial type, if carried out vigorously, subserves 
 technical accuracy more surely and uniformly than the simul- 
 taneous ; but that the latter is on the whole better adapted 
 for exercising moral influence. To drill each child in his 
 lessons, and give him the full advantage of constant repetition 
 in all exercises which depend upon memory and habit, he 
 must constantly be more or less individualised. Such an 
 
156 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 individualization is only accomplished with considerable effort 
 in collective teaching ; while it is the natural effect of a well- 
 applied monitorial agency. On the contrary, moral education 
 is aided rather than hindered by the sympathy of numbers. 
 Accuracy of memory or judgment, is not what is here demand- 
 ed, but rather an indefinable yet all-powerful influence, which 
 may pervade the whole mass, and shed a glow of feeling 
 and impulse into every heart. 1850, IT. 476, 477. 
 
 One great principle they [the Wesleyan Teachers trained 
 at Glasgow] took with them, and had it moulded at Glasgow, 
 which was, that their own conduct in the management of the 
 school must be an exemplification of the Christian character, 
 with a view to awaken a reflection of it in the hearts of the 
 children, and, with a blessing, render it indelible, by vivifying 
 to their minds the words of many a simple yet fertile text. 
 All that can result from such a principle will be found in their 
 schools to a far greater extent than it ought humanly to have 
 been hoped or expected ; the hearts of the children are rightly 
 directed ; and great care is constantly taken to cultivate and 
 train their affections. Another principle they acquired at 
 Glasgow, which was, to do as much as possible for the 
 education of their children themselves, and as little by any 
 other agency as they possibly could. And this, also, is a 
 great and living principle, one which is ever sending forth 
 new shoots of good exertion, and certainly has called forth 
 every power of these men. But its being carried to the 
 extreme of doing virtually nothing by delegated agency, in an 
 overstrained horror of the '^monitorial system," as necessarily 
 involving a moral blight, has, I think, contributed to send 
 some valuable men to an early grave, to break up several 
 schools, and greatly to cripple the efi[iciency of others. ''' * 
 
 The effect upon the organization of the schools generally, 
 arising from the employment of pupil teachers in them, has 
 been to bring both the monitorial and the simultaneous schools 
 (the British and the Glasgow respectfully) much nearer to a 
 common standard. In the British schools the result has 
 generally been, not the abolition of the monitorial drafts, but 
 the restriction of their use to the technical work of the school, 
 and the subjection of them in small groups to the manage- 
 ment of the several pupil-teachers, who became responsible 
 to the master, not only for the detail of instruction given by 
 
SIMULTANEOUS INSTRUCTION 157 
 
 themselves, but also for the general skill of the monitors 
 assistant in each, and for the general conduct of the children. 
 These drafts are occasionally thrown together by the pupil- 
 teacher for collective instruction, and the sections thus 
 formed, each under its own officer, gives to the master a 
 general command of the whole, superior to that which he 
 formerly had, because it is now intelligent and gentle in the 
 highest degree, instead of being merely mechanical. '^ * 
 
 The effect on the schools of simultaneous instruction, on 
 the other hand, has been to break down the gross unmanage- 
 able mass, formed by a whole school assembled in an enormous 
 gallery, into more available sections ; and to awaken the 
 teachers, now that they have a subordinate agency superior 
 to mere monitors, to the development or adoption of methods 
 for the best economy of their services ; a course which awakens 
 them to the fact, that even the monitorial agency is, for tech- 
 nical exercises, susceptible of a skill much greater than was 
 ever contemplated in their little practising drafts, under 
 children misnamed monitors, because completely and avowedly 
 untrained. * * The effect on the girls* schools has like- 
 wise been to group the monitorial classes into sections under 
 their respective pupil-teachers ; and the advancement in their 
 general vigour, when the system has been a year in operation, 
 is very remarkable.* 1850, II. 260, 266, 267. 
 
 In many a remote town or village, it is hard to say whether 
 there be any stimulus at all. Month after month rolls away, 
 often year after year, and brings the same unvarying round of 
 duty. There are none at hand to watch the progress of mental 
 improvement, none perhaps who could estimate it very ac- 
 curately if they did, none to test the efficiency of the education 
 imparted, or offer counsel so as to aid its increase. In other 
 cases, again, the impulse offered is one which tends to favour 
 a showy and shallow method of instruction rather than a 
 sound and useful system ; so that the master is tempted 
 almost unconsciously to neglect the more important branches 
 for those which are merely ornamental. And even should 
 this not be the case, yet how is a teacher in a remote district 
 to come in contact with the constant improvements w^hich are 
 making in the science of education ? How is he, cut off from 
 
 * [See instances of schools particularly deserving of attention, in the Beport 
 from which the above extracts are taken, pp. 266— 268 J 
 
158 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 all intercourse with those who cultivate such topics, to keep 
 up with the spirit of the age, or even to know where to apply 
 for the means of doing so ? 
 
 The only method which could readily be suggested to meet 
 this difficulty is probably to be found in a regular and vigor- 
 ous system of inspection. This, I believe, is very generally 
 felt to be one great advantage which must result from the full 
 carrying out of the plans now adopted by the Committee of 
 Council. In several instances, where no other aid has been 
 required, I have received applications for the inspection of 
 schools simply on account of the advantages believed to 
 accrue from the very process. In most cases, I have been 
 well assured that the inspection afforded has been regarded as 
 a benefit, the repetition of which would be sincerely welcomed ; 
 and in no instances, except where the utmost ignorance of our 
 views and purposes prevail, has it ever been even surmised 
 that anything in the form of espionage or authoritative dic- 
 tation was in the smallest degree intended, or any other 
 purpose kept in view than that of increasing the efficacy of 
 the schools visited, without touching in any way up(3n their 
 entire self-government. * * Where the expression *"'the 
 Government plan of Education" has been either misappro- 
 priated or misunderstood, as to convey the notion that a single 
 definite and stereotyped system was to be advocated and 
 enforced, there is no wonder that amongst some portions at 
 least of the community a feeling of jealousy should have been 
 awakened. But when it has been seen that the *' Government 
 plan" is to enforce no plan whatever, but simply to proffer 
 aid, knowledge, information, and incentives to all alike, few 
 indeed have been the cases under my own observation in 
 which confidence and satisfaction have not been the result. 
 1848, II. 339, 340. 
 
 During each of the five hours of teaching, the pupils»are 
 generally arrranged in five classes : and as the instruction is 
 limited to the single branch of English readiog, with its usual 
 accompaniments of spelling and grammar, the distribution is 
 a simple matter, and seems to have been made w^ith a due 
 discrimination of the various degrees of proficiency. lliree 
 classes are always under instruction by the master and his 
 assistants, and two are left to prepare their appointed tasks 
 without aid. To secure the application of those thus resigned 
 
SELF-RELIANCE 159 
 
 to themselves is an important point in the art of school man- 
 agement, and has given rise to the common expedient of teach- 
 ing by monitors. But that method has not been here adopted. 
 It is deemed enough to have prescribed a task to be executed 
 in due time, the pupils being always at liberty, in the mean- 
 vrhile, to enquire of the master or his assistants, the explana- 
 tion of any difficulty that occurs. At the same time, it is 
 supposed that, in this manner, they become best acquainted 
 with the invaluable feeling of self-reliance, and are best trained 
 to habits of spontaneous exertion. These expectations cannot 
 be wholly disappointed : but it is evident that the best possible 
 order is not attained, when the business of a class may be at 
 any time interrupted by the demands of others upon the 
 teacher's attention : nor is it advisable to leave much to the 
 unguided study of the pupils, while the power of application 
 has yet to be acquired, and is itself the faculty which mainly 
 seeks the cultivating care of a skilful master. To the older 
 and more advanced pupils it may not be so necessary that they 
 should be under constant teaching : but in this division of the 
 school, almost all are in those early stages, at which it is not 
 so proper to task their free industry in learning, as to teach 
 them how to learn. It is believed, therefore, that by the use 
 of other methods than are here employed, the respectable 
 individual who conducts this division might succeed in better 
 fixing the attention of the pupils who are not under his 
 instruction ; and generally, in occupying their school hours 
 with a more effective training. 1846, II. 354. 
 
 It is by oral instruction alone that poor ignorant children 
 can be led on, for the first time, to think, to reason, and to 
 understand. * * It is, moreover, a consideration in this 
 view of the matter, not without its weight, that oral instruction 
 is a means by which great moral ascendancy is given to the 
 teacher over the minds of his scholars. * * It is the 
 defect of oral instruction that it does not make students ; it 
 neither gives the habit of self-instruction, nor the taste for it. 
 The difficulties opposed to the acquisition of knowledge are 
 in a lecture smoothed away ; the mind accustoms itself to 
 lean upon the lecturer, and goes painfully and unwillingly 
 alone. 1846,11. 20, 21. 
 
 Training and teaching are with the greater part, even of 
 those who are well informed, synonymous terms, and the 
 
160 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 possession of knowledge is considered tantamount to the 
 power of imparting it. One great proof of this is the small 
 number of masters able to give a ** gallery lesson," — an 
 unskilful master at this exercise fails in imparting to the 
 children the information he possesses, who, uninterested in the 
 lesson, become restless and impatient, and retire from the 
 gallery wearied out with the attempts which have been made 
 to force information upon them. 1848, I. 108. 
 
 "The characteristics of young children that must be kept 
 in view and acted upon, in order to secure their attention, to 
 interest them in their lessons, and to gain ascendency over 
 them [are: — ] 1. Love of activity. 2. Love of imitation. 
 3. Curiosity, or love of knowledge. 4. Susceptibility to 
 kindness and sympathy. 5. Deficiency in the power of 
 attention. 6. The love of frequent change. 7. The force of 
 early association. 8. Disposition to repeat the means by which 
 they have once attained their ends." 1847, IL 581. 
 
 The vagrant thoughts of the children constitute the chief 
 obstacle a master has to contend with in teaching them. This 
 unsettled state of the mind in children, the skilful master — 
 knowing it to be proper to their years — rather seeks to turn 
 to his use than to contend with. To keep alive the interest 
 of the children in the lesson, he varies it by frequent examina- 
 tions ; his questions follow in a rapid succession ; they tend 
 to a drawing out of the reason rather than the memory, and 
 he shifts continually the point of view in which his subject is 
 presented, giving prominence to those features of it by which 
 it is related to things familiar to the children themselves. 
 All that he does is founded on a careful study of the charac- 
 teristics of childhood, and a just appreciation of them. He 
 has carefully observed the ways of the children, and the efforts 
 they make to reflect, reason, and understand. Of the know- 
 ledge he has thus acquired he avails himself to command their 
 attention ; and when this fails, he calls the s3nnQpathy of 
 numbers to his aid, or throws in the element of emulation. 
 Warming with his task, the interest he feels passes to the 
 children, and the whole group glows with the desire to know. 
 The new condition thus induced in the mind of each individual 
 child whilst the lesson lasts is not of necessity transient — the 
 lesson is repeated daily ; it becomes, therefore, a state of mind 
 in some degree habitual. In respect to that element of sue- 
 
IMPROVEMENT 161 
 
 cessful teaching which consists in a firm and collected manner, 
 a full command of language, a due knowledge of the subject- 
 matter of the lesson, and practised facility in communicating 
 it, I can bear a far more favourable testimony to the efforts of 
 these youths at this than at any previous examination. I 
 observe, moreover, more common sense in selecting subjects 
 proper to the instruction of children, and a more patient and 
 faithful way of dealing with their intelligences, than heretofore. 
 1847, I. 534. 
 
 That which compels the attention of the class to the lesson, 
 opens for it a way to the understandings of the children and 
 fixes it there, is the examination founded on it ; and that 
 such an examination may be successful, the questions must be 
 well selected, ready at hand, as flowing from a full mind, apt 
 and consecutive, and the whole effort characterized by energy, 
 vivacity, and fervour. 1847, I. 498, 499. 
 
 With regard to the intelligence of the children's replies 
 when under examination, one point is deserving of remark : 
 that in general the teachers of our National schools do not 
 sufliciently discourage the thoughtless and unmeaning guesses 
 which the children frequently make in answer to a simple 
 question. It should be remembered that, to the child's mind, 
 any answer seems to be an answer, whether it be right or 
 wrong. He is satisfied with himself at having replied to the 
 question ; the greater part of his class-fellows are equally 
 satisfied. They see that he has answered quickly, and there- 
 fore, in their eyes, well. If this were not a very common 
 fault, it would be needless to insist here on its mischievous 
 tendency that, above all things, it makes the children thought- 
 less. A great object of elementary education is to make them 
 think ; the daily practice of many schools is so to propose the 
 questions to a class, and so to require its answers, that the 
 children cannot think. They reply, not because they know% 
 but because they are ignorant of the right answer — not, 
 because they would, but because they must, say something. 
 Half, at least, of the foolish replies which are made to ques- 
 tions arise from this cause, that the master does not sufficiently 
 reprove this habit (for the bad habit is soon formed) of 
 guessing. 1846, II. 163, 164. 
 
 It is not to be supposed, that, to become good teachers, 
 they can know too much of the subjects they have to teach. 
 
162 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 Of the elementary lessons it has been my duty to listen to 
 and to pass a judgment upon, here and elsewhere, the pre- 
 vaihng and characteristic defect has been, not too much 
 knowledge, but too little. Had the teacher known more of 
 the subject of his lesson, it has been my constant observation, 
 that he would have been able to select from it things better 
 adapted for the instruction of children. Had his mind been 
 more highly cultivated, and the resources of his intellect 
 brought by education more fully under his control, he would 
 have been able to place them under simpler forms, and in a 
 better manner to adapt the examination founded upon them 
 to the individual capacities of the children he had to teach. 
 Accordingly y the simplest lessons I have listened to in training 
 schools, have commonly been those delivered hy the ablest and 
 best-instructed students. It is not the fact, that the teacher 
 knows too much, which makes him unintelligible to the 
 child, but, that he knows nothing which the child can com- 
 prehend, or that he has never studied what he has to 
 teach in the light in which a child can be made to compre- 
 hend it. That fulness of knowledge on the part of the 
 teacher, of which my experience has led me to appreciate the 
 importance, is a fulness of the knowledge of things adapted 
 to the instruction of children, studied under the forms in 
 which they are most readily intelligble to them ; of things 
 learned in the light in which they are also to be taught. It 
 includes, notwithstanding, the knowledge of many things 
 which a child can never be expected to know. That the 
 teacher may be able to present the subject under its most 
 elementary form to the mind of the child, he must himself 
 have gone to the root of it. That he may exhaust it of all 
 that it is capable of yielding for the child's instruction, he 
 must have compassed the whole of it. * * 
 
 Every man must be conscious of a separation made by 
 education, between his own mind and that of a less educated 
 man ; a separation which enlarges with each step of his 
 intellectual progress, and which is widened to its utmost 
 conceivable limits, when the relation is that of a poor ignorant 
 child, to a teacher, otherwise highly instructed, but who 
 knows nothing likely to interest the child, or has been 
 accustomed to study nothing in the light in which it may be 
 made intelligible to the child. Their intercourse, under these 
 
SELF-TEACHING 163 
 
 circumstance^, cannot but be mutually distasteful, and the 
 school must be to both equally a place of bondage ; the child 
 neither benefiting by it as a learner, nor the master as a 
 teacher. * * 
 
 There was this feature, worthy of observation in the 
 
 lessons delivered in the School, that the teacher broke 
 
 up his lesson into parts, teaching by the way of exposition, 
 only so long at one time as not to weary the attention of the 
 children, and over-burden their memories, then examining 
 upon that portion, afterwards taking up the subject where he 
 had left it oiF, and thus continuing the process until the lesson 
 was completed, when he examined upon the whole of it. 
 Oral teaching requires, more than any other, constant self- 
 teaching on the part of the master. It is a method which 
 will be adopted by no master who is not of a dedicated spirit 
 and fond of his work. Besides, however, that satisfaction 
 which he will derive from it in the success of his school, he 
 will not fail to experience this other, that whatever, for this 
 object, he leaches himself, will be fixed more firmly in his 
 mind, and that his Imowledge of it will receive a character of 
 clearness and precision, not perhaps otherwise to be gained. 
 In the teaching of the students of all the Training Institutions 
 I have observed, and it was perhaps to be expected, a pel:- 
 petual tendency to travel out of the sphere of the intelligence of 
 the children, and out of the limits of that kind of knowledge 
 which is likely to interest or to benefit them. 1848, II. 
 439—442. 
 
 The teacher should never forget that the objects of collec- 
 tive lessons are at once to exercise the faculties of the elder 
 pupils, and to keep up the attention of the youngest ; no child 
 should learn the lesson without acquiring some useful and 
 practical information. 1845, II. 190. 
 
 Sometimes the master is too liberal of his help. * * It 
 thus happens that, sometimes, the master ^explains far more 
 than he interrogates, and scarcely pauses to ascertain the 
 eff'ect of the lesson he has given ; or again, that the pupil 
 learns nothing and attends to nothing but what the master 
 teaches, and only at the moment while he is employed in 
 teaching, to the total renouncement of all private study. * * 
 On the other hand, the master is sometimes too sparing of 
 his aid. This is observable chiefly in those branches in which 
 
164 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 the teacher's aid is most needed — as in that of Religious 
 Truth. * * The pupil, it is always to be remembered, has 
 two instructors, the master and himself ; but to the former 
 it belongs to assign to each his proper portion of the task. 
 1848, 11. 369. 
 
 The greatest defect in the gallery lessons, as now given, 
 appears to me to be the absence of any express methods of 
 exciting legitimate curiosity y or rational hypothesis, to animate 
 the whole of the exercise, and give it the true character of 
 investigation. * * [In the "object lessons,"] after 
 obtaining general attention to this object, — suppose a child's 
 cotton pinafore, before juveniles from six to ten years of age, — 
 the next step (in lieu of an amusing account of the cotton- 
 tree, and its cultivation by blacks in very hot countries, 
 &c., &c.), should be to get them to describe all the more 
 obvious qualities of the material, then to question them for 
 the sources of those qualities, as, for instance, how it was they 
 could partially see the light through it, and blow through it, 
 while yet it was of such equable thickness and smoothness. 
 They will make the most absurd guesses, and only gradually 
 approach the truth, to which it would be the teacher's care 
 gradually to lead their minds, approving every genuine effort, 
 and discouraging the folly of the over- volatile. The experi- 
 ment of a rent, which many will have tried but few utilised, 
 will then show, in a piece of coarse calico, in answer to the 
 queries raised in their minds, the disposition of the threads, 
 which may be illustrated by that of the rods in a little wicker 
 basket, how it is that they escape at this rent, and waste 
 away the material, and the use, therefore, of the hem. Then 
 let them strive to form some idea how the work can have been 
 accompHshed of thus interweaving the threads ; how laborious 
 and almost impossible by the unaided bauds ; and thus (through 
 the like interrogative course, never giving them a new piece 
 of information until it comes as the answer to a rational pre- 
 sumption) show them, by sight and touch, by observation and 
 expeiiment as much as possible, the several arrangements of 
 the simplest form of loom. Next should be examined how 
 the threads themselves were composed, and this might be 
 illustrated by much coarser strings to show the twisting of 
 the fibres by the simplest process of spinning ; all complications 
 of machinery in either this or the weaving being of course 
 
OBJECT LESSONS 165 
 
 eschewed. And now having got back to the raw material, 
 a specimen of it should be shown, its distinctive qualities and 
 different origin as compared with flax and wool be described ; 
 its position in the plant illustrated by the lining of more 
 famiHar seed vessels ; and the number of processes, besides a 
 voyage across the seas, to which it must have been subjected 
 before it could even be spun. To illustrate such a course of 
 instruction most effectually there would be required, not a 
 curiosity box, but one containing specimens of common 
 materials in different processes of manufacture, with the raw 
 article itself. In the course of it the questions would be 
 addressed to all the children, but instead of their answering 
 indiscriminately, all who thought they could answer should 
 throw up their hands, and the teacher would, by a glance of 
 the eye, select one child from among these to answer, or 
 would demand answers to the simpler questions from those 
 inclined to be inert, even when when they did not throw up 
 a hand. Done rapidly, under mutual correction, this would 
 sustain the common attention much more vividly than the 
 simultaneous answering, which, however, might be used in 
 the questions revising the knowledge acquired, at the end of 
 the lesson. Even a simple artificial object, such as the above, 
 would afford material, not for one only, but for a succession 
 of lessons, affording ample opportunities to an able teacher to 
 show them their daily dependence upon the bounties of God, 
 and the good services of their fellow- creatures in that great 
 mart of mutual service to which they will all owe in due time 
 their proper contribution, in return for the benefits which 
 they receive. So, in like manner, should their attention be 
 awakened to the different texture and qualities of the common 
 earths and stones around them, and to the most familiar 
 phenomena of vegetable and animal physiology , much rather 
 than to botany and zoology in general, which are sciences of 
 the classification of objects for the most part wholly beyond 
 their observation. Familiar lessons in such sciences have, 
 therefore, a constant tendency to drop into mere verbiage; 
 while the most familiar illustrations of the physiology of 
 plants and animals would give them a rational interest in 
 everything around them, tending ultimately to their study of 
 the sciences of classification, if ever they have leisure, but 
 meantime giving them a rational interest in all nature around 
 
166 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 them, and a lively perception of the bounty and wisdom of 
 the Creator, in whose mercy alone they live, and move, and 
 have their being. 
 
 In lessons such as these, observation and experiment would 
 be led by hypothesis, and even when it is impossible to sub- 
 mit the object or circumstances to the outward senses of the 
 children, but necessary only to tell them the result of the 
 observations and experiments of others, this will never be well 
 digested and assimilated unless hypothesis have given a zest 
 for it. Unless the mind have been brought to ask a ques- 
 tion, the answer will not be properly stored in its recesses ; 
 and, in over haste to convey information, not nearly so much 
 will be assimilated as if all the faculties of the mind, in an 
 apparently slower course, had been brought into operation to 
 acquire it. In such a course, comparison would be brought 
 into full activity, and cultivated to any degree of refinement, 
 as, for instance, in comparing the qualities of the different 
 textile materials, and those of the fabrics made out of them, 
 as calico and paper out of cotton ; and forming abstract 
 ideas of these qualities and their application, which are in 
 fact inductions. So, again, analogical reasoning would apply 
 much of the information thus obtained to wool, and the fabrics 
 made from it, such as cloth and felt ; and the first notions 
 of inscribing geometrical figures for practical purposes, such 
 as those of the carpenter, will afford opportunity for carrying 
 deductive reasoning to any such point of accuracy and refine- 
 ment as the time and faculties of the children may justify, 
 without puzzling or fatiguing them, which should carefully 
 be avoided. 
 
 These suggestions, mutatis mutandis, appear to me to be 
 applicable to all the collective instruction in galleries or sec- 
 tions, which is not technical, or does not consist simply in 
 *' vivifying," as in a British school, or "picturing out," as in 
 a Glasgow school, the terms used in a reading-lesson ; and 
 the defects to which I am calling reiterated attention, are 
 that of cultivating mere observation, unexerted by curiosity 
 on the one hand, and that of giving abstract terms and 
 unanalyzed results of scientific generalization on the other ; 
 the former the less serious and more easily remedied defect 
 chiefly of the infant schools, and the latter the much more 
 dangerous and difiicult error which prevails in the collective 
 
LEARNING TOO MUCH 167 
 
 instruction of the schools for elder children. In a more 
 legitimate course there will be no fear of their learning too 
 much in the too limited time for mental cultivation which is 
 now allowed to them ; on the contrary, they will acquire 
 healthy habits of intellectual exertion ; and judiciously selected 
 reading-books will give them general ideas for their future 
 direction, if they have the opportunity of further study. Of 
 all the groundless fears that ever occupied the minds of men, 
 that of the children of the poor in this country ever being over- 
 educated, is the most vain ; taking to work, as they are, for 
 the most part, before 12, 10, and even 8 years of age. That 
 which we have to dread is, the present large amount of mis^ 
 education, either by a dull and imbecile inertness, which has 
 been allowed to pervade so many of our schools, or the clang- 
 our of a verbal progress, which in so many others, deceives 
 both teachers and taught into complacency and conceit, with 
 moral results equally injurious in both. 
 
 Nor do these observations apply less, as regards mere 
 method, to the Scriptural lessons than to others, the same 
 faculties of the mind having to to be used with moral as with 
 physical nature ; but here, of course, the one great essential 
 is a Christian teacher, from whom alone will the affections 
 ever receive their proper direction and cultivation. Nay, yet 
 further, a wide experience induces me to believe that the 
 merely technical and intellectual labour of a school will never 
 be well or completely done throughout its classes by any but 
 teachers whose affections are first disembanressed and stimu- 
 lated by a sense of their duty as Christian guardians, in the 
 place of parents, over the whole of their charge. With such 
 teachers we must remember, that to observe among the 
 scholars ** one act of kindness, one tone of tender sympathy, 
 one instance of self-control, one bud of opening piety, will be 
 more precious, more dear to the heart, than the strongest 
 effort of memory, the liveliest sally of imagination, or brightest 
 display of intelligence." Men of a different mould, however 
 active their minds, and high their ambition, have not the heart 
 to go through the amount of humble exertion, which they call 
 drudgery, which is demanded of them in the conduct of a 
 large school ; and yet to maintain the relative position which 
 they claim, their schools must have some features or classes 
 of peculiar excellence. Hence the appearance of meretricious 
 
168 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 unsoundness which a careful inspector always detects in such 
 schools, and is compelled to expose to its promoters, to their 
 great surprise and annoyance. For nothing can morally be 
 more injurious than this unequal distribution of the teacher's 
 care and labour, in lieu of his feeling a lively sense of the 
 guardianship which is delegated to him over every child, and 
 peculiarly over the froward and the backward ; the good and 
 lively being easily provided for. 
 
 Happily the teachers in the schools under my inspection 
 which have received pupil- apprentices are generally persons, 
 so far as I am permitted to judge, of a truly Christian char- 
 acter ; and the result of augmenting their means of moral 
 control and influence, throughout the numerous assemblages in 
 which they labour, has been an elevation of the moral tone of 
 the schools far more marked and complete than the augment- 
 ation of their intellectual power, though this is everywhere 
 gratifying and conspicuous. * * The pupil- teachers supply 
 precisely that element which was wanting to give a moral 
 
 wholeness to the British schools, and scarcely less to the 
 
 Glasgow schools, in so far as they were frequented by the 
 
 numbers for which they were designed. In constant inter- 
 course with a faithful teacher, they necessarily imbibe some- 
 what of his spirit, or there must exist counteracting influences 
 so powerful as to dictate their removal ; in charge for some 
 continuity of time, of a definite section of the school in most 
 of its exercises, and responsible for its conduct and progress, 
 they strengthen his influence in a surprising degree among 
 their assistant monitors, who belong to the highest class in 
 the school ; and jointly with these they have authority and 
 influence to obtain improved dispositions in their classes, 
 sufliciently obvious in the tone and bearing of the whole. 
 Not only is mechanical order preserved, but a spirit of gentle- 
 ness, combined with intelHgence, is thus made to beam on the 
 countenances in every class, and gives assurance that the child 
 of the EngHsh artizan is at length, and for the first time, 
 under education worthy of the name. 1850, II. 271 — 276. 
 
 By the catechetical method, the master makes the child's 
 mind ferment, and work, and expand, while by his questions 
 he elicits from it, in due logical order, the information, or the 
 reasoning, which he had lately inculcated. These two pro- 
 cesses were quaintly but aptly described by the late Archdeacon 
 
ORAL INSTRUCTION 169 
 
 Bather, when he said that his plan of instruction was, " first 
 to question it into a lad, and then to question it out of him." 
 1850, II. 175. 
 
 Oral instruction is becoming much more general, for some 
 studies almost universal, e. g., for geography ; and certainly 
 its effect with a careful, lively, and intelligent teacher is very 
 good. In some schools the information of the children in 
 English history has been altogether gained by oral instruction. 
 The system of collective teaching, too, has been far more 
 attended to during the past year. Masters and apprentices 
 have been more alive to the necessity of keeping their whole 
 class intent upon the subject in which they are engaged, and 
 of implanting the knowledge of that subject in each individual 
 child ; and they have gladly availed themselves of this mode 
 of giving their lessons. Simultaneous replies in some schools 
 have been received with too much trustfulness, and where this 
 has been the case, the effect has been that a large number of 
 the class have been unsound in their elementary knowledge., 
 and the impression left upon the listeners has often been far 
 too satisfactory ; the benefit of simultaneous answering appears 
 to be to enliven a class, and to give encouragement now and 
 then especially to very little children ; but it can never be relied 
 upon, like individual teaching, as a test of the information of 
 a class of children. The groups of parallel desks for all oral 
 instruction, as well as for all work connected with the slate 
 and pencil, or the pen and ink, have been largely introduced, 
 and with very good effect. They are most useful in a school- 
 room. The black-board is assuming its proper place, and I 
 now find several in schools where, a short time since, one was 
 perhaps only talked of. The use of it in every class is being 
 appreciated, and not only is it now used for arithmetic and 
 writing, but when I have asked for it as a help in a geography 
 lesson, I find that the chalk is taken easily in hand, and either 
 a blank map or a diagram is drawn with much readiness. 
 There is much additional pains also taken with the discipline 
 of the children. Kindness is taking the place of severity ; the 
 harsh and angry tone is seldom heard striving for the mastery ; 
 whilst the calm command seems speedily obeyed. The gen- 
 eral movements of the children, — their entrance into school, 
 — their change from one work to another in their various 
 classes, — their departure out of the school-room, — are all done 
 
 Q 
 
170 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 with great precision and care. At one school I found all the 
 children under a regular systematic drill in their play- ground, 
 which they seemed to enjoy ; and, with their pupil- teacher 
 playing on the fife, the scene was one of liveliness and merri- 
 ment, combined with great order and regularity. * * 
 
 Many are the instances which have been brought to my 
 notice where children have obtained an insight into the mean- 
 ing of different passages in the Bible from the study of English 
 grammar and geography ; especially has this been the case in 
 those who have been selected as apprentices. The minds of 
 many of these young persons having been turned ( amongst 
 our subjects) to the study of the great water- sheds and moun- 
 tain-systems of the world in which we live, have had at the 
 same time their thoughts and hearts drawn upward to Him 
 who "is round about His people, even as the mountain are 
 round about Jerusalem," and by their secular knowledge have 
 been enabled to comprehend how God in His wisdom ''sendeth 
 the springs into the valleys which run among the hills." The 
 value of figures, both in whole numbers and in fractional parts, 
 is much more known and understood throughout the schools, 
 and some of the upper children are commencing algebra, land- 
 measuring, and mensuration. I have met with one or two 
 instances where this knowledge has been brought practically 
 to bear upon the domestic concerns of the children and their 
 parents, and where in their daily arithmetical lessons the 
 children have been taught the benefit which results to the 
 poor from the savings' bank, the friendly society, and the 
 clothing club. This might, witb care and attention, be done 
 more frequently and with effect ; for children are very ready 
 at all times to take home a new idea, which parents conversing 
 together would be likely to carry out into daily life. In a 
 few schools I find linear drawing commenced, and doing well. 
 Music from notes is very general ; the children and teachers 
 both appear fond of it, and its effect upon a school is certainly 
 advantageous, it gives a softness to the children, and spreads a 
 calm and pleasing tone throughout a school. 1850, 1. 244, 245. 
 
 The great interest of Mr. Dawes' experiment in mathematical 
 teaching appears to lie in his having established the possibility 
 of teaching Euclid with success in an elementary school ; and 
 of giving to farmers, and tradesmen, and labourers in such a 
 school the advantage of that incomparable discipline of the 
 
GEOMETRY 171 
 
 mind which results from the habit of geometrical reasoning, 
 even if it be limited to a few propositions in the first book of 
 Euclid. Mensuration is taught as an application of the 
 principles of geometry. Having examined the boys as to 
 their knowledge of some of its fundamental principles, I can 
 bear testimony to the fact that they are '*not taught these 
 things in a parrot- like way, but led to understand them as a 
 matter of reasoning.'' * * 
 
 That feature in the teaching of the school which 
 
 constitutes probably its greatest excellence, and to which 
 Mr. Dawes attributes chiefly its influence with the agricultural 
 population around him, is the union of instruction — in a few 
 simple principles of natural science, applicable to things 
 familiar to the children's daily observation — with everything 
 else usually taught in a National school. He thus speaks on 
 this interesting subject.* 
 
 ''After the school had been opened rather more than two 
 years, I began giving to the teachers, and the more advanced 
 of the school children, short explanations of a philosophic 
 kind, and in a common- sense sort of way, of the things almost 
 daily passing before their eyes, but of the nature of which 
 they had not the slightest conception ; such as some of the 
 peculiar properties of metals, glass, and other substances in 
 common use ; that the air had weight, and how this pres- 
 sure of the atmosphere helped them to pump up water ; 
 enabled them to amuse themselves with squirts and pop-guns ; 
 to suck up water, as they called it, through a straw ; why 
 the kettle top jumped up when the water was boiling on the 
 fire ; why, when they wanted to know whether it boiled or 
 not, they seized the poker, and placing one end on the lid 
 and the other to their ear, in order to know whether it actually 
 boiled ; why a glass sometimes breaks when hot water is 
 poured into it, explaining the reason of the unequal expansion 
 of the two surfaces : these and similar things I found so 
 excessively amusing to them, and at the same time so instruc- 
 tive, that I have scarcely missed a week explaining some 
 principle of this nature, and in questioning them on what had 
 been done before. In subjects of this kind, and to children 
 
 * Mr. Dawes' work entitled "Suggestive Hints, &c.," published by Groombridge 
 and Son, of Paternoster Kow, London, ought to be in the hands of every elementary 
 teacher. It will not supply scientific information he needs for conducting a school 
 but it will direct him how to apply it. 
 
172 MONITORIAL TEACHING 
 
 mere verbal explanations, as every one will perceive, are of no 
 use whatever ; but when practically illustrated before their 
 eyes by experiment, they become not only one of the most 
 pleasing sources of instruction, but absolutely one of the most 
 useful." * * 
 
 The children, when they disperse, carry home with them 
 their books, for the evening's lesson, in satchels. The sight 
 was to me, as an Inspector, a new and a very gratifying one. 
 My thoughts followed them to the cottage fire- side ; and I 
 was not surprised when Mr. Dawes repeated to me the fol- 
 lowing words of the mother of one of the children whom he 
 had recently visited ; *' You cannot think. Sir, how pleasantly 
 we spend our evenings now, compared with what we used to 
 do ; the girls reading and getting their lessons while I am 
 sewing, and their father working with them ; and he so 
 disappointed, Sir, if the evening task is above him, so that he 
 cannot help in it." 
 
 I have no doubt that the singing of the children is among 
 the most pleasurable recollections of those persons who 
 
 have visited the school. Occasionally the singing 
 
 classes are assembled in the evening in the class-room, 
 and the singing through of the pieces of music they have 
 learned makes a village concert, to which some of the friends 
 of the school are admitted. I was present on one of these 
 evenings, and I have thought that I could not better describe 
 the character of their musical attainments than by appending 
 to my Report,* the programme then placed in my hands. 
 Singing is no task to these children ; music has found its way 
 to their hearts ; a result which I have never met with in 
 an elementary school, except where, as here, a large portion 
 of the children are allowed to sing by ear, and where all have 
 thus begun. Several of the pieces were certainly executed 
 with remarkable firmness and precision, and all not less to the 
 satisfaction of the farmers and village tradesmen (who, together 
 with Mr. and Mrs. Dawes and myself, formed the audience) 
 than to mine. 1848, I. 16—18. 
 
 * Musical Programme. National Sohool. March 22, 1847. — Sacred. 
 
 Sound the Loud Timbrel. From Greenland's icy Mountains. O'er the Grioomy 
 HiUs of Darkness. Before Jehovah's awful throne. There is a Haj)py Land. All 
 hail the Power of Jesu' 8 name. Sweet is the Work, my God, my King. Come to 
 the Sunset Tree. I saw the glorious Sun arise. Secular. Hark the merry hum. 
 As forth I walk'd. Welcome May. The Violet. Long may Life and Health. 
 Harvest Home. Children go. Eule Britannia. God save the Queen. 
 
MUSIC 173 
 
 Simple moral ideas, domestic affections, love of nature, the 
 bounty of Providence, everything which is freshest to the 
 heart in early life, should form the chief basis of school music. 
 Where this is the case, the moral effect produced is as cheerful 
 and stimulating as in the other cases it becomes dull and 
 tedious. * * Music, if taught at all, is too frequently 
 taught from the very commencement, as a dry grammatical 
 exercise, instead of being presented as a natural language of 
 the emotions. To enter far into the theory of music with 
 school children, is not only impracticable, but would prove, 
 on the whole, very useless. If they learn to sing together a 
 simple harmony at sight, that is the very utmost we need hope 
 or strive to accomplish in this department. The way, 
 however, in which this can be at the same time most easily 
 accomplished, aud rendered from the first interesting and 
 instructive, is not so much by explanations accompanied by 
 dry exercises, but by the daily practice of suitable melodies 
 and simple harmonies, in which the feelings, as well as the 
 intellect, can play a part. Above all is it necessary to keep 
 up the life of all vocal exercises, by a rigid attention to time, 
 and a perpetual care never to let it become either careless or 
 slow, from the first bar to the last. Without this, the most 
 beautiful melodies lose their whole expression, and the richest 
 harmonies become confused. The time has yet to come, 
 when the value of music in education will be really understood ; 
 meantime it is important at least to be pursuing the right 
 track, and keeping the proper end in view. 1850, II. 474. 
 
 Scarcely any school visited in my district, in which music 
 is taught successfully, fails to rise to considerable eminence 
 
 in other respects. The schools at and , where 
 
 great attention is paid to this art, and where it proves a 
 powerful means of attaching the scholars to the Church, are 
 excellent specimens of a strong moral influence being exercised 
 thereby. 1846, I. 93. 
 
CHAPTER VL 
 
 ARRANGEMENT AND DIVISIONS OF THE SCHOOL. 
 
 OWING to external circumstances, children of all ages 
 and variety of attainments are constantly pouring into the 
 schools of the metropolis. The classification of these children 
 is very generally imperfect. There is too great a disparity in 
 attainments, and stiU more in point of mental culture and 
 developement, between children in the same class. * * The 
 whole school may be arranged in two divisions ; and one of 
 these may be sorted into classes, to which children may be 
 admitted once in six months, after a regular examination. 
 The course of instruction in each class should commence at 
 once, and be constructed with reference to the previous 
 attainments of the children, and to the subjects which they 
 will have to study when transposed to a higher class. In 
 this portion of the school, it will be easy to ascertain the rate 
 of progress, the skill and diligence of the teachers, and the 
 advantages or defects of the methods of teaching. The second 
 division will consist of those boys and girls who have not yet 
 passed an examination and entered a class, and of those who 
 have been dismissed from their several classes, for inability to 
 keep pace with their class-fellows, or who are irregular in 
 their attendance. When there is an assistant master (and 
 I am convinced that in every school exceeding 150 children, 
 with or without apprentices, a second school- room and an 
 efficient well- trained assistant is, and will ere long be, admitted 
 to be indispensable,) there will be no difficulty in carrying on 
 such a system. 1850, I. 66. 67. 
 
 Plan for the Organization of an Elementary School. * * 
 The first, and essential element of it, is the separate 
 
TRI- PARTITE SYSTEM 175 
 
 room for oral instruction, the devotion of the labours of the 
 head-master chiefly to this object, (relieved occasionally by 
 the second-master or pupil-teacher, with whom he exchanges 
 duties), and the throwing of the children in three great divi- 
 sions (of 50 or 60) successively into that room, for an hour 
 twice a- day, for the purpose of that instruction. Every other 
 element of the plan admits of modification, but not that. If 
 that feature of it be sacrificed, then the most important results 
 which I contemplate from it will, in a great measure, I con- 
 ceive, be lost. It is no longer the plan which I recommend, 
 or one from which I anticipate any very decided advantage. — 
 Whilst in all that requires the independent exercise of judg- 
 ment and discretion in the business of instruction — in all that 
 involves the sanctions of religion, and considerations of moral 
 responsibility, and thus needs to be presented to the mind of a 
 child with the gravity and the authority which can only be 
 brought to it by the mind of an adult teacher ; and in all that 
 concerns the development of the judgment and intelligence 
 of the child — the direct interference of the master in its 
 education is necessary to any useful result, as well in reference 
 to the youngest child in the school as to the oldest. I am not 
 prepared to deny that there are some elements in the business 
 of a school, which, being essentially mechanical in their 
 nature, may, under due supervision and proper limitations, be 
 conducted on the principle of mutual instruction. Reading, 
 for instance, in respect to which I have found no process of 
 simultaneous teaching effectual in the Greenwich schools, 
 may, I conceive, as to its mechanical elements, and with a 
 view to that individual instruction and mechanical practice 
 which it requires, be taught by the aid of monitors — as young 
 even as some of those to whom the whole business of instruc- 
 tion is intrusted in our existing schools — provided that each 
 reading lesson so given is checked by a subsequent examination 
 of the master ; and that the subdivisions of children placed at 
 any time under the instruction of a single monitor, do not 
 exceed eight, or at the most ten, in number. 
 
 This being premised, I will suppose the subjects of instruc- 
 tion in elementary schools to admit of the following division ; — 
 
 1. Those which are properly the subjects of Oral instruction. 
 
 2. Reading. 3. Writing, slate arithmetic, drawing, com- 
 mitting to memory — ^being silent occupations. For these 
 
176 ARRANGEMENT OP THE SOHOOL 
 
 three subjects, I suppose separate localities to be assigned. 
 1st. A gallery and a separate room for oral instruction. 
 2nd. Parallel desks arranged in groups for writing, &c. 
 3rd. An open area or floor for the subdivisions receiving 
 instruction in reading. — Corresponding to these three distinct 
 branches of instruction, I propose that the children be formed 
 into three equal divisions ; and that, when the morning 
 devotions and the Bible lesson have terminated, each divi- 
 sion passes to one of these localities, and receives instruction 
 in those elements of knowledge which are proper to that 
 locality. 
 
 CalUng the divisions, for instance, I., II., and III.; Divi- 
 sion I. will take its place in the gallery for oral instruction ; 
 Division II. at the desks for writing, &c. ; and Division III. 
 (in subdivisions of from 6 to 10) upon the floor of the school- 
 room, for instruction in reading (or in the room set apart for 
 that purpose, with a gallery, &.C., if it be proposed to adopt 
 the simultaneous method of teaching reading). Now it wiU 
 be observed, that there are three hours in the morning, and, 
 in summer, three hours in the afternoon devoted to school 
 business. I suppose tbe above distribution of the school to 
 remain during the first of these hours. At the expiration of 
 that hour, a change takes place ; that division which was in 
 the gallery receiving oral instruction, passes to the desks for 
 practice in writing, &c. ; that which was at the desks, to the 
 floor of the school-room for reading ; and that which was 
 reading, to the gallery, for examination by the head-master 
 in that reading lesson, in which the whole division has been 
 receiving the instruction of the monitors. This arrangement 
 continues during the second hour : a similar change takes 
 place at the commencement of the third ; and so each division 
 passes in its turn (in the course of the morning) under the 
 personal examination and oral instruction of the master ; each 
 is occupied during an hour in writing, slate arithmetic, &c. ; 
 and an hour is devoted by each to mechanical instruction in 
 reading. — If the localities appropriated to, 1st. Oral instruc- 
 tion. 2nd. Slate Arithmetic. 3rd. Reading, be represented 
 respectively by the letters A., B., C, and the three equal 
 divisions of the school by the symbols I., II., III., the following 
 time-table will represent compendiously the arrangements 
 which I have described in detail : 
 
TRI-PARTITE SYSTEM 
 
 177 
 
 Hours. 
 
 I,. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 9 to 10 
 
 A. 
 
 B. 
 
 C. 
 
 10 to 11 
 
 B. 
 
 C. 
 
 A. 
 
 11 to 12 
 
 C. 
 
 A. 
 
 B. 
 
 * * It will be observed that the first or lowest division of the 
 school is occupied during the first hour in reading ; that it is 
 then placed under oral instruction, which oral instruction, 
 conducted by the head-master, is supposed to be founded 
 (where that is practicable) upon the reading lesson which the 
 children have just been practising, and which always com- 
 mences with an examination as to the extent to which they 
 have acquired the power to read it mechanically. For the 
 results of this examination, the monitors who have been em- 
 ployed in teaching it, are supposed to be held, in some degree, 
 responsible. The teaching of that lesson to each child in his 
 subdivision, being understood to be assigned to the monitor 
 as his task ; the due performance of which is afterwards to 
 be inquired into in every case by the master. 
 
 In carrying out this plan, I propose that the boys and girls 
 should, in the morning, be taught together ; I claim, however, 
 the services both of the master and the mistress then, as well 
 as in the afternoon. For schools whose average attendance 
 of boys and girls does not exceed 100 this will be enough. 
 For every additional 25 children, there should be a pupil- 
 teacher ; and if the number exceed 200, one of these at least 
 should be replaced by an assistant- master. — The station of 
 the mistress is to be the reading-room ; that of the pupil- 
 teacher, the desks where writing and slate arithmetic are 
 taught ; and that of the master, the gallery where oral 
 instruction is given. I propose then, in respect to the hours 
 of morning instruction, that the teaching of reading shall be 
 intrusted to the mistress. That for the purpose of this 
 instruction, each of the three divisions of the school shall, 
 during the hour when it occupies the reading-room, be formed 
 into two sections, one being composed of as many of those child- 
 ren who are most backward in their reading as the mistress can 
 
178 ARRANGEMENT OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 herself adequately instruct in a single class, the other section 
 being broken up into sub- sections, each composed of not more 
 than 8 children, and each placed in charge of a monitor. — 
 The whole of the children of each of the great divisions is, 
 when in the reading-room, to be occupied in reading the same 
 lesson ; and the time-table of the schools, to provide that, 
 when the hour allotted to it in the reading-room is expired, 
 it shall be transferred to the gallery for oral instruction by 
 the head- master, such oral instruction always commencing 
 with an examination upon the reading lesson which has pre- 
 ceded — first as to the ability of the children to read the lesson 
 accurately ; secondly, as to the intelligence of the subject- 
 matter of it. If the reading lessons be properly selected, they 
 will frequently serve as the foundation of that oral instruction 
 of the master which is to follow this examination. In those 
 schools to which no infant school is annexed, some of the 
 children will probably be so young, and so imperfectly instruct- 
 ed in reading, as to render it expedient that they should 
 remain in the reading.room during the period assigned for 
 instruction of the lowest division in writing, and during one 
 of the two periods allotted every day to the oral instruction 
 of that division. This is a modification of the plan, in respect 
 to which the master will exercise his discretion. — The writing, 
 practice of arithmetic, drawing, &c., will be placed under the 
 supervision of the pupil-teacher or assistant- master, who will 
 nevertheless relieve the head-master, changing places with 
 him from time to time, and taking up his task of oral instruc- 
 tion ; but not at any other times, or in respect to any other 
 subjects, than such as are prescribed in the school routine 
 and have received the sanction of the school committee. It 
 is not, however, to be supposed that the master to whom the 
 duty of oral instruction is assigned is constantly to be occupied 
 in talking. His duties include examination and the hearing 
 of lessons ; and from time to time he will pause, and require 
 the children to write down their recollections of the lesson he 
 has been giving. 
 
 In the afternoon I propose that the girls should be taught 
 to sew by the mistress in the room appropriated, in the 
 morning, to reading ; and that the boys be formed into three 
 divisions, as in the morning, and similarly occupied ; the two 
 divisions employed in oral instruction and writing occupying 
 
TRI-PARTITE SYSTEM 179 
 
 one of the remaining rooms, and the other being appropriated 
 to reading, under the supervision of the assistant- master or 
 pupil- teacher. The number of children composing each 
 division being greatly less in the afternoon than in the morn- 
 ing, I anticipate that the supervision of that division v^hich is 
 occupied in writing, under the care of an elder child or moni- 
 tor, will not interfere materially with the important task of 
 oral instruction, with which he is more particularly charged, 
 more especially as that task is not supposed to be incessantly 
 plied, but alternated with periods when the children under 
 oral instruction may be writing out exercises on their slates, 
 or working examples in arithmetic, the principles of which 
 branch of science I suppose to be taught as an important 
 department of oral instruction. — The duties of the master 
 will be relieved by those of the assistant-master or pupil- 
 teacher in the afternoon as in the morning, and under the 
 same circumstances. 
 
 It is a characteristic feature of this arrangement, and that 
 which I have principally in view in recommending it, that it 
 brings each individual child, from the least to the greatest, 
 every day, during one-third of its school-hours, under the 
 personal instruction of the master ; that it places the master 
 under the most favourable circumstances which I can devise 
 for conveying that instruction to him ; that it compels him 
 to take up the study of the child from the moment when it 
 first enters the school ; * * that it emancipates the children 
 from the monotonous control of the monitors, and from the 
 noise of the reading-room, during two-thirds of the day ; 
 that when the children are under monitorial instruction, 
 it places them in groups, under the charge of each mon- 
 itor, less in number by one-half than the classes usually 
 assigned to the charge of a monitor, all day long, by the 
 existing system ; that for the great business of the elementary 
 school, Reading, its most tedious and difficult task, it provides, 
 moreover, the services of an adult teacher (the mistress), who 
 is supposed to employ assistance of monitors only in respect 
 to those children whom she is unable to teach herself ; that 
 each reading lesson so given is followed by an examination, 
 as to the success with which it has been given, by the master ; 
 that whilst the services of the mistress are rendered available 
 in respect to that branch which, however important, does not 
 
180 ARRANGEMENT OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 (under the circumstances) suppose in the teacher that higher 
 degree of attainment and general ability for the management 
 of a school, which are so rarely found united in a mistress — 
 it secures, nevertheless, to the girls (to whom it is at least as 
 necessary as the boys) the highest order of instruction which 
 the school will supply ; that in respect to existing schools, it 
 provides for this, without dispensing with the services of the 
 mistress, or altering the present arrangements as to her salary ; 
 that, in respect to new schools, it enables the master to 
 employ the services of his wife in the business of the school, 
 under circumstances (with reference especially to that higher 
 standard of education at which we aim) in which they would 
 not otherwise be available ; that it economises the labours of 
 the pupil- teacher, making, by the union of the two schools, 
 one such teacher sufficient where two would, if the schools 
 were separated, be necessary. Lastly, that, providing for 
 those technical branches of instruction which are not only 
 valuable in themselves, but necessary to secure that public 
 opinion of the parents favourable to the school, on which its 
 success must after all depend, it provides further for that oral 
 instruction of a more general kind, which aims at results less 
 tangible, indeed, but the highest contemplated in education, 
 and the most valuable ; that [it] extends the benefits of this 
 form of instruction from the highest to the meanest and lowest 
 child, and that it brings to it the master-spirit of the school, 
 and all the sanctions with which the authority of the highest 
 office can surround it. * * 
 
 For organizing a school on this plan, during one portion 
 only of the day (the morning), two rooms only are required, it 
 being quite practicable to devote a portion of that room which 
 is reserved for oral instruction to the silent occupation of 
 writing ; or to teach one division writing, &c. (as at present), 
 in the room where another division is reading. In respect to 
 the occupations of one portion of the day no other alteration 
 in existing school buildings is therefore necessary than a fresh 
 arrangement of their desks and benches ; if the girls' and 
 boys* school-rooms communicate with one another. 1846, I. 
 249—255. 
 
 I have a confidence in recommending it [the tri-partite 
 plan] in places where the form and arrangements of the 
 school-room are adapted to it, and where there is a well- 
 
TRI- PARTITE SYSTEM 181 
 
 instructed and efficient teacher. It has been found, in the 
 first place, to be attended with less labour and excitement to 
 the teacher than the old plan, and, therefore, with less 
 prejudice to his health ; secondly, it is more successful in 
 teaching the technical branches of instruction — reading, spell- 
 ing, writing, and arithmetic ; thirdly, it raises greatly the 
 standard of instruction in the lower classes of the school, and 
 as the greater number of the children by far, leave a school 
 before they reach its first class, this is a point of great impor- 
 tance ; fourthly, by bringing the lowest classes as much under 
 the personal instruction of the master as the highest, it 
 provides, if he does his duty to them, for the religious instruc- 
 tion of these classes more effectually than the present plan 
 does. 1850, I. 18. 
 
 With a view to the re- organization, I would propose the 
 erection of a gallery within the class-room capable of con- 
 taining from 70 to 80 boys, with desks, &c., on the plan at 
 present adopted at the Westminster school, and of which the 
 details are published in the Report of the Committee of 
 Council. For the erection of such a gallery a grant may be 
 obtained, as detailed in the enclosed printed form. Such 
 a gallery beiAg erected, I will suppose the school to be formed 
 into three divisions, containing on an average 70, 60, 60 
 children. It is to be observed that these children are required 
 to be placed under monitorial instruction only whilst they are 
 learning to read and to s]pell. I propose, then, that one 
 division only be thrown upon the floor of the school- room for 
 this purpose at a time — one of the two divisions being 
 occupied in the gallery during that time, and the other seated 
 at the desks fixed to the walls of the school-room. — The 
 division under monitorial instruction is to be broken up into 
 at least six divisions, each in charge of a monitor, and com- 
 posed of about 10 children. Ample space will be found on 
 the floor to separate these subdivisions so far as to prevent 
 them interrupting each other. 
 
 The following Table will explain the arrangements which 
 I further propose. It is very hastily sketched, and subject 
 of course to much reconsideration and many alterations. The 
 numbers I. II. III. refer to the several divisions. The reading- 
 lessons I strongly recommend to be given from the books 
 provided by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 
 
182 
 
 ARRANGEMENT OP THE SCHOOL 
 
 for that purpose, or by the Irish National Board. Every boy 
 should have a Reader, and in the I. and II. divisions, an 
 Arithmetic and a Bible or Testament — at any rate, he should 
 have the use of these, and be allowed to carry them home 
 with him ; also in the I. division a Geography and a History 
 of England. Excellent and very cheap arithmetics have been 
 published by the Irish National Society and by the Scotch 
 Society of Schoolmasters. I recommend the last particularly. 
 The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has published 
 recently a History of England and a Geography and a Gram- 
 mar all very cheap. This arrangement, which places fewer 
 children under each monitor (viz. 10) will, however, effect 
 nothing unless a superior class of monitors be obtained. I 
 recommend, therefore, that six monitors be selected from the 
 oldest of the boys and the most apt to teach, and that they 
 receive from 6d. to 25. * a week according to their teaching 
 skill, it being a rule to place the best monitors to teach the 
 lowest sub -divisions, and to give every monitor 2d. when a 
 boy is promoted into the next higher sub- division. Each 
 monitorial reading and spelling lesson of divisions II. and III. 
 is always, it will be perceived, followed by a gallery reading- 
 lesson. This last is, in fact, to be an examination of the 
 lesson given by the monitors, and to serve as a check upon 
 them ; the teaching of it being considered and treated as their 
 task, for the success of which they are responsible. All the 
 sub-divisions should read the same lesson. 1845, II. 527, 528. 
 
 TIME. 
 
 GALLERY. 
 
 SIDE DESKS. 
 
 FLOOE. 
 
 9 to 930 
 
 I. Bible Lesson (pre- 
 pared at home) . 
 
 Ill.Writing on Slates. 
 
 II. Eeading (prepared 
 at home) . 
 
 9 30 to 10 
 
 I. Heading Lesson 
 (prepared at 
 home). 
 
 Ill, Preparing Eead- 
 ing. 
 
 II. Spelling. 
 
 10 to 1030 
 
 II. Eeading Exami- 
 nation. 
 
 I. Writing. 
 
 III. Eeading. 
 
 1030 to 11 
 
 II. Bible Lesson (pre- 
 pared at home) . 
 
 I. Arithmetic. 
 
 III. Eeading. 
 
 * AH the monitors should begin at 6 
 their skill in teaching. 
 
 . per week, and be raised according to 
 
TRI-PARTITE SYSTEM 
 
 183 
 
 11 to 1130 
 
 III. Eeading Exami- 
 nation. 
 
 II. Writing. 
 
 .1. Eeading. 
 
 11 30 to 12 
 
 III. Bible Lesson. 
 
 II. Slate Arithmetic. 
 
 I. Eeading, 
 
 2 to 2 30 
 
 I. Catechism and 
 Scripture History, 
 and English His- 
 tory (alternate 
 days). 
 
 II. Arithmetic on 
 Paper (Accounts). 
 
 III. Eeading. 
 
 2 30 to 3 
 
 I. Geography and 
 Object Lesson 
 (alternate days) . 
 
 II. Writing from 
 Dictation. 
 
 Ill, Spelling. 
 
 3 to 3 30 
 
 III. Eeading Exami- 
 nation. 
 
 I. Writing from 
 Dictation on 
 Paper and Com- 
 position (alter- 
 nate days) . 
 
 II. Mental Arithmetic. 
 
 3 30 to 4 
 
 III. Object Lesson 
 
 I. Arithmetic. 
 
 II, Eeading. 
 
 4 to 430 
 
 II. Eeading Lesson. 
 
 I. Arithmetic on 
 Paper (Accounts). 
 
 III. Mental Arith- 
 metic. 
 
 4 30 to 6 II. Geography. 
 
 Ill.Writing on Slates. I. Mental Arithmetic. 
 
 The time-table should contain an exact account of the 
 portion of time allotted to each subject in the several classes 
 of a school throughout the week. * * The time-table 
 which is adapted for one school will seldom be found suitable 
 for another, without some modifications ; and it is reasonable 
 to allow the teacher considerable liberty in arranging the 
 details. * * In making out the time-table, the master should 
 consider, 1st, how many hours will be given in each month to 
 the several lessons ; 2nd, how the lessons may be arranged so as 
 to enable him to superintend the questions, explanations, &c., 
 in each class ; and, 3rd, how the monitors may be set free to 
 attend to their own instruction. In introducing fresh subjects 
 he will be very careful not to sacrifice others of equal or 
 greater importance, — a point which I should hardly have 
 thought it necessary to refer to, if experience did not prove 
 that teachers sometimes yield to the temptation, especially 
 when the new subject is of a showy and attractive character, 
 such as geography and etymology, and when they are not 
 habituated to a close and searching examination of the lower 
 classes or of the higher classes in elementary branches of 
 instruction. * * It is to be regretted that few schools are 
 provided with class-rooms in which separate divisions may be 
 
184 ARRANGEMENT OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 taught or examined, without disturbing the routine of business. 
 1845, II. 178, 179. 
 
 It seems doubtful, to say the least, whether it is 
 
 advisable to estabHsh separate schools for boys and girls, 
 excepting in those places where the liberality of the richer 
 inhabitants enables the manager to secure for each school the 
 services of a regularly trained teacher. We often find the 
 two schools conducted independently of each other, as 
 regards instruction, by a man and his wife, — an arrangement 
 which is liable to grave objections, since it very rarely hap- 
 pens that both are properly qualified for their situation by 
 temper, character, and ability ; and it is found that committees 
 are generally unv/illing to make a change so long as either 
 party retains their confidence. It would seem to be a n)uch 
 better plan in those cases to conduct the school on a combined 
 system, the master instructing both girls and boys in most 
 subjects, and the mistress, if she be unequal in attainments, 
 attending to all the younger classes, to the needle- work, and 
 to those lessons which require care and patietice rather than 
 skill or learning. This combination of two schools is some* 
 times met with in the Eastern district, and appears to offer 
 least impediments to the introduction of an improved organi- 
 zation and more efi[icient methods of teaching. 1846, I. 162. 
 
 Many mixed schools of boys and girls are under mistresses 
 only, and succeed in country places admirably. I have again 
 to direct attention to this sort of school, as I am fully persuaded 
 they are more efficient in training the moral qualities than 
 those on the separate system. There is always a ver}^ superior 
 tone in such schools — a mildness and gentleness, and propriety, 
 which does not so generally attach to others ; I am sure both 
 sexes are improved, and all the inquiries I make only confirm 
 this view. The masters who have adopted, invariably approve 
 of it, and state that none of the evils they might have 
 anticipated have arisen. The arrangement of the school 
 premises is often, however, a great hinderance to complete 
 
 success in carrying out the system. The Rev. , of 
 
 , writes thus : — '*Our plan of mixed boys and girls, I 
 
 feel increasing conviction, works more efficiently than the 
 separate system." Numerous other instances might be referred 
 
 to, but I have chosen , a large manufacturing place, 
 
 as if it succeeds there with 250 children, it will succeed any- 
 
MIXED SCHOOLS 185 
 
 where if carried out with due faith. 1850, I. 315, 316. 
 
 Some clergymen of very great experience, who have been 
 incumbents of large parishes during many years, and have 
 paid constant attention to all points connected with education, 
 are of opinion that some intercourse, under the eye of a superior, 
 even out of school-hours, is beneficial, by habituating both 
 sexes to orderly, decent, and — if we may use the term — even 
 courteous modes of communication. In schools, where the 
 boys and girls receive a considerable portion of instruction in 
 the same classes, it is, however, desirable that the girls, at 
 some part of the day, should be separated, not only to learn 
 needle- work, but to receive such moral and religious instruc- 
 tion as a discreet matron might deem appropriate to their sex 
 and age. On reference to the Tables, Nos. 2 and 3, it will 
 be found that some good schools in the country are arranged 
 upon this plan. 1845, II. 150. 
 
 As regards the subjects of instruction, I will only add on 
 this occasion, that teachers should study so to arrange the 
 time for teaching each subject as to afford the most mental 
 relief to the scholars by each successive change. Thus the 
 strain of mind consequent upon an arithmetic lesson may be 
 reheved by a subsequent writing lesson, or the bustle and 
 excitement of a lesson in grammar and etymology by the 
 calm repose of drawing. Again, the evils of noise may in 
 a considerable degree be mitigated by a skilful arrangement 
 of the lessons with reference to the juxta-position of the 
 classes. Thus while one class is receiving a noisy lesson in 
 grammar or geography, the neighbouring class may be silently 
 employed in writing from memory. 1850, II. 183. 
 
 Order of Occupation in the British School for Boys at , 
 
 (a monitorial school, in which the drafts are grouped into sections 
 for monitorial teaching,) I4th September, 1846. 
 
 (Average attendance about 120.) 
 Morning. 
 
 10 p. 9 A. M Reading. 
 
 I to 10 Questioning and spelling. 
 
 10 Open school ; monitors in desks read a chapter of 
 
 Scripture, questioned by master ; the other boys, 
 standing in line, also questioned on the chapter 
 to test attention. 
 
 i p. 10 Grammar and Geography, in gallery and drafts. 
 
 :J p. 11 Play-ground. 
 
 ^ p. 11 Tables, weights & measures, and mental arithmetic. 
 
186 ARRANGEMENT OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 12 Writing : whole school. 
 
 Afternoon. 
 
 ^ to 1 P. >^ Dismiss. 
 
 10 p. 2 p. M Read Scriptures. 
 
 J to 3 Questioning. 
 
 3 In Gallery, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and 
 
 Friday, for English and natural history, miscel- 
 laneous subjects, and singing. Wednesday, 
 monitors read. The rest draw, using Chambers's 
 little woodcuts. 
 
 i p. 3 Ciphering. 
 
 i p. 4 Singing and prayer. 
 
 Evening Class. 
 
 For pupil Teachers, but not confined to them, the most promising 
 
 Monitors being allowed to attend. 
 
 Monday Grammar. 
 
 Tuesday Drilling, by a regular master 
 
 Wednesday Use of globes and Cornwell's " Composition'* alter- 
 nately. 
 
 Thursday Drilling, as above. 
 
 Friday Euclid and practical geometry, alternately. 
 
 On Monday afternoon, at ciphering, boys exercised in notation 
 and numeration ; and monitors have a sum in compound multiplica- 
 tion, proving by division. 
 
 On Wednesday, money for savings' bank taken ; some have nearly 
 1/. in it. 
 
 On Friday afternoon, the Bible classes write on slates from dic- 
 tation, instead of reading. The younger boys read, and spell 
 columns of spelling in reading-books, on Friday morning. 
 
 A double set of monitors on duty in alternate weeks. When off 
 duty, draw during morning reading. Read in a draft in afternoon, 
 and trained. 
 
 On Saturday morning, the monitors who have behaved well have 
 a game at cricket, in which the master and pupil teachers join. 
 1847, II. 225, 226. 
 
 The boys' school is not divided, in the ordinary way, into a 
 certain number of classes, consisting of the same children, 
 who are supposed simultaneously to advance with equal steps 
 in the various subjects of instruction, but the children change 
 their classes according to the matter taught. Thus they are 
 divided into one set of classes for religious instruction ; they 
 are divided differently for reading, differently again for writing, 
 and a fourth division is made for arithmetic. Hence a boy 
 may be in the first class in one subject, while he is in the last 
 in another, according as his capacity varies for the branches 
 of instruction. This arrangement has several advantages, 
 since few things oppose the progress of a class or embarrass 
 
SETS OF CLASSES 187 
 
 a teacher more, than the existence of various degrees of know- 
 ledge among the pupils in the subject he happens to have in 
 hand* He must then either suit his instruction to the capa- 
 city of the most ignorant in that class, and thus the most for- 
 ward gain no benefit and become inattentive, or he must often 
 become unintelligible to many by speaking to the compre- 
 hension of those best informed. There are, however, several 
 difficulties to be encountered on this plan. The necessity of 
 changing every subject may lead to considerable confusion. 
 But the effort to perform this operation orderly, may be made 
 a useful part of discipline, and, in fact, this is alleged as one 
 of the advantages of the plan. These changes also require 
 abundance* of space in the school-room, but as here, it is not 
 more than one-third filled, no difficulty is felt on this score. 
 As the whole school is thus taught the same subjects at the 
 same time, I should have anticipated an almost unbearable 
 noise to result at times from this arrangement. At present 
 this evil does ndt appear, but I am disposed to attribute its 
 absence partly to the immense comparative size of the school- 
 room, and partly to the quiet and inanimate mode of teaching 
 adopted by most of the masters, who have been trained in the 
 Chester Normal Seminary. At the Norwood School of 
 Industry, it is always the practice to place a silent class, such 
 as one that is writing, adjoining another that is taught a sub- 
 ject likely to elicit noise, and I do not know, how the lively 
 and animated mode of teaching followed in that establishment 
 could be well carried out, were it otherwise. I have never 
 before seen a large industrial school arranged in this way, but 
 I would not say that it is not the best, without further 
 experience of its effects. 1847, II. 539, 540. 
 
 For arithmetic, the classification according to skill in reading 
 will not be found to be satisfactory, and I should recommend 
 the scholars to be classed afresh for ciphering, according to 
 their proficiency in that particular subject, which might be 
 taught throughout the school for an hour or more every 
 afternoon. The afternoons might also afford hoiu*s for special 
 instruction in rehgious knowledge, the English language and 
 grammar, geography &c., for which time is not allotted in 
 the above table. This arrangement is not suggested as 
 absolutely the best that could be devised, but with a view 
 simply to the following matters : — 1. The importance of the 
 
188 
 
 ARRANGEMENT OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 reading lesson, the master being required to superintend that 
 personally and the children being at liberty for five minutes 
 previously in the open air so as to receive all possible benefit 
 from his instruction. 2. The advantage of daily exercising 
 the more forward pupils in composition. 3. The less that 
 monitors are made use of (except for mere mechanical matters, 
 as the instruction in the first elements of reading, the teaching 
 children to copy writing, the making them learn by heart 
 from oral repetition, the practice, perhaps, of some rules in 
 arithmetic, the giving out of slate pencils and books, &c.) the 
 better. In this arrangement the junior class only is left to 
 monitors, and the reading lesson learned with them is daily 
 reviewed by the master. 4. The junior class has a change 
 
 h. m 
 9 
 
 9 15 
 
 11 45 
 
 SENIOR CLASS. 
 
 SECOND CLASS. 
 
 JUNIOE CLASS. 
 
 Prayers and singing, &e. 
 
 Learn by heart 
 Faith and Duty, 
 or other passsages 
 of Scripture. 
 
 In plajr.ground for 
 five minutes. 
 
 Say repetition and 
 read to master, 
 being questioned 
 as well. 
 
 Write on slate ab- 
 stract of lesson 
 read vrith master, 
 Qr exercise in com- 
 position. 
 
 Write on copy-took. 
 
 Read to master, being 
 exercised in spelling 
 and questioned there - 
 
 In play-ground for 
 five minutes. 
 
 Learn Catechism or 
 Scripture by heart, 
 those that sit next 
 to each other not 
 learning the same 
 portion. 
 
 Write on slate lesson 
 learned by heart. 
 
 Write on copy-book. 
 
 Learn by heart from 
 oral repetition, the 
 words also to be 
 spelled. 
 
 Learn to read 'S.nd 
 spell with Monitor, 
 the lesson subse- 
 quently to be read 
 with Master. 
 
 Write on slates or 
 black board for 
 twenty-five minutes. 
 
 In play-ground for 
 five minutes. 
 
 Go over again, with 
 Monitor, the repe- 
 tition and readmg 
 lesson. 
 
 In play-ground for 
 five minutes. 
 
 Go over the lessons 
 of repetition and 
 reading to Master, 
 being questioned 
 thereon. 
 
 Copy-books, &c., collected, and the grace said. 
 
 A. IT. 
 
 h. m, 
 
 9 
 
 9 15 
 
 9 35 
 
 10 25 
 
 11 45 
 
SPELLING 189 
 
 occupation every twenty-five minutes, and their memories are 
 daily exercised. 5. The instruction in spelling, except in 
 the case of the younger children, is derived mainly from the 
 correction of slate writing : if the children in the second class 
 do not learn the same passage, neither can copy from the 
 other when their books are gathered ; and their diligence is 
 tested by their being required to write their lesson from 
 memory. 
 
 With regard to the reading lesson, I have recommended 
 that ordinarily the same book should not be gone over twice ; 
 and that especially for the younger class, a large number of 
 easy lesson books should be provided. Many excellent ones 
 can be procured from different sources in Scotland, and the 
 Christian Knowledge Society are continually making additions 
 to their stock. For the older class, it is much to be desired 
 that other books besides the Scriptures should be used for 
 reading lessons. It is good to teach the poor to find interest 
 in the books of the Parochial Lending Library ; and these 
 will be most used where the greatest pains have been taken 
 with the reading lesson in the school. * * i ^ag very- 
 much struck with a casual instance of the moral 'good to be 
 derived from the pains taken with the reading lesson in the 
 
 school. A girl who had profited by the intelligent 
 
 instruction she there received, and who was in the habit of 
 taking books home to read of an evening to her family, was 
 the means thereby of withdrawing her elder brother from the 
 public house, where previously he had been used to spend his 
 evenings ; he became so interested in the subjects of bis 
 sister's reading, that he would on no account spend any time 
 needlessly away from the family circle. We mourn oyer the 
 condition of those below us, but if we do not provide means 
 for their good instruction, how much of the blame rests with 
 ourselves ! The vacuity of the mind gives a wonderful 
 advantage to our great enemy, and proves a temptation to 
 intemperance and sensuality ; while indulgence in these vices 
 increases miserably the evil — clogging men's spirits, making 
 them still more gross, listless, and barbarous. 
 
 I have thought that more might readily be done in bringing 
 into use in our schools books of moral teaching that should 
 have interest. Skilful allegories, and well-chosen anecdotes, 
 are peculiarly fitted for children. Our short histories are too 
 
190 ARRANGEMENT OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 much, as it seems to me, chronicles of facts and dates rather 
 than pictures of life and manners. Might not a few good 
 biographies, as Izaac Walton's (omitting passages of more 
 confined interest), be of use ? Great effects have been 
 attributed to the study of Plutarch's * Lives,' in the V7ay of 
 formation of heroes ; and, although this is not a lesson-book 
 that I should think of recommending in our schools, it seems 
 to me that something after the fashion of our old books of 
 'Examples' and 'Mirrours,* or like what has been done in 
 'The Christmas Fire- side,' would be of use as reading lessons 
 for the older children. Might not also an interest in home 
 associations be advantageously cherished, if for each county, 
 as reading lessons in the schools, extracts were put together 
 from such books as Camden's 'Britannia,' Fuller's 'Worthies,' 
 and Drayton's 'Polyolbion,' combining with a description of 
 the physical appearance, and products of the country, notices 
 of remarkable persons and events, together with good local 
 proverbs, and the like ? In our universities, and at some of 
 our older schools, the associations of the place doubtless 
 exercise a very strong influence ; and in hope, therefore, of 
 similar results, in the neighbourhood of Hadleigh, I should 
 wish that the boys had had extracted from Fox, as a readmg 
 lesson, the narrative of the last hours of Dr. Rowland Taylor, 
 so as to have heard of his simple-hearted affection, his faith 
 and cheerful bravery ; in Huntingdonshire one would wish 
 them to be familiar with the history of G. Herbert's and 
 N. Farrer's piety; at Felstead it would be good to know 
 something of Barrow's successful struggle against an un- 
 towardly disposition ; at Grantham, one would hope to cherish 
 an imitation of the patience, and modesty, and persevering 
 toil of Newton. 
 
 1 believe that the use of a good lending library in a parish 
 ought to be felt to be a matter of great importance. Once, 
 on asking a very experienced clergyman in our manufacturing 
 districts,, what means he had found to be most effective in 
 influencing his people for good, he made reply to this effect : 
 "My lending library ; but then I always give out the books 
 myself ; for many times persons, through ignorance, would, 
 if left to themselves, borrow books that would not interest 
 them, and so readers would be discouraged, and the library 
 get a bad name. Now, when a person asks for a book that 
 
LENDING LIBRARY 191 
 
 will not be suitable, I reply, you shall have it, but if you take 
 my advice you will in its place take home this ; and so I am 
 not only able to recommend right books to right persons, but 
 also, in conversation, I give them previously some sort of 
 interest in their reading ; and subsequently, by talking over 
 the matter, I find an easier access to their understandings 
 and hearts/' * * In questioning children I endeavour to 
 keep in mind two rules : 1 . To tell the children as little as 
 may be, but to break up the instruction that is to be given, 
 and to put it in various lights, so as if possible the mind of 
 the scholars may fasten on it with an appetite. 2. To make 
 out any answer that the children may give (if it can be done 
 with truth) to have some measure of correctness in it. If a 
 questioner gets a verj?- absurd answer from children, he has 
 c^use to ask himself if the fault be not in his manner of put- 
 ing the question, or in its substance. Ordinarily the teacher 
 should abstain from checking the children abruptly, and he 
 will often find it a help to take up the hint supplied by the 
 children ; and first bringing before them the question to which 
 their answer would have fitted, to try to lead them from that 
 to the proposed teaching. 1845, II. 91 — 94. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GENERAL TEACHING. 
 
 WHILE the children in an infant school should not be led 
 to consider the act of learning to be a matter that required no 
 attention, or a mere amusement, and while pains should be 
 taken to cultivate habits of order and prompt obedience, still 
 the first object should be to make the children cheerful and 
 happy, — happy with a sense of duty. It is the observation 
 of some one, that he that makes a little child happier for a 
 single half-hour is a fellow- worker with God. The occupa- 
 tion should be varied : the little boys might learn knitting or 
 straw-plaiting, and there should be in fine weather occasional 
 adjournments for ten minutes to the play- ground, which 
 might in most cases be set round with a border of flowers. 
 In every school there should be also, if possible, a black 
 board for chalk-writing, one or two breadths of deal supported 
 on legs, and plained smooth by the village carpenter, the upper 
 edge being level with the foreheads of the children that have 
 to use it. * * 
 
 With regard to the intelligent instruction of the children, 
 it is very difl[icult to give advice that will be of service to many 
 of our teachers. The reading- lesson will, if they are wise, be 
 their stronghold, and this should be never given without 
 preparation. If the lesson be in the Scriptures, the passage 
 should have been gone over, on the previous evening, with a 
 book of questions, and some plain commentary ; the master 
 should have at hand also a good English Dictionary (Walker's 
 may be purchased for 4^. 6d.), and not be ashamed to make 
 frequent use of it in the presence of his pupils. Let these 
 feel that he is a learner with them, and that our education 
 continues throughout the whole of life, and that what is really 
 shameful is not ignorance, but a carelessness about knowing 
 better and doing better for the time to come. It is a hint of 
 
DRAWING OUT THE CHILd's KNOWLEDGE 193 
 
 Mrs. Tuckfield's, that, before a lesson is commenced, the 
 
 teacher should say, *' We are going to read about ; 
 
 what do you know upon the subject ?*' and that, having 
 extracted from each child its little store of knowledge, the 
 teacher should sum up and say, *'Now this is what you know 
 on the matter, let us see what the book tells us ;'* and that 
 when the lesson is finished the teacher should again recapitu- 
 late and sum up the total of the knowledge acquired. Such 
 a process, besides forming the habit of collecting and arrang- 
 ing ideas, creates as it were the appetite for, and facilitates 
 the digestion of the intellectual food provided ; and Paley gives 
 it as the result of experience as a teacher, **that, unless some 
 curiosity was excited before it was attempted to be satisfied, 
 the labour of the teacher was lost ; when information was not 
 desired, it was seldom, I found, retained.'* After a reading- 
 lesson has been given the older scholars might be dismissed 
 to write out an abstract of what had been taught them, the 
 younger ones to pick out the more difficult words, writing them 
 on their slates with the explanations that had been furnished 
 of them. — There should be no committing to memory columns 
 of spelling, except, perhaps, in the case of words that sound 
 alike, but differ in sense ; and the spelling of these may be 
 most readily learned by writing from dictation sentences in 
 which they are included. — While the teacher cannot be too 
 careful to avoid anything like preaching to his scholars, and 
 should attempt, as far as possible, to go upon what has been 
 called the no- telling s^rstem,* attempting, as far as possible, 
 
 * On tlie Socratic or Catechetical mode of instruction the following extracts will 
 be read with great interest by all who know anything of the character and experi- 
 ence of the writers. " A good searching examination of the children is by no means 
 that ve<ry easy thing which people commonly think The desirable point is, to in- 
 sinuate your information into their minds, so that by indirect and tortuous entrance 
 it may be caught and entangled with what is already there, and not slip out again 
 
 as it would through a direct passage Begin -with a simple question, readily 
 
 admitting of an answer ; on that answer build another question, and on the answer 
 to this another question, and so on, until you bring the child to the answer whicli 
 is the conclusion required. In going through such a course he feels not only a 
 curiosity as to Avhat will come next, and so keeps his attention awake, but also a 
 lively interest from the experience of his own inworking power, and regards the 
 conclusion with something of that partiaHty which a mother entertains for her off- 
 spring. No wonder that he should firmly retain such information, to the inculcating 
 of which have been brought to bear three of the most powerful principles of his 
 nature, namely, curiosity, consciousness of power, and regard for his own. The 
 main point is, so to shape and order your questions as never to be reduced to tell 
 them anything in the way, and that the last answer should give the conclusion full 
 and convincing. This evidently requires much patient practice on the part of the 
 teacher, and some acqtdrements also. He must have gauged the capacity of tha 
 minds of children, obtained an insight into their worlang, so that he may know 
 
 S 
 
194 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 by suitable questions, to draw out the faculties of the children, 
 and to lead them to find out for themselves in some degree 
 
 where and how to press with his questions. He must have an intimate acquaintance 
 with Scripture, be possessed with a great deal of vernacular language, be distinct 
 in his conceptions, and be furnished with the means of apt and familiar illustration ; 
 and he must have a quickness of apprehension to catch all for which the text gives 
 him a handle, and to turn to account, on the way, the answers of the children, so 
 that they may go on steadUy in the proposed direction. Thus he raises his pupils 
 by just degrees continually to a higher level, and yet so insensibly uphill that they 
 shall not at any moment experience any of the difficulties and discouragements of 
 the ascent. Not but that, when they shall turn round and look back, they shall be 
 struck with the view of the height to which thev have attained ; and so to turn their 
 faces, and let them take pleasure in the sight, is one of the arts of a good examina- 
 tion. The result is, that the child becomes conscious of his strength, and desirous 
 to exercise it in further progress : and as motion, in proportion to its rapidity, 
 becomes more difficult of direction, so, as you proceed with him, you must be more 
 careful, and remember how trifling a circumstance may sometimes give a wrong 
 bias. Hasty instruction, soon forgotten by yourself who give it, is not soon forgotten 
 by those who receive it, and more especially in the great concern of all — EeEgious 
 information. Their minds are eager of inquiry, greedy of reception, creduloiis, 
 confident. What you present to them, therefore, should not be a matter of indif- 
 ference, but of sober consideration. Its tendency should be perceived by you ; for 
 
 you know not how deep and how wide it may shoot in a genial soil You may 
 
 perplex the child, instead of informing him." From ' The Bishopric of Souls,' by the 
 Rev. Robert W. Ecans, pp„ 167, 170. 
 The business of the catechist is to, "first, instruct his pupils by questioning the 
 
 meaning into them, and then examine them by questioning it out of them, The 
 
 practice recommended has, of course, its difficulties ; and the method cannot be 
 fully shown without more minute examples than can well be given in an address of 
 this nature. I may possibly, however, explain myself in some degree. The thing 
 to be done is, to possess the minds of a number of ignorant and heedless children 
 with the sense and meaning, we will say, of one of our Lord's Parables, and to bring 
 them to perceive and consider the practical lesson which it is intended to convey. 
 In order to this, their attention must, in the first place, be gained and fixed ; and 
 then there will probably be words and phrases to be explained, perhaps old customs 
 also—the literal story or similitude to be compared with the religious truth or 
 doctrine which it is employed to Ulustrate, and other portions of Scripture to be 
 cited and brought to bear on the point in hand in a way of confirmation or further 
 exposition. Then there are two ways of proceeding : you may preach or lecture 
 upon the subject, and in so doing you tell your hearers what you have acquired and 
 ascertained yourselves ; or else you may communicate instruction, as I advise, by 
 asking questions, and correcting the answers, or, I should rather say, by bringing the 
 children themselves to correct them, by means of further questioning on your part ; 
 
 and in that ease they tell you every thing ..The catechist's method forces the 
 
 child to think. Some httle effort and application of mind is required of him— is 
 actually extorted from him, every moment. Instead of making a speech, the 
 instructor has put a question ; perhaps he has got no answer, or a wrong answer, 
 but he is not beating the air, and his pains are not thrown away. If he has but 
 shown his pupil that something has been asked of him to which he can render no 
 reply, at least he has arrested his attention, and probably excited his curiosity, and 
 convinced him, moreover, of his ignorance, and made him perceive just in what 
 place and instance he needs information ; and therefore, if he has not made a pro- 
 selyte, he has got a hearer, and from so small a beginning g^reater things are soon 
 to follow He has the opportunity, whilst the catechetical instruction is proceed- 
 ing, of interspersing, as he gets his repUes, many brief remarks and practical 
 observations, in a natural and lively, and therefore attracting and affecting manner ; 
 or he may sum up the particulars afterwards in a short discourse, and ground upon 
 
 them, with good effect, the admonitions which they obviously suggest It would 
 
 astonish an inexperienced person to see how much very young children may acquire 
 
 in this way, and how much a whole school may be interested by it They get 
 
 imperceptibly a knowledge of words, and a fuller vocabulary ; and so, one of the 
 
APPLICATION OF SCRIPTURE 195 
 
 the instruction which he wishes to impart ; it is desirable, if 
 his own feelings lead him to do so, that in reading the Holy- 
 Scriptures he should, by short pithy observations, as it were, 
 twitch his scholars by the sleeve and draw their attention to 
 the wonderful truths therein contained. Notes, such as 
 "Think of this when you go home this evening," "Doth any 
 one feel that what is here said applies to his own conduct 
 this day?" without staying to particularize further, may 
 produce the most salutary effects upon the susceptible natures 
 of children : but anything of this sort will be worse than 
 useless if it be at all forced ; it must be, as it were, irrepress- 
 ible, the natural outgushing of the heart. None are so quick- 
 sighted as children to discern anything that may border on 
 affectation or hypocrisy ; and in all cases, with regard to the 
 expression of serious feelings, it is better to err upon the side 
 of too much reserve than the contrary. It is an expressive 
 figure of Milton's, where, alluding to the sad consequences 
 attendant upon the over- great profession of religion in his 
 day, he speaks of the "inward acts of worship," those juices 
 that should have remained at the heart, and kept warm the 
 life of the soul, as unwholesome humours, "running out 
 lavishly to the upper skin, and there hardening into a crust 
 of formality." 
 
 An honest teacher will give his greatest pains cheerfully to 
 those children that seem naturally least capable, while his 
 clever boys will in a great measure take care of themselves ; 
 he will feel that dulness of understanding is a sufficient 
 affliction, without being aggravated by impatience and care- 
 lessness on his part. — A Committee of Visitors may be of the 
 greatest service in increasing the amount of intellectual 
 instruction given in a school, as well as in raising its moral 
 tone. They must, however, abstain from making remarks 
 during school-time ; and, except on very obvious matters, 
 such as want of cleanliness, quarrelling among the boys, or 
 
 peculiar difficulties which every one will meet with who attempts to instruct the 
 
 children of very ignorant parents will be in a great degree overcome Next to 
 
 being asked a question ourselves, nothing awakens and interests us more than 
 hearing others questioned ; there will be curiosity to catch the child's reply ; a 
 thought can scarcely faU to cross the Hstener how he should reply himself, or 
 whether he could reply. Many are glad to get information without the risk of 
 exposing present ignorance ; and when the information is watched and waited for, 
 it IS retained." {From the Charge delivered in June, 1835, by Archdeacon Bather, 
 pp. 19, 20, 23, 26, 31, 32.) 
 
196 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 the like, their advice, if they be judicious, will be offered 
 rather to the Secretary of the School Committee than to the 
 master. * * He will feel the presence of persons superior 
 in station to himself to be an expression of sympathy with 
 him in his work, as well as a support to his authority with 
 the children. The parents also will greatly value such an 
 evidence of the interest felt in their children's welfare, and 
 not only may these visits prove the means of humanizing 
 both master and scholars, and of strengthening those cords 
 which bind together the different ranks of society, but also 
 the person making them may feel himself to be directly use- 
 ful as a teacher, if he will occasionally take each class, hear 
 them their lessons, and ascertain, by questioning them, how 
 far they understand what they have been learning. A visitor 
 should not confine himself to giving religious instruction ; 
 where the master has little or no knowledge of geography, 
 etymology, or grammar, no considerable amount of instruction 
 on these subjects may be communicated, at the expense of a 
 little pains on the part of the visitor, to the great delight and 
 interest of the scholars. 
 
 With regard to the maintainance of order, a teacher should 
 recollect these three things : first, that the quieter his school 
 is the better ; secondly, that this quietness will very much 
 depend upon his own calmness, upon his not speaking more 
 than is necessary, using his eye rather than his voice, and, 
 when compelled to speak, speaking in the gentlest tones ; 
 and, thirdly, that punishment is in itself an evil, and the use 
 of it a reproach to the master, who ought to be able to carry 
 everything by the influence of his own character, the children 
 fearing not so much the rod as the loss of their teacher's 
 approbation. * * When a new teacher first takes charge 
 of a neglected school he will sometimes spend what to many 
 may appear too large a portion of his time in drilling the boys 
 to go through certain mechanical movements. The attain- 
 ment of facility in these matters is of course not an end in 
 itself, but is often most serviceable in the cultivation of habits 
 of attention and obedience, producing a direct influence upon 
 the formation of the boy's character. 
 
 This inquiry, how the discipline of a school may be best 
 preserved, is so important, that I may perhaps be excused for 
 going into some particulars, without professing to offer that 
 
DISCIPLINE 197 
 
 which in any sense can be taken as a complete answer to it. — 
 And first, after what has been said, it is not necessary for me 
 to stigmatise some methods for the attainment of this object 
 as not simply ineffective, but positively mischievous. For 
 example, in a school which I visited in one of the southern 
 counties of England, the master, whose cane was his constant 
 badge of office, was enabled by the help of a quick eye, a 
 strong arm, and very dull perceptions for the sufferings of 
 others, to attain, during his presence in the school, to a perfect 
 outward compliance with his orders. It is true that, when 
 his back w^as turned, the spirits that were kept under by this 
 mechanical pressure at once effervesced and boiled over, there 
 being in addition a strong admixture of bitterness infused by 
 this unnatural coercion. — Other teachers pursue a plan less 
 effective, as far as visible effects are concerned, although not 
 fraught with the mischief attendant upon that to which I have 
 just adverted, ordinarily contenting themselves with bawling 
 from a corner of the room, "Not so much noise, boys;" 
 "Have I to speak to you again, sir.?" and being only on 
 occasions roused to a vigorous use of the cane. A much 
 better effect would be produced in a moderate- sized school, if 
 the teacher simply hinted, in a gentle tone, that he heard one 
 little boy exerting his voice more than was necessary ; each 
 conscience- stricken offender would probably in that case at 
 once be silent, applying the notice to himself. — Everything 
 like exposure should, if possible, be avoided ; as long as a 
 boy is fit to remain in the school, let him be treated as one 
 that has the good opinion of the teacher to lose. An offence 
 may be spoken of, without naming the offender ; expostulation 
 and reproof should be private. The more we act towards 
 boys as if they were reasonable beings, as persons having 
 sympathies and feelings like ourselves at our best moments, 
 the more successful shall we be. 
 
 I will give now one or two examples of methods of treat- 
 ment that I witnessed with pleasure. — A teacher, while 
 engaged with a class, observed two boys fighting in another 
 part of the school ; he quietly removed them from their desk 
 to a corner of the room. They were naughty boys ; and, 
 although nothing was said, they felt that they were not 
 allowed the privilege of going on with their studies. About 
 the middle of school-time, the rest having been dismissed for 
 
198 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 ten minutes' run in the play- ground, the teaclier, addressing 
 one of the offenders by his Christian name, took hold of his 
 hand, and asked him what it was made for ; whether for the 
 purpose of pulling the other's hair, or for better things. 
 Afterwards, turning to the other, he asked him whether the 
 law of God permitted him, if his fellow struck him, to strike 
 in return ; and what was said in the Gospel on this subject. 
 Having extracted the desired answers, and asked them to 
 shake hands, they were presently let off to join their fellows 
 in the play-ground. — Another teacher, a mistress, stood, while 
 dismissing her children at the door of her school, and severally 
 shook each girl by the hand, as she curtsied in passing ; 
 presently one came up to whom the teacher gently refused 
 her hand, saying, "No, you have so behaved yourself today 
 that I cannot shake hands with you.'' The girl was evidently 
 strongly moved by this reproof. It is perhaps needless to add 
 that the cane or other means of corporal punishment was 
 scarcely ever resorted to in either of these schools. — Another 
 teacher is in the habit of assembling his entire school before 
 him at the close of each day, when, in a short quiet address, 
 not at all as preaching to the children, he notices, without 
 mentioning names, the matters that he has observed to go 
 wrong. On the day of my visit, with great good sense and 
 good feeling, he said, after alluding to one or two things that 
 he had observed, that such conduct was inconsistent with 
 what he hoped would be the character of the boys of his 
 school ; that he wished them to carry it about with them in 
 their thoughts that as scholars there they were not excusable 
 if they behave like other less fortunate children who were left 
 to run loose and uncared for in the streets. The teacher who 
 said this was an old man, and had been many years in his 
 post ; and although I do not mention these instances as pat- 
 terns to be servilely copied, but simply as examples of the 
 carrying out of those principles of management which I wish 
 to see prevailing in our schools, such a practice seemed to me 
 fitted to cultivate a habit of self-examination in the minds of 
 the boys, which if constantly associated with the end of the 
 day's business, could scarcely fail of producing results the 
 most happy. — In one of the best schools that I inspected, on 
 inquiring of the teacher what rewards he used with his child- 
 ren, he said that, when the class had pleased him, he gave 
 
RESPONSIBILITY OF TEACHERS 
 
 199 
 
 them a lesson in geography or history, which was found to 
 be a sufficient stimulus. 
 
 Our teachers cannot have it represented to them too vividly 
 how great the charge is with which they are intrusted, and 
 how distinct and forcible the assurances are that no part of 
 their pains will ever be lost. The work is indeed that of the 
 sower, and the results are in many cases not to be perceived 
 by our eyes : but all that is done will, in one way or other, 
 have its fruit. A teacher should feel himself to be in some 
 degree responsible for the failures of his pupils ; not, of course, 
 singly responsible, for he has to work with many adverse 
 influences continually thwarting him ; but, in proportion as 
 his hopes of doing good are enlarged, he will, if right-minded, 
 be more anxious after self- improvement, more quick- sighted 
 to discover past errors, more ready as he goes forward to 
 profit by his experience. — The young thief, with his strong 
 will, and his intellectual faculties highly developed for knavery, 
 — the spoiled child, with his fretful temper, his selfishness, 
 his incapacity to set himself steadily to any serviceable work, — 
 and other characters, unhappily too common in the world, — 
 bear witness to the diligence and success with which their 
 guardians and instructors have done their work ; and why 
 should not the laborious teacher, full of prayer as well as of 
 watching, strong in hk, confidence on Divine aid, believe that 
 he also shall be made capable of accomplishing his ends ? 
 There is a direct and unconditional promise, ''Train up a 
 child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will 
 not depart from it." It is acknowledged that the soil on 
 which we have to work is strange and unkindly for the 
 growth of those plants that we desire to cultivate, but no 
 honest endeavours that are bestowed upon it will ever be 
 spent in vain.* * * Schoolmasters are to be found with. 
 
 * It cannot be repeated too frequently tliat our schools are to be places where 
 children are to be educated, and not simply where instruction is to be given on 
 certain definite subjects. The mode of communicating instruction is to be regarded, 
 as well as the quality and extent of the instruction itself. The following extracts 
 put some of the matters which I would wish to impress on the minds of aU teachers 
 in a very forcible manner : — 
 
 "Nor is it only for the future period of their Ufe" (the writer is speaking of the 
 right education of children) " that we hare to provide in this essential interest of 
 their being. Their minds at present admit of being fashioned to good or to evil. 
 Piety and practical reason can be infused into their tender capacities ; and young 
 as they are, they are the objects of the care of Grod, and should be so of ours. It 
 
200 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 I may almost say, no sense at all of the responsibilities and 
 importance of their situation, making apparently no eifort to 
 
 is the mistake of our pride and selfishness to think little of the disposal and destina- 
 tion of children, except for the sake of what they may be hereafter when they arrive 
 at our own boasted maturity. Perhaps they may never live to see that time ; but 
 what then ? They are endowed with a reasonable nature and immortal souls like 
 ourselves ; and they are members of the family of Christ, and have a place assijjned 
 to them in heaven as well as we ; and their feelings and intellect are now what ours 
 once were, capable of being cultivated, and taught to know their Creator, and render 
 him praise in their httle circles of thought and action. Their very spring of life 
 may be made to bear its fruits, and render an offering not unfit to be laid upon his 
 altar. They deserve our care, in regard to their present as well as their more 
 
 matured virtue, yet in distant expectation It will be impossible to boast of 
 
 instruction as a blessing, either to the individual who receives it, or to the community 
 to which he belongs, unless it be rationally directed. The power of reading, or the 
 use of it, makes no man either wise or virtuous ; by itself it is a vague and undis- 
 tinguishmg facidty. It is the kind of instruction conveyed and received that 
 determines altogether the character and value of our stuclies and acquired know- 
 ledge. Education, properly understood, is that which prepares the young to become 
 good men hereafter, and regulates their mind from the first, whilst it enlarges their 
 ideas. It is that which instructs them to think and act as moral and religious 
 creatures ; to become acquainted with God and their Saviour in the doctrines of 
 the Christian faith ; to understand their duties towards God and man, which they 
 were born to discharge ; and to become disposed to the practice of those duties, by 
 a knowledge of the responsibility under which they act, of the great Judgment to 
 come, and of the final issues of a good or an evil life in an eternal world, under the 
 righteous government of God. Let no vain sophistry delude us into a misdirection 
 of our studies. Piety and virtue are the proper work and business of our existence, 
 in all its periods and stages, from the first dawn of our reason to the latest improve- 
 ment of it in our grey-headed maturity. It follows, that to communicate the know- 
 ledge and estabhsh the first principles of these things in the understanding and the 
 moral choice is the one chief purpose and most legitimate end of youthful instruction. 
 Perhaps it may be thought that the true scope of education is rather to furnish the 
 young with the skiU and learning required for their particular callings in life. But 
 consider this point : our caUings in life are not the end for which we are sent into 
 the world : they are stations wluch God has appointed, wherein we may do what is 
 right and good, and practise certain duties, and serve him. We are not born to be 
 mechanics or husbandmen, merchants or mariners : these callings and professions 
 are temporary states of probation, giving birth and opportunity of exercise to 
 integrity, patience, dependence upon God, contented and virtuous industry, and 
 supplying the means of doing good in various ways. Our particular callings diversij^ 
 the occupations of life, whilst the great laws of God, and the business of our moral 
 and religious duty resulting from them, follow us into every calling, and create the 
 constant employment of our habits and principles. Whatever may be our post or 
 profession, and whatever skiU or learning it may require, which, no doubt, ought to 
 be provided in youth, stUl our first and last care for ourselves and our youn^ fami- 
 lies should be, that we be instructed in our obligations and duties, and acquire the 
 skill of being good men. It is only a debasement of the mind either for the young or 
 the old to separate any of their studies or pursuits from this controlling moral 
 
 direction When we take in hand to educate the young, together with the care 
 
 to inform their understanding with, necessary truth must be joined the government 
 and training of their habits and actions ; the ethical instruction appUed wiU be 
 unavailing if there be no watchful and practical disciphne to regulate their disposi- 
 tions and conduct. Suffer me to explain myself in this important point. Education 
 will never produce virtue by precepts repeated and truths inculcated. To encourage 
 the heart and affections of the young to a love of what is good, to restrain their 
 wrong propensities, to watch their ways of behaviour, and deal with them according 
 to their essential character as moral agents, by making them perceive that we are 
 more intent on what they do than what they learn to say from their books, — this 
 will give efficiency to instruction, and convert it into an instrument of practical good. 
 (From a Sermon preached at South Shields, Sunday, Wth September, 1825, by the 
 Reverend John Davison, — *^ Remains" pp. 229, 335, 249, 253.) 
 
ROUTINE 201 
 
 exert themselves as rational beings, limiting their desires to 
 the realization of a certain formal routine, irrespective of 
 circumstances, and with scarce any care or hope as to results. 
 To give one example, in a teacher who was represented to me 
 as a person of respectable character, and whose school was 
 kept under what would be felt to be the most advantageous 
 circumstances, there being no lack of funds or of will to supply 
 all that was necessary, and the best of our English schools 
 being within reach, so as that the master might without 
 difficulty have himself perfectly acquainted with the most 
 improved methods of instruction ; the number of children in 
 attendance upon the day of my visit was under 40 ; these 
 were divided into five classes, each under a monitor. On my 
 observing that I could not detect any difference between two 
 of the divisions, and that if these were thrown together the 
 services of a monitor would be spared, the master assented to 
 the fact of there being no difference in the proficiency of the 
 children, but said that in the school in which he was trained 
 (a very large one) there were five classes, and that he thought 
 it right to keep up the same number. The children were 
 backward, and very imperfectly instructed ; and on my further 
 asking him if he did not think it right to take a class himself 
 occasionally, so as not to leave the whole business of instruc- 
 tion to his monitors, he made reply, "No, Sir, that is not our 
 system ; with us the monitors teach ; it is the master's 
 business to superintend and see that the others do their work.'* 
 I am afraid, from what I noticed, that even the system of 
 superintendence was in this school carried out very imperfectly. 
 1842, 181—195. 
 
 St. Enoch's School, Glasgow. * * 
 ''English School. — The whole pupils in English may be 
 viewed as four divisions. Each division is subdivided into a 
 number of classes, and each class marks a different degree of 
 improvement. In the highest division, there are six classes ; 
 in the next, five ; in the next, eight / and in the lowest 
 division, thirteen. The number of pupils in each class may 
 vary according to circumstances : in the highest division, 
 there may be eighteen ; in the two junior divisions, seldom 
 above twelve ; sometimes as low as four or five. If a class 
 of twelve, for example, is backward, it is broken into two 
 classes, with six in each ; and by this means they receive the 
 
202 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 services of two monitors ; and not only so, but each pupil's 
 work is doubled, for each speaks once every six words ; 
 whereas, each spoke only once in twelve before. This plan 
 is acted on much, so much so, indeed, that there are few 
 classes in which one or two are not doing double work ; and, 
 by adopting this plan, we seldom require to turn a pupil from 
 a higher into a lower class. It also helps wonderfully to 
 maintain a uniformity of progress amongst the members of a 
 class, and this is an object which w^e deem of great importance. 
 When a number of children, say twenty- one, begin the 
 alphabet together, I divide them into seven classes of three in 
 each, and set a monitor to each of these — generally a young 
 boy or girl who has never had a class before. Five letters 
 are appointed for the first day's lesson ; the children do not 
 say the letters all at once, that produces listlessness and noise. 
 Let the five letters be a, h, c, m, o ; the first child says «, the 
 next h, the third child c, the first m, and so on. Five other 
 letters are required next day ; and on the third day these ten 
 letters are revised ; on the fourth day, five fresh letters are 
 required ; on the fifth, the fifteen letters are revised, and so 
 on. In this way the alphabet is mastered in about ten days. 
 The seven classes now become four. Among this number 
 there may be three who are rather backward ; in that case 
 these three form a class by themselves ; the other eighteen 
 form three classes, with six in each. It may happen, during 
 next step, that one or two of the eighteen become backward, 
 and one or two of the three become forward ; in that case they 
 change places, or, as more frequently happens, the three 
 become as forward as the rest, and then the twenty- one form 
 three classes with seven in each. A book is put into the 
 hand of each as soon as the alphabet is mastered, and the first 
 lesson is to instruct the child how to hold his book on his 
 left hand, and to point with the fore- finger of the right. 
 When each can hold his book and keep his finger accurately 
 at the first w^ord, tliey are taught to point or keep the place. 
 The monitor says ** Go to the next word," and looks round 
 the class to see that each finger is moved accordingly. If the 
 child cannot do it, the monitor puts his finger kindly to the 
 place. Every finger being now at the word, the children are 
 allowed to look at it for a little. The monitor again repeats 
 his command, **Go to the next word/' and proceeds as before. 
 
ST. Enoch's school 203 
 
 till the children can point to the next word at command. 
 During this lesson the children are not allowed to pronounce 
 or join the letters. It is obvious that when a child can keep 
 the place during the business of his class, he derives benefit 
 when the others say, as well as when he says the lesson him- 
 self ; besides, it imparts a cheerfulness to the child which he 
 does not in other circumstances evince. This practice of 
 keeping the finger at the place is pursued in all the classes, 
 even in the highest. It causes the pupil to concentrate his 
 attention, prevents him from running into mischief, and saves 
 the master from the disagreeable necessity of punishing. In 
 a large division, the master must of course walk about to see 
 that each finger is at the place, but he will be amply rewarded 
 by increased attention and diminished offences. 
 
 The children now begin to join the letters, and six words, 
 such as lo, gOy are required the first day. The first child 
 joins the letters in the first word, and the monitor pronounces 
 the word, after which they all join the letters and pronounce 
 the word once together. The monitor then says "Next 
 word,'' and sees that every finger is moved to it. The next 
 child joins the letters in the next word ; the monitor pro- 
 nounces ; then they all join and pronounce once, and so on. 
 This is done for two or three days, after which they may get 
 three or four lines for a lesson, and spell and pronounce word 
 about without the whole class repeating it together. They 
 come now to words of three letters, and the same process is 
 carried on. They are not allowed to read any for six weeks 
 or two months, and by that time they can spell pretty rapidly. 
 The monitor is obliged to say, *'Next word," and see that 
 each finger is to it till the children can do it perfectly without 
 such attention on his part. He is also required to join the 
 letters and pronounce the word after each child, to instil a 
 correct pronunciation. It often happens that one or two 
 voices are weak and imperfect, not having been trained 
 properly ; and but for the monitors coming over the word in 
 this way, the rest of the class would not hear, and could not 
 keep the place. Lessons of from six to eight lines are now 
 given, and the pupils spell all the words the one day, and 
 read a line each the next ; they read it backwards, too. The 
 four classes now form two ; the best compose the larger class, 
 say twelve ; and the nine inferior are kept together, so that. 
 
204 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 if possible, by the extra work (formerly explained), they may 
 keep pace with the twelve. 
 
 The example here given of the management of these twenty- 
 one may serve as a general explanation of our principles of 
 management, even in the higher classes. It must not be 
 supposed, however, that what I have stated with respect to 
 these twenty- one would happen in every case. Sometimes a 
 few shoot far a-head of the rest ; and they are constantly 
 shifted to a higher class, as they become fit. In all the classes, 
 we proceed upon the plan of getting a small lesson, but getting 
 it well ; accordingly the rest of the classes in this first division 
 have lessons varying from ten to sixteen lines of an initiatory 
 book. They first spell word about until they can do it rapidly ; 
 then read word about ; then read the sentences ; then read 
 them backwards. Prominence is always given to an unusual 
 or difficult word, by causing the pupils to spell and pronounce 
 it more frequently : this brings them to the second or testa- 
 ment division, and by this time they can read it with little help. 
 
 In this division a portion of one of the Gospels is read 
 daily ; the portion varies from five to ten verses in the 
 various classes. In preparing this lesson, the pupils pro- 
 nounce the word alone, and spell only those words which they 
 cannot pronounce. Trapping or the taking of places, is 
 maintained in all the classes. When a word, however, occurs 
 at which one stammers, the attention of the whole class is 
 called to it, and one here and there desired to spell and 
 pronounce it till the class become familiar with it. And those 
 in the class who are most backward are particularly chosen to 
 spell and pronounce such words. This plan of calling the 
 *'dead weight" into action is pursued through all the classes 
 and branches. The whole Testament division, though con- 
 sisting of various classes, have the same portion of Scripture, 
 that is to say, are at the same place. A class having a lesson 
 of five verses, misses five verses in order to keep pace with a 
 class having ten verses, the reason for doing this is, that at 
 the end of the forenoon's lesson, the more obvious parts of 
 the lesson are explained. In this way each class receives 
 more or less benefit by one explanation; whereas, if the 
 classes read various parts, various explanations v/ould be use- 
 less waste of time. The words in the first or second verse 
 are given as an exercise in spelling, to be learned at home ; 
 
ST. Enoch's school 205 
 
 and, in addition to this, each pupil has to spell a word in the 
 verse that he reads. Having read his verse, he closes his 
 book, and the monitor gives him any word to spell ; if he 
 fails he is allowed to look to his book, and then spell it. One 
 question from the Catechism is required from this division 
 every morning, and it is read over carefully to the class by 
 the monitor the previous afternoon. A great deal of miscel- 
 laneous knowledge is communicated to these two divisions, in 
 the shape of gallery-lessons. Bible and natural history, 
 music, arithmetic, tables, &c., take a prominent place. 
 
 The next division read the Bible and 'Fourth Irish Collec- 
 tion' ; the lessons are prepared in the same way as in the 
 preceding division, only they are larger and more difficult ; 
 and an increased degree of attention is paid to meaning of 
 words, &c. Their style of reading is also more attended to. 
 It is attended to from the beginning ; but in this division, as 
 the pupils can read tolerably, it becomes more developed 
 under proper treatment : when the lesson can be illustrated 
 by a map, or picture, it is so done. In repeating the Cate- 
 chism in the morning in this division, they have also to learn 
 the meaning of the words and phrases employed in it. 
 
 In the fourth or highest division, the pupils are thoroughly 
 drilled into the knowledge of all that comes before them ; the 
 various meanings of words, and their various applications, are 
 attended to ; phrases are also explained when they occur. 
 Every pupil, ])efore leaving this division, must be able to spell 
 every word of common use in the language, and know its 
 meaning ; and to attain this end, a portion of spelling — 
 say about thirty large words, or from sixty to ninety small 
 ones — out of a classified spelling- book, is required daily ; and 
 also all the words in the reading-lesson. In hearing the 
 spelling, if a pupil makes a slip, he is sometimes allowed to 
 spell a number of other words ; and if successful in them, he 
 retains his place. Sometimes the pupils spell letter about, 
 and sometimes spell all the words in a sentence, as if writing 
 them. The lessons are not large — from sixty to eighty lines. 
 The words, &c., that: the master thinks necessary to be studied 
 by the pupil, are marked by each with a pencil ; and he is 
 required to bring the meanings of such words, written on a 
 slip of paper, next day : care is taken to select those words 
 on which the explanation of the lesson more immediately 
 
 T 
 
206 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 depends. The substance of the lesson is also elucidated 
 catechetically ; and each lesson is revised, till the pupils 
 become so familiar with them as to be able to refer to them 
 without the book. The lessons embrace all the subjects 
 contained in the 'Fifth Irish Book' : Hartley's 'Oratorical 
 Class-book' is used as a finishing book in elegant reading. 
 
 In studying history, for example, a number of questions, 
 which will exhibit such history categorically, are put ; and 
 the pupils, with their books before them, are required to 
 answer them in the language of the book. Next day they 
 bring them written oat in a separate book, and numbered. 
 The writing of these questions answers various purposes, but 
 chiefly this, that each pupil has a history of his own making, 
 as it were. These exercises are used as text-books ; they are 
 also exercised in words having the same sound, but different 
 spelling and signification. 
 
 In the third and fourth divisions, Monday and Tuesday are 
 set apart for religious instruction. The doctrines contained 
 in any portion of Scripture are separated, and the leading 
 incidents marked and impressed upon the minds of the pupils. 
 Reflections suited to the occasion are also briefly suggested. 
 Almost every other lesson furnishes opportunities for advice 
 and instruction in morality and religion, and is improved 
 accordingly. The Catechism of our Church is heard every 
 morning, and explained ; the bearing that one question has 
 upon another ; and also one part of the Catechism upon another 
 part is particularly noticed, so that the pupil becomes ac- 
 quainted with it, as a digest of Christian principle and 
 Christian practice, and not as a puzzling exercise of memory. 
 
 In teaching English grammar, the lesson that is given 
 to-day as a task for to-morrow is explained till every one 
 understands the meaning of it. In this way it not unfrequently 
 happens that when any one forgets the exact expression used 
 in his book, he can supply words of his own from understand- 
 ing the meaning of his lesson. Each part is thoroughly 
 mastered before proceeding to another : in acquiring a know- 
 ledge'of the verb, the pupil is required to write out various 
 verbs in all their moods and tenses, till he is perfectly at 
 home in it ; and then he gets some other exercises to write 
 at home — even if it should be a reiteration of something he 
 already knows — as the parsing of a simple sentence, &c. 
 
ST. Enoch's school 207 
 
 When the pupil has to write something at home, the master 
 knows whether it be done or not ; when the pupil is to study, 
 he is often deceived. In teaching a knowledge of syntax, the 
 sentences that are used to illustrate the rule are taken to 
 pieces, as it were, and reconstructed ; and the dependence 
 that one word has upon another clearly shown. Example — 
 rule 16th, Lennie's Grammar, — "I am the man who maintain 
 that principle ; " the pupil corrects it by saying, *' maintains ;" 
 then he says, '* *!' and *man' are the two antecedents of 
 different persons ; *!* is first, and 'man' third ; 'who' agrees 
 with *man' by rule, and is third person by rule 15th ; 
 and 'maintains' agrees with 'who' by rule first. The boy's 
 previous knowledge is always brought to bear upon his lesson, 
 when practicable. An incessant revising and re- explaining, 
 and illustrating the same things, must be kept up till all the 
 pupils are conversant with the subject. Each pupil in gram- 
 mar writes a page in syntax that has been corrected the 
 previous day. These exercises are corrected thus : each hands 
 his exercise to his neighbour ; the master reads the sentence 
 correctly, and they correct them. What has been said 
 concerning our teaching of grammar is very applicable to 
 arithmetic, the principle of the rule being always explained 
 beforehand, and the pupil taught to consider the rule as 
 merely telling him how to do a certain thing ; the why is 
 always explained by a reference to the principle. In Sub- 
 traction, for instance, the rule says, ''carry one to the next 
 lower figure, having borrowed ten," the principle is entirely 
 hid here. Example — take 27 from 43 : the pupil must be 
 shown that the four represents four tens, and that when he 
 borrows ten, it is from the four, and that instead of adding 
 one to the figure in the under line, he should diminish the 
 upper figure by the one borrowed. Now, though the result in 
 both cases is precisely similar, and though a child may be taught 
 to do the thing quite exactly without knowing the principle, yet 
 we are never contented unless we put him in possession of the 
 right reason for everything. To take an example farther on — 
 Calculation of Interest for Days — the rule says, "multiply 
 the sum, by the number of days, and divide by 365, the 
 quotient is the answer in shillings, at five per cent." Now, 
 to make this plain, it must be shown that five per cent, per 
 annum is just a shilling of interest for every pound ; that, 
 
208 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 therefore, when he puts down ''the sum," it is in fact only as 
 many shillings as there are pounds in the sum ; and the answer 
 for any number of days must bear the same proportion to these 
 shillings that that particular number of days does to 365 — 
 the days in a year. In short, as every figure or class of 
 figures in the solution of any problem is attributable to some 
 operation, and that operation sanctioned by some principle, 
 so the pupil must know, and be able to explain, both principle 
 and operation. Arithmetic is taught, not individually, but in 
 classes ; one class of say 30, may be in Reduction ; as many 
 more in the compound rules ; another class, of 40 or so, may 
 be in Decimals, &c. There are at present four stages, and 
 when any class has finished a solution, one is called on to 
 explain the method and give the reason. Every one must be 
 able to make a rule, by reviewing his work rather than by 
 relying on his memory. The more backward pupils are called 
 most frequently to explain, &c. We often explain a rule 
 familiarly thus : in dividing a large sum of money among a 
 great number of persons, the pupils may not see how the 
 quotient happens to be the share of each ; but if you ask 
 them to divide 6d. among three persons, they at once know 
 that 2d. is the share of each : make them put down this simple 
 question on their slates, then proceed with the larger example. 
 The characters in the margin form the progressive steps of 
 beginners in writing. The faults in a stroke or turn are 
 pointed out ; also the method of correcting them. The letter 
 is occasionally penciled, over which the pupil draws the pen. 
 This pencilling is done more or less, as the pupil may require. 
 When they can draw these letters well, they are exercised in 
 words containing two or more of them, and then they are 
 introduced to the long letters ; then to words having a long 
 letter ; by this time they are able to try small writing, and 
 after practising the letters m n, are exercised in words made 
 up principally of these letters, such as ''mammon :" in making 
 m, the pupil must not lift his pen. In the copy of a boy 
 somewhat advanced, there are errors of taste as well as form- 
 ation, to correct ; and there may be various errors in one 
 exercise : only one, however, is selected at a time ; and when 
 that is corrected, another is selected and corrected ; and so on. 
 The method of making the letters is also taught on a black 
 board ; for example, some, in making the letter a, make first 
 
ST. Enoch's school 209 
 
 an 0, and then lift the pen and tag a turn to it : this is very 
 wrong. The letters a, d, g, are all made upon the same prin- 
 ciple, and must be done without lifting the pen : such displays 
 as this are highly useful. We use steel pens alone. 
 
 In geography, we endeavour that the pupil become ac- 
 quainted with the various places on a map, from the map itself, 
 rather than from committing a number of names to memory, 
 and then searching for them. Mathematical, physical, and 
 political geography, are each embraced in the course to a certain 
 extent." (Signed) H. C. Osborne.— 1845, II. 339—345. 
 
 In the second class, composed of four drafts, the progress 
 is but limited, being little beyond a habit of reading from 
 boards and books ; but in the next class the course of teaching 
 is very clearly arranged and industriously and systematically 
 pursued. First the selected harder words are spelt by each 
 child in rotation, the. monitor spelling them correctly after each 
 and not before it, that it may be enabled to appreciate the cor- 
 rection, if there be any, through having already made an effort. 
 Next each boy in succession reads a word of the text, which 
 is read correctly after him by the monitor ; a whole clause is 
 then read by each in like manner and under the like correc- 
 tion, the stops being named as well as observed. Finally, 
 each reads a sentence completely, and when he stumbles 
 appeal is made to the other boys in succession, when he who 
 makes the true correction gains one place, and one only, how- 
 ever many boys he may have corrected. This arrangement 
 ensures to an industrious boy a steady course of progression, 
 for if he maintain his position at the top of his draft he is 
 allowed to proceed from draft to draft and class to class, if he 
 can on trial show a superiority over the lowest boy in the 
 next class. The progress under this course of discipline in 
 the third and the next class is very remarkable, and in the 
 fifth class — being the top class of the lower school — nearly 
 all the children in every draft can read in the Testament, or 
 any ordinary narrative, with clearness, correctness, and con- 
 siderable intelligence ; the reading here being sentence by 
 sentence, without the preliminary exercises, though still the 
 monitor reads a sentence in his turn as an example to the rest. 
 1848, II. 251. 
 
 In the reading exercises, the monitors (who all read very 
 well), when the words to be spelt have been acquired, read 
 
210 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 the lessons sentence by sentence, and each child, in turn, 
 reads sentence by sentence after them, round and round the 
 class, until all have read each sentence ; and then they read 
 without the leadership of the monitors ; being finally ques- 
 tioned upon the meaning of each word, clause, and sentence ; 
 an exercise closing, in the highest drafts, with requests to spell 
 (round) a whole dictated sentence. This is a vigorous exer- 
 cise of the memory, and of their knowledge of the language, 
 as efficient, perhaps, as writing from dictation, without the 
 possibility of copying from each other. In spelling the little 
 ones are required to pronounce syllable by syllable ; the elder 
 children, only to make a pause among the letters at the close 
 of each syllable ; but first of all they must repeat, with the 
 most distinct utterance, the word which they are about to 
 spell. The questioning is not with open books, any more 
 than in the boys' school ; but it is with books in hand, and 
 the places retained so as to be able to refer to the text ; a 
 great advantage, where the highest purpose of the whole 
 exercise is to vivify that text. Taking places is not practised 
 in the reading, which is chiefly to a monitorial pattern, and 
 not corrected mutually ; but it is made available in spelling, 
 questioning, &c., to a sufficient extent to keep up attention. 
 The distinctness of utterance, correctness of spelling, clear- 
 ness of ideas, and unaffected gentleness of tone prevailing 
 throughout the classes, mark the reading lessons as aff^ording 
 some of the highest specimens of monitorial instruction that 
 I have yet seen. Nothing could be added with advantage to 
 the methods in use, except more, perhaps, of individualizing 
 in the interrogative exercises. Many of the top class read 
 with expression ; and in grammatical knowledge of the struc- 
 ture of the sentences before them, as well as in perception of 
 their scope and bearing, showed themselves decidedly superior 
 to the top class of the boys' school. The Scripture reading 
 appeared to me to partake of the same relative superiority, as 
 a whole, though wanting in verbal explanation in the lower 
 parts of the school. 1847, II. 411, 412. 
 
 The inarticulate and confused enunciation of children may 
 be corrected by teaching them word by word, instead of giving 
 out long sentences. The children should repeat each word 
 after the monitor, first separately, than simultaneously. — 
 Each word should be explained by easy synonyms, and by 
 
GOOD READING 211 
 
 constructing familiar sentences. A monitor who cannot do 
 this is not fit to conduct a class. Young boys and girls can 
 do it when they are properly trained. "^ * 
 
 Instead of reading to the end of each verse in the Bible, it 
 is better to read to the end of a period ; and when the teacher 
 conducts the lesson, he should cause some of the children to 
 read two or three sentences, or not less than half a page, tak- 
 ing great pains to correct every fault, and to call the attention 
 of the rest of the class to his observations. The teacher will 
 also read the sentences himself occasionally, and not desist 
 until the boy whom he calls out for that purpose imitate 
 the intonation of his voice correctly. — Hasty reading may 
 be corrected by forcing the children to pause after every word, 
 while the rest of the class repeat it in turns. By placing two 
 boys at some distance, and causing one without a book to 
 repeat each word after the reader, indistinct utterance is often 
 cured in a short time. — To keep up the attention of the class, 
 the monitor should call upon children in different places to 
 continue the sentence ; and in general it is advisable to let 
 two divisions read alternately. — The circulating system gen- 
 erally tends to give liveliness to the reading. Some masters, 
 who object to it upon the whole, introduce it occasionally 
 when the attention of the children seems to flag. — In addition 
 to texts, catechism, and hymns, large portions of Scripture 
 are learned in many schools. Instead of repeating these 
 lessons viva voce, the children should be encouraged to write 
 them from memory. I have already expressed an opinion 
 that the memory of children is not sufficiently exercised in 
 National schools. — Arithmetic is rarely taught upon a good 
 system. I have recommended Dr. Short's 'Arithmetic,' the 
 * Dublin Arithmetic,' M*Leod's for the use of monitors, and 
 Colenso's for pupil teachers. 1845, 11. 192, 193. 
 
 [At some schools,] in the lowest classes the reader goes on 
 to a comma, when he pauses and says, ''comma one :" and is 
 then relieved by the boy next to him. If this plan makes the 
 children *'mind their stops," it certainly leads them to neglect 
 the meaning of their lesson. 1845, II. 256. 
 
 Here the reading was correct and fluent, though deficient 
 in expression and intelligence ; the spelling was good, and the 
 meaning of each word was given after it had been spelt. The 
 examination of the lesson was peculiar ; it was corrected by 
 
212 
 
 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 the children themselves, who questioned each other on the 
 subject matter ; this was done with great spirit, and in the 
 process they exhibited a thorough mastery both of the words 
 and subject of the lesson read. This is a valuable exercise, 
 if given only occasionally, and under the careful surveillance 
 of intelligent teachers. * * [The highest] class spelt 
 remarkably well. After the lesson of the day was over the 
 pupils were requested to puzzle each other by demanding the 
 spelling of the most difficult words ; this was gone through 
 with great spirit. 1842, 133. 
 
 It is of great moment that as many as possible, amongst 
 the poor, should be able to read aloud, so as to be well 
 understood, and listened to with pleasure. It tends to make 
 home more attractive, and to relieve the weariness of the 
 sickbed ; to increase the poor man's comforts and supports ; 
 to civilize and christianize him. 1848, II. 7. 
 
 [^Extracts from a Letter by the Rev. R. Dawes."] 
 
 ''At first the parents did not appear to take much interest in 
 the subject, but now that they in some measure understand the 
 kind of education which their children are getting, it is most 
 pleasing to see the efforts which they make in sending them 
 neat and clean in their persons, in buying the books necessary 
 for their instruction, and their general anxiety as to regular 
 attendance, a thing which at one time seemed to them of 
 little importance. Many of them now take such an interest, 
 and feel so much pleasure in hearing from their children 
 (from whom they get a great deal of information which 
 interests them) what they are doing, that they will now make 
 sacrifices to keep them at school which some time ago they 
 never contemplated. To most of the children themselves the 
 school is a matter of great delight ; and as there is scarcely 
 an evening in which they have not something to do connected 
 with it, such as committing to memory a few lines of poetry, 
 or some little written exercise, either scriptural or secular, in 
 many cases the parents get quite as much interested in the 
 lessons as the children themselves, and this is one w^ay in 
 which the good effects on both are peculiarly shown. At first, 
 with respect to any written exercises, there was great difficulty 
 in getting anything done — one had no paper, another no ink, 
 no pen, &c., things which at that time certainly were not to 
 be found in their cottages, and the parents were indifi^erent 
 
INFLUENCE ON PARENTS 213 
 
 about providing them with any ; but now the interest they 
 take in their children is of a different kind, and such excuses 
 are very rare. Many of the parents have told me that before 
 there was a school, they never knew where to find their child- 
 ren in an evening, but that now they were generally to be 
 found at home employed with their tasks ; and as to the 
 expense, *'it was more than saved in shoe-leather." No 
 doubt the expense, books included, is saved in their clothing. — 
 So far as the experience of this school goes, the advantages 
 of extending the secular instruction of the poor, seem to me 
 many and great, and to work most beneficially in the parish. 
 It is principally through the secular books, as text-books, 
 that it is endeavoured to give the children a knowledge of 
 their own language, treating the Bible and Scriptural books 
 as the most important parts of education, but not making 
 them vehicles for the knowledge of grammar, and getting 
 over the mechanical difficulties of reading, in the same degree 
 as the other books. The end aimed at being, that when the 
 children leave the school they may have such a knowledge of 
 their own language as will enable them to get at the contents 
 of a book with ease, and have their minds so far cultivated 
 that they may be capable of other enjoyments than those of a 
 mere sensual kind. * * 
 
 '*The varied information given at the school connected with 
 the every- day concerns of common life, things which interest 
 them at present, as well as those likely to interest them in 
 future — such as a description of their clothing, how it is 
 manufactured, &c., the articles which they consume, from 
 whence they come, the nature of the products of the parish 
 which they themselves and those about them are helping to 
 cultivate — all these give a charm and variety in the eyes of 
 the children, and through them to the parents, which, well 
 managed, is sure to make a school successful. * * 
 
 Some time ago I gave in charge to the master a few books 
 for the purpose of lending to the first class in each school, 
 and in August last I increased the number, and had them 
 removed to my own house, in order that I might see how the 
 plan really worked. * * Some of their reasons for wanting 
 the same book, threw considerable light on the usefulness of 
 the plan. On bringing back 'Evenings at home,' one says, 
 ''Pray, Sir, may I have it a little longer ; I have, read it all, 
 
214 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 but father and mother have not heard all, and they begged 
 me to ask for it again ?" Another, bringing back 'Pilgrim's 
 Progress,' **May I keep it another week ? neighbour A comes 
 in with her work in an evening to hear it, and she could not 
 come two or three times last week, but would like so much 
 to hear it all/' Another father said, "Ask to keep the book 
 longer, as I want to hear the last out." And the mother of 
 this child has told me more than once, speaking of her hus- 
 band, who had been addicted to drinking, that he was quite a 
 changed man, which she entirely attributed to the great 
 interest he took in the school occupations of his children, and 
 in their making his evenings happy at home. In this cottage 
 1 find a map of the two hemispheres and of Europe, very 
 small, given them by a neighbour ; and it seems the father 
 has a particular fancy in tracing out all the places he hears 
 his children read of. One child, a girl about 13 years of age, 
 to whom the * Mutiny of the Bounty' was lent, was found by 
 the master the other day, at the dinner-hour, standing on a 
 stool before a map of the world, and tracing out the places 
 the ship had touched at. * * 
 
 Another girl, 15 last June (whose mother has been dead 
 some years ), the father, a brother about 17, and herself, form 
 the whole family at home. For the last two years which she 
 has attended school she has done all the work of her father's 
 cottage — sewing, mending, and making shirts for them all — 
 rising early in the morning, and getting her work done before 
 school-hours ; she is allowed to be absent one day a week for 
 washing : the dinner for her father and brother she cooks the 
 night before, and they take it cold, and have a hot meal for 
 supper instead. The way in which this girl manages to get 
 through her work, attend school, and keep up with her class, 
 is most pleasing. There is another instance, where the diffi- 
 culties of attendance are almost as great as in the former one, 
 as it is on condition of her doing the household work that she 
 is allowed to attend ; and, in this case, the influence which the 
 sister's reading in an evening has had on a brother consider- 
 ably older than herself, and previously not over steady, chiefly 
 from not knowing how to spend his evenings, has been of the 
 most beneficial kind. On Monday last she told me she had 
 but httle time for writing her account of the sermon the even- 
 ing before, as she and her brother had been reading ' Outline 
 
READING AT HOME 215 
 
 of Scripture History ; ' and when they stopped she looked at 
 the clock and found that it was half- past eight, and she 
 scarcely thought it could have been six, the time passed so 
 swiftly. * * 
 
 No one, I think, can witness the improved bearing and 
 conduct of the children, and more particularly the modest 
 demeanour of the girls in this school, without being struck 
 by it. The social and fire- side happiness of almost every 
 family in the village having children in it, is increased by the 
 common interest which the parents take in their children's 
 education ; and, I may also add, that increased authority on 
 the part of the parents, and of obedience in the children, are 
 very observable ; in fact, new sources of happiness and of 
 social comfort are being opened out to them, to which they 
 have hitherto been strangers. And not only are the children 
 lifted up in the scale of human beings, but they feel them- 
 selves to be so. It must not be understood from this, that 
 all here have profited from the school by sending their child- 
 ren ; on the contrary, there are many who, in utter ignorance 
 themselves, are quite willing that their children should remain 
 the same. I am very doubtful whether snufF and tobacco 
 are not quite as great enemies to any moral improvement as 
 the beer-house itself ; for it is almost invariably the case, that 
 where the mother is adicted to snuiF, and the father to smok- 
 ing, the duties which they owe to their children are totally 
 neglected." 1845, II. 101—107. 
 
 Whatever difference of opinion there may however be about 
 the cause, there can be none, I imagine, about the fact, that 
 in an elementary school the learning of one thing aids the 
 learning of another ; and that if various things be taught, 
 not only is the knowledge thus acquired greater in respect 
 to the aggregate but in respect to each element. I know 
 not where the limit is placed beyond which confusion is 
 engendered of this variety. * * All the children in 
 the school, except five, write on slates ; and all except those 
 of the lowest class, are accustomed to write, not only from 
 copies and from dictation, but in some degree from their 
 own thoughts. Thus a child in the lowest class but one, 
 when it can write words legibly upop a slate, is told to write 
 the names of its brothers and sisters, of all the things in the 
 house whei\p it lives, of all the birds, or trees, or plants that 
 
216 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 *it knows, and the like. Another stage in its instruction 
 associates qualities with things. It is told, perhaps, to write 
 down the names of all the white or black things that it knows, 
 of all the ugly or handsome things, or the tall or short ones, 
 ; or iron or wooden ones. And then, when the child can write 
 / sentences, on the use of things familiar to its observation — 
 it writes of things used for the food of man or animals, used 
 in building a cottage, or as implements of agriculture. Lastly, 
 it is made to exhaust its knowledge of such things by being 
 told to write down all it knows about them ; all it knows, 
 for instance, about sheep, or cows, or horses, wheat, iron, or 
 copper, of the village of King's Somborne, or the neighbouring 
 downs and hills, of the farms and holdings in the parish, or 
 the parish roads, of the river Teste which runs through it, of 
 the neighbouring town of Stockbridge, of Hampshire, of the 
 island of Great Britain, of the earth, or of the sun, moon and 
 stars. To summon together the scattered elements of its 
 knowledge of these familiar things, to combine them in a 
 certain order, and to express them in written language, is an 
 exercise which | may be adapted to each stage in a child's 
 intellectual growth, and which seems well calculated at once 
 to accustom it to think, and to give it the power of expressing 
 its thoughts in appropriate words. Not the least advantage 
 of commencing these exercises from the lowest classes in the 
 school is, that they serve not only as a practice in thinking 
 and writing, but in spelling, and that, probably, of the best 
 kind ; the subjects, and therefore language, of them more 
 familiar than those commonly found in books used for writing 
 from dictation. I certainly never have examined little child- 
 ren who could spell so well ; and that good spelling and good 
 reading, and skill in the expression of written thoughts, go 
 together, may be taken as an illustration of the fact that to 
 achieve excellence in any one subject of instruction in an 
 elementary school (even the simplest and most elementary) 
 it is necessary to unite with it others ; and that the singular 
 slowness with which the children of our National schools 
 learn to read (a fact to which all our reports have borne 
 testimony) is, in some degree, to be attributed to the unwise 
 concentration of the labours of the school on that single object. 
 Written exercises are also used as a means of instruction in 
 religious knowledge. In the lower classes the children write 
 
ENGLISH COMPOSITION 217 
 
 out in their own words the substance of any simple portion 
 of the Gospel narrative, or of a Parable or a Miracle. In the 
 upper classes they attempt to draw from such passages of 
 Scripture the instruction they are intended to convey, or they 
 develope, with a practical application, some Scripture char- 
 acter. Having tried them at my last examination in exercises 
 of this kind, beginning from the lowest class but one, and 
 taking care to give different subjects to those children who 
 stood near one another, I can record a very favourable 
 impression of the result. Exercises of this kind are not 
 uncommon in schools ; they are, however, usually limited to 
 one or two of the highest classes ; here they are done by all, 
 except the last. 1848, I. 13, 14. 
 
 The masters should be made thoroughly familiar with the 
 subject-matter of the reading lessons in some one or other of 
 the series of books provided for that purpose ; capable of 
 putting the subjects of these lessons before the children under 
 their simplest forms, and of adding to them all that is neces- 
 sary to their completeness and to the full intelligence of them. 
 Many of these lessons contain admirable matter of instruction 
 for children ; but I never have met with a master capable of 
 doing justice to them. It is, indeed, no easy matter to do 
 so ; considerable additional reading is required to that end, 
 and a judicious guidance. 1848, I. 27, 28. 
 
 I would encourage then the introduction of books of travel 
 and excitement into our labourers' schools ; — Cook's Voyages, 
 Robinson Crusoe, Sandford and Merton, Nelson's Life, Mur- 
 ray's works on colonial life — books which have had the effect 
 of stimulating the mind of our youth in the upper classes — 
 have taught them at once a love for their country and given 
 them a longing for foreign adventure. 1850, I. 327. 
 
 We censure the poor for their indulgence in mere animal 
 gratifications, but we should remember that man requires 
 some recreation after his labours, and if we deny him the 
 enjoyment of his mind, he will certainly seek that of his body. 
 1850, I, 110. 
 
 Having myself taken part for many years in the manage- 
 ment of a large lending library and made many inquiries on 
 the subject, I can state as the result of these that it is a rare 
 occurrence to find a child in any degree acquainted with the 
 subject-matter of the book which has been for some weeks 
 
218 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 probably in its possession. The fact is, that in the minds of 
 these poor children no link has established itself between the 
 mechanical power to read and any pleasurable emotion deriv- 
 able from it. The secret of this pleasure it is the business of 
 the master to impart to them. By a judicious selection of the 
 books of his lending-library, and by frequent reference in his 
 oral instruction to information of an interesting character 
 contained in them, he may so incorporate the lending-library 
 in the system of the school as that the habit of reading may 
 imperceptibly pass upon his scholars, and half his labour be 
 achieved by a process of self- instruction. The child who 
 has once really tasted the pleasure of reading becomes a 
 reader for life. 1845, II. 521, 522. 
 
 "Of the usefulness of [the Lending Library, writes the 
 Rev. T. Dawes,] there can be no doubt ; and although the 
 actual reading is confined, or nearly so, to those who are or 
 have been at school — in fact, very few of the others can 
 read — yet, through the children's reading to the parents, it is 
 a source of instruction both to young and old. There are 
 three instances of girls, who had had a little education such 
 as the dames give, but who were too old to come to the school 
 when it opened, who have, through these books and the help 
 of their younger brothers and sisters, managed to educate 
 themselves ; and in two of the cases, with the exception of 
 writing, are nearly equal to those at school. You have often 
 heard me speak in favour of the secular books published by 
 the Educational board in Ireland ; and I must confess that to 
 their lesson books, and the books published by Mr. Sullivan 
 in connexion with it, this school owes much of its success. 
 The useful hints given in the prefaces, as to modes of teaching, 
 are very important. You must recollect we had to begin 
 from nothing ; and simple as the qualifications necessary for 
 conducting a village school may appear to be, books of this 
 kind are absolutely necessary in order to secure any amount 
 of success. I think these books have, through this school, 
 been introduced to six or seven other schools in the neigh- 
 bourhood." 1846, 1. 105. 
 
 In the hope of leading children to take an intelligent hold 
 of what is read, I have strongly recommended the use of 
 lessons in composition, which (beginning with the lowest 
 class, according to a graduated series, some hints for which 
 
ENGLISH COMPOSITION 219 
 
 have been noticed in previous Reports) should enable the upper 
 scholars to write out from memory on their slates abstracts 
 of their lessons. In .several schools, the Sunday sermon is 
 
 written out on the Monday ; and at in particular, 
 
 this is done with most satisfactory results. A clergyman, 
 who has paid great attention to his school, and who in his 
 week-day lecture always endeavours to introduce some strik- 
 ing narrative or illustration, which the children may carry 
 away and reproduce on their slates, told me, in confirmation 
 of my opinion of the advantages resulting from exercises in 
 composition, that when he first came into his parish, having 
 always heard that the inhabitants of that district were a dull 
 race, he felt convinced after some experience of his school, 
 that the report was true, and that the inhabitants of his 
 parish, in particular, were the dullest of all ; for although he 
 was assiduous in endeavouring to bring his boys forward in 
 intelligence, he never could extract from them answers as to 
 matters of which he was assured that they had competent 
 knowledge. Under repeated questionings, they remained 
 mute and apparently uninterested as the cold-blooded inhabi- 
 tants of another element : but after a time he tried them with 
 lessons in composition, and the consequence was a rapid 
 change, — the children, being habituated to the expression of 
 their thoughts in writing, began freely to answer to his 
 catechising : an effect being produced more orderly, but 
 similar to that recorded in the Spectator, in the story of a 
 region so cold that during winter there is unbroken silence, 
 but at the return of spring, the sounds being unloosed from 
 their bondage under the frost, the whole air is made vocal 
 with past utterances. When I examined these children, they 
 answered with remarkable intelligence ; and I also looked 
 over some copy-books, in which the more advanced children 
 had severally written their impressions of a day of happiness, 
 when they had been carried over in waggons to see the Queen, 
 during one of Her Majesty's visits to a neighbouring noble- 
 man. It was interesting to read accounts of the same sight 
 as viewed by different eyes ; and the results exhibited vividly 
 how much might be done in the way of cultivating the sym- 
 pathies and understandings of the children of the poor. 
 
 Larger experience has made me more anxious to recommend 
 the use of fitting secular reading-books. The Society for 
 
220 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge has published several good 
 ones ; and a penny biographical series of remarkable cheapness, 
 commencing with extracts from Izaak Walton's Life of George 
 Herbert, is now in course of publication. The secular reading- 
 books, also, of the Irish Commissioners of Education seem to 
 me excellent. I have reason for believing that throughout 
 England those National Schools, in which secular reading- 
 books are most used, will be found as a class to be also the 
 schools which, on the highest grounds, one would visit with 
 most pleasure. The right use of good secular reading-books 
 appears to contribute to the more reverent use, as well as to 
 the better understanding, of the Bible. 
 
 I have been, also, more anxious, in proportion as I have 
 thought more of the matter, to recommend the constant 
 exercise of the memory, storing it with the most precious 
 matters. I have previously expressed my regret that children 
 should ever be compelled to learn by heart the broken Cate- 
 chism, Crossman's Introduction, or any other systems of 
 questions and answers, except the Church Catechism. Besides 
 this, it seems to me, that the children's memories should only 
 be burdened with the collects and prayers of the Church, 
 good hymns, well- chosen pieces of poetry, and those portions 
 of Scripture which are most likely to have effect on their 
 faith and habits of action. One would hardly believe that 
 little children would be set to learn, as an ordinary lesson, 
 the explanations of words given in a poorly constructed 
 vocabulary, which explanations were as obscure as the words 
 explained, or the figures expressing the number of feet that 
 several mountains in Scotland are computed to be above the 
 level of the sea ; nor can one imagine a reason for such lessons, 
 except that the hearing them is a mechanical act requiring 
 no mental labour on the teacher's part. 
 
 In learning Scripture by heart, it seems desirable to begin 
 with some collection of texts, as the *'faitli and duty," or as the 
 Scripture proofs of the Church Catechism ; but afterwards, 
 whole chapters, as the sermon on the Mount, the most affect- 
 ing of the Psalms, our Saviour's discourses in St. John's 
 Gospel, the General Epistles, the practical conclusions of 
 St. Paul's Epistles, may be committed to memory. If laid 
 upon a bed of sickness, it seems good to have in store a con- 
 tinuous passage of Scripture for the mind to travel over and 
 
COMMITTING SCRIPTURE TO MEMORY 221 
 
 dwell upon ; also the power of repeating such may prove a 
 refuge against temptation when evil thoughts come into the 
 mind, by providing it with something on which it may fasten 
 until it acquires a new and more healthful tendency. Unless 
 children are watched, the good rule of committing as many 
 chapters of the Bible to memory as possible is not by itself 
 sufficient. I have known a case in which, from the teacher's 
 carelessness, the only part of the Bible which a child could 
 repeat was a chapter out of the ceremonial portion of the 
 Book of Leviticus ; but w^hen rightly attended to, it seems 
 scarcely possible to estimate too highly the good effects that 
 would be produced by laying up, reverently and with diligence, 
 in the memories of the great mass of our people— -large potations 
 of the Divine law. The occasional recollection of its precepts 
 must at times decide the conduct. True, indeed, is it that 
 the literal knowledge, if alone, is unprofitable, and like other 
 good gifts, it may be miserably abused ; but for such instruc- 
 tion, the command is plain ; and in some sense, doubtless, 
 the old maxim is true, that ignorance of the Scriptures is the 
 mother of all error. 1846, I. 91 — 93. 
 
 The children there begin to write when they are making 
 their first steps in reading (from the lowest class but one), 
 and every advance they make in the one art is made to con- 
 tribute to their progress in the other ; they are taught to read 
 by writing, and conversely, to write by reading. * They do 
 not first write parts of letters, then letters, then words, then 
 sentences, but sentences at once. The first sentence they 
 write is, '' God is good," and then " God is good to all men," 
 and so on, each succeeding sentence being a variation of the 
 first, and an extension of it ; the result is certainly remark- 
 able. I found infants writing this sentence well who had only 
 been learning to write a fortnight. From an early period the 
 skill they thus acquire in writing is applied to their instruction 
 in other elements of knowledge. They are required to commit 
 to memory at home, in the evening, passages which they are 
 to write out at school on the following morning, and the less 
 difficulty is experienced in obtaining from them this sacrifice 
 of their leisure hours, as they attach great value to the oppor- 
 
 * It has been stated to me, as a matter of experience, that a child who has 
 been taught to read chiefly by the use of written characters, finds little difficulty in 
 reading from print. 
 
222 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 tunity which it affords them of practising writing. This 
 
 method of instruction was taught in by Mr. DoUier, 
 
 a public lecturer. * 1847, I. 162, 163. 
 
 In the schools of least pretensions, the teachers have found 
 that writing on slates from copies employs the children's time 
 in a quiet, industrious, and profitable occupation, and that 
 writing texts, portions of the Catechism, &c., fixes the words 
 upon their memory, is the best test of their spelling, and pro- 
 duces the most favourable effect upon their parents, and upon 
 the patrons of the school. In some schools the subject has 
 been introduced for the first time — in very many it has been 
 advanced from copying script cards to writing from memor}?- 
 and from dictation — in the more advanced schools the dicta- 
 tion lessons have been modified by elliptic methods, and in 
 several a fair proportion of boys and girls give on their slates 
 an intelligible account of a lesson upon which they have been 
 examined, or write with few mistakes the substance of a narra- 
 tive read or related to them by the examiner. * * It should 
 moreover be stated that, since it is not likely that monitors 
 can be dispensed with altogether, there are various methods 
 upon which they may be usefully employed in giving out 
 dictation lessons ; and also that teachers who prefer to give 
 the lesson themselves, which should, on all accounts, be done 
 frequently, will find that the preparation of a narrative 
 illustrating some moral truth, or conveying some usefcil 
 information, is of extreme importance to themselves : it will 
 lead them to reflect upon and to arrange their reading, and 
 will give them a good opportunity of consulting the clergyman, 
 and of benefiting by his remarks, if, as I would recommend, 
 they occasionally write out beforehand such a narrative as 
 they intend to relate to the children. I have great pleasure 
 in remarking that the suggestions on this subject, in my 
 former report, have been acted upon by many teachers, and that 
 they have been found practicable and useful. 1846, 1. 140, 141 . 
 
 * I am indebted to the Be v. the incumbent, for the following 
 
 information on the subject : — "I took," says this gentleman, "eight children from 
 the infant-school on the 29th November last, of the ages of from four-and-a-half to 
 five years. They only just knew the alphabet. Three can now (Feb. 12) read well 
 in lessons from the Psalms, either in print or in writing ; the others can do it but 
 not so well. All can write, and two of them veri/ toell ; the others vary a good deal, 
 but I consider the progress of them all to be much greater than could have been 
 accomplished under the old system." 
 
DICTATION 223 
 
 In a lesson on this subject [dictation] the children should 
 be arranged in parallel rows equidistant, so far apart that no 
 needless temptation for copying from each other exist. The 
 teacher standing in front of the class should not leave his 
 place until the dictation is finished. The lesson may be one 
 continuous passage, with one examination at the end, or it 
 may consist of several short lessons, each occupying a few 
 sentences, after each of which the slates may be examined. 
 During the lesson no child should be allowed to rub out any- 
 thing with his finger, the pencil should be the only instrument 
 of correction. The children should correct the slates ; this 
 may be done in various ways. One plan often adopted is for 
 the teacher to spell each word of the lesson correctly, and 
 every child to make either the 'perfect or imperfect words as 
 may be determined upon by the teacher, and to place at the 
 bottom of the slate a figure representing the number of errors ; 
 the whole class then should be compressed into the smallest 
 possible space, and required to '' show slates" to the teacher. 
 If the children are arranged on the floor of the school, the 
 tallest children should be placed at the back, so that the 
 teacher can more readily command his class. Great pains 
 should be taken to make the lesson one of moral discipline, 
 with this view no copying from each other's slates should be 
 allowed. The children should be taught to consider such as 
 breaches of obedience and integrity. Quickness and precision 
 should be used in the regulations adopted. The *' showing 
 of the slates" should be simultaneous, and no child allowed 
 to alter his position until all have been examined by the 
 teacher. 1850, I. 120, 121. 
 
 Directions to Monitors. 1. Every word must be repeated 
 slowly and distinctly. 2. The length of sentences must be 
 regulated by the proficiency of the pupils. 3. No sentence 
 should be repeated more than twice ; much time is lost by 
 frequent repetitions, which prove either that the boys are 
 improperly classed, or that the monitor has some defect in 
 enunciation. 4. About 60 words can be written in 10 
 minutes, even when they are given out letter by letter. 
 5. The slates must be thoroughly corrected ; this takes up 
 much time, and the pupils should be employed in writing 
 words from cards, or in working sums upon the other side of 
 their slates, until they are severally called up. When the 
 
224 
 
 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 slate is corrected, each boy should learn the sentence by heart. 
 The master will of course select a lesson which conveys some 
 useful information, such as a text, or rule in grammar, or 
 geographical definition, with special reference to the subjects 
 explained in collective teaching. — No rubbing out should be 
 allowed while the lesson is proceeding. If a pupil detect an 
 error he may cross out the word, but not obliterate it. — Until 
 the children can write down ordinary words correctly from 
 dictation, they will learn more by copying sentences from the 
 black board. — Words may be omitted, which they are likely 
 to supply from memory, at first easy words, ajid then the 
 leading words. This may be continued until they are able to 
 fill up the skeleton of a sentence. — The Lord's Prayer, the 
 Commandments, the Creed, and nearly all the Catechism, 
 may thus be thoroughly learned in less time than by the usual 
 method of repetition ; while the noise of the school will of 
 course be greatly diminished. 1845, II. 191. 
 
 There is, in many schools, great neglect of WTiting from 
 dictation and from memory, both of which are excellent methods 
 of giving correctness in spelling. The best exercises of this 
 
 fcind seemed to be at , where the master read aloud 
 
 a sentence from a book, one of the boys repeated it after him, 
 the next boy began spelling the first word, and so the lesson 
 went round the class, till the sentence was spelt from memory ; 
 the whole was then repeated. The boys seemed to take great 
 pleasure in this exercise. Many places were lost and gained 
 in the course of the lesson, which was gone through with 
 intelligent looks and smiling faces. Another plan was at the 
 
 school for female servants at , where two or three 
 
 words of the same, or nearly the same sound, were chosen by 
 the teacher. One was given to a girl, divided into syllables, 
 passed on to the next, who began to spell it, another took it 
 up, and so in turn, till the verse was finished. It was then 
 carefully pronounced by one, and then by all ; its meaning 
 given, and the diiFerence between it and the other similar 
 words pointed out. This was repeated till all the class seemed 
 perfectly acquainted with it. 1845, II. 256, 257. 
 
 In the upper school the reading exercises are in drafts, 
 under monitors superintended by pupil- teachers, as in the 
 lower school, one pupil-teaeher to each class or room. But 
 the spelHng is learnt by dictation exercises out of Sullivan's 
 
SPELLING 225 
 
 'Spelling Book Superseded/ or some book of easy narrative, 
 the slates being passed by each boy to his next neighbour for 
 the purpose of correction in the course of a slow re-reading, 
 each letter being given in the more difficult words. If every 
 word in the re-reading were spelt aloud by the pupil- teacher, 
 the corrections would approach more nearly to accuracy, and 
 be a better exercise for the correctors. Again, when the 
 slates are returned corrected after the number of errors has 
 been called out and noted, it would be well to permit the boys 
 in looking over their slates now and then to appeal one after 
 another against any errors that may have been wrongly 
 imputed ; a proceeding which, while it would vivify their 
 attention to the corrections, might easily be restrained from 
 dropping into triviality or dispute. Some such checks are 
 wanting to complete the efficiency of the exercise, which in 
 itself is a highly valuable one, and too little used in British 
 schools generally, though it does not wholly supersede the 
 necessity for frequent exercises in oral spelling out of the 
 text of the reading lesson. * * The progress in writing 
 is good throughout the upper school, and in the top class, as 
 elsewhere, far more finished than at the date of my last visit ; 
 the whole being well superintended, and every boy restrained 
 from careless haste by being obliged to wait the word of 
 command to commence a new line. Some wrote beautiful 
 ornamental hands, and a number were being practised in 
 writing business letters and business forms of account, but 
 they did not understand their terms, as they were merely 
 copies. * * One feature of this upper school, too, demands 
 especial notice, and that is the amount required to be done at 
 home, in the manner of the private schools for the middle 
 classes. This consists of a text of Scripture, a table, a portion 
 of grammar, a question in geography, and a dozen Latin roots 
 daily. They are to be shown, written neatly on the slates, 
 at the morning inspection, and from twelve to half-past twelve 
 at noon ; the fact of their being acquired by heart is tested 
 by the slates being then cleared, and the whole matter written 
 again from memory, when the slates are handed forward by 
 each boy to his next neighbour. A mutual correction is then 
 made, on the pupil- teacher in charge reading the several exer- 
 cises as they ought to stand. This must be done before the 
 boy departs for his dinner. 1848, II. 253, 254. 
 
226 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 Copies composed of several lines, sufficient for the pupil to 
 fill up the page he is writing, appear to be better than those of 
 one word or one line, which hold out the temptation to a child 
 to neglect a constant recurrence to his copy. Mulhauser*s 
 copies, sold by Mr. Parker at a cheap rate, are very useful 
 for this purpose. 1846, II. 188. 
 
 In several schools also where the upper classes have been 
 taught to write a good round "small hand,'' they have been 
 advanced (for it is considered a distinction) to what is called 
 a ''running hand," the advantage of which I have never been 
 able to learn, except it be, as I was once told, "more like a 
 lady's hand." It certainly is very neat, but often equally 
 illegible. There is another evil at many schools in the subjects 
 selected for the practice of the first and second classes. Com- 
 mon copies are given up, as beneath their notice. Passages 
 from all kinds of books are preferred, and copied carelessly 
 and incorrectly. Amongst these I have found a 'Letter- 
 writer,' with letters beginning "My dear charmer," "My 
 lovely Emma," and the like. In a boys' school there were 
 others addressed to "William Honest," "Job Troublesome," 
 &c., complaining of "badness of times," &c. In several I 
 observed " notes of invitation for dinner," " to a party at the 
 theatre," messages "of inquiry," of "condolence," &c. There 
 were also passages of poetry of a questionable tendency, hymns 
 in extravagant or presumptuous language, &c. It is needless 
 to make any remark on the mischief of these practices. * * 
 Steel pens are now almost universally used, chiefly on account 
 of their economy, both in time and money. Many masters 
 
 complain of them. At the half-yearly examination at , 
 
 a prize is given for the best made bundle of pens, half-a- 
 dozen quills being given for this purpose to each competitor. 
 This seems a sensible reward. 1845, II. 257, 258. 
 
 I have seen in Lancashire schools what I never saw else- 
 where, Viz., political copy-books. The covers are made the 
 channel of politics. * * 1 have seen other similar pictures, 
 with their political meaning duly explained below. I am 
 decidedly of opinion that all books in any way involving con- 
 troversial matters of this kind should be sedulously avoided. 
 1850, II. 180, 181. 
 
 The arithmetic is well taught in the drafts, on the text of 
 "Crossley's Calculator." Each draft has its monitor and 
 
ARITHMETIC 227 
 
 its student teacher, and every exercise, and every rule, is 
 carefully illustrated with chalk on a little black tablet, sus- 
 pended before every draft. Then the sums are worked round 
 on the black board, and at last, individually on the slate ; the 
 teaching throughout being better than the individualizing was 
 vigilant. As rules of art, all those of the * 'Calculator" are 
 admirably taught. There is no exercise on the principles on 
 which they are founded, though the elementary inductions 
 would he very interesting to the little ones, exercised on 
 sensible objects. The progress in the art of arithmetic is 
 steady, however, throughout the circuit of the drafts ; and 
 yet, for want of a little revision occasionally, and a more 
 detailed acquaintance with the first principles of notation, a 
 large proportion of the monitors* class stumbled at writing 
 down numbers involving the use of ciphers ; and several failed 
 to work sums in simple rules on the slate when suddenly re- 
 quired to do so. What appeared most remarkable was the tri- 
 umph of the general intelligence of the instruction even through 
 this difficulty ; for they could give ready answers to dictated 
 sums which they were puzzled to perform on the slate. * * 
 Exercises in mental arithmetic form the introduction to every 
 day's written exercises in arithmetic, with the slates and 
 black boards. The skill of the teacher of the model school 
 has rendered her head monitors able assistants in these exer- 
 cises, and their mutual questioning is a rapid exertion of 
 their own minds upon the like operations. The well-known 
 quickness exhibited at the public examinations is all most 
 faithfully wrought up from the simplest processes, as I have 
 now described them. 1847, II. 413, 414. 
 
 The arithmetic of the British schools is in effect too 
 
 entirely technical, like that of many schools of far higher pre- 
 tensions, to be of that value to the mental culture of the chil- 
 dren that it might be rendered, without any interruption to 
 their progress in technical expertness ; nor is there in most of 
 the schools that occasional revertal to the early rules, and to 
 those even of notation, which would awaken a child's percep- 
 tions to the value of the whole. It certainly appeared to me 
 as though the full value and use of whole numbers was per- 
 ceived by fev/ who had not been compelled to look at them 
 with eyes of discovery on encountering the new difficulties 
 presented by fractions, and then only to a sufficient extent 
 
228 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 just to overcome them for the moment ; for seldom, indeed, 
 could any boy tell whence or why he borrowed 10 in simple 
 subtraction, and few short of fractions had perfectly familiar 
 command of the simple rules. Thus it always proves in a 
 monitor's class, that three-fourths of the children who can do 
 a sum in simple subtraction ofF-hand, correctly, and in a 
 business-like style of figures, are boys far advanced in the 
 '* Calculator ;" and after them come a train of stumblers, 
 successively worse, until, near the end of the class, would 
 appear a total forgetfulness of the rule. * * Nor is the 
 course of mental arithmetic, contained in the excellent man- 
 ual known as **Crossley's Calculator," though used in nearly 
 all the British schools, made of that use to the intellectual 
 progress of the children which the writer seems to have con- 
 templated, and for which all its earlier exercises are peculiarly 
 well adapted. The younger arithmeticians seldom share in 
 these exercises, except when they are addressed simultaneously 
 to the whole school, and the instruction is then virtually 
 limited to a few ; these few are chiefly children well advanced 
 in the technical rules, who are thought not to need the early 
 exercises of a disciplinal character, with constant reference 
 to familiar objects, but are at once hurried on to the rules for 
 giving expertness in the calculation of the value of dozens 
 and grosses of articles at small prices. It is scarcely neces- 
 sary to mention to those at all acquainted with British schools 
 the extraordinary quickness exibited by the most advanced 
 children in these mental calculations ; and the incredible 
 rapidity with which, in some of the boys' schools, with the 
 aid of extended Tables of multiplication of money, and of 
 squares and cubes of numbers, the most intricate calculations 
 are almost instantaneously solved. When carried at all to 
 this extent, however, mental arithmetic is beyond the region 
 of mental discipline for children whose education must ter- 
 minate so early, whatever may be its value as a part of 
 specific instruction for the occupations to which they are 
 destined ; the intellectual operation being limited to the 
 application of the technical rules, without any necessary 
 acquaintance with the properties of numbers on which those 
 rules are founded. 1847, II. 96, 97. 
 
 Many and numerous as are the rules of arithmetic, they 
 may all be resolved into a few principles — a fusion which is 
 
ARITHMETIC 229 
 
 readily and at once made by the mind, when it sees the 
 relations of number in the light of a demonstrative science. 
 Rules then become useless ; they are sources of perplexity 
 and embarrassment, and it discards them ; * fetters, and it 
 throws them off. The excellent little treatise of Mr. Tate on 
 the principles of arithmetic, and the first part of the exercises 
 of Mr. M'Leod, contain a full exposition of these principles. 
 I have great pleasure in bearing testimony to the high 
 estimate I have formed of the merits of these works. 1846, 
 II. 30. 
 
 Very few were, however, able to write down correctly in 
 figures a number which I dictated to them ;t and it is not 
 often that I have succeeded in getting a sum of money cor- 
 rectly multiplied by a number of one figure. Correctness and 
 facility, and even rapidity of computation in the simpler rules 
 of arithmetic, is, I think, attainable in elementary teaching ; 
 and to this there may be superadded, as the experience of 
 some of our best schools has shown, that knowledge of the 
 principles of arithmetic which associates its reasons with its 
 rules, and makes a fusion into the four first, of all the rules 
 above them.]: 1848, I. 6. 
 
 * As an illustration of this principle, let us see how a Battersea boy would treat 
 the foUowinf]f questions in the Eule of Three. — "If seven yards of cloth cost 28s., 
 what will nine cost ?" He is told by the rule, that if he arrange these three num- 
 bers in a certain order, and then multiply the second of them and the third together, 
 and divide their product by the first, then ( by a process which seems to him httle 
 short of natural magic ) he will arrive at the true result. But the boy places the 
 rule out of his view of the question, and he reasons thus, " Since seven yards cost 
 28s., every yard must cost 4s., and therefoi'e the nine yards must cost 36s.;" 
 every step in which process of reasoning ho has thoroughly understood, and is at a 
 loss to conceive why any rule should have been devised for the solution of so simple 
 a question. If the number of shillings had not been thus divisible by the number 
 of yards, if, for instance, 29s. instead of 28s., had been the price of 7 yards, then 
 he would have reasoned that every yard must have cost 4s. and l-7th, and therefore 
 that the nine yards cost 36s. and 9-7ths, or 37s. and 2-7ths. Or perhaps he would 
 thus have avoided the use of fractions (in which nevertheless, from an early period, 
 he had been instructed) : if seven yards cost 29s,, the price of nine times seven yards 
 must have been nine times 29s., or 261s. ; but nine times one yard would only cost 
 l-7th of the price of nine times seven yards, therefore nine yards would cost l-7th 
 of 261s. 
 
 t Ten thousand and ten. I do not believe that 1 child in 20 could write down 
 this number. 
 
 X Professor De Morgan recommends the following course of exercises for the 
 attainment of rapidity in calculation. 
 
 1. Supposing the learner to be able to count with sufficient rapidity backwards 
 and forwards, by single units, he should then learn to count backwards and forwards 
 by twos, by threes, by fours, up to tens ; beginning with different numbers. As in 
 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, &c. ; 61, 57, 53, 49, 45, &c. ; 2, 6 10, 14, &c. No reiteration should 
 be allowed ; it should not be "3 and 4 make 7," "7 and 4 make 11," &c., but simply 
 3, 7, II, &c. If there be difficulty, let the pupil be allowed to take his own time, 
 but let him be prevented from repeating any single word, except one which expresses 
 a resulfc. 
 
230 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 It is a peculiar feature of the parochial school of — 
 
 that every pupil in it is under instruction in arithmetic, even 
 
 2. The next exercise is the formation of the defect of a lesser number from a 
 greater, when that effect does not exceed nine. The manner in which it should be 
 required is, by giving the lesser number, and the units only of the greater, the 
 learner having to supply for himself the tens which should be in the greater, so 
 that the defect may not exceed nine. Thus, having 56, and seeing 4, the exercise 
 consists in learning immediately to supply both the 8 in "56 and 8 make 64," and 
 also the 6 tens, which as it will turn out are always to be carried. To perform this 
 exercise by itself, write down any line of figures, as 7126605832417. Make examples, 
 by taking the two first figures (71) for the lesser, and the next (2) for the units of 
 the greater ; then the second and third (12), and the fourth (6), and so on. The 
 process then is to make out as rapidly as possible, 71 and 1 are 72 ; 12 and 4 are 
 16; 26 and are 26 ; 66 and 4 are 70 : 60 and 5 are 65 ; 5 and 3 are 8, &c. 
 
 3. The multiplication table is now to be learnt, up to nine times nine at least, but 
 not in the common way. Of all the drawbacks upon rapidity of computation, none 
 is so great as the common habit of reproducing in regular form the assertion, "8 
 times 7 are 56," every time that S and 7 are seen, and multiplication is known to be 
 coming. The exercise we now speak of consists in stating instantly the product of 
 two digits as soon as they are seen. Take a line of figures as before, and learn to 
 repeat rapidly the product of every pair, without naming either of the pair — 
 72698437718. The following products are to be caught instantly, 14, 12, 54, 72, 32, 
 12, &c., not "7 times 2 are 14," "2 times 6 are 12," &c. One advantage of this 
 process will be, that the learner will become equally habituated to the products, 
 whether the greater factor be seen first or the lesser. 
 
 4. 'I'lie next thing to be acquired is, the formation of a product increased by a 
 given digit, or a given digit by a product, instantly, without repetition of the factors 
 and addend. Instead of "4 times 8 are 32 and 3 are 35," 4, 8, and 3 should suggest 
 4x8 + 3, or 4+8x3, as required. If rows of figures be taken again, and if the 
 exercise be repeated on each three figures consecutively, slowly at first, if necessary, 
 but keeping strictly to the rule of allowing no additional words to be either articu- 
 lated or thought of, it will not be found very difficult to make the results come as 
 readily as those of the simple multiplication table. Thus, taking 62987401328, the 
 object is to arrive rapidly at 21, 26, 79, &c., or 6x2 + 9, 2x9+8, 9x8 + 7, «&c., and 
 also at 24, 74, 65, &c., or 6 + 2x9, 2 + 9x8, 9+8x7, &c. 
 
 5. The next process is to catch the result of the preceding process, and to add it 
 to another figure, naming the first result only, and none of its constituents. Thus, 
 taking the last line of figures, the exercise consists in learning to form rapidly, 
 "21 and 8, 29," "26 and 7, 33," "79 and 4, 83," and so on ; arising from (6x2 + 9) 
 + 8 ; (2 X 9 + 8) +7, &c., the reason of the distinction between the two addends being, 
 that the first of them will be a carried figure, and therefore retained in the memory 
 while the other is on the paper . In the same way it should be done when the 
 carried figure is put first, which, in the preceding row, would require the rapid 
 formation of 32, 81, 69, &c., or (6 + 2x9) + 8; (2 + 9x8) +7, &c. 
 
 6. The next of these exercises resembles that in (2), only that the smaller number 
 is formed as in (4) . A product increased by a digit is to be taken from a number, 
 of which the unit's place is before the operator, while the ten's is to be sup]Dlied as 
 wanted, to make the defect not exceed 9. Thus, out of 7861 is to be instantly sup- 
 plied, "62 and 9 make 71," or 7x8 + 6 is to be made up to the next number that 
 ends with 1. 
 
 Thus, from the row of figures 79812563 is to be rapidly formed "71 and 0, 71 ;" 
 "73 and 9, 82;" "10 and 5, 15;" and so on. 
 
 7. The last process is the inversion of (5), namely, finding the quotient and 
 remainder of tens and units divided by a single digit. But this should be practised 
 without repeating, as in "8 in 59, 7 times and 3 over ; " it should be at most "8 in 
 59, 7 and 3." A row of figures may be used for practice, as in the preceding cases. 
 
 As soon as these seven rules become as famihar as counting, so soon, and no 
 sooner, is the drudgery of computation annihilated. These are the steps by which 
 the calculator walks ; and, let his journey be in what direction it may, no single 
 pace can be anything but one or another of the preceding.— Co»t/)c*/itora to the 
 Almanac for 1844, p. 6 — 8. 
 
ARITHMETIC 231 
 
 the youngest, who cannot write or read, and who are taught 
 from small pieces of broken slate portioned out amongst them. 
 The teacher finds it useful to begin arithmetic thus early, as 
 the attention it requires fits them to take more aptly the 
 lessons on other subjects. * * The use of the black- 
 board heightens the facility which classification affords : and 
 to the same effect other means are occasionally employed, 
 such as those which have been best used in the commercial 
 
 academy of , where "the teacher has made a set of 
 
 calculations in a private note-book of the different powers, as 
 far as the tenth, of a variety of numbers, none of them 
 exceeding 100. The examples written upon the board are 
 all taken from this note-book ; and a glance at the line which 
 contains the 10 different powers of the given number shows 
 at once what is the result of any calculations upon the given 
 number either in Multiplication, or Division, or raising the 
 power, or extracting the root. The effect of this is to abridge 
 the master's labour to a great extent. 1846, II. 325. 
 
 It must, I think, be allowed, that in many cases this 
 
 branch of instruction is imperfectly and immethodically taught. 
 Children are seldom instructed in the reason of a rule. They 
 know '*the how," but cannot give "the why." This frequently 
 proceeds from the neglect of simultaneous teaching. The 
 "black board" is laid aside, or used only for the simple 
 rules, and in the lower classes, whilst the upper boys, who 
 are more capable of understanding the oral explanations of a 
 simultaneous lesson, take down a sum on their slates, and 
 work it out by themselves. In answering my inquiries on 
 this subject, masters have frequently said, "We do not teach 
 the higher classes, on the board ; they learn from books." 
 And the consequence of this silent system is, that a boy 
 hurries over his work without fully understanding it, anxious 
 to be the first to show his slate to the master. 
 
 Another important point, very frequently neglected, is 
 practice in writing numbers from dictation. In several second 
 classes, and (in three or four cases) in first classes of National 
 Schools, not a child was able to write from dictation such a 
 number as "forty millions, ten thousand, one hundred and 
 ten," or any like number where the ciphers recur frequently. 
 I have tried a first class in this way — dictating a number, and 
 making the boys write it on the black board. Out of fourteen, 
 
232 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 only three wrote it correctly ; and one of these, I believe, 
 was right by accident. — A pleasing contrast to this &tate is 
 afforded in schools under the management of well-trained 
 masters. There is no branch of instruction which interests 
 children more than arithmetic. It is pleasant to see an 
 intelligent class formed regularly in semicircle before the 
 black board. The master writes a question upon it, and 
 stands by with the chalk ready for work. He acts as the hand, 
 the class as the head and the tongue. A boy is called upon 
 to state the question. All is eager silence. If he makes a 
 mistake, a dozen right hands are raised directly, in token that 
 their owners are ready to correct his error. The master nods 
 to one ; the question is rightly stated, the sum commenced, 
 and proceeded with by each boy in turn. No step, however 
 apparently trifling, is omitted, no line left undrawn, no word 
 unsaid, no figure not set down and carried to its proper place ; 
 no mistake in grammar allowed ; a reason is required for 
 every part, and a proof is demanded of the whole result. 
 The sum is quickly, quietly, and cheerfully done ; and, when 
 finished, a little buz in the class announces how perfect its 
 attention to the work has hitherto been. Mental Arithmetic 
 is also a favourite exercise at many of the good schools. The 
 rapidity with which children practised in it are able to make 
 correct calculations, is surprising to those persons who do not 
 understand the rules on which it proceeds. That it is very 
 useful to a certain degree cannot be doubted ; but I am forced 
 to confess that in some cases it looks somewhat like a showy 
 exhibition of children's acquirements, and then panders to 
 vanity rather than tends to usefulness. 1845, II. 258, 259. 
 
 Again, I find in a large number of schools situate in different 
 counties, that the teachers have led the children on to the 
 compound rules, and that in consequence all above the age 
 of eleven in the first class, and often much younger children, 
 can make out a bill with very tolerable skill. Such cases are 
 noted as improved. These will not be regarded as triflng 
 points by those persons who are aware of the change effected 
 in a child's capacity by the first successful exertion in calcu- 
 lating numbers. * * It should, however, be remarked, 
 that the power of concentrating attention and working long 
 and complicated problems without external aid must be of 
 great service to youths in many occupations, and invaluable 
 
MENTAL ARITHMETIC 233 
 
 to those who are intended to be teachers. When therefore, 
 the foundations are safely laid in thorough knowledge of 
 principles, it should be hoped that the progress in mental 
 arithmetic will be more general and extensive. 1846, I. 
 142, 143. 
 
 Why should w^e not have questions of cottage economy in 
 arithmetic, tending to encourage a careful study of the best 
 way of laying out the weekly earnings ? Whoever undertakes 
 to frame such examples must first make himself acquainted with 
 the affairs of a cottage ; but, these known, it would surely be 
 practicable to make such examples as interesting, to say the 
 least, and as well calculated to exercise the ingenuity of 
 children, as though the sums concerned were ever so large, 
 and the commercial transactions they had reference to, those 
 not of labourers, but of great shopkeepers, and merchants, 
 and bankers. — Many questions might also be contrived having 
 reference to the calculation of the amount of a man's earnings 
 at piece-work, the economy of his labour, the cost of materials, 
 &c. ; and with this view the ''constants of labour" might be 
 collected with more care than heretofore and from more authen- 
 tic sources. And again a large class of questions might be framed 
 having reference to the amount of the savings a labourer may 
 make under different circumstances, and the best ways^of invest- 
 ing them. And also as to the amount of his losses from drinking, 
 luxurious eating, and indolence. Another large class of exam- 
 ples might also be framed illustrative of those principles of prac- 
 tical science which may have been taught in the reading lessons, 
 
 mechanics, mechanism, agricultural chemistry, health, 
 
 &e. In mensuration the examples usually given in elementary 
 books are not adapted to practice, and nothing could be more 
 desirable than to get from practical builders, carpenters, 
 engineers, &c., and particularly from contractors for earth- 
 works, questions of the class which they require to be answered 
 in the measurement of their work, and in the calculation of 
 the cost of it. — All these may, I think, with advantage be 
 thrown into one book of examples in arithmetic for elementary 
 schools. Although it is the object of the reading-lesson 
 books to provide for the instruction of the children in secular 
 knowledge, and their religious teaching is supposed to be 
 otherwise provided for by a daily Bible lesson, yet it is quite 
 practicable and most important that a religious character 
 
234 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 should be given to the whole series, so far as it includes the 
 discussion of questions of natural science. It is not difficult 
 to speak of the works of God in a reverential, if not a devo- 
 tional spirit. 1848, I. 34, 35. 
 
 Until of late years the outfit of maps in the British schools 
 appears to have consisted of a few outline maps, on too small 
 a scale for efficient class teaching ; and though these have 
 been superseded, in nearly every school, by one good- sized 
 map of Palestine ; in a great number also by a large one of 
 England, another of Europe, and a third of the two hemis- 
 pheres ; and in a few likewise by large ones of the different 
 quarters of the globe, yet there is generally wanting a better 
 supply of school-maps, which are denied to the anxious wishes 
 of the teacher by the poverty of funds. Again, it appears to 
 be the almost universal practice to begin by giving to the 
 children abstract ideas of the rotundity and magnitude of the 
 earth, and descending through its great divisions to the study 
 of a map of England, instead of allowing the notion of a plane 
 surface to continue for some time in teaching the children the 
 relative distances and directions of the objects around them, 
 with the cardinal points based on the direction of their own 
 shadows when they leave school in the sunshine at noon ; 
 and gradually extending these ideas to the conception of a 
 whole town, parish, district, country, island, continent, and 
 globe. The effect of the contrary course is to make the learn- 
 ing of geography too truly what it is commonly called, 
 ** learning maps ;'* the different names being associated very 
 readily, if not very permanently, with the spots of different 
 colour on the surface of them, without any clear conception of 
 the real position and dimensions of the regions pictured forth. 
 It was in only the best schools that the top classes could 
 decide truly, and by a considerable majorit}^ the direction of 
 the cardinal points ; and not a few of the feebler in which it 
 was almost unanimously voted that south was to the zenith 
 and north to the nadir, because the top and bottom of the map 
 had been pointed out to them as the direction of north and 
 south. This was particularly the case in the girls' schools, 
 in one of which the children could tell the names of every 
 known tribe of barbarians in Africa, and in another those of 
 every petty island in the Pacific, without knowing the name 
 or course of "the river" which ran through their respective 
 
GEOGRAPHY 235 
 
 towns ; facts which made me entertain, with the ladies of the 
 several committees, considerable doubt whether "geography" 
 (so taught) were not rather an exercise breeding conceit than 
 one either improving the character or informing the mind. * * 
 A very superior manual, just published by Mr. James Corn- 
 well, senior tutor of the Normal school at the Borough-road, 
 will most probably come into extensive use, and effect a great 
 improvement. 1847, II. 100, 101. 
 
 The first step in [the boys] education is to teach him to observe. 
 Under the direction of a skilful instructor, many qualities of 
 the things around him, which had before altogether escaped 
 his notice, will, by more careful observation, be added to his 
 knowledge, and all his former impressions will acquire an 
 unaccustomed distinctness and precision. This accomplished, 
 and the child knowing at length adequately, for the purpose 
 in hand, the characteristic ^features of that portion of the 
 earth's surface which is within the compass of a day's journey 
 — its varieties of elevation and aspect, its hills, valleys, and 
 streams — his attention may be directed to the agrarian divisions 
 of his parish, the fields and holdings which unite to form it. 
 The boundaries of these, with which his memory is familiar, 
 being represented on the black board by chalk lines, will con- 
 vey to him his first idea of a map and its uses ; that idea will, 
 moreover, be precise and truthful. The next step might 
 make him acquainted with the general features of the water- 
 shed of the district ; and then the teacher would bring under 
 Jiis viev/ the useful productions which it is made to yield by 
 labour, whether pastoral, or agricultural, or mineral, associated 
 as these are with the characteristic features of its surface 
 level, its climate, drainage, aspect, and soil. Then the pur- 
 suits of its inhabitants, whether agricultural or manufacturing, 
 or commercial, in alliance with these, and dependent upon 
 them. Next, the domain of natural history may be made to 
 yield much for his instruction, in respect to the infinite variety 
 of animal and vegetable forms which are assembled within the 
 reach of his immediate observation ; the birds which frequent 
 that region, the domestic and wild animals, some of the tribes 
 of insects, the commoner plants which grow around him, 
 and the different kinds of trees. It is not proposed to burden 
 the child's mind, in respect to any of these matters, with 
 scientific distinctions or a hard nomenclature ; all that is 
 
236 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 sought, is a knowledge of them in their ordinary relations , 
 such a knowledge as the child acquires in respect to those 
 other things with which he is most familiar.* 
 
 A yet farther step may be made : the customs and habits 
 of the people may be described to him, — things with which 
 he is familiar in experience but not in description. Thus his 
 intelligence of t]iQ forms of language 2)roper to the description 
 of such things will be cultivated. From these social relations, 
 with which he is already more or less conversant, his mind 
 may be led on to the knowledge of those political relations 
 connected immediately with the parish or the surrounding 
 district, in which he is scarcely less interested, but in respect 
 to which he will be, for the most part, found to have no 
 previous information. 
 
 • To those persons who may be disposed to qnestion the possibility of introducing 
 these subjects into elementary instruction otherwise than in connexion with the 
 nomenclature of science, I would submit the following observations of the same 
 intelhgent American writer, whom I have before quoted, on the Prussian schools : — 
 *'I know full well that the extent and variety of subjects said to be taught to young 
 children in the Prussian schools have been often sneered at. 'What!' say the 
 objectors, 'teach children botany, and the uuinteUigible and almost unspeakable 
 names, Monandria, Diandria, Triandria, &c. ; or Zoology, vnth such technical terms 
 as Mollusca, Crustacea, Vertebrata, Mammalia, &c. ; — the thing is impossible ! ' 
 The Prussian children are not thus taught. Por years their lessons are free from 
 all the technicalities of science. The knowledge they already possess about com- 
 mon things is made the nucleus around which to collect more ; and the language 
 with which they are already familiar becomes the medium through which to com- 
 municate new ideas, and by which, whenever necessary, to explain new terms. * * 
 With us, it too often happens that if a higher branch, — Geometry, JS'atural Philo- 
 sophy, Zoology, Botany, — is to be taught, both teacher and class must have text- 
 books. At the beginning of these text-books, all the technical names and definitions 
 belonging to the subject are set down. These, before the puptL has any practical 
 idea of their meaning, must be committed to memory. The book is then studied 
 chapter by chapter. At the bottom of each page, or at the ends of the sec- 
 tions, are questions printed at full length. At the recitations the teacher holds 
 on by these leading strings. He introduces no collateral knowledge. He exhibits 
 no relation between what is contained in the book and other kindred subjects, or 
 the actual business of men and the affairs of life. At length the day of examination 
 comes. The pupils rehearse from memory with a suspicious fluency ; or, being 
 asked for some useful appHcation of their knowledge, — some practical connexion 
 between that knowledge and the concerns of life, — they are silent, or give some ridicu- 
 lous answer, which at once disparages science and gratifies the ill humour of some 
 ignorant satirist. Of course, the teaching of the higher branches falls into disrepute 
 in the minds of all sensible men, — as, under such circumstances, it ought to do. But 
 the Prussian teacher has no book. He needs none. He teaches from a full mind. 
 He cumbers and darkens the subject with no technical phraseology. He observes 
 what proficiency the child has made, and then adapts his instructions, both in 
 quahty and amount, to the necessity of the case. He answers aU questions ; he 
 solves all doubts. It is one of his objects, at every recitation, so to present ideas 
 that they shall start doubts and provoke questions. He connects the subject of 
 each lesson with all kindred and collateral ones, and shows its relation to the every- 
 day business and duties of life ; and, should the most ignorant man, or the most 
 destitute vagrant in society, ask him, 'of what use such knowledge can be ?' he will 
 prove to him, in a word, that some of his own pleasures, or means of subsistence, 
 are dependent upon it, or have been created or improved by it." 
 
GEOGRAPHY 237 
 
 If the instructor has rightly discharged his duty, in thus 
 bringing under the notice of the child that circle of created 
 things, in the centre of which he is more immediately placed, 
 and that portion of the human family which is bound to him 
 by the more intimate ties of social intercourse, he will, more- 
 over, have pointed out to him the manifest providence of God, 
 in adapting the forms of organic being, and their functions, 
 to the circumstances under which they are developed and the 
 modes of their existence ; not less than in the course of human 
 events, and the ordering of the ways of men from the cradle 
 to the grave. He will also not have failed to direct his atten- 
 tion to the more obvious phenomena of the heavens above — 
 to the apparent rotation of the surface of that great sphere 
 about its pole, to the daily motions of the sun, the changes in 
 his path from day to day ; to the journey of the moon among 
 the stars, and to the apparent wanderings of the planets. 
 These are things which lie wdthin the sphere of the child's 
 immediate perceptions, and stand in an intimate relation to 
 its own existence. 
 
 Long before the teacher has exhausted this field of know- 
 ledge, he will, however, have become sensible of the expediency 
 of making excursions beyond it. From the sphere of the 
 immediate perceptions of the child, he will begin to support 
 the mind in its flight through the region of the things which 
 it imagines. The idea which it associates with a farm or field 
 now firm and consistent, will readily separate itself from that 
 locality, and become the idea of a tract of land, having pre- 
 scribed limits, and a definite form, and boundary, and bearings, 
 as to the four cardinal points. And by a process of accumu- 
 lation, to which his imagination will easily lend its aid, this 
 abstract perception, or idea, of a limited portion of the earth's 
 surface may be made to pass into the conception of a far ex- 
 tended country, the relations of whose lesser political divisions 
 to the whole are those of the individual properties and holdings, 
 to the whole parish. The village mill-stream may become, 
 by a like process, a stream, and have an existence in his mind 
 separated from the locality. In thought, he can add many 
 such to one another, until in their united dimensions they 
 become a river, and then you may speak to him of the Thames, 
 and the Rhine, and the Danube, and the Mississippi, with a 
 probability of interesting him, and with the certainty of being 
 
238 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 understood. So the high ground, whence this and some 
 sister brook pursue their courses through neighbouring valleys, 
 will convey to him the idea of the watershed of a continent. 
 His conception of a mountain system may be reached by an 
 easy and natural progression ; the first step of which is a hill 
 familiar to his earliest recollections. A neighbouring canal or 
 navigable river will supply to him the idea of water communi- 
 cation. A streamlet, tributary to some mill-pond, will sug- 
 gest to his imagination the widened mouth by which a great 
 river opens into the sea — and, the idea of a port, on the shores 
 of which it will be easy to collect in imagination a commercial 
 community. A mud bank will instruct him faithfully as to 
 the formation and continued enlargement of a delta, and 
 account for the richness of its soil and the exuberance of its 
 vegetation. The vegetation and the forms of animal life of a 
 foreign region, and the manners and customs of the people 
 who inhabit it, will readily become known to him, when he is 
 told of them according to forms of expression which have first 
 been made familiar to him by their application to his own. In 
 like manner, the political institutions of his own and of for- 
 eign countries may be laid open to him in an ascending series, 
 beginning from those of the parish. It is thus that, by 
 founding the ideas you desire to convey to him upon those 
 with which he is familiar, and raising the superstructure of 
 his knowledge by a simple induction from materials he has 
 himself already collected, it will be made to assume a character 
 of solidity, and permanence, and truthfulness, not otherwise 
 to be found than in following that path into which we are 
 directed by the leadings of Nature herself. 1846, I. 235 — 238. 
 In no department, however, is it necessary to take the first 
 steps more cautiously and more firmly than in this. The 
 general objects with which geography has to deal have never 
 yet been realized by the child. The round world, for instance, 
 is an idea of which he has never yet got possession, except as 
 a name ; a map is an inscrutable mystery, notwithstanding 
 the assurance that it is *' a picture of the earth ;" geographical 
 distance is measured by the mind wholly at random ; in brief, 
 the fundamental experiences must positively be gained and 
 consolidated, before any real knowledge is communicated upon 
 the subject, however much technical lore may be laid up in 
 the memory. Thus, I have not unfrequently found children 
 
GEOGRAPHY 239 
 
 giving the names of towns and lakes in Russia or Tartary, 
 who could not tell the next county to their own, or what was 
 meant by the north and south. * * The method of teach- 
 ing geography merely by outlines has too often encouraged 
 this mere technical mode of procedure, whereas what the 
 child wants to give him the very conditions of geographical 
 knowledge, are mental images of the earth and its surface. If 
 any one country were w^ell taught, its size made fully apparent, 
 its natural features all placed as a picture before the mind, its 
 productions, its people, its usages, its laws, its religion, all 
 impressed and explained, it would become a kind of central 
 point of light and knowledge, from which the scholar could 
 proceed to other countries, until he has, as it were, paced the 
 globe, circumnavigated its oceans, and seen in his mind's eye 
 everything remarkable as he passed onwards. I have often 
 thought that lively narratives of travellers and tourists might 
 be used with great advantage in teaching geography to primary 
 schools. The description of a country like Switzerland, its 
 mountains, lakes, plains, glaciers, water-falls, avalanches, 
 smiling valleys, and eternal snows, all accompanied with a 
 proper map and a description of the habits, history, and 
 government of the people, would certainly do far more to 
 instruct the mind than a catalogue of boundaries and divisions, 
 involving a number of names to which no mental imagery 
 whatever is attached. The comparison of Switzerland, again, 
 with a country like Holland, would draw forth various con- 
 siderations highly instructive ; while the mere localities would 
 be far more vividly than ever impressed upon the mind, by 
 connecting them with the mighty stream which rolls from the 
 summits of the one and loses itself in the marshes of the other. 
 1850, II. 469, 470. 
 
 In teaching geography, I have recommended the constant 
 use of maps and of the black board. Before maps can be 
 used to good effect, children must be taught to attach ideas 
 to the symbolical representations therein made use of. The 
 chief points of the compass are best learned by referring to 
 the position of the sun in the morning, at mid- day, and in the 
 evening. Perhaps a teacher would do well to begin his les- 
 sons in geography on a summer evening, at the dismissal of 
 his school, by the side of the nearest river or pond ; and after 
 he had there explained, and practically illustrated the meaning 
 
240 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 of the most extraordinary terms, as hay, island, SfC, he would 
 on the morrow be able, by exhibiting on the black board a 
 sketch of the geographical features of the spot that had been 
 visited, to recall, and put in new lights, the teaching of the 
 previous day. The Pestalozzian mode of laying a plan of the 
 school-room on the floor, so that the windows and doors of 
 the plan correspond in direction to those of the building, and 
 of taking for the next lesson a plan of the streets or lanes 
 adjoining the school-room, and so passing, by a gradual 
 enlargement of the sphere of apprehension, to a map of the 
 county, of England, of Europe, and of the world, may be made 
 excellent use of in the hands of an intelligent teacher. The 
 map of the world will, however, scarcely be understood without 
 reference to a globe. — In teaching the geography of any 
 particular country, instead of making the children learn by 
 heart a list of names, the teacher should show them a map in 
 which the physical features are properly marked, and first 
 direct the pupil's attention to the great mountain ranges, and 
 next trace out the several rivers, as indications of the main 
 lines of drainage, classifying them according to the seas into 
 which they fall ; and, lastly, go on to the towns, giving 
 information, if he has the knowledge, of the probable causes 
 that acted in collecting the population in particular spots and 
 districts. — The black board, especially if it be divided into 
 squares, affords a ready means for illustrating the comparative 
 sizes of different rivers, lakes, mountains, and continents ; one 
 of the squares being taken as the unit of comparison, and the 
 attention of the pupils being directed also, if possible, to a 
 natural object with which they are familiar, of the same kind 
 as that under consideration. Thus, a child that lived near 
 the banks of the Thames might be told that the Ganges was 
 ten times its length ; but that, as the size of a river depends 
 upon the extent of the country drained, the climate, the sup- 
 plies derived from the melting of snow, and other causes, — 
 while the area of the basin of the Ganges has been calculated 
 as 76 times the size of that of the Thames, the quantity of 
 water that rolls down is, perhaps, 150 times as great : while 
 the Nile, which has been reckoned to be twice as long as the 
 Ganges, may drain an area 90 times, with a body of water 
 250 times the size of the Thames. Similarly a boy in the 
 lake district might be taught that the extent of the sea of 
 
GEOGRAPHY 241 
 
 Galilee was more than 10 times, and the Dead Sea more than 
 40 times that of Windermere ; and calculating the heights of 
 Skiddaw and of Mount Sinai in round numbers at 3000, and 
 somewhat less than 8000 feet, respectively, their sizes, on the 
 supposition that their figures were similar, would be nearly 
 as i to 18. — Provided always that right things are kept in 
 their right places, the more that we can widen, and give 
 quickness and strength to the grasp of the children's appre- 
 hensions, and use them to fasten true images to familiar 
 words, the more interesting, as well as the more serviceable, 
 will be our schools. Let the best things be taught first, and 
 with that heartiness on the teacher's part as that the children 
 shall feel that he is in earnest ; and no one will then wish to 
 stint that which comes in as a pleasant change to the more 
 serious work of the day. 1845, II. 98, 99. 
 
 '*A good deal of attention has been given [in the British 
 and Foreign Society's Normal Schools] to geography. It is 
 attempted to make this an inductive study ; certain conditions 
 are given, from which certain consequences are to be inferred. 
 Thus the students are expected to discover that the currents of 
 the rivers of Eastern Europe are slow, and of Western Europe 
 rapid ; after having been told that the former have their rise 
 at a slight elevation and have a lengthened course, and the 
 latter originate in the high land of Central Europe, at no 
 great distance from the sea. Political and social geography 
 are thus shown to be in a great degree dependent on physical 
 geography ; the reason is seen why one nation is agricultural 
 and another commercial ; why a certain manufacture should 
 be carried on in a particular locality in preference to every 
 other ; and why an alteration in the mode of manufacture 
 should involve a change in its seat. Thus that Holland is 
 agricultural and England manufacturing ; that our cotton 
 manufacture is carried on in South Lancashire and the edges 
 of the neighbouring counties, and not in Lincolnshire ; that 
 our manufactures generally are travelling north and west ; 
 and that iron, which was once largely manufactured in Kent 
 and Sussex, is now only smelted on the great coalfields, are 
 not merely so many facts, but highly interesting facts ; 
 interesting, because regarded as effects, the causes of which 
 are perceived, and have probably been discovered, by the 
 student himself. 
 
242 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 "The Etymology of geographical names forms an important 
 feature in this branch of knowledge. The name of a place 
 often tells its condition or history ; and the explanation of 
 the same, by calling into exercise the power of association, 
 increases the probability of its being remembered. Thus the 
 name Buenos Ayres, still shows the salubrity of the air of that 
 town ; Sierra, the Spanish name for a range of hills, the 
 saw'like appearance which it presents ; New York tells us 
 that it was once a colony of England, and those who know 
 that it was first called New Amsterdam, know, too, that it 
 was founded by the Dutch; Virginia, shows that it was 
 colonized in the reign of our virgin queen, Elizabeth; Carolina, 
 during that of Charles fCarolusJ . The term fell, applied to 
 mountains in the north of England, the south of Scotland, 
 and in the islands of the north and west, shows that these 
 parts of the country were occupied by some tribe or tribes of 
 Scandinavian origin ; while hen or pen found in the most 
 mountainous regions, confirms the facts of history, that these 
 high grounds were unconquered by the northern invaders, 
 and continued in the possession of the original Celtic inhabi- 
 tants. In thus finding out the cause of the fact, and the 
 cause of the name, the reason has been exercised and the 
 study rendered highly philosophical ; and a science which has 
 often been thought to consist only of lists of hard unmeaning 
 words, has been made attractive in a more than usual degree." 
 1847, II. 356, 357. 
 
 It appears very questionable whether grammar should be 
 taught as a separate subject in any but the most advanced 
 schools ; although every teacher who is qualified to do it will 
 take care incidentally to explain its leading principles, and 
 will encourage any desire manifested by forward children to 
 become better acqufainted with it. 1846, I. 144. 
 
 In truth, taught as this branch sometimes is, it does not 
 repay the time bestowed upon it, and the difficulty may be 
 excused of discovering wherein its advantage consists. The 
 rules and definitions, as given in some text-book, are, jDerhaps, 
 pretty well committed to memory ; and the exercises in the 
 same have been tolerably performed. But the pupil remains 
 unable to parse the ordinary reading lesson ; and, although 
 familiar with the general rule, he is but little acquainted with 
 its application. Wherever the attempt to teach this branch 
 
GRAMMAR 242» 
 
 is feeblest, it is observed that this abstract method is most in 
 use. In the schools where English grammar is best taught, 
 and in not a few it is taught in the best manner, text- books are 
 used more sparingly. The occasion of exercise is then found 
 in the ordinary reading lesson, and the method of teaching is 
 the reverse of that followed in the other case ; the ground- 
 work of the lesson being here the example, as there it was the 
 rule. This method has the virtue of all methods that put the 
 teacher upon his own resources, when resources in that quarter 
 are not altogether wanting. 1846, II. 329. 
 
 In the hands of a superficial master, etymology readily 
 assumes a showy and deceptive character — acquires an undue 
 importaiice — and takes the place of more substantial instruc- 
 tion. It is astonishing how entirely the meaning which a 
 sentence is intended to convey, and the scope of a lesson, m^ay 
 be placed beyond the intelligence of a child who is yet familiar 
 with the particular meanings and the derivations of the words 
 which compose it. My experience has convinced me that the 
 necessity of teaching a child to comprehend what it is reading 
 about, is not replaced by teaching it etymology. 1845, II. 
 505, 506. 
 
 The fault to which I have already alluded, of teaching the 
 roots of words without distinctly conveying the present mean- 
 ing of the derivatives which give occasion to refer to them, is 
 not universal ; and the exercises with the Latin prefixes and 
 afiSxes, are often well managed and very useful. The chief 
 use, however, of etymological exercises of this class to boys 
 who stay so short a time at school, is to help them to a 
 clearer understanding of the more abstract forms of expression 
 which are common to all persons of education, and have their 
 roots in the Latin and Greek languages. As for the Anglo- 
 Saxon terms with which they have associated their own first and 
 simplest ideas, the endeavour to engrave them yet deeper by 
 the less familiar form worn by the same words eight centuries 
 ago, appeared to be doing little for children having so brief a 
 time to stay at school, though an important exercise if they 
 could remain a year or two longer. 1847, II. 102. 
 
 For if as seems probable, one of the greatest impediments 
 to general education arises from actual inability on the part 
 of the parent to pay such fee, or to pay it for so long a time 
 as his child's right education requires ; if the wants of his 
 
244 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 family demand imperatively that the child be not burdensome 
 to it, but a contributor, if only in a small degree, to its 
 income ; then the regulation of the school-fee and its adapta- 
 tion to the circumstances of each place become of very great 
 importance not only to the success but to the existence of 
 our National Schools. * * I have stated my belief, from 
 watching its effects in many places, that the variable fee is a 
 hindrance to the general progress of the school. The parent 
 is frequently content to pay only the lowest rate for his child, 
 and thus excludes him from some of the subjects taught in 
 the school, not rarely from writing, and very often from 
 arithmetic. The common case in schools is, that for the 
 lowest rate reading only is taught : for the next charge, 
 reading and writing ; for the third rate, reading, writing and 
 arithmetic, with English history and geography and grammar, 
 though, as will be seen from the Table, separate charges are 
 sometimes made for all of these subjects. * * And with 
 regard to the general progress of the school, it certainly seems 
 to me, on looking at lists of some of the chief places in Lan- 
 cashire, that from some cause or other it is greater where the 
 the fee is fixed.* The cause is probably this — that in these 
 schools the children's minds are not wearied by the repetition 
 of one or, at the most, two or three subjects of instruction, 
 but have a pleasing and profitable variety of wholesome food 
 set before them. * * There might be a still better 
 arrangement : the fees of the school might be regulated 
 according to the position and income of the children's parents ; 
 and then all the scholars might be brought up together with 
 the same advantages, the same interests, and the same feelings. 
 This system is already carried out in some places, and with 
 good effect. * * It is my conviction that in many places 
 these payments are already too low — too low i. e, for a con- 
 siderable number of the children. The low rate should remain 
 for those who are really unable to pay more ; a higher rate 
 should be added for the less poor. Both rates should be fixed ; 
 and for its payment the child, whatever its condition, should 
 learn all that the master could teach. * * At about half 
 the number of infant-schools the fee is only Id. or l^c? per 
 week. It is very desirable that prepayment of the school-fee 
 
 * I should remark a kind provision in the school payTnents at . Orphans 
 
 are admitted gratis j the children of widows for Id. per week. 
 
PAYMENTS 245 
 
 (where required by the rules of the school) should be strictly 
 enforced. This would not only save many a twopence to the 
 master in the school funds, but much time also wasted in 
 endeavouring to recover that which, if afterwards paid, is paid 
 grudgingly. Prepayment by the month, or even by the quarter, 
 would probably increase the regularity of the children's 
 attendance at their schools. I would strongly urge on the 
 managers of elementary schools the consideration of this sub- 
 ject ; and in many cases a better regulation of the school-fee. 
 One hindrance to the success of our National schools might 
 thereby be removed. 1847, II. 444—452. 
 
 In some of the largest schools, the children of tradesmen, 
 and of other persons in comparatively easy circumstances, are 
 admitted for a weekly payment, varying from 3d. to 8d. or is. 
 The advantages of such a system are obvious. The expenses 
 of the school are defrayed, and its maintenance is lio longer 
 dependent upon the charity or caprice of subscribers. The 
 industrial classes of a superior order have a fair share in the 
 benefits of a system of instruction incomparably better than 
 has hitherto been within their reach. The general order, 
 discipline, and character of instruction in the schools is visibly 
 improved. A better tone is given to what may be called the 
 public opinion, or general state of feeling, among the pupils. 
 The poor have naturally more confidence in the instruction 
 for which they see that their better- educated neighbours are 
 willing to pay ; and there is reason to hope that mutual feel- 
 ings of respect, rega.rd, and sympathy will be encouraged and 
 developed, among children educated on a common system. 
 There is no fear that an unnatural displacement of classes will 
 result, since the children of those parents who are able and 
 willing to supply them with good books, to aid them in home 
 studies by encouragement and advice, and to keep them in 
 school until they have completed their education, will be 
 better able to maintain their relative position than had they 
 been educated in those small establishments which have 
 hitherto been their only resource. Still, my Lords, such a 
 system will require careful watching and most serious con- 
 sideration. The dangers and difficulties are scarcely less 
 obvious than the benefits. If the master's salary depends 
 upon the number of pupils pa3dng a higher weekly stipend, 
 as is sometimes the case, the temptation to partiality is likely 
 
246 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 to be far too strong for ordinary minds. If, again, the 
 .children are arranged in separate divisions, as is now done 
 at least in two very efficient schools, we can scarcely hope 
 that equal attention will always be given to both, and must 
 fear lest that division should suffer, for which it is the especial 
 object of your Lordships' Grant to provide the means of 
 education. 1850, I. 68, 69. 
 
 The payments being weekly, if a child have lost one or two 
 days at the commencement of the week, through the use of 
 its services by the parents, or through their poverty or neglect, 
 it is generally kept away for the rest of the week, to avoid 
 payment of the whole fee for instruction during only a part of 
 
 it. To meet this tendency, the school committee at 
 
 require the continuance of the weekly payment for each child 
 until it shall be formally withdraw^n from the school ; thus 
 minimising the irregularity of attendance, whether daily or 
 weekly. * * The most serious complaint of irregularity 
 which I found in any town of this class was that made against 
 
 the freemen's children at , who enjoy an old privilege 
 
 of frequenting the schools free from any 'payment , which 
 induces their parents lightly to avail themselves of this 
 advantage, and as lightly to relinquish it. * * The most 
 common charge in the best British Schools, it will be seen, is 
 2c?. per week (and in all the payments are w^eekly), with an 
 abatement where more than one or two children come from 
 
 the same family. * * [At ,] ^d. is paid by children 
 
 recommended by subscribers, and 4r/. by those who are not 
 so recommended ; but this arrangement has no reference to 
 the amount of instruction conveyed, and is very wisely made, 
 where its operation is vigilantly watched, in instances where 
 a good school is provided in a neighbourhood otherwise 
 destitute of any. 1845, II. 444, 445. 
 
 At other schools one- third of the children are generally 
 absent, and if the fee be insisted upon, the inability of the 
 parents to pay it is generally assigned as a principal reason 
 of this irregularity in the attendance. Here [at King's 
 Somborne] the payment of the school fee is strictly enforced, 
 and the average daily attendance is more than eight-ninths of 
 the children on the books. * "^ Here he [the Inspector] 
 finds every child in possession of as many school-books as it 
 wants, of the best kind, well bound, and in a sound condition ; 
 
PAYMENTS 247 
 
 and he finds moreover that the child has purchased them all 
 for itself, the school providing non^. Elsewhere the early 
 age at which the children leave, is spoken of as fatal to the 
 success of the school. Here, although the very goodness of 
 the school has a tendency to produce this result, and does, to 
 a certain extent, produce it, the parents persuading themselves 
 that their children get to know enough, in a good school, 
 sooner than in a bad one ; there is evidence that a labourer 
 is capable of making for his child the sacrifice of the weekly 
 wages he might earn, if sent to work, that he may send him to 
 the school. There were in May, 1847, eleven girls in the first 
 class above the age of 1 3 whose parents were of the condition 
 of labourers. Eight of these were above 14 years of age. 
 There were of the like condition five boys above fourteen 
 years of age, and nine above 12. Your Lordships will appre- 
 ciate the amount of that sacrifice which a labourer earning 
 9s. a- week makes, when he sends to school a boy who might 
 add to the weekly income of the family from Is. 6d. to 2^. 6d,, 
 and not, I trust, consider misplaced the expression of an 
 opinion which this example has but confirmed in my mind, — 
 that the poor will be found capable of making, to a far greater 
 extent than they do now, the sacrifices involved in sending 
 their children to school instead of to work, whenever this 
 sacrifice shall be justified by the character of the education 
 offered to them. ,1848, I. 19, 20. 
 
 The payments of the children are ordinarily 1 d, or 2d. a 
 week : these are sometimes managed so as to help the regu- 
 larity of attendance. Thus, at , the younger children, 
 
 of whom the parents are glad oftentimes to be free from the 
 
 charge, pay 3c?. ; and the older children pay Id. At 
 
 the children pay nothing for attendance, but are fined for 
 
 absence. At the parents are encouraged to make 
 
 their payments quarterly in advance, by being charged Is. b, 
 quarter, instead of at the rate of l^d. a week, which is the 
 cost to those who pay for schooling weekly ; the consequence 
 is, that most of the children are paid for quarterly, and the 
 parents are more in earnest about receiving the w^orth of 
 their money, and take pains about the attendance of their 
 children. 1845, II. 88, 89. 
 
 At , where schools are established for that 
 
 wonderful town, created by the iron- works of Sir John Guest 
 
248 GENERAL TEACHING 
 
 and Co., and where the upper boys' school has no parallel in 
 any of the counties that have yet fallen under my inspection, 
 a certain weekly sum (I believe of 4d.), is deducted from the 
 wages of each working man, and out of this not only are the 
 schools partly supported, but medical advice, and other chari- 
 table aids, are given to each person that requires it. Other 
 owners of iron-works in Glamorgan, and the masters of the 
 great copper- works, such as Mr. Vivian, M. P. for Swansea, 
 and others, adopt similar systems, and flourishing schools are 
 the ready consequences. 1850, II. 199, 200. 
 
 A Welsh parent of the humbler classes does not care to 
 send a child to a day-school at all, unless the first object be 
 to learn English ; and to make any valuable progress with 
 such books and in such schools as alone have heretofore been 
 available, has demanded a time, and an aggregate of expense, 
 which it has been difficult to afford. For the almost universal 
 method of teaching English has been to place lessons in 
 English in the hands of the children, and, by individual 
 instruction, to get them to attach the right value to the 
 letters, and the right pronunciation to the words, without 
 any conception of their meaning whatever. Such conception 
 is chiefly restricted to a few children in a top class, to whom 
 the master addresses explanations in their native language. 
 But these explanations have been so little essential in general 
 estimation, that in places not far removed from the English 
 border, there is a considerable inclination, in both patrons and 
 parents, to have English masters, who do not understand 
 Welsh at all. * * So strong, indeed, is this desire for 
 English, that it is a fundamental rule of the day-schools, that 
 English only shall be spoken in them ; a rule to which it 
 must be very difficult indeed to get a practical obedience, and 
 scarcely less cruel to attempt it ; for it deprives the little 
 things of all explanation of their hard technical tasks, how- 
 ever glibly they may be enabled to run off the words before 
 them. * * And I doubt not that if Infant schools were 
 introduced more extensively, wherever the population is 
 numerous enough, they would gladly be used by the parents, 
 not only for the ordinary advantages offered by such institu- 
 tions, but for that of an early introduction of the little ones to 
 a knowledge of English : for many are the grievances which 
 accrue to the people from their prevailing ignorance of the 
 
WELSH SCHOOLS 249 
 
 language in which justice is administered and all important 
 business transacted. 1847, II. Ill, 112. 
 
 It is this difficulty of language, the great stumbling-block 
 of the whole race, which makes the aid of pupil- teachers or 
 monitors so essential in a Welsh school. * * Pupil- 
 teachers or stipendiary monitors, however, would meet this 
 difficulty at a very moderate cost, and change the whole 
 aspect of the instruction in the really organized schools. 
 1850, II. 293, 294. 
 
 I have nowhere seen more persevering and successful efforts 
 
 [than at ] to give intelligence to the English reading 
 
 by the translation of every word and sentence, often with a 
 competitive use of the chalk and black board to write down 
 the words of the lesson, or words related to them in both 
 Welsh and English. These exercises gradually rise to lessons 
 in composition, and the arithmetic is equally well taught 
 throughout, with a corresponding progress. 1850, II. 399. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INFANT SCHOOLS. 
 
 IT is no uncommon charge against elementary education 
 for the poorer classes, especially against that given in infant 
 schools, that it takes children away too much from tlie influ- 
 ences of home, and interrupts the natural relation between them 
 and their parents. It is with much reluctance, my Lords, 
 that I state my opinion that at present, under existing cir- 
 cumstances, this separation of intercourse between children 
 and parents is in the majority of families highly beneficial to 
 the former, if not absolutely necessary. It is good for them 
 that they should not take their parents for their examples. 
 It is very important that they should have other views and 
 other motives suggested to them than those which the 
 ignorance and vice both of fathers and mothers unceasingly 
 and practically supply to them at home. 1847, I. 443. 
 
 The infant education of the ^mass of the people is still, 
 however, in the hands of the ** dames," many of whom are 
 persons of pious character, and some even of education and 
 refinement ; but the more educated middle class to which 
 these worthy persons properly belong, in the more cultivated 
 districts, has no existence amidst the dispersed yet teeming 
 populations of the outlying mining and manufacturing regions ; 
 and in these the infant children, therefore, have not the 
 advantage of early instruction and discipline under persons 
 knowing what such words mean. To "keep them quiet" is 
 the perfection of schooling in the eyes of their teachers ; a 
 perfection in seeking for which their training is wholly 
 perverted ; and one which, if attained, would yield a still 
 worse result than does the actual failure to secure it. That 
 the mothers of the children of the labouring classes, amidst 
 the cares and the confusion of their little houseliolds, or the 
 brief intervals of their labour, will effectually perform the 
 
TRUE OBJECT OF INFANT SCHOOLS 251 
 
 work of an infant-school for their children, those who know 
 them and their circumstances best will least expect. 1847, 
 II. 11, 12. 
 
 In examining [the Infant School,] we were chiefly solicit- 
 ous of ascertaining whether the common error in conducting 
 these schools was duly guarded against, of paying too much 
 attention to the intellectual development of the children, and 
 neglecting or underrating what ought always to be the main 
 object of these institutions, the formation of the character and 
 the strengthening of the body. These two important ends 
 seem properly attended to, — the first by telling them stories 
 while in the gallery, chiefly scriptural, calculated to imbue them 
 with habits of piety, affection, regard for the feelings of others, 
 reliance on the Divine will, &c., and not allowing any instance 
 of misconduct to pass without commenting on it before the 
 class ; the second, by continual manual exercises, both in the 
 school and in the play- ground, the latter place, however, 
 being too confined for a school of this size. They are taught 
 the elements of arithmetic and of reading with a success that, 
 if unexplained, might lead to the supposition that the error 
 we have alluded to had been committed of forcing their 
 intellects, in order to show them off as infant prodigies. For 
 instance, many of them will readily answer questions which 
 seem beyond the range of infant apprehensions. Such as in 
 arithmetic — What are twice 13 ? Twice 22 ? How many shil- 
 lings in eight crowns ? How many farthings in four shillings ? 
 And in spelling will spell correctly from the phonic reading- 
 book, such long words as Newfoundland, consideration. The 
 truth however is, that they are never even taught any of the 
 arithmetical tables regularly ; all the multiplication they 
 systematically become acquainted with is included in the well- 
 known infants' song beginning with *'Two ones are two;" 
 and the master at casual times will tell them that there are 
 four farthings in a penny, five shillings in a crown, &c., the 
 subsequent advances being made by the children themselves, 
 for the purpose of questioning each other before the class. 
 One of the elder infants is placed in the front of the class, 
 and any one that pleases is permitted to put him a ques- 
 tion ; and if he cannot answer, it is a signal for his being 
 replaced by the questioner, who then undergoes the same 
 ordeal. Were this exercise accompanied with much excite- 
 
252 INFANT SCHOOLS 
 
 ment, or if it appeared to elicit any unpleasant feelings of envy 
 or emulation, we should have discouraged the practice. As 
 managed here, however, it has no such effect, but rather the 
 appearance of a game conducted with the most perfect good 
 humour, and not unfrequently accompanied by shouts of 
 laughter at the mistakes of the respondents, who will also join 
 in the merriment. The children invent questions for the 
 purpose of playing at this game, and hence frequently advance 
 much further in acquirement than it would be desirable to 
 teach them formally. No one is forced or expected to make 
 these advances ; but each proceeds according to his fancy or 
 temperament, the knowledge beyond the very simplest ele- 
 ments being obtained in a desultory way that appears to us 
 perfectly appropriate to children of this age, though it would 
 be a great error to sanction it in any other description of 
 school. To make a child four or five years • old learn the 
 Multiplication Table up to 20 times 20 would be absurd ; 
 but if it can find out of its own accord what twice 22 make, 
 no harm can follow. The children are taught reading on the 
 phonic system ; and the complete success of it as here practised 
 is a sufficient proof of the excellence of the method. They 
 are all taught the conventional names, as well as the sounds 
 or powers of the letters ; but the master uses no figures or 
 wood cats, and does not approve of them. The difficulty 
 arising from the variety of sounds assumed by one letter, as 
 the four sounds of '*a,** seems to have opposed no material 
 obstacle ; and the first class read simple sentences with perfect 
 ease and correctness of intonation, in fact with a marked 
 superiority over those children who come to the school having 
 been taught in the ordinary way. The master states that the 
 children are taught in this way with infinitely less labour to 
 himself than by the former plan. Were the intellectual 
 progress that is manifest in the school accompanied by any 
 undue mental excitement, the evil would quickly show itself 
 by the derangement of the health of the children. 1845, II. 
 383, 384. 
 
 The most fatal error [in the older Infant Schools] was 
 
 the leaven of intellectual display which, whatever the subjects 
 for its exercise, appears to have crept into a good many of 
 these establishments of earlier foundation. It seems to have 
 produced in some of them what I do not know how to designate 
 
THE PRODIGY SYSTEM 253 
 
 otherwise than as the *' prodigy system/' under which the 
 quicker children were to be wonders of envy and admiration 
 to the rest, and the whole school in which they were exhibited 
 one of admiration, if not of envy, to its friends and neigh- 
 bours, on occasion of each ''examination," which might more 
 truly have been designated a little "drama," in which the 
 cleverer children had each their little part of "representation" 
 by rote. Conceit, envy, and fretfulness, ill restrained by fear, 
 were the leading moral elements of such a system ; and 
 stultifying verbal repetition, its chief intellectual exercise. 
 Travesties of the language of science vied with desecrations 
 of that of Scripture, and the world of truth was shut out by a 
 veil of familiarity with its unvivified formulae. Redeemed as 
 this has always been, in some degree, by cheerful tunes and 
 healthful play, it is possible to contemplate it with forbearance, 
 even in the past, only as a first unsteady step in search of a 
 right path. Happily its prints are disappearing ; and the 
 higher views which are being made national by the labours of 
 the Home and Colonial Infant School Society, met by the 
 good sense of local committees in general, and the devoted 
 exertions of a few individuals in particular, have opened up 
 an entirely new career, in which infant education cannot 
 fail to be widely extended and greatly improved. 
 
 The theory of all the more modern infant schools which I 
 have visited appears to contemplate an education at once 
 physical, intellectual, industrial, moral, and religious. The 
 occupations of each child, of whatever age, on every day of 
 its attendance, are more or less directed into all these channels. 
 In that of religion all the others, however, are made to unite, 
 wdth the view of its becoming habitual to the children, even 
 from their tenderest years, to look through Nature up to 
 Nature's God, to pray for mercy through a Redeemer's love, 
 and from the midst of their feebleness and His bounties, to 
 ask those blessings of the Holy Spirit, without which all 
 human endeavours for their improvement would be vain. In 
 fact, to implant good habits of body, heart, and mind, which, 
 under these blessings, shall grow with their growth and 
 strengthen wdth their strength, is the largest part of the work 
 undertaken by the best infant schools for those portions of 
 our juvenile population who more particularly need such 
 asylums ; and to make them effective to their purpose, both 
 
254 INFANT SCHOOLS 
 
 thought and money have, in many instances, been liberally 
 expended. 
 
 Certainly it is no disparagement to the dames* schools to 
 refrain from comparing the kitchens in which they are held 
 with the handsome halls provided for most of the infant 
 schools, or the airy yards annexed to them with the jdirty 
 courts and alleys into which alone the former can turn the 
 little ones for external air. The manual exercises, the march, 
 the cheerful song, the gymnastic play, under a superintendence 
 too cheerful to be felt as oppressive ; these are sources of 
 health and vigour with which the confinement of the dame 
 school, the exigencies of the mother's home, or the vagabond- 
 age of the streets, has nothing to compete. Again, instead 
 of being stultified in the first dawn of its capacities with the 
 technicalities of written language, which is all that either 
 parent or dame attempts to do for it, the Httle one in the 
 infant school is interested and delighted by the training of 
 its faculties as they are successively developed, beginning 
 with that of perception or observation, subservient to an ever- 
 restless curiosity. In the hands of a good teacher, the familiar 
 objects and events around it are the most valuable instruments 
 of instruction ; for such an one can find "sermons in stones 
 and good in everything." To observe and compare common 
 objects ; to recognise them in pictures and by their right 
 designations ; to distinguish each salient feature ; to store it 
 in the memory under its appropriate name ; and to find in 
 each new wonder a new evidence of God's bounty ; to do all 
 this is part of the happiest play of "babies ;" if happily they 
 are in the hands of one who knows how to unfold the drama 
 before them, to habituate their fluctuating minds to order 
 and obedience, to awaken good feelings by little moral and 
 spiritural stories, illustrated perhaps by pictures of the most 
 familiar objects and scenes, and, above all, to promote and 
 superintend their amusements. 
 
 Capable of fixing their attention upon the several qualities 
 of objects, the children are practised in distinguishing and 
 naming colours and forms on cards and in wood, and in 
 acquiring ideas of space, direction, and relative distance from 
 the objects in the school room, and ultimately from those 
 around it ; the notions thus acquired, of which whole schools 
 of elder children are often deficient, being reproduced in lines 
 
OBJECT LESSONS 255 
 
 upon their little slates as soon as they are capable of drawing 
 them. The school clock is a fine subject for a lesson on time, 
 as also is the direction of the sun's rays as they shine through 
 the windows ; and the daily disciphne of the school is a practical 
 application of such lessons. They are also required to group 
 their ideas, and to discover facts of coincidence and sequence in 
 them. Reason is dawning upon them, and it may now be 
 stamped for life with habits of caution and truth, or of haste, 
 indolence, error — in fine, of self-deception, the fertile parent of 
 imbecility and turpitude. Every earnest observer of childhood 
 is painfully aware that a truthful heart is not likely to remain 
 long attached to a vagrant mind ; and the clearness of intellect 
 and honest use of language which the best infant schools are 
 endeavouring at this step of the children's progress to make 
 habitual among them, (applied and subdued as they are to the 
 best objects and the best purposes,) form a hopeful foundation 
 for their future happiness, and one which has been too com- 
 monly undervalued. 
 
 As **babies," the children are, until this stage, commonly 
 in the charge of an assistant teacher, and have their own 
 little gallery in a corner of the room, or in a separate room, 
 and come only occasionally upon the principal gallery, per- 
 petually under the charge of the responsible teacher. But 
 once here they are brought under a higher training of the 
 verbal memory ; they are made to give accuracy to the terms in 
 which it has recorded the results of observation : and there is 
 carried on, more or less perfectly, a contemporaneous analysis 
 of these terms of common language into words and syllables^ 
 and into the sounds and parts of sounds denoted by letters, 
 with the use of these signs and their recombination into written 
 syllables and words, and sentences of simple and familiar 
 narrative ; appeals to the senses being constantly made to 
 correct errors in the ideas, and misuses of the signs and sounds 
 employed to convey them. Here is a little world of labour, 
 requiring both time and patience ; for the education of the 
 faculties must still be continued during the time that an ac- 
 quaintance with written speech is being acquired. Much of 
 the drudgery of its attainment, however, is surmounted with 
 cheerful activity by a partial employment of the monotorial 
 system at little moveable reading stands, placed in two rows, 
 for the more advanced boys and girls respectively, down the 
 
256 INFANT SCHOOLS 
 
 middle of the room ; while the teaching of the alphabet and 
 the first formation of syllables will occupy a considerable 
 number of the smaller children, seated on the gallery, and 
 instructed by the teacher or the assistant, with the aid of a 
 reading frame and moveable letters. The little monitors, each 
 surrounded by a ring of infants, although their duties are 
 purely techninal, commonly exhibit great activity, and no less 
 propriety of behaviour. The advantages of mere "change" 
 are however, no small part of those arising from the monitorial 
 part of the infant-school system, which is sometimes employed 
 for the study of a succession of pictures of plants or animals, 
 the children marching and changing stations at brief intervals. 
 In teaching to read, there is, however, very little use of the 
 black-board and chalk by either teachers or monitors, by 
 means of which the little ones might learn to write as well as 
 read, with much of the zest of an amusing puzzle, in lieu of 
 being oppressed by the wearisomeness of repetitions, too often 
 profitless for want of attention to the cards. 
 
 Twice a- day are all the children above the class of babies 
 thrown into this monitorial arrangement, for the purpose 
 chiefly of learning to read ; but the real education of the 
 children is still carried on, for the most part, in direct inter- 
 course with the teacher ; they seated on the gallery, and the 
 teacher standing before them and constantly "performing," 
 as it were, in such manner, and with such varieties of position, 
 attitude, tone, gesture, method, and bearing, as shall best 
 warm their minds to the reception of the new truths that are 
 to be conveyed to them. It is certainly a high art, with 
 ready sympathy and inexhaustible tact, to draw forth the 
 children's minds to the field in which it is proposed to awaken 
 them to a new truth, first by getting them to express in their 
 o^vn words the ideas which they already possess that lead in the 
 contemplated direction ; from these data to make them sensible 
 that there is something beyond which they have not yet seen ; 
 and then, when warmed by curiosity, to convey the new ideas 
 in the manner and in the terms which shall form a perfect 
 conductor between the teacher and the taught, who yield them- 
 selves completely to the moral moulding, when thus absorbed 
 in the apparent wisdom and goodness of their instructor. 
 The sympathizing teacher needs no caution to refrain from 
 first presenting subjects to th^ children in elements so elabor- 
 
OBJECT LESSONS 257 
 
 ately analyzed that they cannot recognize them, or from 
 propounding to them abstract principles which they cannot 
 understand. Such a teacher presents to them a plant or 
 flower, or picture of an animal, in the concrete, as nature first 
 shows it to their apprehensions ; separates the several parts 
 of which it consists for separate consideration, and shows in 
 each the wisdom with which all is arranged by a beneficent 
 Creator ; or, reverently reading and familiarly recounting to 
 them some simple, affecting, and instructive passage of 
 Scripture, with the aid of a picture, leads them to an analogy 
 with their own lives and conduct, as exhibited especially in 
 the school and play-ground, or to the perception of some new 
 practical truth, to be stamped upon their minds by a sacred 
 text, in terms as simple as the truth it conveys is immutable. 
 Thus, line upon line and precept upon precept, are they led 
 to a perception of God's bounties ; weaned from reliance, in 
 self-sufficient ignorance, on the treacherous promptings of 
 their own hearts ; and habitually directed to the one sole 
 Source of support, of hope, of guidance, and of comfort. 
 
 In like manner the teacher will give them the history of 
 some artificial object of familiar use ; show them how the 
 world has been ransacked to procure the materials for it ; 
 describe the patient labour which has been bestowed upon it; 
 the ingenuity which God has bestowed upon men to convert 
 such countless treasures to our use ; and how even little 
 children, who receive so much from the hands of others, 
 should learn as soon as possible to employ their own to the 
 service of their parents, their teachers, and their school-fellows, 
 since to seek to live by an exchange of services with each other 
 is the greatest practical step to happiness here and hereafter, 
 while the first abandonment to idleness — itself a fraud and 
 the parent of frauds — is the surest path to destruction. These 
 lessons, too, are practically enforced by employing the little 
 fingers of the 'children as soon as possible in some work of 
 industry, even though valueless, except in appearance, such 
 as sewing, knitting, plaiting, wrapping parcels, tying knots, &c. 
 
 The first ideas of number, which are merely those of "one*' 
 and **many," are gradually refined and extended by means of 
 lessons verified and checked by the direction of the sight to 
 the ball-frame, with which, however, it appears to me that 
 the children become so familiar that it is sometimes hard to 
 
258 INFANT SCHOOLS 
 
 get them to attend to it ; and appeals to their own fingers 
 and toes, to the frames of glass in the windows, to pebbles, to 
 beans, to the number contained in a little group or two of 
 their school-fellows on the floor, re- arranged in various com- 
 binations of number before the remainder seated in the gallery, 
 would often be more effectual. Indeed, the ideas of number 
 w^ll be much more clearly conveyed if the exercises be upon 
 a variety of objects, so that they are familiar ones, not chal- 
 lenging observation on their own account, but merely by their 
 grouping. Notions of Addition and Subtraction are very 
 soon obtained ; but it is some time before those of Addition 
 and Subtraction by equal groups, or Multiplication and Divi- 
 sion, become familiar. To associate the names of the numbers 
 up to ten with the Arabic numerals is part of the work of the 
 reading drafts ; but here, again, is wanting more employment 
 of the black-board or the slate on which to draw them. 
 
 As the children advance in years and capacities, it is the 
 teacher's object to make their instruction more and more 
 systematic and comprehensive ; but wdth an attendance so 
 fluctuating as that of the infant schools generally, and with 
 no possibihty of classification for collective instruction beyond 
 the separation of the mere "babies" from the rest, it is 
 exceedingly difliicult to pursue a course of steady development. 
 Unable to accomplish all that is desired, the only comprehen- 
 sive train of ideas conveyed to any number, even of the older 
 children, is an outline of Scripture history and Christian 
 doctrine ; but grasping still at something further, a class of 
 children, from seven to nine years of age, will generally be 
 found in each infant school, whose reading has been carried 
 beyond the cards and first easy lessons, and who are ucl^xg 
 the Testament. To these some express instruction is given ; 
 they are generally learning also to write in copy-books ; they 
 are proceeding with the first rules of arithmetic on the slate ; 
 and they serve as monitors of the little reading- classes, and 
 the elder even as occasional baby- teachers. Indeed, where 
 there is a very poor population in which the children go very 
 early to work, as in the agricultural villages and in the poorest 
 of the manufacturing districts, all the education which the 
 parents consider that they can allow to their children is 
 required from the infant school, if there be one, in supersedence 
 of the dame school, to which alone recourse would otherwise be 
 
OLDER CHILDREN 259 
 
 had ; nor, in fact, do the parents generally perceive much 
 difference between them, so that there is an appearance of the 
 children having acquired the first elements of reading, and writ- 
 ing, and ''counting,'* which is all that they can recognise. The 
 proper business of the infant-school is, however, greatly neg- 
 lected or impeded, where this class of older children, instead 
 of being merely those required to assist the teacher in the 
 capacity of monitors, is proportionably very numerous ; in 
 which case the teacher's attention and labours are completely 
 distracted and unhinged, so totally dissimilar is the nature of 
 the instruction required for it and that demanded by the 
 general public of the infant school ; and yet the older style of 
 schools appeared all to have strong tendencies to encourage a 
 show- class of elder children, to the comparative neglect of 
 the great mass of the school, even when the necessities of the 
 neighbourhood presented no peculiar temptation to the teachers 
 to fall into such a system. * * 
 
 By *' object " lessons and the exercise of their moral percep- 
 tions, the children are taught to acquire, from surrounding 
 nature and the circumstances of their own brief and fleeting 
 lives, materials without which the language of Scripture itself 
 would be to them but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 
 By iheir " Bible " lessons they are early induced to watch and 
 to interrogate their own conduct and their own hearts ; even 
 the brief anarchy of the playground furnishing to the teacher 
 endless indications of those points to which the practical les- 
 sons derivable from it have to be brought home. Emulation, 
 it is true, is awakened, but it is an emulation to rise in the 
 affections of the teacher, who perpetually seeks to direct their 
 view to the Cross ; and the intellect is cultivated, but it is 
 with a cautious truthfulness, which does much to vivify the 
 religious instruction, and thus to obliterate one of the most 
 painful characteristics of the great majority of our popular 
 schools. It is the uninteUigent reading of the Scriptures to 
 which I refer ; and when it is considered that an unintelligent 
 is necessarily an irreverent reading of them, the magnitude 
 of this evil will not be easily overrated. This growing 
 amendment will, I hope, be blessed to become a root of living 
 principles, defined by those forms of sound words which it is 
 our great privilege to inherit, and not hidden by their vain 
 repetition. If good dispositions and good habits are to 
 
260 INFANT SCHOOLS 
 
 survive a removal from the artificial atmosphere of the school, 
 they must have a rallying point in such principles ; and to 
 cause these to take hold upon the minds of the children the 
 most powerful means possessed by the teachers is for them- 
 selves ever to act upon them in the presence of their tender 
 charge. t 
 
 Where, indeed, but in the Scriptures, shall the Christian 
 teacher seek an unfailing support for that humble, peaceful, 
 firmness of temper which is necessary even to the most affec- 
 tionate disposition, in the management of children, wayward 
 in proportion to their infancy ; or whence, as from them, can 
 be drawn such a variety of food for the infant mind, so easily 
 assimilated to every age, capacity, and circumstance ? In 
 promoting a system of education thus wholly drawn from, 
 based in, or illumined by the words of Holy Writ, the friends 
 of the infant schools certainly establish a tacit claim to every 
 aid and assistance which the State can render them ; the 
 more strong because the parents of the children themselves 
 are as yet ignorant of its real value ; and yet stronger, if, 
 by frequent exhibition to those parents of the good effects of 
 its operation, their own hearts shall be touched on the side 
 where pride presents no impenetrable mail ; a result of which 
 the individual instances are not few. It would sanction an 
 unfair method of reasoning, however, to adduce instances of 
 individual improvement through the influence of infant schools ; 
 because their moral effects are not concentrated but dispersed, 
 and necessarily unrecognized by the parties upon whom they 
 are most strongly operating ; and no such evidence is required 
 to prove that it is a good service to the state to lay the 
 foundations of a wisdom unto virtue here, as well as, vdth 
 God's blessing, unto salvation hereafter. It is a work which 
 many are now endeavouring to forward, without any vain 
 impatience to witness instantaneous and concentrated results ; 
 it is one which they are happy in considering as theirs to do, 
 without staying to measure every obstacle, real and fancied, 
 before making the attempt to remove even one of the 
 number. * "^^ 
 
 There is the unvarying element of cheapness in the 
 
 employment of females ; and when possessed of a healthful 
 frame and a healthful character, it always appeared to me that 
 the female teacher had a sympathetic sway over the minds of 
 
FEMALE TEACHERS 261 
 
 the children as complete, though less vigorous, than that 
 exercised by the purely mental force of the male. It is true 
 that this force enables a man to keep up a vigorous attention 
 among a larger body of children, and for a longer time ; but 
 if the sum requisite 'to pay him a proper salary be available, 
 the diversity of ages and capacities which exist in almost every 
 numerous infant school will dictate the importance of employ- 
 ing it rather in the multiplication of teachers whose services 
 will be available for a proper classification of the children, than 
 in paying for the services of one of greater bodily resources, 
 when, in nine cases out of ten, if all the children be assembled 
 together in the same gallery, what he addresses to one-half 
 will be wholly unfitted to the capacities of the other, who 
 necessarily become unoccupied, uneasy, and unhappy. * * 
 It is bare justice, however, to observe, that there is little 
 want of devotion to their duties in any class of the present 
 teachers. Their greatest deficiency is in early education. 
 Again, while many, in aptitude to teach, are decidedly gifted, 
 it happens not unfrequently that there is a want of energy to 
 continue the exertion, even where the powers are not at all 
 sapped by vanity ; and to the credit of the institutions men- 
 tioned in the preceding table, I ought to state that conceit 
 prevails among the teachers in inverse ratio to the amount of 
 training which they have received. The more ignorant they 
 are of the real nature of the duties and responsibilities which 
 devolve upon them, the more self-satisfied are they in the 
 pursuit of their accustomed technical routine. Of an infant 
 school, above every other, it may be asserted that "as is the 
 teacher, so is the school." "^ * It ought to be borne in 
 mind, however, that those schools which are now doing least 
 for infant education in its best sense, are for the most part of 
 a comparatively early date. * * Their prevailing defect 
 is a want of better training in the methods of assimilating 
 truth to the infant mind ; and a disinclination to seek it, in 
 the conviction, natural even to the most original intellect, 
 when sequestered in a little dominion of its own (though one 
 only among infants), that it is impossible to profit anything 
 by attention to the -''novelties" of others. 
 
 What may have been the character of the schools from 
 which this class of teachers drew their first ideas I am unable 
 to state, but the notions of infant education upon which they 
 
262 INFANT SCHOOLS 
 
 are generally acting are much too ** intellectual," in the most 
 perverse sense. Children shut up within four walls from the 
 spontaneous use of their senses on the objects around them, 
 here obtain no cultivation of their faculties of observation in 
 connexion with the language which they are taught, beyond 
 being occasionally required to give hard names for the quali- 
 ties common to every object with which they come in contact, 
 as "natural, artificial, opaque, elastic, inflammable, porous," 
 &c. But they are required to work very doggedly in reading- 
 drafts on the old plans, and to learn off by heart texts and 
 recitations, which they do not understand, to be repeated, in 
 display y before the whole school ; a method of which the ill 
 eiFect is not lessened by Scripture words and sacred subjects 
 furnishing the matter of its exercise. Texts there are in 
 abundance which should be as familiar to the lips of childhood 
 as to the thoughts of age ; but their force requires opening 
 to the infant mind : and it is little better than casting them 
 by the wayside to plant such words. not in the conscience but 
 in the vanity of the tender est age. Geometry, arithmetic, geo- 
 graphy, and grammar set to music, without any mentionable 
 use of the slow processes by which alone any of the simplest 
 ideas in them can be conveyed, are not less hopeless as means 
 of instruction. * * 
 
 A sound upon the ear is caught, however, just as soon, and 
 repeated far more readily, than an idea in the mind ; answers 
 to the accustomed queries are obtained from a limited number ; 
 and a class of elder children, who ought not to be in an infant 
 school at all, are polished up into wonders of reading, writing, 
 and repetition for visitors on show days ; distracting their 
 attention from the failure in what is really the work of the 
 infant school, as much as the necessity of attending to that 
 class distracts the mind of the teacher from his proper duties. 
 With all this intellectual pressure upon the powers of mere 
 technical memory, the reading (age for age) is not so far 
 advanced as in tlie better infant schools ; the writing is 
 restricted to the show- class of monitors ; and the religious 
 knowledge is grievously too verbal and too much restricted 
 to the elder children. The latter, however, acquire an outline 
 of the history of the Creation, of the Fall, and of our Saviour, 
 to which the earnest convictions of the teachers themselves 
 appear to awaken, in some instances, a serious regard, 
 
ORGANIZATION 263 
 
 although the greater part of the instruction passes unheeded 
 over the younger children. The latter still encumbering the 
 large gallery, instead of being made over to a proper assistant 
 teacher, are required in vain to keep quiet. Happily, nature 
 is here victorious, for even terror will not long keep them 
 motionless without occupation. This want of healthy exercise 
 for the faculties of the proper public of the infant school is at 
 the root of the whole of the *'rote" system ; and as a conse- 
 quence, a school upon it is recognizable at a glance by the 
 dingy disorder which clouds every proceeding, whether in the 
 gallery or in the drafts. For the great mass of the infant 
 children which they contain, these older schools, therefore, 
 have few advantages, except those of wider space and better 
 air, over the dame schools, between which and the more 
 modern infant schools, they are, in fact, but an intermediate 
 link. * * 
 
 In the 20 schools under teachers trained at the Home and 
 Colonial Society's Normal Seminary, the ideas of organization, 
 
 methods, and instruction, are carried out to an extent 
 
 varying with the capacities, education, aptitude, and amount 
 of training possessed by each teacher, and with the amount 
 of aid afforded to each whether by an older child, or by a 
 paid assistant. In nearly all, the clas'sification is practically 
 carried to the extent of placing under a separate course of 
 management and instruction, 1. The "babies" under three 
 years of age ; 2. The infant children from three to six or 
 seven ; and 3. The "juveniles," from seven to nine or ten, 
 
 where there is such a class. At the Schools the "babies" 
 
 have a separate room, ; and at all the schools, they enjoy 
 
 more frequent access to the play- ground than the rest of the 
 children. In some, where there is no separate room for them, 
 they have nevertheless their own little gallery, commonly 
 curtained off from the rest of the room, except during the 
 time of the singing, and physical exercises ; and the amount 
 of cheerful order which can, without effort, be made to 
 prevail among them (infants as they truly are), by keeping 
 their little minds constantly occupied, under a kindly sense 
 of obedience and duty, is very remarkable. The teaching, in 
 whichsoever section, is all addressed to the children coUect- 
 tively, except in reading, after they have learnt the letters 
 and how to form syllables with them ; and is enlivened by the 
 
264 INFANT SCHOOLS 
 
 usual little arts of awakening and sustaining attention on the 
 part of each and all. That of the ''babies" is generally ver\^ 
 appropriate, wherever there is an assistant teacher ; and that 
 of the children in the principal gallery seldom appeared to be 
 defective in impressive gentleness or judicious management of 
 the little audience, though frequently in concentration, and 
 in definite application to the conveyance of some new idea, 
 the awakening of some specific sentiment, or the engraving 
 of some simple principle, deeply enough to render it difficult 
 to efface. There is, in fact, a general want of higher inven- 
 tion and higher education, though not to the extent that I 
 had anticipated from observations made in years past ; while 
 there is a clear and practical recognition that it is by the 
 moral and intellectual progress of the body of the school that 
 the success of a teacher is to be tested. Consequently, what- 
 ever defects of strength there may be, the teaching in these 
 schools is, on the whole, free from vices ; a statement which, 
 considering the past and even the present state of infant 
 education generally, I submit as one involving the highest 
 praise which it is possible to bestow. Two only, of the 
 twenty employed in these schools, are male teachers ; both 
 of these are possessed of respectable abilities ; and the 
 
 exertions of the master of the • Schoo] make it a 
 
 healthful happy nursery, such as the English country towns 
 generally would do well to procure. The text books used by 
 the teachers in their oral instructions are the good ones pub- 
 lished by the Home and Colonial Infant School Society. * * 
 
 The teacher at had adopted a very systematic 
 
 plan It was, in teaching the children their letters, to 
 
 have them exercised, and at the same time amused, by means 
 of large letters on separate bits of cards, which they were 
 required to name, when arranged so as to spell a monosyllabic 
 word describing some familiar object, or. from among a heap 
 of them, to find and arrange such as would spell that word, at 
 first when the letter next wanted was named, and afterwards 
 without its being named ; an exercise to which that of picking 
 up various forms out of a heap had served as a very useful 
 introduction. * * 
 
 Considering their age, and the mere technical duties which 
 are required of them, these monitors are very respectable little 
 agents. They form the principal part of a top class which 
 
phySical occupations 265 
 
 receives special instruction from the teacher, commonly out 
 of school hours, and is usually taught to write in copy-books. 
 Generally, too, the boys are engaged in writing, or scrawling 
 outlines of objects, on slates, while the girls are plying the 
 
 needle ; and in the unpretending school at the 
 
 amount of cheerful application of little hands in chalking, 
 scrawling, writing, and sewing, showed a praiseworthy zeal 
 on the part of its matron, which is well worthy of imitation. 
 Indeed there is a general want of more employment for the 
 fingers in the infant schools, with at least a pretence of utility 
 and industry in it. There is much more of such application 
 in these modern schools than in those of an older pattern, but 
 there is yet room for progress, as well to the recreation as to 
 the moral and intellectual advantage of the children. Their 
 imitative faculties are at this early period of their lives in full 
 vigour, and to give them a useful direction may implant habits 
 of industry and perseverance for life. In only two of the 
 schools did I see prepared surfaces on the walls for the child- 
 ren's chalking, and in only one was there any use of them. 
 
 The discipline of the more modern schools presents a very 
 happy contrast to that of the older, and is maintained without 
 rewards and without punishments, except the universally con- 
 fessed "pat on the arm," applied in cases of perversity to the 
 "babies," The happy open countenances of the children, the 
 freedom of their intercourse with the teachers, and the order and 
 easy control preserved by the latter, are, indeed, ample evidence 
 to the prevailing goodness of the discipline, if that term be at all 
 applicable to relations so gentle as those which subsist between 
 the best teachers and the children under their care. And yet 
 there are infant schools to which the children do not like to 
 come ; and where they do not, a change is certainly required. 
 The good effects of an infant-school training are readily per- 
 ceived in schools for older children, to which those who have 
 been subject to its best influences have been transferred. 
 Well- combed hair with wits as orderly, open countenances 
 with gentleness of demeanor, show forth the praises of their 
 former teachers, amidst the general rout of many a British 
 School, collected from the kitchens of the dames, and from the 
 disorder of the streets or even the home. That their appear- 
 ance should challenge notice is a fair indication of the compara- 
 tively limited progress that has been made in the infant edu- 
 
266 INFANT SCHOOLS 
 
 cation of the poor. 1846, II. 217 — 235. 
 
 Singing is generally taught by ear ; it is often sweet and 
 accurate, and has undoubtedly a great effect upon the disci- 
 pline of the school, and probably upon the disposition of the 
 infants. 1847, I. 269. 
 
 The first Report, made in February, 1837, states with 
 much force the reasons that suggested the formation of the 
 [Home and Colonial Infant and Juvenile School] Society. 
 "The Committee may without fear of contradiction assert, 
 that few situations in life require so much discretion, so much 
 energy, so much tenderness, so much self control and love, 
 as that of a teacher of babes ; that to guide and govern an 
 infant-school well calls for wisdom to discern, versatility to 
 modify, firmness to persevere, judgment to decide ; and they 
 may add that no uneducated or undisciplined mind can supply 
 the incessant care, the watchful diligence, the unwearied 
 patience necessary to manage young children.*' * * 
 
 The usual course of instruction in the model infant-school 
 is to produce to the children the cast or picture of some 
 animal, or mineral, or plant, or some specimen of manufacture, 
 which is made the subject of the lesson. The object, how- 
 ever, is not to make the children zoologists, or mineralogists, 
 or botanists. Scientific information is of course communicated, 
 but it is only incidentally, and is an adjunct to the main 
 object of the lesson. Those infant- teachers who make a 
 parade of their scientific knowledge, and delight to show 
 visitors how much the children know of pachydermatous 
 animals, and monocotyledonous plants, absurdities which are 
 often witnessed, caricature the purpose of these lessons in the 
 model schools of the Society. The chief object in the method 
 of instruction here adopted with the youngest classes is to 
 cultivate the faculty of observation, that being the first faculty 
 developed in the infant mind. The children are taught to 
 observe closely whatever is brought before them, to discrimin- 
 ate parts, shapes, colours, and whatever information is com- 
 municated in this process is considered as altogether secondary, 
 and comparatively unimportant. The principle is, that the 
 child should first be exercised in forming clear notions, and 
 then taught how to express them. Thus the perception of 
 colour is first exercised by showing the class a sheet containing 
 patterns of various colours, and desiring them to pick out 
 
SUPERIORITY OVER OTHER SCHOOLS 267 
 
 from a heap of cards of different colours such as correspond 
 with any particular colours pointed out on the sheet. In a 
 subsequent lesson they, are taught to affix the right appellation 
 to the qualities they have discovered. * * 
 
 It must have been observed by all v^ho have paid much 
 attention to schools, and the remark has been made in the 
 Reports of several of your inspectors, that there is a want of 
 harmony between infant-schools and those for children of 
 maturer years. I believe it would be a truer, though less 
 polite statement of the case, to assert that while in most 
 infant-schools, something was taught, in most other schools, 
 at least in the lower classes, nothing was taught. It is not 
 surprising that children accustomed to the teaching of an 
 adult and intelligent mistress, such as is trained by this 
 Society, should become restless and inattentive, when on 
 transference to the juvenile school, they are taught, or 
 attempted to be taught by an untrained boy 10 or 11 years 
 of age. In fact, the infant-school system, chiefly by the aid 
 of this Society and the Normal Institution at Glasgow, had 
 advanced in the career of improvement considerably beyond 
 the practice in most juvenile schools. The evil lay mostly in 
 the vices of the monitorial system, which now I trust, owing 
 to the increased use of pupil teachers and of trained masters 
 from normal schools, is in course of abandonment. The 
 difficulty however, was pressed on the consideration of the 
 Society, and they met it by forming in addition to their infant 
 model school, a juvenile model school, in which the plan of 
 instruction used ^yith the infants, is carried out in a systema- 
 tic course with the same children to the age of 10 years, or 
 as long as they usually remain at school. * * 
 
 The popularity of infant-schools with the labouring classes 
 is well known. Those parents who pay no regard to the 
 educational improvement of their children, are generally quite 
 willing to recognise the advantage of keeping them out of the 
 way in a place of security during the day ; and as at this 
 tender age nothing can be made of their labour, 1 have little 
 doubt that, were good infant-schools universally established 
 in convenient localities, there would be little difficulty in 
 securing in them the attendance of nearly the whole infant 
 population of the poorer classes, from the age of two to about 
 six or seven at least. It is impossible to over-estimate the 
 
268 INFANT SCHOOLS 
 
 advantage of thus submitting the whole population to at least 
 four or five years of instruction under intelligent teachers, and 
 the Society that aims at this great end deserves our warmest 
 sympathy and regard. * * 
 
 The religious instruction is divided into four steps. In the 
 first, the object is to give the infants their first ideas of God ; 
 to teach them that they have a heavenly Father— leading 
 them to feel somew^hat of His power from its manifestation in 
 those works of His with which they are familiar ; and some- 
 what of His benevolence, by comparing it with the love shown 
 them by their parents and friends. Thus to begin with what 
 they have seen and felt, and then endeavour to raise their 
 hearts and minds to Him whom faith only can apprehend. In 
 the second step the instruction is conveyed with the help of 
 Scripture prints. The story is gathered from the picture by 
 directing the attention of the cliildren to it and by questions. 
 A portion of Scripture descriptive of the print is then read, 
 that the children may connect the narratives with the Bible, 
 and receive them as divine instruction. In the third step, 
 the instruction is given from the Bible in a regular connected 
 course, thereby training the children to preserve in their 
 minds the chain of events. In giving these lessons, the 
 history is either altogether given from the Scripture, or 
 partly read, and partly narrated. Pictures are only occasion- 
 ally introduced to illustrate some particular point, but they 
 are no longer used as the vehicles for conveying the story, 
 which at this stage is done by language. Every lesson is 
 carefully summed up, and some point of doctrine or practice, 
 deduced from it and lodged in the children's minds. In the 
 fourth stage, the higher faculties of the children's minds, as 
 judgment and reflection, are called into exercise. Having 
 become acquainted with the first principles of religion, they 
 are now presented in a more condensed form, and the formu- 
 laries of our religion are committed to memory ; so that the 
 knowledge that was scattered may be gathered together, 
 arranged, and laid up ready for use. The Aposles* Creed is 
 now taught, and the children regularly read the Bible, being 
 encouraged to commit parts of it to memory. * * 
 
 " Qualifications of Candidates sent hxj Patrons to he trained. 
 Sound moral and religious principles are essential, and in 
 addition there are certain qualifications of temper very impor- 
 
QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 
 
 269 
 
 tant in the teacher of children. The power of sympathy is 
 felt by all, but its effect upon young children is almost 
 incalculable ; on this account, an animated lively manner, 
 tempered by self-possession, a cheerful good humour, combined 
 with gentle firmness, are very important. To these should be 
 added that natural fondness for children which leads to a 
 participation in all their little pleasures and pains, and to bear 
 patiently with their infirmities and ill-humours. It is also par- 
 ticularly necessary that teachers should possess an aptitude to 
 teach, the ability of drawing out and directing the powers of 
 children, a quickness of perception to see the effect of the 
 instruction they are giving, and a readiness in availing them- 
 selves of accidental circumstances to awaken moral sentiment 
 or draw out some intellectual faculty." 1847, II. 544 — 548. 
 
 The infant school is considered as an end, instead of being 
 regarded as a means to an end ; and the child in such schools 
 is generally treated as though his education were to have no 
 future : while in the National school he is generally served as 
 as if he had had no past. Thus the infaift school is no pre- 
 paration for the National school, and the National school takes 
 no heed of the infant school. On the contrary, it seems to me 
 they ought to be intimately connected, and the duty of the 
 one should be to fit for the other, so that a child should go 
 from the head class in the one to the lower class of the other 
 by a natural procession, and not as now, a thorough break be 
 made in his thoughts, habits, and plans. For want of this 
 connexion, it mostly happens that children taken from infant 
 to National schools lose ground, and go backward and incur 
 loss for a time rather than benefit. The managers of infant 
 schools should remember that they are not called merely to 
 train an infant, but to train an infant so that he may become 
 a good youth and a good man. It is to the formation of the 
 mature character all education should be directed. 1850, 
 I. 331. 
 
 The appearance of the infants in most of these schools is 
 highly gratifying, especially when they are well arranged on 
 the gallery, or engaged in gymnastic exercises. So many 
 sweet, cheerful faces, full of life and intelligence, produce an 
 impression that is always deepened by longer olDservation. 
 It is no small triumph to have achieved over the wayward 
 dispositions and undisciplined character of childhood, that 
 
270 INFANT SCHOOLS 
 
 one or two teachers can keep from 150 to 300 infants quiet, 
 happy, and busy for four or five hours daily. We may remain 
 so long in many infant-schools without hearing a cry, except- 
 ing from some little stranger for the first time separated from 
 its mother ; and I am convinced that the admirable order 
 preserved in the best schools depends entirely upon the firm- 
 ness, good humour, and good temper of the teachers. The 
 fact is important for many reasons, and it completely silences 
 the excuses which are often made by other schoolmasters, who 
 allege that it is impossible, and do in fact find it in their own 
 case impracticable, to keep some 50 or 60 children in tolerable 
 order, under circumstances at least as favourable as those of 
 the infant-schools. 1847, L 267. 
 
 The Society have never taught any catechism in their 
 infant-schools, and oppose the introduction of any on princi- 
 ple. The reason for this exclusion is best stated in the 
 following remarks by Dr. Mayo and Miss Mayo, to whom 
 the Society are much indebted for the numerous improvements 
 they have introduced in the management of infant-schools. 
 *' Catechisms, excellent as they are as summaries of religious 
 truths, and valuable as a means of fixing those truths in the 
 mind in a condensed form, so as readily to be recalled, are 
 completely out of place in an infant-school. It is the hearts, 
 the affections of infants, that are to be gained on the side of 
 religion ; abstract doctrines they cannot understand ; and if 
 you accustom them to receive into their memories, not only 
 those truths which from their very nature are above their 
 comprehension, but doctrinal views, which from the form in 
 which they are conveyed, can awaken no idea or feeling, it 
 is very probable that their understandings will continue 
 inactive and their hearts unmoved. When they are of an 
 age to understand and feel the doctrines, they may learn 
 catechisms with great profit." I may also observe that the 
 late Archbishop of Canterbury, when applied to on this subject 
 by the managers of an infant-school in his diocese, expressed 
 his disapproval of the introduction of the Church of England 
 catechism into it. On this subject, I cannot refrain from 
 quoting the following paragraph from a sermon preached last 
 year in behalf of the Society, by the late Rev. Dr. Mayo, 
 who was a strongly attached member of the Church of 
 England. "Surely, it was scarcely to be deplored, that there 
 
HARMONY OF OPERATIONS 
 
 271 
 
 should be presented to Churchmen and Dissenters alike loving 
 the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, a sphere of peaceful co- 
 operation, where without compromise of their distinctive 
 peculiarities, they may learn to tolerate, to esteem, to love 
 one another .... A Society, which looks pre-eminently to the 
 teacher's qualification as a Christian, and seeks to build him 
 up in pure evangelical truth, and then to send him forth to 
 impart it to the children of the labouring classes, claims the 
 support of those who love the truth, and Him who is the 
 Way, the Truth and the Life.'' * * The chief aim of the 
 Society in training those who are sent to them, is to make 
 them good teachers rather than accomphshed ones ; to instruct 
 them in the art of managing children, and imparting know- 
 ledge, rather than to fill their minds with information. 1847, 
 II. 558—560. 
 
 Cellar-like rooms are unfit for the purposes of education, 
 and least of all for that of infant- teaching. The little ones 
 require well- lighted and cheerful rooms almost as much as 
 well- skilled and kind teachers. 1847, I. 344. 
 
 There can^, be no doubt that infants are more difficult to 
 instruct than older children. And, perhaps, want of power, 
 or want of principle in forming the character of an infant, 
 may be of more injury to him than any evil which can happen 
 in his after- education. * * One of the best intellectual 
 exercises which I witnessed at any of these schools consisted in 
 one child standing out from the gallery, and being questioned 
 by the others in turn, or at the option of the mistress. The 
 stander-out kept his ground till he was unable to give the 
 right answer to a question, when the questioner succeeded 
 him in the post of honour. Many of the questions and 
 answers were remarkably quick and yet infant-like. — The 
 most amusing physical exercise was the '* acting a stprm," 
 
 at , by the whole gallery of children. The first low 
 
 sighs of the wind were admirably given ; the pattering rain 
 was acted wuth still more spirit, and when "the storm" had 
 reached its height the Lancashire clogs of the little ones were 
 plied with a vigour and effect that were very storm-like 
 indeed. — In some of these schools large ** wooden bricks" 
 prove a source of great interest to the children, and are not 
 without a bearing on their after-life. 1845, II. 251, 252. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SUNDAY AND EVENING SCHOOLS. 
 
 THE Sunday schools in Lancashire supplied till of late 
 years, most of the education that the poor received ; and they 
 are still of great importance, and present some remarkable 
 features. The most striking peculiarity is the advanced age 
 of many of the pupils. Wherever the care and influence of 
 the clergy have been fully exerted to this end, the attendants 
 on the Sunday school include not only the scholars of the day 
 school and children of like age, but also a far more numerous 
 body of young persons, who continue to value this opportu- 
 nity of adding to their instruction in the best things, long 
 after the ordinary age of leaving school. It is quite usual for 
 young men to remain in connection with the Sunday school 
 till 1 8 years of age, and young women till 20, at the least ; 
 sometimes men over 30, and women over 40, are found in 
 regular attendance, as scholars. It seems that, amongst the 
 religiously disposed, attendance on the Sunday school is con- 
 sidered, and with reason doubtless, to be one of their religious 
 privileges, one of the means of grace put within their reach. 
 Connected with the school, there are frequently lectures to 
 the teachers, explanatory of some portion of the subjects on 
 which they have to give instruction ; and these lectures are 
 often given so as to attract to them others, besides those that 
 teach or learn in the Sunday school. 1848, II. 30, 
 
 [At the Parish Church Sunday School of ] the 
 
 school- hours are from nine to a quarter after ten in the morn- 
 ing, and from three-quarters after one to three-quarters after 
 
 two in the afternoon — only two hours and a quarter in 
 
 the whole day. The schools are opened with a hymn, followed 
 by prayers read by the vicar. These are joined in by the 
 occupants of both rooms — a part of the floor of the upper- 
 room being removed for this purpose, so that the reader's 
 
ROUTINE 273 
 
 voice is audible to all present. After this religions service 
 the Collects are repeated in the different classes — portions of 
 Holy Scripture, selected by the teacher, read, and questions 
 asked out of them, or the Catechism is said and explained. 
 It appears that 9 classes of males, and 15 of females, read 
 either the Old or New Testament ; the answers made by the 
 9th class of boys were intelligent and ready. The same 
 cheerful yet reverent intelUgence appears to pervade both 
 schools. But it is not, 1 believe, in the amount, however 
 satisfactory, of the instruction imparted in them, that these 
 schools are most valuable, and most worthy of the attention of 
 all members of our church who are interested in the great sub- 
 ject of Education. There is a family likeness in all their pro- 
 ceedings, a parent likeness in the teachers, and child likeness 
 in the taught, which makes their operations more like the 
 affectionate yet respectful intercourse of a family, than the 
 workings of a public school. They seem to be conducted 
 on principles rather than directed by rules. There is freedom 
 in them without licence — cheerfulness without irreverence. 
 The teachers are deeply interested not only in the right pro- 
 gress, but in the true welfare of the learners ; whilst they, on 
 their part, are really attached to those who are thus set over 
 them for their good. Several of the teachers have themselves 
 been brought up in, and gone through every class of, the 
 school. Some were pointed out to me as having been in it 
 17 years. The present superintendent of the boys' school 
 was, I think, one of these. It would be out of my province to 
 speak of the effects of these institutions, but I have reason to 
 think that they are not only large in appearance, but per- 
 manently and widely visible in many parts of the large and 
 
 populous parish of . I remember, in making some 
 
 inquiries about the character of a young woman, a teacher in 
 one of our National schools, receiving for answer, *'0h, sir, 
 
 she was in the Sunday-school at for some time," 
 
 which seemed to be conclusive in her favour in my informant's 
 opinion. Nor is it for me to speak, except in its bearings on 
 education, of the wise and kind spirit which has produced and 
 carried on for 29 years this great work under, for a length of 
 time, the most unfavourable circumstances. To the vicar 
 
 of , not only his own parish, but all Lancashire, and 
 
 indeed the North of England, are under a deep obligatimi. 
 
274 SUNDAY SCHOOLS 
 
 both for tlie model of a Sunday-school and the example of a 
 clergyman's position and practice in it. And I must add 
 that the same bright example is held up by every member of 
 his family, who all devote themselves with unwearied activity 
 and intelligent love to the same great object. Seven of them 
 were teaching in the school on the day of my visit. There may 
 be, I believe, rightly a question as to the fitness or advantage 
 of those Sunday-schools in which the labours of the 6 week- 
 days are not diminished to our poor children on the day of 
 holy rest. There may be also doubts whether Sunday-schools, 
 as they are conducted in some places, are not productive of 
 formality and an irreverent spirit. But I think that no one 
 
 can witness the working of the schools without seeing 
 
 that in them this is indeed not the case, but that, whilst they 
 are the means of conveying sound religious instruction and 
 imparting something of Christian education to very many 
 young people of both sexes, they are at the same time a practi- 
 cal application of our blessed Lord's most instructive words, 
 **The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the 
 Sabbath." 1847, I. 455, 456. 
 
 As a general rule there are Sunday-schools belonging to 
 all the day-schools connected with our church. There are 
 also 18 others in places which I have visited, where there is 
 at present no daily school. Of the utility of these schools, 
 even on the lowest grounds, as a means of keeping up con- 
 nexion with the children after they have .left the daily school, 
 there can be little doubt. And when we consider that they 
 are the only means of individual religious instruction to thou- 
 sands of young people in our manufacturing districts, we shall 
 not easily over- rate their value. One thing must, I think, be 
 confessed of them by all persons who have had opportunities 
 of judging them fairly, that their effects are curiously dispro- 
 portionate to the means (apparently) used in them — that they 
 are much greater, far beyond what might be expected from 
 them, both in amount and duration. Taking into considera- 
 tion the few hours, in some not exceeding two of actual 
 employment, during which they are at work, the absence of all 
 excitement, the frequent want of method, the simplicity of 
 their operations, and the seemingly small amount of instruction 
 imparted, I feel convinced that there is a pecuhar blessing of 
 God on these attempts to give His accountable creatures a 
 
RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE 275 
 
 knowledge of Him '*in whom they live, and move, and have 
 their being." In the best which I have visited — ^best, I mean, 
 as to influence and permanent effects — that of the parish- church 
 
 at , the school-hours are not more than one and a 
 
 quarter in the morning, and three-quarters of an hour in the 
 afternoon. What the amount of instruction given may be, I 
 had no means of judging, at one short visit. But that 
 education is proceeding there, the Christian up-bringing of 
 immortal creatures for time and for eternity, is very evident. 
 My belief is, that the success of Sunday-schools may be 
 attributed, under God's blessing, to the heartiness and simple 
 devotion to their object which the teachers, male and female, 
 bring with them to their work. It is truly with them a work 
 of faith and a laSour of love. Being Christians themselves, 
 they desire above all things to lead others to their Saviour 
 Christ. Under the guidance and in the continual presence 
 of an earnest and faithful clergyman, helping him and being 
 lielped by him, a work is doing by these unpaid teachers, the 
 value of which will not be fully known till the great day of 
 account. 1845, 11. 252, 253. 
 
 The feelings of employers, parents, and teachers all united 
 in the erection and support of the Sunday school ; not, in most 
 instances, without a high regard for its secular as well as reli- 
 gious uses, which is now, however, gradually giving way to a 
 desire to make its duties more purely spiritual. The first step 
 usually taken in furtherance of this desire, is to teach writing 
 and arithmetic on two or three evenings in the week, instead 
 of a part of the Sunday. The next step, seeing that the 
 great majority of the children, especially in poor neighbour- 
 hoods, are still occupied on the Sundays chiefly in learning the 
 mere art of reading, though the Scriptures and Scripture 
 extracts are the text-books, is to endeavour by the establish- 
 ment of public day-schools within the same walls, or in the 
 same neighbourhoods, gradually to get the young prepared 
 for a higher task on the Sundaj^ — that of possessing them- 
 selves more fully of the trutbs unfolded in the words which 
 they have elsewhere learned to decipher. 1845, II. 448, 449. 
 
 Another striking feature of the manufacturing dictrict, 
 though by no means confined to Lancashire, is the steady 
 increase of evening, or as they are generally called "night- 
 schools." This increase is, of itself, no slight proof of the 
 
276 EVENING SCHOOLS 
 
 inability of the daily schools to meet the wants and circum- 
 stances of the youthful labouring population. In many places 
 the National school is •open, under its usual teachers, for two 
 or three hours every night, or on certain nights of the week, 
 for the reception of young people chiefly between the ages of 
 13 and 20. The two sexes generally come at diiFerent hours 
 or on alternate nights. In these schools, attended for the 
 most part by those who are anxious to improve themselves, 
 a fair amount of instruction is imparted in reading, writing, 
 and arithmetic. But there is little place for education in 
 them. Perhaps the nearest approach to it is in those, not 
 frequent, instances where the clergyman's wife employs herself 
 in reading and working with the young women from the 
 factories, giving them at the same time the knowledge and 
 the example of useful industry. If the hours of daily labour 
 were shortened, these schools would form a large and impor- 
 tant part of our educational arrangements for the working 
 classes ; and in no county would they be more valuable than 
 in Lancashire, where the few hours of the evening's release 
 from toil are often given to habitual drinking — to low 
 gambling — to public amusements of doubtful or mischievous, 
 character — and to political meetings which promote neither 
 the happiness of the individual nor the Vv^elfare of the country. 
 Well-conducted evening schools, with libraries and reading- 
 rooms attached to them, would probably be the best means 
 of counteracting the evil influences which the exciting life of 
 the factory, or the uncomfortable state of the home, is too apt 
 to create in the young of either sex. In several places in 
 Lancashire, not only towns but villages, reading-rooms for 
 young men have been tried with success. This is the case at 
 
 the village of , where indeed all improvements in the 
 
 education of the working classes are most carefully and liber- 
 ally forwarded by the rector. 1847, I. 456, 457. 
 
 I observe a considerable increase in the number of night 
 schools. These are generally for adults of both sexes, of the 
 age of 13 and upwards, intended, in the manufacturing dis- 
 tricts, chiefly for the benefit of those young people who are 
 employed in the mills all the day. In other places their great 
 object is to instruct them in writing and arithmetic, that the 
 Sunday school may not be desecrated by these branches of 
 secular instruction. . Night schools are usually under the 
 
USES OF THE SCHOOLROOM 277 
 
 teaching of the national schoolmaster, and superintended by 
 the clergyman of the place. The hours of instruction are 
 generally from 7 or 8 p. m. to 9 or 10. In many places the 
 young people of either sex come on alternate evenings. In 
 others, they are either in separate rooms, or in different parts 
 of the same room, with a slight difference in the hours of en- 
 trance and departure, so that no mischievous consequences 
 may arise from the circumstances in' which these schools are 
 necessarily placed. Their good effect has often been men- 
 tioned to me by clergymen, not only as a means of imparting 
 valuable instruction, but also as a healthful employment and 
 diversion from other objects, to which the young of both sexes 
 too often turn after their hours of labour. 1846, II. 176, 177. 
 
 The National schools might be turned to account in divers 
 manners, by which both the monitors and most intelligent 
 children, together with some portion of the adult poor, might 
 be greatly benefited : such, for instance, as evening- schools, 
 and reading-rooms, in which, if they were supplied with 
 useful libraries, small cabinets of natural history, and models 
 and diagrams of machinery, lectures of an interesting and 
 useful character might be given. It appears likely that such 
 a use of the school-rooms would make them more generally 
 popular, and would afford peculiar opportunities for extending 
 the proper influence both of the teacher and the clergy. 
 1847, I. 272, 
 
 Perhaps the chief, and certainly the least remediable evil 
 [in the manufacturing and mining parishes] , is the continual 
 change of habitation by the parents. * * It is sadly true 
 this class of people have dwellings but not homes. In 
 frequent cases, when I have urged the masters of schools to 
 register the individual progress of children, they have answered, 
 "It is quite useless, sir, to attempt it ; the parents are here 
 to-day and gone to-morrow." The amount of this evil 
 depends materially on the nature of the work in which parents 
 are engaged. When it is liable to great and frequent fluctu- 
 ations, they are the more likely to leave it hastily and seek 
 for employment elsewhere. Perhaps the best checks, for 
 they can hardly be called a remedy against this evil, are 
 the continual visits of a faithful clergyman amongst these 
 "wanderers," drawing them to him, and fastening them to 
 their dwellings by all the happy ties which a well-ordered 
 
278 EVENING SCHOOLS 
 
 parish affords ; not only by urging them to send their children 
 to the schools, and to attend church themselves, but inducing 
 them to become members of Clothing- societies, Blanket- clubs, 
 Funeral- briefs. Coal-gifts, and the like, thus giving their 
 interests as well as their feelings **a local habitation." I know 
 that some have been reclaimed in this way. And to those 
 who are dead to a higher motive, the prospect of self-interest 
 may be fairly, and often is successfully held out. 1845, 
 II. 278. 
 
 *' Account of the Provident Society, hy the Rector 
 
 of the Parish. * * As we are to educate, so are we to 
 make provision both for the body and the soul ; indeed, the 
 best way of approaching the one is often through the other ; 
 and when we collect around us our children from the several 
 parishes, which make up our community, each as he rises in 
 years to that particular standard that brings him under moral 
 training in the school, it can hardly escape our thoughtful 
 consideration what are the probabilities, under God's blessing, 
 of rendering our ministrations effectual for the welfare of the 
 child, or what aids and helps we can look to for backing up 
 and strengthening the impressions we hope to make. There 
 is no surer index of a family than the state of its children ; 
 nor is there any state, as regards the children, more hopeless 
 than one of careless and squalid poverty. It is not too much 
 to say, without withdrawing the onus from those who should 
 most righteously bear it, that in a multitude of instances, 
 perhaps the majority, this state is more the consequence of 
 the carelessness of the parties themselves than of their masters 
 or employers. Now, our first efforts must be to remedy this. 
 If it be their own fault, it is self-evident that increased means 
 will not obviate it, indeed will often tend to sink a parish in 
 more hopeless pauperism. They can only be rescued by 
 teaching them, and judiciously assisting them to help them- 
 selves. With the children, therefore, I would commence, 
 and thus endeavour to carry into the family the lessons of 
 prudence and moral training taught in the school. It is with 
 this view, that on a child first entering the school, I have 
 required one penny a- week at least, more at the option of the 
 parent, to be paid into the Provident Society to provide, so 
 run the rules, "for sickness and old age, for the settlement or 
 advancement of the subscriber in life, or for such other pur- 
 
PROVIDENT SOCIETY 279 
 
 poses as conduce to his permanent comfort." Out of this is 
 annually taken Is., Sd., which is the amount of our agreement 
 with a medical man for attendance per head under 15 years 
 of age. This, of course, gives the whole school the privilege 
 of medical attendance. If the parent choose to subscribe 
 another penny or more weekly, it is repaid, with such bene- 
 faction as the donations of honorary members and Savings* - 
 Bank interest will permit, in clothes. I might, perhaps, 
 mention that I have made, and with very good success, even 
 an earlier effort to encourage prudence, by putting the 
 churching fee, sixpence, into the society in the name of the 
 child. This being taken up, and continued by the parent, 
 amounts often to a considerable sum, even by the time the 
 child comes into school, and is little or no sacrifice on my part, 
 as you may easily estimate that it cannot be in a population 
 very little exceeding 600. On this basis I commenced, now 
 more than 14 years ago, those more extended operations, 
 which after, I fear, a long prcemium, I will endeavour further 
 to explain to you. My first object was, to raise the character 
 of the people by the effects of prudence ; the second, to pro- 
 vide a fund which might give the educated scholar, on leaving 
 the school, a fair chance of carrying out into practice the 
 instructions he had there received, without the embarrassments 
 and temptations that beset the path of one without means or 
 resources. It was immediately evident that it could not stop 
 here, or the object would be only half accomplished. The gen- 
 eral principles, which had crept on, as it were, from the cradle, 
 were only now in a state to bud and bring forth. The fruit 
 was to be matured and enjoyed ; and, of necessity, my atten- 
 tion was directed towards generalizing a system which had 
 grown with the growth of the school, and the children who 
 had been therein educated. Reflection on this subject led me 
 to open it generally to all the parishioners, who were thus 
 gradually ])repared, through their children, for taking part in 
 it ; and I rejoice to think that that which only struggled into 
 existence 14 years ago, with an avowal from all parties that 
 they were so hopelessly poor I must not expect them to join 
 it, now numbers more than 380 members out of a population 
 of 620 ; which, allowing for the numbers who are and were 
 members of benefit societies before I commenced, includes 
 nearly the whole of the parishioners.*' 1846, I. 95 — 97, 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND APPURTENANCES. 
 
 IN all buildings for parochial schools it appears desirable 
 that as few expenses as possible should occur after their erection. 
 On this account, as well as on others, a simple stone or brick 
 building is to be preferred to one stuccoed or plastered over. 
 In the latter case, a constant outlay is necessary to preserve 
 it in good repair. 1845, II. 219. 
 
 Two of the most efficient village schools in the eight 
 counties whch I have inspected [ in Wales ] , very plain in 
 design, or rather perfectly so, yet well suited for this purpose, 
 accomodating 80 children and 70 children respectively, have 
 been erected, and fitted with all requisite furniture, for the sum 
 
 of 130/. in the first case, and for about 150/. in the second 
 
 They comprise a master's house ; but I have seen the building 
 accounts, and can hold them up as admirable patterns of what 
 can be eifected in peculiarly poor and little- visited districts, by 
 dint of good sense and perseverance. * * j subjoin the 
 following letter which I have received from Miss des- 
 criptive of this school. 
 
 " * * This school-house was built in the year 1842, and opened 
 in the September of that year. The items of expenditure are as 
 follows ; — 
 
 £ s. d. 
 Timber and carpenters' work . . 28 5 
 
 Masons' work 7 7 4 
 
 Stone and lime ...... 16 13 4 
 
 Grates and smith's work ... 114 
 
 Slates 5 6 6 
 
 Labourers, &c. . . - . . . . 6 18 8 
 
 Forms and desks 3 6 4 
 
 £ 68 IsTf 
 Length inside, 30 feet ; breadth, 16 feet ; height to eaves, 11 feet ; 
 lobby and coat-room, now a class-room, 14 by 8 feet, 9 feet high to 
 
COST OF BUILDING 281 
 
 eaves; no ceiling; floor of Lampeter lime and engine cinders, as 
 hard as marble, and much warmer. I this year made a class-room 
 of the coat-room and lobby, which cost 4/. 185. 9d. The master's 
 house was built at the end of 1847, in a very dear time as to labour, 
 and it cost 56/. 6s. 6(i., consisting of two sitting-rooms down stairs, 
 8 by 12 and 10 by 12, and one bed -room 8 by 12, the confined room 
 comptmsated for in every practicable way by the fitting up, &c., and 
 the back premises. The master himself built the most part of a shed, 
 which serves the double purpose of a stable and workshop for his 
 carpenter work ; he makes and mends the school furniture; to which 
 additions have been made since we set out, as I could get funds for 
 such purposes, and we make yearly advances in respectability of 
 appearance. In all matters I have crept on slowly without local 
 support, and having literally no funds on which I can depend but 
 5/. from Betton's charity. Should any one wish to set about a school 
 liaving no funds to commence with, I should be most happy to give 
 them any information; but let them not undertake such a work, 
 unless their zeal amounts to a readiness to take trouble and make 
 personal sacrifices ; with a hearty determination not to be overcome 
 by difficulties, nor discouraged by adverse occurrences. Supported 
 by a consciousness that the work will be prospered eventually by 
 One who knows the end from the beginning, no one need fear the 
 success of such an undertaking as I have found so much pleasure in, 
 for no one can ever begin more feebly, nor apparently under more 
 discouraging circumstances. Our great deficiency is in pastoral 
 teaching ; the frequent and regular visits of a clergyman would be 
 a blessing to us all. I should like you to see our school at the 
 present time : the a\ inter children have come in and are full of glee, 
 learning with all their might. You would not have to complain of 
 want of animation in the teachers now ; they are at it most indefati- 
 gably all day long. The master's health is still very bad, but his 
 spirits rise with those of the children, and he is most active among 
 them : we are quite as full as we can cram." * * 
 
 This letter speaks for itself ; and I would venture to hold 
 it out as an encouraging example to many parishes in these 
 counties, where the erection of a school is now thought to be 
 an impossibility. 1850, II. 201—204. 
 
 In a close room, where the air is impure and unfit for 
 respiration, the children soon become either sleepy or restless. 
 In either case the work of the school is hindered. Fresh 
 stimulants must be applied in the shape of the cane or the 
 strap ; and when this application becomes habitual, it is not 
 easy to say how much the school loses both in tone and pro- 
 gress. I am convinced that many a blow would be spared, 
 and many a task acquired, by the constant circulation of fresh 
 air in the school-room. 1847, I. 345. 
 
 Perhaps some difference of opinion may exist to what is 
 
282 
 
 SCHOOL BUILDINGS 
 
 good ventilation. But I fully agree with Dr. Fleming 
 
 (Report of Health of Towns Commission, 1844,) that ventila- 
 tion must depend neither on doors nor windows, but must be 
 a gradual constant change of air from other sources. 1 846, 
 II. 86, 87. 
 
 It seems also a miserable economy of funds to build school- 
 rooms with floors of brick instead of boards. The children 
 coming through the wet mud of winter, sitting with their feet 
 on cold floors, suflfer sadly from chilblains. It is sometimes 
 urged as an excuse, that the floors of the cottages from which 
 they come are not of wood ; but at home the children are not 
 obliged to sit with wet feet in regular order, away from the 
 fire, nor is it of much importance whether or not they sit 
 quietly : also the abrasion of the bricks causes a great deal of 
 dirt and discomfort. In schools where the floors are not of 
 wood, persons in delicate health will have less comfort in 
 attending as visitors. Some teachers have also suff^ered much 
 from such an arrangement. 1847, I. 146. 
 
 The windows and doors of the school-room are still, in 
 many instances, the only means of introducing fresh air into it. 
 The natural consequence, almost necessary in cold weather, 
 is, that doors and windows remain closed, and the air which 
 the children breathe is in a state of great impurity. I have 
 found it diflicult to stay in schools in which the children have 
 been for some little time previous to my arrival. And, to say 
 the truth, the remedy in such cases is almost as bad as the 
 evil. The windows are opened, ** a thorough draught" is 
 obtained ; the boys* bare heads and the girls' uncovered 
 necks are exposed to it in all its freshness. Thence ensue 
 colds, catarrhs, and, it may be, the first seeds of consumption. 
 But, in such schools, this is an event which rarely occurs ; 
 the teachers, accustomed to the close, heated atmosphere, are 
 chilly and unable to bear the fresh air of heaven. It is curious, 
 as it is painful, to see to what an extent these unhealthy 
 feelings will sometimes carry them. At a school in Cumber- 
 land, on a bright, warm day in September, I found the doors and 
 windows closed ; a large, red fire in the grate ; the children — 
 eighteen heavy boys and two girls — almost melting under the 
 combined influence of fire and sun ; whilst the master seemed 
 perfectly unconscious of the temperature in which he lived, 
 with his coat buttoned up, a shawl round his throat, a thick 
 
VENTILATION 283 
 
 cloth cap on his head, and clogs over his shoes. In answer 
 to my question whether he did not feel the room very warm, 
 he said, **No/' that he was not very well. I have sometimes 
 seen the steam covering the windows, and perspiration 
 streaming down the children's faces, without (apparently) a 
 suspicion on the part of the teacher that the room was insuf- 
 ferably and unhealthily hot and close. In several cases I have 
 observed the air grates, recommended in your Lordships' 
 minutes, stopped up — *' because they let in too much air." It 
 is mischievously true that fresh air is often an unwelcome 
 visitant to the sedentary man, and that the schoolmaster, and 
 still more frequently the schoolmistress, exercise their autho- 
 rity to exclude it from the school. 1846, II. 87, 88. 
 
 I have found all the air- grates in a girls' school carefully 
 stopped up as early as the middle of September, and have not 
 unfrequently seen children, girls, and sometimes boys, "taken 
 poorly," as they call it, from the foulness of the atmosphere 
 which they were breathing. The teacher, in general, does 
 not know how much he is adding to his own labour by care- 
 lessness in this respect. The children become sleepy or listless, 
 and his own spirits, and sometimes temper, fail him, just 
 when he has most need of their full and healthy exercise. 
 1848, I. 191, 192. 
 
 In every case I have recommended the managers of schools 
 to put hoppers in the windows, to insert grated openings in the 
 floor or in the lower part of rooms, communicating with the 
 external air, and to have ventilators in the roof also. The 
 expense of these alterations is trifling, and they are indispen- 
 sable, when neglected in the first erection, to the health of 
 the children, and, consequently, to the efficiency of schools. 
 The school-rooms are very frequently ill constructed for 
 sound. I have spoken of this in the Report. The expedients 
 which have been suggested are simple and not expensive, 
 such as dividing the room into two or more compartments 
 by thick curtains, which on other accounts is highly desirable. 
 1845, II. 176, 177. 
 
 A want of ventilation will not be felt where there are, 
 besides windows turning on swivel hinges, at least two ample 
 openings to the external air close to the uppermost part of the 
 ceiling, at opposite ends of the room ; openings which, when 
 all the others are closed in winter, will alternately serve the 
 
284 SCHOOL BUILDINGS 
 
 purposes of a "downcast" and an ** upcast'* shaft, as the 
 miners would say, according to the direction of the wind. 
 The mere respiration of the children will constantly send a 
 portion of warm air to be emitted upward, and a stream of 
 carbonic acid gas to be swept up mechanically by the fire, so 
 as to compel the entrance of fresh supplies from the downcast 
 opening, or any other which may exist. Such is very com- 
 monly the successful ventilation of the existing school-rooms ; 
 but while the one small open fire suffices to perform its part 
 of the ventilation, it is quite insufficient to furnish an ample 
 supply of artificial heat during the winter. To obtain this, I 
 would recommend warm- water pipes round every school- room 
 as the most economical means of getting a moderate radiation 
 equally distributed throughout the whole space. This is a 
 means which occasions the least possible consumption of fuel ; 
 and, if sufficiently powerful in the first instance, may be regu- 
 lated without either danger, doubt, difficulty, or chance of 
 disorder, by the mere drawing of a damper. With the addition 
 of such warm- water apparatus and the provision of two proper 
 upward openings, there are few of the existing school-rooms, 
 which would not be perfect in regard to health and comfort, 
 except those which have no ceiling, under bare slates, and are 
 therefore, if low, both hot in summer and cold in winter 
 beyond power of remedy, without the interposition of some 
 kind of ceiling, which had better follow the form of the roof, 
 to avoid reverberation ; a very annoying accompaniment of 
 most of the flat ceilings. A want not so readily supplied is 
 that of more space for the exercise of the children, and appa- 
 ratus to help them to every variety of muscular exertion. 
 1847, II. 5. 
 
 The warming and ventilation of the rooms are usually 
 effected by a common stove near the centre of each, and by 
 the opening of the windows, according to the weather; 
 arrangements by which, in winter, many parts of such large 
 rooms must be left very cold, or the whole be made very close. 
 The masters, however, seldom complained ; and so little is 
 known of any system of supplying air at once fresh and warm, 
 and affecting a rapid change of it in an apartment, that the 
 existing arrangements reflect no discredit on any party. In- 
 deed the subject almost everywhere has occupied the anxious 
 attention of the several committees, who have frequently gone 
 
WARMING 285 
 
 to considerable expense in trying various methods with various 
 
 success. Seldom, however, does it prove so great as at 
 
 where the warming is by warm-water pipes, of about 2|- 
 inches in diameter, carried round the walls beneath the win- 
 dows which all have opening compartments ; and at the girls' 
 
 school in , where warmed air is now introduced, instead 
 
 of the radiation from the warm- water pipes. An occasional 
 defect is a want of attention to cleanliness, and, in some 
 instances, even to decency, in the offices ; a defect which 
 most probably escapes the attention of the committees, and 
 which needs only to be noticed to be remedied. Wherever it 
 occurs, it is a blot upon an institution which undertakes, as 
 much as possible, to improve the habits, as well as elevate 
 the minds of its numerous charge ; and attention to this 
 subject is particularly imperative vv^here all are crowded up 
 together in the narrow yards which alone can generally be 
 afforded to these schools. In some instances, the defects are 
 of arrangement ; but it must not be supposed that the par- 
 ticular cases which I have now to notice are types of any 
 class of schools, but merely exceptions, from the disgrace of 
 which the schools at large ought to be relieved. 1845, II. 
 439, 440. 
 
 In that squalor of the habitations of the poor, which here, 
 as everywhere else, is found to associate itself with a low 
 standard of morals, the school-house ought not thus to par- 
 take, but rather to stand out remarkable in the locality by 
 the neatness and order of everything connected with it. The 
 lesson the children thus learn silently, is not the least valuable 
 of those they receive at school. 1847, I. 170. 
 
 Description of Warming Apparatus at the School of 
 
 near Winchester. "Each school-room has been constructed 
 with an ordinary fire-place, measuring about 3 feet 6 inches 
 wide. The hearth, paved with tiles, is raised about 2 inches 
 above the floor- level, and extends into the room about 4y 
 inches. In the middle of the hearth an ash-pit has been dug, 
 about 15 inches deep, about the same long, and about 9 inches 
 wide ; it is covered with a moveable grating on which the fire is 
 made. The draught of the fire is supplied by a cold -air drain, 
 which enters the ash-pit from under the floor, and into which 
 there are three openings in diff'erent parts of the room ; so 
 that the air consumed in the fire is supplied from the room 
 
286 SCHOOL BUILDINGS 
 
 itself ; and to ensure this, as far as possible, the openings in 
 the floor are so placed as not to catch the current from either 
 of the doors to the chimney. — At the back and sides of the 
 fire, and close to the edge of the ash-pit, there are cast-iron 
 plates ; that at the back leans against the back of the chimney 
 with its upper edge let into the brickwork ; those at the sides 
 are about 2 feet high, and from their upper edge brickwork 
 is carried up till just above the chimney- opening, and there 
 arched over to the chimney sides ; also the opening between 
 the front edge of the side plates and the chimney sides is 
 filled in with brickwork. In this manner a hot-air chamber 
 is formed round the fire. The air is supplied to this chamber 
 from the outside of the building through a grating in the 
 back of the chimney at the level of the hearth. The air 
 admitted by this opening, is heated in its passage across the 
 iron plates and rises into the upper part of the chamber. 
 From thence it finds its way into the room through two 
 openings, one on each side of the fire-place, in the brickwork 
 filled in as mentioned above, or rather in an iron plate, which 
 to prevent the chimney smoking, from the fire lying low, 
 extends all across the fire-place to about 14 inches below the 
 upper edge of the chimney- opening. — The cost of construc- 
 tion would be about 3/. The cost of fuel about 30^. per 
 annum.* The following advantages appear to me to be 
 secured by this apparatus : — 1. The cheerful aspect and other 
 benefits arising from an open fire. 2. The continuous supply 
 of hot air, as from a stove. 3. The purity of this supply, it 
 being obtained from the open air. 4. The continuous draw- 
 ing off of the air of the school- room through the floor, instead 
 of its being allowed to escape through any openings in the 
 roof; by this means the least possible quantity of heat is lost, for 
 none but the lowest stratum of air and consequently the 
 coldest, is got rid of, while the purity of the general atmos- 
 phere is sufficiently secured by the fact, that to supply the 
 place of that which is thus drawn off, a constant current of 
 pure, heated air, is finding its way from the hot-air chamber 
 towards the upper part of the room.'' 1850, I. 38. 
 
 Great additional facilities are affbrded to teachers, both in 
 infant and juvenile schools, in every department of instruction, 
 
 *The price of coals in the winter is with us about 285. or 30s. per ton. We burn 
 coal and coke. 
 
APPURTENANCES 287 
 
 by the improved reading tablets, reading boxes, writing copies, 
 ruled and plain black boards, and other apparatus supplied at 
 a cheap rate, at the depots for the National Society, and by 
 Messrs. Parker, Roake and Varty, &c. The teachers in most 
 schools which are named with praise have availed themselves, 
 at least partially, of late improvements. The uses of the 
 black board are not yet fully developed, but there are few 
 masters who have not already found it a most efficient assistant 
 superseding the monitors, explaining words and sentences 
 more distinctly than they can do, and employing the children 
 with far less waste of time. 1846, I. 147, 148. 
 
 In some cases parallel desks have been erected by the aid 
 of your Lordships' grants, but even here the object which was 
 principally had in view in proposing that arrangement of desks 
 — the facility that it affords for oral instruction — appears 
 
 generally to have been lost sight of. * * In the 
 
 School, such a group of desks is assigned to every class. 
 1847, I. 157, 158. 
 
 The construction and use of the gallery is too often not 
 
 properly attended to. As its use is to enable the teacher to 
 have under inspection the whole of the children at one time, 
 the gallery should be so placed that she may see them at a 
 glance, without inconvenience, and that they may see her and 
 attend to her instructions. By constructing a gallery too high 
 and too long, with the ends coming down far behind the posi- 
 tion in which the teacher stands, or by making the seats too 
 elevated for the size of the children, these advantages are lost. 
 Thus some of the galleries are much too large for a teacher to 
 have command over, and others much too steep, and the steps 
 too high to accomodate the children properly. 1848, II. 127. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS. 
 
 IT must be observed that in London we not only lose 
 
 our children at a very early age, without any systematic 
 means, or indeed, for the most part, without any kind of 
 means of keeping up an intercourse with them after leaving 
 school, but that a fearfully large proportion of poor children 
 either do not enter our schools at all, or remain in them so 
 short a time, that any expectation of their receiving real 
 benefit from the instruction therein given must be a mere 
 illusion. It is true that so many schools have been established 
 in which instruction, if not entirely gratuitous, is attainable at 
 a trifling cost, that every parent who desires to secure the advan- 
 tages of education for his child may find one in most quarters 
 of London within a moderate distance ; but it is equally true 
 that thousands are either too indifferent, or too ignorant, or too 
 vicious, or too little able to command their children, ever to 
 avail themselves of the opportunity. One consequence of this 
 want of elementary education, whether we consider it as a 
 want of knowledge or of training, is admitted to be a frightful 
 increase of depravity among pauper children. At the late 
 Middlesex sessions it was stated by Mr. Serjeant Adams, that 
 no fewer than 500 children, between 7 and 12 years of age, 
 had been summarily convicted by the magistrates, within a com- 
 paratively short period, as reputed thieves. All the magis- 
 trates could do was to send these children to prison for six 
 weeks, or two months, and when the poor creatures came out 
 again they were compelled to follow their former pursuits, 
 because they were without any other means of obtaining 
 subsistence. 
 
 The causes of these great evils lie deep in our social system, 
 but we may briefly consider the means by which benevolent 
 persons hope that the effects may be obviated or mitigated ; 
 
REGULAR ATTENDANCE 289 
 
 and we may inquire how far those means are practicable, or 
 how far they are unobjectionable. There are many who would 
 enforce greater regularity of attendance by stringent regula- 
 tions, or by a mixed systems of rewards and punishments. 
 Now there cannot be much doubt that when the instruction 
 given in schools is of an attractive and practical character, 
 and when the schoolmaster possesses the confidence of the 
 parents, rules which require punctual and regular attendance 
 may in most places be enforced without injuring the school, 
 or diminishing the total number on the books. The children 
 of respectable mechanics, and of small shopkeepers, soon fill 
 up the gaps which are occasioned by the withdrawal of many, 
 who are thereby excluded from all opportunity of improve- 
 ment, should the nature of their employments, or the disorderly 
 habits of themselves, or their parents, make such regularity, 
 in point of fact, impracticable for them. But since one great 
 object of the Church and State in maintaining national schools 
 is to give the best possible education to the children of the 
 poorest classes, such a result will hardly be admitted to be 
 desirable ; and it appears scarcely justifiable to adopt these 
 means when there is only one national school accessible to 
 poor children in any district. When, however, the denseness 
 and mixed character of the population require such provision, 
 two schools, — the one under strict regulations, with a higher 
 course of instruction and superior arrangements, the other 
 carefully and skillfully conducted, but allowing considerable 
 latitude to the managers in framing and enforcing rules, — 
 may co-exist under the same general superintendence with 
 great reciprocal advantages. In some parishes of London this 
 
 provision is made It must also be acknovvdedged that some 
 
 schools, where great irregularities are overlooked, are found 
 to effect a considerable amount of real good, as may be seen 
 on referring to the special reports. Unless, therefore, there 
 be a second school where the child may be received, I should 
 nol be disposed to expel any for non-attendance, excepting 
 in cases where there is reason to hope that he and his parents 
 will be sufficiently affected by the punishment to seek for 
 re- admittance, and to correct the habit which led to his 
 dismissal. * * 
 
 We shall either continue to lose the boys at a very early 
 age, and send them forth but imperfectly prepared to discharge 
 
 BB. 
 
290 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 their duties, unless we can induce them to remain by furnishing 
 them with some industrial, and perhaps remunerating, em- 
 ployment in connexion with the schools. These remarks are, 
 of course, intended to apply to all large towns where similar 
 complaints are made. The schools in agricultural districts, 
 including some country towns, with some points of resem- 
 blance, have many striking peculiarities to distinguish them 
 from those which we have been considering. In the first place 
 we must remark, that in country places the girls are very dif- 
 ferently circumstanced from the boys. In some counties where 
 straw- plaiting or lace-making is general, as I pointed out in 
 my last report, the girls either are left without education, or 
 can give but little attention to any mental occupation. But 
 after allowing for these exceptions, we find that where a good 
 girls' school is established in the country, the results are, for 
 the most part, satisfactory and very promising. The girls 
 not only receive sound and valuable information, learn to read, 
 to write, and to make out accounts, but in many parishes they 
 remain at school to a sufficiently advanced age to induce us to 
 hope that the religious knowledge and moral habits inculcated 
 there will leave durable impressions upon their heart and 
 conduct. It is true that their attendance is generally far less 
 regular than we could desire with a view to their intellectual 
 improvement: and in some parts of the country, where they 
 are kept at field-labour for a large portion of the year, their 
 moral training appears to be seriously obstructed. There are 
 also many districts in which ver}?- insufficient provision has 
 been made for the instruction of girls. Still I frequently 
 meet with a large class of girls, between 12 and 15 years of 
 age, intelligent and well-behaved in those places especially, 
 where the clergyman's wife, or some other lady, has been able 
 to superintend their instruction. It should also be remarked 
 that, when such girls have ceased to attend the daily schools, 
 they continue, with few exceptions, to attend the Sunday 
 school, where they receive good religious instruction, and keep 
 up the habit of reading. With proper encouragement they 
 are also disposed to make use of the lending library, which 
 ought to be found in every parish, and on special occasions 
 they are also delighted to revisit the school to which they are 
 indebted for the greatest blessings. I am convinced that, 
 although there may be some years of doubt and trial before a 
 
COUNTRY SCHOOLS 291 
 
 ghi's school opened in an ignorant and neglected parish 
 become popular and successful, yet that with good teachers 
 and careful management it will rarely be found to fail. 
 
 The boys' schools in country villages are unfortunately, so 
 far as my opportunities of observation have extended, in an 
 incomparably worse condition. If the boy be placed at school 
 by some unusually thoughtful parent, or by the clergyman or 
 landlord, at the earliest age when he can receive instruction, 
 it is just possible that by the age of six or seven he may be 
 able to read a simple story, may repeat some prayers and 
 hymns, and, if the teacher be skilful and conscientious, may 
 be more or less imperfectly acquainted with the leading facts 
 and practical lessons of Holy Scripture. It is, however, far 
 more commonly the case that by that age he has only learned 
 to read easy monosyllables, with few symptoms of an awakened 
 intelligence. But at this age, just when the mind is beginning 
 to unfold itself, the child is wanted in the fields ; he is kept 
 out of doors in all kinds of weather from morning to night, 
 quite alone, and without any occupation but to walk about 
 and frighten away the crows. It will hardly be believed that 
 boys between six and eight years old, and sometimes even 
 younger, are kept in the fields for six or seven weeks together, 
 Sundays as well as week-days, for this purpose. In the 
 beginning of last severe winter, I heard of a child under six 
 years who remained seven weeks so employed, and on return- 
 ing home, fell ill and died. The parents are excused on the 
 ground that they are too poor to neglect any opportunity of 
 earning bread for their families ; and I would not hastily 
 impute blame to any individuals, but I can answer for the fact, 
 that when these little children come back to school after such 
 a period of watching, their disposition has undergone a sad 
 change ; their eyes have a furtive, wild, and startled glance ; 
 they seem almost to have forgotten how to speak, and months 
 elapse before they resume the cheerful and orderly habits 
 which children acquire under kind and judicious teachers. 
 But besides crow- keeping, as it is called, there are so many 
 kinds of agricultural labour in which children are employed, that 
 in Norfolk, and the adjoining counties, all the boys between 8 
 and 10, and not a few girls, are kept away from school at 
 least four months in the year. We may easily imagine the 
 inefficient condition of schools under such circumstances. 
 
292 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 Whatever instruction tliey receive must be given in those 
 short and broken interv^als of schooling to the boys of agricul- 
 tural labourers. * * I have every reason to believe that 
 
 it vv^ill be found that a very large proportion of country boys 
 have never been to any daily school ; that of those who have 
 that advantage, very few attend more than two-thirds of the 
 year, until they are between 9 and 10 years old; and that at 
 10 years of age, with scarcely an exception that cannot be 
 accounted for by special circumstances, they are finally with- 
 drawn from the day school ; happy if the combined influence 
 of the clergy and their masters induce them to continue 
 attendance at the Sunday-school. * * 
 
 Since the boys leave school so young, it is obviously im- 
 portant to begin their real education as early as possible. If 
 village schools continue to be educated upon the monitorial 
 system, which was never intended to apply to small schools, 
 1 have no hesitation in saying that nine- tenths of the boys 
 will leave without having acquired any knowledge lil^ely to 
 be of permanent benefit to them. Schools conducted upon a 
 mixed system, combining a lively and intelligent tone of 
 instruction, such as is found in good infant schools, with 
 somev/hat of the stricter discipline and closer attention required 
 in juvenile schools, produce, in many places, a marked im- 
 provement in the mind, manners, and disposition of young 
 boys. * * Mistresses trained at Norwich frequently show 
 great tact in managing such schools. * * 
 
 Many persons who have had sufficient opportunities of 
 watching the success of such an experiment, are of opinion 
 that in villages, as well as in towns, the only means of 
 arresting the progress of the evils before mentioned, and of 
 retaining the boys to a more mature age under the influence 
 of education, will be to give them instruction in the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil, and in the management of rural aflkirs, while 
 
 they are at school. * * Some clergymen have declared 
 
 that they intend, should it be found practicable, to assign an 
 allotment of land near the school-house to the master, to be 
 cultivated by him and the elder children. If this be carried 
 on with skill and care, the master keeping an accurate account 
 of the expenses, and taking great pains to procure useful 
 information, it may be expected that various beneficial effects 
 will result from the attempt. It will afford an excellent 
 
INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENTS 293 
 
 opportunity of introducing improvements in the cultivation of 
 allotments and cottage gardens ; and though I do not think 
 it probable that the pecuniary returns will be worth distribut- 
 ing among the boys, the employment will be equally interesting 
 and instructive to them, and much will be done to remove 
 the prejudices of the parents, and to convince them that we 
 Mre sincerely anxious in every way to promote the real practi- 
 cal improvement of their boys. 
 
 It has been stated above that young boys are employed in 
 the fields when they ought to be in the school, but we should 
 not forget that, on the other hand, boys between 10 and 14 
 or 16 years are out of employment, it may be at irregular 
 intervals, yet certainly altogether for no small portion of the 
 year. This is at present in most places felt as an unmixed 
 evil ; the streets are filled with rude awkward looking youths, 
 even while we find the village school emptied by the demand 
 for almost infant labourers. But it would seem that when 
 there is a good understanding between the school managers 
 and the employers of youths, this might be turned to the best 
 account, since during those months they might be receiving 
 very useful instruction, or at any rate keeping up what they 
 formerly learned. It may be objected that such youths are 
 generally their own masters, and not likely to prefer study to 
 idleness, or restraint to licence ; to which we can only answer, 
 first, that so far as the influence of their superiors extends, it 
 ought to be exerted to overcome such indisposition ; and, 
 secondly, that although they may not return to school volun- 
 tarily to act as monitors, much less to be subjected to boys 
 younger, and perhaps not much more advanced than them- 
 selves, yet that their feelings would probably be different if their 
 memory of school brought with it more pleasing associations, 
 and if they expected to receive in it useful and interesting 
 instruction. In Scotland we are told that the poverty of the 
 parents, and the demand for field labourers, compel them to 
 withdraw their boys from school during half the year at about 
 the same age when they are finally removed in England, but 
 that the remaining six months are almost universally passed 
 by the youths in completing and extending their education at 
 school. Wherever, therefore, there are competent teachers, 
 sufi^icient apparatus, and due provision for the maintenance 
 of discipline, it would clearly be advisable to invite the 
 
294 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 attendance of youths as often as they can be spared from 
 their work. I regret to say that I have had no sufficient 
 opportunities of observing the operation of evening schools, 
 which, under good management and a well-arranged system of 
 teaching, appear to be especially calculated to promote the 
 improvement of youths in those portions of the year, or of the 
 day, when they are at leisure. The experiment has, however, 
 been tried in many parishes of my district, and, as I am 
 informed, generally with success. 1846, I. 154 — 160. 
 
 There is also, my Lords, another subject which has 
 continually forced itself on my thoughts during my late 
 tour of inspection in the Northern district. In most of the 
 manufacturing, in many of the agricultural places, I observe 
 both frequent irregularity of attendance and great want of 
 punctuality in keeping the appointed hours at school. I find, 
 moreover, that in all the large towns there is a larger or 
 smaller class of children, of the very poor and the very profli- 
 gate, who never come at all into our national schools. The 
 reason given for their non-attendance is, that they have no 
 fitting clothes and no regular family meals, so that they can 
 be ready for school at its usual hour of opening. That this is 
 often a mere pretence, and not a valid excuse, there can be 
 little doubt ; yet it is probable that the number of those 
 parents is not small who would wish their children to avail 
 themselves of the education offered to them, if they were not, 
 as they conceive, excluded from it by poverty of dress and 
 inability of punctual attendance. It is evident that the wise 
 and necessary rules of our national schools cannot be altered 
 to meet these cases ; but it may admit of a question, and be 
 worthy of some consideration, whether in certain localities of 
 (to speak only of the northern district) Manchester, Liverpool, 
 Leeds, Newcastle, Rochdale, &c., &c., another order of 
 national schools might not beneficially be established — schools 
 in which little attention should be paid to wholeness or rag- 
 gedness of dress — in which the scholars might come during 
 certain hours without strict requirement of punctuality. Some- 
 thing like this prevails, not in theory but in practice, in some 
 of our schools, the rules of which are thus wilfully and con- 
 tinually broken. Thus a child learns at school one of the 
 worst lessons of its life — to think lightly of, and break heed- 
 lessly, the laws under which it is placed. But if there were 
 
HALF-DAY SCHOOLS 295 
 
 schools such as I have hinted at above, <^ regularly irregu- 
 lar," (if I may be allowed the expression,) this evil would 
 be avoided, and a class of children, now left without any 
 means whatever of instruction or education, might thus be 
 brought in some degree within their reach, and might 
 profit gradually by their influence. Nor need such be 
 called "Ragged Schools." This name seems to imply that 
 all who go there must needs be in tattered and untidy dress. 
 They might be called more pleasantly, and as truly, 
 "Half-day Schools," or "Second-National Schools." The 
 expenses attending their institution vt^ould not be great ; 
 they would be supported at small cost, andj^ independently 
 of their other benefits, would act most beneficially as filters 
 through which the stream of the most polluted humanity 
 should pass before it was poured into the broad reservoir 
 of our national schools. 1846, II. 175, 176. 
 
 The great body of the Ragged- schools are still simply 
 Sunda,y- schools, with a few week-day evening meetings ; and 
 whatever the imperfections of the organization and methods 
 employed by the voluntary teachers in them, the numbers who 
 thus give all that they have — their time, their labour, their 
 zeal, and sometimes even their health — to their Redeemer's 
 cause, are enabled to exercise an influence which, as in the 
 Sunday-schools generally, society, in its corporate capacity, 
 could only obstruct, misdirect, or destroy. All who can 
 should voluntarily contribute their mite to uphold the hands 
 of these voluntary teachers, who look for reward only from 
 above, but who, for that reason, claim all the more of Christian 
 sympathy. * "^ Let society do all that it can collectively 
 by legal forces, and the only result in education, as in the 
 relief of physical and pecuniary distress, will be, not to sub- 
 due, but to advance, the labours of private zeal beyond the 
 scope of such collective operations. * * It is a grievous 
 error to suppose that because the children are ragged the 
 institution should be ragged also. To bring such children 
 together in numbers on this principle is to do a direct and 
 serious injury to society. The "sympathy of numbers," if 
 there be not power to direct it to what is good, does but 
 fortify the evil. It is no mean power which is required to deal 
 with such materials ; and though a devoted Christian spirit 
 only can labour with any success in such an atmosphere, yet 
 
296 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 surely the labourer is worthy of his hire ; and if acquired tact 
 and skill be required anywhere, it is demanded in dealing in 
 numbers with the little vagrants assembled in a Ragged- school, 
 not divided among many teachers, as in the Sunday -schools, 
 but dependent upon one for every influence. Every proposal, 
 therefore, to form such assemblies, without placing them 
 under a qualified and therefore a fairly paid teacher, is one 
 to establish a dangerous moral nuisance, — a new class of 
 pauper schools, worse than those which disgrace our work- 
 houses, until your Lordships' efforts shall have produced some 
 serious influence upon them. How, then, are those who ought 
 to pay, to be restrained from taking possession of the Ragged 
 day-school, where it is good one ? Simply by the Committee, 
 aided by the teacher, and some system of visitation, of which 
 a city missionary will be part exercising a veto upon their 
 continuance in it, which would never be applied with the most 
 exact nicety, but yet with enough to accomplish the object 
 desired ; and the economy of \d. per week in the instruction 
 of a child is not temptation enough to any sane man, however 
 poor, to induce him to affect a misery not his own, at the same 
 that he can be made to tolerate the pity shown to the orphan, 
 the destitute and the child of the helpless and hopeless, nay, 
 even of the depraved. That there is such a class for whom pay- 
 schools, with their rules of personal neatness, are too high is a 
 humiliating fact, our recal to which we owe to the true-hearted 
 missionaries of the Ragged- schools . Schools to which children 
 may come for nothing in dirt and rags are essential to the 
 present state of society ; and these schools being for children 
 who live in holes, not in homes, should, besides exhibiting 
 every moral and intellectual power which a trained Christian 
 teacher can exert, have some means of cultivating domestic 
 habits and habits of industry. 1850, II. 296—298. 
 
 A walk through Bristol will leave upon the mind of any 
 one the indelible impression that no other city in England 
 contains the like proportion of the destitute classes contem- 
 plated by ragged schools, and the following account of that 
 which has made application to your Lordships, drawn up by 
 a member of its committee, is so much more instructive than 
 that which I had prepared, and describes so much more com- 
 pletely the views and prospects of its promoters, that 1 do not 
 hesitate to substitute it, and vouch for its correctness in every 
 
COMMENCEMENT 297 
 
 particular. 
 
 "Three years ago a small number of persons strongly moved 
 to make an attempt to do something for the crowded popula- 
 tion whose children infested Lewin's Mead and its neighbour- 
 hood, determined to make the attempt, as yet unheard of in 
 Bristol, to begin a ragged school . They had but a vague idea 
 what such a thing was to be, but as groups of ten or twenty 
 might constantly be seen playing about in the streets, they 
 thought that it would be best to open a little day-school for 
 them. A room was taken in one of the most respectable 
 houses. An individual was found who had received no 
 training as a schoolmaster, and but a defective education, but 
 who was possessed of untiring kindness and strong desire to 
 benefit his fellow- creatures, and to fulfil his duty to God, and 
 who, from his having been frequently engaged as a tem- 
 perance agent, was well acquainted with the habits of this 
 class, and with the means of exciting their attention and 
 influencing them. To realize in some degree the difficulties 
 to be overcome, it is necessary to be aware that the district 
 selected is surpassed in degradation only by the very worst 
 parts of the metropolis. The population principally consists 
 of the lowest Irish, whose adherence to the Catholic religion 
 makes them look with suspicion on every attempt to serve 
 them ; and, as it is to be expected where there is great 
 poverty, drunkenness prevails there to an extent inconceivable 
 to those removed from near acquaintance with those localities. 
 The children were often in rags, because their clothes were 
 pawned by their parents for drink, and they came starving to 
 school, or staid away, because the mother was in the public- 
 house. It was not then at first attempted to form any regular 
 plan, but to learn the nature of the materials that the master 
 had to work with, and to observe the eff'ects of the different 
 experiments which might be tried with the children prepara- 
 tory to a more organized effort if this should succeed. Suc- 
 cess was doubtful, for the attempt was quite a novel one then, 
 and it was quite uncertain whether, if it succeeded, funds 
 could be raised to carry it on. 
 
 "'Our little daj^-school continued up to Christmas vrith numbers varying from 
 20 to 40, and in this short time a sensible effect was produced in the neighbourhood, 
 which was remarkable for its disorderly character. The neighbours perceived the 
 streets quieter, and were astonished to see these wild beings so much under control 
 that he could march them two and two through the adjoining district. At first 
 when they followed their master to the temperance hall they were turned out, as 
 
298 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 likely to create a riot, so wild and disorderly was their appearance ; but after a few 
 months they might be seen making their way there in a regular body, three and 
 three, and their ragged dress and bare feet were no longer hindrances to their ad- 
 mission. A stiU more gratifying testimony to the good effects of the school was 
 aftbrded by the police, who remarked that Lewin's Mead was quieter, though they 
 were not aware of the cause of it. Those who were in the habit of frequently visit- 
 ing the school were greatly struck with the improved appearance and demeanour 
 of the children. On Sunday, at least, there was an effort to be as clean as possible, 
 and they were able to listen with some interest and self-appHcation to a Scripture 
 story. They aU showed great attachment to their master, who treated them as 
 beings possessed of minds and affections, and who made them feel that there were 
 those that cared for them. When a lady brought them, one Sunday morning, a 
 basket of flowers, which they viewed with great delight, and asked them who should 
 have the most beautiful one, ' Master,' was the universal cry ; and he gained this 
 love by the love he showed them. 
 
 *'The experiment having thus far succeeded, it was deter- 
 mined to try it on a more extended scale, and to add to it an 
 evening school for those whose occupation prevented them 
 from attending in the day. A large airy room was obtained 
 in a neighbouring street, which it was proposed to open both 
 by day and in the evening. 
 
 " 'No public means had been taken to make known the evening school, which it 
 was intended at once to commence. We had not the slightest idea whether it would 
 be known or sought after ; it was, therefore, no wonder if, as afterwards proved to 
 be the case, we went to work before we were prepared. On the second night there 
 was a scene of the greatest uproar. With 50 or 60 boys, about 30 girls and young 
 women had forced themselves into the room, notwithstanding the announcement 
 that girls would not be admitted. Some evidently came with the intention of 
 creating a disturbance, while others seemed desirous of learning. They were very 
 disorderly, and nothing but force could induce them to withdraw. The number of 
 boys continued increasing, many quite young men ; and on Sunday the scene was 
 extraordinary and painful ; the master was in dismay, and though at last he got 
 them into some degree of order by talking to them, when they went out the fighting 
 and screaming was terrible. It was quite necessary to obtain the aid of a policeman, 
 which was cheerfully and gratuitously given by the superintendent of police, who 
 seemed quite to feel the importance of the efforts which were being made. The 
 neighbours were all very indignant at the increase of noise and disorder created in 
 the street, and even insulted the friends of the school on their way to it. 
 
 ''Gratuitous assistance was afforded to the master by many 
 working men, who cheerfully did all they could. But willing- 
 ness to aid and a desire to do good were not sufficient to give 
 power to control these discordant elements, and it was some 
 time before anything like order could be introduced. The 
 novelty of the undertaking, a well-lighted room, and a good 
 fire, proved attractions to many who came solely to create 
 disorder. The numbers increased to 200, and those present 
 on one Sunday evening in February will not forget the dis- 
 tressing spectacle of a multitude of children and young persons, 
 of the most vicious appearance, from whom the attempt to 
 conclude the school with prayer, called forth only mockery 
 and disorder, and who appeared quite uncontrollable. It was 
 found necessary to restrict the numbers. The master perse- 
 
MORAL INFLUENCE 299 
 
 vered in his determination to use no force but that of love and 
 of moral influence : in a short time the control he obtained 
 was complete ; the word of command was instantly attended 
 to, and the classes were all steadily working under their 
 teachers. The office of the policeman was quite a sinecure, 
 and he was one day reported to the magistrate for neglect of 
 duty, in having been *two hours in the ragged school setting 
 copies to the boys/ 
 
 "But summer came, and with it the greater part of the 
 scholars left ; some went into the country, others preferred 
 the out-door attractions which the long evenings offered them ; 
 yet the school was kept open for the few who still desired to 
 learn. In the meantime the day-school did not proportionally 
 increase ; girls were admitted with the boys, and were taught 
 to sew, while the boys received instruction in tailoring ; but 
 there was not the improvement evident in them which had 
 been hoped. The master, who had shown so much power of 
 gaining the affections of the children, and of interesting them 
 to a certain point, had not been trained as a schoolmaster, 
 nor himself received much education, and was therefore unable 
 to impart it to others ; he found the office too arduous a one 
 to continue, and resigned. It was then determined to seek 
 for a master who had had full experience in the art of school- 
 keeping, and who united with this that devotion to the cause 
 of his fellow-beings which alone can strengthen any one to 
 carry on such a work. The managers of the school now felt 
 able to lay down, with some certainty of their correctness, 
 the general principles on which they would conduct the school ; 
 they saw from past experience that they might safely rely on 
 the power of moral force and the spirit of love in the conduct 
 of the school. *I will not deny,' their first master had said, 
 ' that while in our little room in Lewin's Mead, I was some- 
 times induced to use the cane, but I never did so without 
 regretting it, and I am resolved never to employ it again.' 
 They also felt convinced of what they had from the commence- 
 ment believed, that anything of the nature of bribery was 
 most undesirable ; they had seen that children would come 
 without their attendance being purchased, and they felt that 
 they should be doing an injury in many ways if they substituted 
 a low motive for the high one of which it was found that 
 these children were susceptible — a love of knowledge. Yet 
 
300 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 while strictly abstaining from alluring the children to school, 
 or even securing their regular attendance when there, by any 
 promise of reward or other inducement than the hope of the 
 pleasure and benefit to be derived from education, they gladly 
 availed themselves of any opportunity which presented itself, 
 and which their improved conduct rendered available, of 
 giving them innocent and instructive amusement, and thus 
 showing them the kindly feeling of their friends in a way 
 which they could understand. * * 
 
 '"Ride 3. The business of the school shall include the most common branches of 
 useful knowledge, instruction in some industrial occupation, and the inculcation 
 of cleanly and orderly habits. The routine shall be left to the discretion of the 
 master, subject to the approval of the committee. 
 
 " ' 4. 'No corporal punishment, or holding up to public shame or ridicule, shall be 
 made use of, but discipline must be maintained by the master's own lirmn ess, order, 
 and kindness . * * 
 
 "'7. The master shall make himself acquainted, as much as he is able, with the 
 parents and homes of the scholars, both as a means of greater influence and useful- 
 ness, and as a check upon the admission of those who might be otherwise taught. 
 
 " ' 8. K"o books or other publications shall be introduced into the school, or dis- 
 tributed to the scholars, which have not received the sanction of the committee. 
 
 "'9. No gifts shall be made to the scholars, at the school, unless under peculiar 
 circumstances and when sanctioned by the committee.' 
 
 "A master and mistress were fortunately found who united 
 great skill and experience in education, with an earnest desire 
 to carry out effectually the principles already stated, and to 
 sow^ some good seed in this neglected garden of the Lord. 
 They determined to employ in the day school the plan of 
 instruction which they had found efficacious in the higher 
 schools to which they had been accustomed ; to introduce 
 at once a kind but firm system of restraint and discipline ; 
 and to create, as it were, a public opinion among these children 
 in favour of cleanliness and order. They had a well-founded 
 faith in human nature, and the power of the good : and it 
 w^as astonishing to those who were familiar with the ordinary 
 appearance and deportment of these children, to observe the 
 change which a few weeks even produced in their habits and 
 conduct, from the good management and excellent infiuence 
 exercised over them. The children, in many cases, carried 
 home this influence to the parents, so that many who before 
 had been indifferent to their true welfare, began to make an 
 effort to send their little ones neatly to school. Teaching the 
 scholars, both boys and girls, to make arti^cles of clothing, had 
 been, from the commencement of the school, felt to be an 
 important object ; and though these were not given to them 
 until they had earned them by their work, or paid the cost of 
 
CLOTHING 301 
 
 the materials from their small savings, yet the system pursued 
 with them soon produced so great an effect on the general 
 appearance of the scholars, that inexperienced visitors gener- 
 ally imagined these could not be of the same class with the 
 neglected little ones whom they had just seen in the neigh- 
 bouringi streets, and have been surprised, after being struck with 
 the cjm^ii face and well-regulated deportment of some boys on 
 glancpig at his feet, to perceive that they were shoeless. * * 
 *\No effort was made to increase the number of the scholars, 
 ' or was it thought desirable that they should be more numer- 
 ous until they were brought completely under dicipHne. Yet 
 since the day school has been thoroughly established, it has 
 been continually increasing ; and, what is of more importance, 
 the regularity of attendance has been more satisfactory ; 
 indeed it may now be considered equal to tliat of the ordinary 
 schools. This regularity is much stimulated by a complete 
 system of registration, which is carried on in every depart- 
 ment of the school, and which not only is a valuable docu- 
 ment, affording much important information, but produces an 
 evident effect on the scholars. * * The boys who 
 were the earliest scholars in the little room still continued 
 attached to the school ; and though still requiring most 
 patient and watchful management, manifest progress far great- 
 er than could have been anticipated, and which excites the 
 strong desire that they could be entirely removed for a time 
 to some place of freedom from temptation. One boy, who 
 seemed the wildest and most uncontrollable, is now in a 
 respectable shop, and so subdued as hardly to be recognised ; 
 and C, formerly so disorderly and rough, has been able to 
 receive so satisfactory a character from his teacher, as to 
 obtain a good situation. * * 
 
 " * Of the moral improvement produced upon tlie objects of their solicitude, the 
 Committee desire to speak with hesitation and diffidence, but not without hope. 
 To the great Searcher of Hearts alone can be known the depths to which any seeds 
 of holiness and virtue they have attempted to sow may have taken root ; but when 
 from one to two hundred of the most destitute and most neglected children of this 
 large city are seen coming voluntarily and with considerable regularity to school — 
 exhibiting a great change for the better in the cleanliness of their persons, — 
 acquiring habits of neatness and industry by learning to make and repair their 
 clothes,— improving rapidly in reading, writing, figures, and general knowledge, — 
 manifesting increasing familiarity with the Scriptures, and interest in them,— and 
 exercising, in general, sufficient self-control to behave in an orderly manner, unawed 
 by the fear of punishment, — those who have watched this process trust they may 
 discard the fear that their labours and their prayers will be unblest in those higher 
 aims to which all education, whether secular or religious, should tend, — the training 
 of immortal beings for a future existence.'" 
 
302 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 "The children in this school may be divided into three 
 classes ; those who are mere vagrants, gaining their livelihood 
 by whatever means they can, honest or dishonest ; those who 
 huve settled homes, and whose parents profess to maintain 
 them, but whose education is utterly neglected, and who are left 
 entirely to their own guidance, owing to the misconduct, 
 generally drunkenness, of their parents (those in our school 
 are principally Irish) ; and those whose parents wish them to 
 be educated, but who, through their poverty (whether arising 
 as it commonly does, from vice, or from unavoidable circum- 
 stances), are unable either to pay for them at the British 
 schools, or even without payment to send them decently 
 clothed. When this poverty has taken hold of a family, it 
 generally produces that state of recklessness which benumbs 
 effort, and the children are left to themselves. All these 
 children would therefore be probably left without education 
 but for this school. The master visits the families of all the 
 children attending the day school. If he finds from inquiry 
 that they, are of a class for whom the school is not intended, 
 he advises them to apply elsewhere ; but it seldom happens 
 that parents of a superior class have wished to avail them- 
 selves of this. 
 
 "In very few cases do the parents take any pains to send 
 their children to school ; at any rate, not until after some ex- 
 perience of the advantages, moral and physical, derived from 
 their attendance leads then to co-operate with the master ; the 
 regularity of the children thus principally arises from the 
 happy moral influence exerted on them in the school. The 
 parents have, however, almost always cordially received the 
 visits of the master, and have expressed a desire for the educa- 
 tion of the children. A decided improvement has frequently 
 been observed in them, through the influence of their children ; 
 this has been particularly manifested in their increased effort 
 to send the children neat and clean to school. 
 
 "No bribery or inducement of any kind is held out to procure 
 the attendance of the children. No rewards are given, nor do 
 they receive even the clothes made in the industrial school 
 until they have earned them, or paid for the material from 
 their own savings. Visitors are requested not to make gifts 
 to them. The Committee gave permission for a temporary 
 exception to this rule, December, 1847, when many of the 
 
FEEDING 303 
 
 children were in such a state of evident starvation, frequently 
 coming to the school without having had any food, and 
 returning to the afternoon school without dinner, that the 
 master and mistress found it most painful to their feelings to 
 teach them, especially as they knew, by visiting the families, 
 that the parents could neither procure work, nor obtain parish 
 relief, being Irish. (The charter of Bristol, which differs in 
 this and other respects from the poor law of England, does 
 not give a settlement to an Irishman even with a residence of 
 20 years.) It was consequently permitted that, by private 
 subscriptions, a dinner should be given every day to the most 
 destitute on payment of a farthing each, the master privately 
 remitting this when he knew that even that could not be paid. 
 Last winter 30 were thus fed ; this winter 50 : the dinners 
 are discontinued in the spring, when work is more plentiful, 
 without any diminished attendance consequent on it. No 
 jealousy has been observed to be excited by these dinners in 
 those who do not share them, the ground of the selection 
 having been fully explained by the master. In a fortnight a 
 visible change has been observed in the appearance of many 
 of the children who have dined, thus proving their previous 
 deficiency of food. 
 
 ''Though the day school is thus frequented by children in 
 the very lowest state of poverty, and often of vice, yet they 
 will be children who would not otherwise be nominally gaining 
 their livelihood ; no child who has once begged, has ever to 
 my knowledge come to the school, though I have made 
 frequent attempts to induce such to come : mendicancy appears 
 to exercise so degrading an influence even on children, that 
 the spring of spiritual life is stopped. Many, however, who 
 have been only attendants at the evening school at first, have 
 sought admission into the day school when not in work, or 
 even abandoned their idle habits to attend it steadily. 
 
 "The master and mistress are able to exercise a degree of 
 steady influence over the children in the day school, which 
 cannot be attained in the evening school only. Small deposits 
 towards the purchase of clothes are often placed in their hands 
 by the children, and the firm but gentle exercise of a wise 
 authority, without any other punishment than temporary ex- 
 clusion from the school, united with an evident desire to 
 promote their welfare, has by degrees obtained their confidence 
 
304 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 and love. 
 
 "The evening school is frequented by more of the first class 
 above described than the day school, and the more respectable 
 of the parents, who are thankful to get their children into the 
 day school, fear to expose them to the evil they may derive 
 from bad associates at night. Some few attend both, but 
 altogether there is a wilder and more vicious class in the 
 evening. The various printed reports, &c., will give some 
 idea of the difficulties that have been encountered in bringing 
 these lawless beings into some degree of subordination, and 
 susceptibility of moral and intellectual influence. About 40 
 boys may be considered as tolerably regular attendants at the 
 school, and about 60 come quite irregularly. A change is 
 soon manifested in the regular attendants ; some who have 
 been in the school from its opening exhibit a degree of im- 
 provement in character, as well as of intellectual advancement, 
 that could not have been anticipated, and that amply rewards 
 their instructors. Those who are at first irregular and dis- 
 orderly often are gradually improved. About 40 girls attend, 
 and are taught in a diflferent part of the same room. They 
 are generally low in character, but superior in dress, &c., to 
 the boys. There is generally more difficulty in obtaining the 
 regular attendance of girls of low families than of boys. The 
 evening school is taught by gratuitous teachers, both male 
 and female. Monitors can seldom be employed ; the influence 
 of older persons is needed with these lawless beings. Some- 
 times the master is well supplied with help, but at other times 
 he is almost alone with the school. He commences with a 
 short lesson in singing ; then the teachers take the diflferent 
 classes to instruct in reading, writing, and ciphering ; and 
 the last half hour is usually spent by the master in reading 
 some instructive story, or, on Sundays, in giving a scripture 
 lesson . Lessons on geography and natural history, illustrated 
 by maps and specimens, are also occasionally given, and books 
 are lent to the most regular boys of the oldest class, and 
 much prized by them. 
 
 "A complete system of registration was commenced in 
 January, 1848, and continued through the year ; this was at 
 first attended with much difficulty, but is now carried on 
 more easily by the master. He feels it very beneficial in its 
 effects on the children, as well as affording valuable data. 
 
REGISTRATION 305 
 
 When a child has been absent from the school he is visited 
 by the master to ascertain the cause." 1850, II. 428 — 434. 
 
 Never deceive a boy — never threaten or promise without 
 performing — alv^ays believe what a boy says, and tell him 
 you put implicit confidence in his w^ord. * * 
 
 An excellent plan was adopted by the late chaplain, 
 
 with the view of keeping up some connexion between the 
 school and those children who had been provided with places, 
 vrhich we think deserving the highest praise and imitation in 
 all similar institutions. He sends yearly a circular to the 
 employers of all those who had left the school, requesting 
 specific answ^ers to a series of questions relative to the moral 
 condition and general behaviour of each child inquired about, 
 and also asking permission for them to be allowed to spend a 
 day at Norwood, where they are treated to a dinner and tea. 
 We happened accidentally to be present at the last meeting, 
 and there could not be a more pleasing sight than to witness 
 the happy greetings and inquiries between those who had 
 been already launched into the active duties of life, and their 
 former schoolmates who were still in the establishment. We 
 have perused some hundreds of the replies to the circular of 
 the chaplain, and they speak, with of course some exceptions, 
 in highly favourable terms of the conduct of the children 
 reported on. * * 
 
 It is peculiarly appropriate to pauper- children, so many of 
 whom are orphans and friendless, and are thus without those 
 incitements to virtue which originate in the fear or unwilling- 
 ness to offend parents, and a desire to preserve the good opinion 
 of those whom we love and venerate. The child who would 
 otherwise be thrown on the world to live unregarded and die 
 unlamented, finds at this most critical period of his life that 
 there is some one who cares for his well being — one w^hose 
 influence is likely to be the more strong, as it is linked with 
 the place where he has probably received his earliest impres- 
 sions of knowledge and religion. 1845, II. 387 — 391. 
 
 Extracts from the Report of the Poor Law Commissioners on 
 the Training of Pauper Children, 1841. Mr. Henry Green, 
 examined by Dr. Kay. * * Will you state the condition 
 of the children mentally and morally, at the period when you 
 first undertook the duties of your office ? — With the exception 
 of the children from one parish out of the seven, they had 
 
306 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 almost no learning ; a few of them could read and a still 
 smaller number of them could write. In the most populous 
 parish they lived together with very little superintendence. 
 The stronger tyrannized over the weaker to a frightful extent. 
 They had in almost all instances been mixed with the adult 
 paupers in the parochial workhouses : their language conse- 
 quently was very bad ; their manners exceedingly coarse and 
 " rude ; several of them had broken out at times from the work- 
 house, had become thieves, had been convicted, and then came 
 back to the workhouse ; they had contracted habits of petty 
 thieving generally, and lying and deceit. When the Union 
 was first formed, they robbed the relieving officer ; they borke 
 into his office, got his cash, took out his money, and made 
 their escape over a wall ; and there is a boy amongst us 
 now who at that time was the butt of the rest of the pauper- 
 boys. Their amusement was to open the window, and to 
 beat him till he jumped out and ran away. According to 
 their own reckoning, they had forced him by cruelty to abscond 
 from the workhouse 13 times. The children were quite reck- 
 less about the property of the house ; their forms, and bedding, 
 and utensils were all wantonly misused and destroyed. * * 
 
 Tell me what you did when these children were committed 
 to your charge ? — We spent a great deal of time in talking 
 about what had been their situations, their manners, what 
 they were accustomed to do, how they were accustomed to 
 act towards each other ; how people were accustomed to act 
 towards them, and they towards other people ; in getting 
 confidential accounts of their history, to see what they were 
 from their own accounts, and their manner of living and 
 behaving. I found it necessary to be very tender with them 
 at first, as, unless I thoroughly knew them, I perceived that 
 I could do nothing with them. It was not by repressing 
 outward demonstrations I could produce any effectual result. 
 This tenderness towards the boys themselves frequently placed 
 me in a false position with the other officers of the Union, 
 who were not to be expected to understand what was my 
 intention in adopting this mode of procedure. 
 
 By degrees, did you gain their confidence ? — I believe I was 
 admitted fully into their confidence upon all points. There 
 was not a misdemeanour that I could not wholly be acquainted 
 with upon inquiry. They found out that my object in know- 
 
CONFIDENCE 307 
 
 ing these matters was not to punish, but to help them to do 
 better, and consequently they soon came to me as a friend to 
 seek assistance. This mode of communicating with them 
 seemed to create great astonishment. The biggest thief 
 amongst them, the transported convict, was as candid as any 
 in the whole group ; and if he had remained, I rather think I 
 might have hopes of reclaiming him. As their characters 
 gradually improved, I was enabled to draw the line of duty 
 more rigidly, and to enforce stricter discipline, having always^ 
 the opinion of the school with me from the commencement. 
 Things that now would be conceded as perfectly correct 
 would have been at that time felt exceedingly arbitrary ; and 
 commanding them would have caused me to be classed in 
 their minds with the pauper- superintendents they previously 
 had. They had been treated with great caprice on many 
 occasions by those to whose charge they were committed, but 
 there was certainly a great deal to try the temper of the per- 
 sons who had had the previous management of them. As 
 we proceeded in establishing entirely new relations between 
 the children and myself, the Board of Guardians found it 
 necessary to prevent any capricious interference with the 
 children on the part of any of the officers. * * 
 
 As respects the instruction of the school, were you able to 
 take advantage of those moral expedients to render that 
 instruction attractive, and to procure habits of application ? — 
 By first getting an opinion formed amongst them of the great 
 importance of the various matters I proposed to give them, 
 and not being anxious to have immediate application without 
 this conviction in their minds, I found that ultimately we 
 made more progress, and that they became very assiduous 
 indeed in striving to obtain knowledge ; and they soon showed 
 a capability of acquiring more school learning than was neces- 
 sary with their prospects in life. They speedily developed 
 a necessity for some employment in industry to accompany 
 the moral and technical school training. * * 
 
 Mr. Green was desirous to add the following written state- 
 ment to his evidence : — * * 
 
 Previously to the formation of the Union, the majority of 
 the children had been kept in the workhouses of their respective 
 parishes, under the superintendence of some of the adult 
 paupers, subjected to alternations of neglect, and of capricious 
 
308 BAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 surv^eillance and restraint, and with, for the most part, the 
 very bad example of the adult paupers constantly before them. 
 
 Upon the formation of the Union, one of the earliest sub- 
 jects considered by the guardians was the adoption of some 
 more rational arrangement for the training of the children. 
 They collected them all together (temporarily) into one of the 
 w^orkhouses of the Union; fitting up an outbuilding as a 
 school-room for the boys, and a room in the house for the 
 girls, and appointing a paid schoolmaster and schoolmistress ; 
 forming also a school committee to secure the carrying out of 
 the intentions of the Board. 
 
 Upon my entering on the duties of schoolmaster, I found 
 the natural consequences of the kind of training I have alluded 
 to in full operation. The stronger boys were, for the most 
 part, determined ruffians, many of them confirmed thieves, 
 some of them having been convicted and punished ; and 
 nearly all, both strong and weak, addicted to lying and all 
 kinds of low cunning. The biggest boy among them had 
 just purchased a large clasp-knife, for the express purpose, as 
 he vowed among the boys, of ruling by the help of it ; and 
 truly, a few days after, I came in at nine in the morning and 
 found the school in a frightful confusion. He had, according 
 to his promise, drawn his knife, and upon a boy much younger 
 and weaker than himself, had wounded him in the head, and 
 had with difficulty been kept from doing him further mischief. 
 With my best efforts to awaken in him some compunctions of 
 conscience, I could obtain nothing but sullen silence, or 
 otherwise a justification of himself, on the ground that they 
 (the boys) all knew that he was of an ungovernable temper, 
 and that it was their business to study him and take care of 
 themselves. This too was much the cleverest and most 
 plausible boy in the school, being one of the very few who 
 had been able, from the limited amount of instruction received 
 in the workhouses, to learn to read. 
 
 With children whose feelings and whose sense of right and 
 wrong were so thoroughly perverted, who had been accustomed 
 to consider punishment as chiefly resiilting from the caprice 
 or impatience of those who had the irksome task of looking 
 after them, and who had no faith whatever in the existence of 
 a discipline and restraint conscientiously adopted for their 
 ultimate benefit ; — with children in such a condition, to 
 
DISCIPLINE 309 
 
 establish a mere external and compulsory discipline, a disci- 
 pline with which their convictions were not in accordance, 
 would have been to do very little indeed. It was of primary 
 importance to convince them that their well-being was the 
 object really sought, and that the means adopted were the 
 best calculated for that purpose ; to weaken in them also the 
 admiration for successful mischievous petty cunning, and to 
 bring out their hitherto dormant sympathies for the just and 
 true. To form, in short, a public opinion that should be in 
 accordance with the law, and thus render obedience to it 
 attainable. To gain their confidence, and to destroy the tacit 
 confederacy according to which they supported each other in 
 all cases against whatever power they were subject to, it was 
 necessary for a time to deal very leniently with numerous 
 irregularities, to attack at first only such cases as would allow 
 of a successful appeal at once to the general conscience, and 
 to wait, in many instances, for the enforcement of more rigid 
 notions of duty, till we had moral convictions more enlightened 
 and more firmly founded. Experience amply verified the 
 correctness of these notions. I had, almost from the first, 
 the entire confidence of the boys ; not a misdemeanor, grave 
 or slight, was at any time committed, of which I could not be 
 fully informed upon inquiry : and thus, by knowing intimately 
 the habits of thinking and feeling of the boys, be prepared 
 always to speak home to them, instead of beating the wind by 
 appealing to sentiments undeveloped in them, or to principles 
 and convictions not in accordance with those they had formed. 
 As by degrees I felt the confidence of the children in the 
 rectitude of the intentions towards them become firmer, and 
 perceived their sense of justice to develop itself, I was enabled 
 to draw closer the limits of the discipline adopted among 
 them. We have at this time got rid of the more rufi&anly 
 and corrupted boys whom I found among them at the com- 
 mencement, and have softened down the characters of the 
 remainder so far, that although we are still liable to the con- 
 tinual influx of perverted and wrongly- principled minds, they 
 are never in force enough to bear up against the public opinion 
 in the school, and collect no partisans. * * 
 
 '* Workhouse, Greenwich Union. 
 
 ''Honoured Sir, 
 
 **When I first came here, everything, as you are aware, 
 
310 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 was in a very deplorable state, and the children all but what 
 they ought to have been. The two sexes, however, presented 
 a complete contrast. The boys were in a state of the most 
 degrading subjection ; so much so, that no one durst move at 
 any time from one part of the school-room to another but on 
 tip- toe : nor speak, except in a whisper. To express a wish 
 was constructed into disaffection to the powers that were — to 
 utter a complaint, into open rebellion. How they felt towards 
 their superintendent in such circumstances and under such 
 treatment can be no hard matter to divine ; but whatever 
 their feelings were, they were effectually swept oiF by the 
 most unsparing use of the birch, applied in the most degrading 
 form. The only feeling I ever saw them express towards 
 their former superintendents was their hooting and hissing 
 the last of them upon his being removed to Woolwich work- 
 house ; and then, being free from bodily fear, so far as hissing 
 and hooting goes, they were unsparing in their execrations. 
 Previously they had conducted themselves as you would 
 expect of persons in perpetual fear of the inquisition, so that 
 it was not to be wondered at the only feeling in the boys* 
 minds was suspicion and hatred, and the only features of their 
 character, cowering meanness and unfathomable deceit, when 
 we reflect upon the descriptions of persons to whose care they 
 had been committed, and the treatment they experienced at 
 their hands. * * 
 
 "The change in the children's conduct, since the change 
 in their circumstances, though slow, has been, I am happy to 
 say, very great, both morally and intellectually. The boys 
 are now open in their manners and straightforward in their 
 dealings. They no longer persist in denying a fault to the 
 last moment. Deep blushes and a spontaneous confession 
 tell better things of their hearts. They have made more 
 intellectual even than moral improvement. There are 100 
 and odd boys learning to write, and many of them write very 
 well. But the greatest moral change has been among the 
 girls ; they were worse than the boys when we came among 
 them, at least openly worse. But now they indeed surpass 
 the boys. I could multiply instances of the improvement in 
 their behaviour to their superiors, and in other respects. 
 Upon our first going among them, they, to a girl, combined 
 to disobey, to annoy us, and to conceal one another's faults ; 
 
PUNISHMENT 311 
 
 now all are submission, and emulous in their endeavours to 
 gain our confidence and esteem. The defaulter is generally 
 the informer, and at worst, makes a frank confession, and 
 instead of showing contempt as formerly, the severest punish- 
 ment we can inflict, except solitary confinement for some 
 obdurate ones, is to set them up in front of the gallery, tell 
 their fault, and exhort the rest not to follow their example. 
 The greatest reward, to mention the conduct of any one as 
 being worthy of imitation. I have seen them lately, when 
 reported for misconduct, shed tears more largely, though 
 aware no great punishment would be put upon them, than 
 they would for the severest punishment we could inflict. 
 1845, 11.400—411. 
 
 The present masters [of the School of Industry] 
 
 describe the moral state of the boys, when they first took the 
 management of them, as at a very low point. They were 
 obedient ; but their obedience had been inspired by frequent 
 and irregular corporal punishments inflicted by various persons 
 about the establishment, without due check. They were, 
 consequently, suspicious and deceitful. Many at first, the 
 head master states, were in the habit of endeavouring to 
 evade coming into school bj^ rubbing their eyes, in order to 
 create inflammation. Instances of lying and thieving from 
 each other are still frequent. Quarrelling and the use of 
 improper language were not uncommon, but are now checked. 
 When they were first taken out for a walk, so such suspicion 
 prevailed as to the treatment they were about to receive in 
 the new establishment, that 20 of them absconded. These 
 were precisely the same faults which were apparent at Nor- 
 wood when the new arrangements were first introduced there 
 in 1839. * * It is to be hoped that a similar improve- 
 ment in the tone of feeling and moral principle will by degrees 
 make itself visible here. A similar mode of management is 
 at work, a mild, yet firm discipline : a mode of instruction 
 which aims at opening their minds and influencing their 
 dispositions ; and a kind treatment, which induces a feeling 
 of confidence in their masters and in those set over them. 
 Their hearts and minds appear to be responding to this man- 
 agement ; they are becoming more frank and truthful, and 
 are already much more docile, being readily controlled with a 
 word or a sign. No angry threats are used towards them. 
 
312 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 and all punishments on the spur of the moment are forbidden. 
 Slight corporal punishments, if necessary, are administered 
 after the school has been dismissed by the master alone. All 
 instances of flogging will be entered in a book, according to 
 the regulations of the Commissioners. Every occurrence of 
 the day which may be made the subject of useful remark, is 
 commented upon by the head master after evening prayers. 
 1846, II. 279—282. 
 
 *'A11 will readily concede that it is most important that the 
 children should not be left to themselves during the hours of 
 recreation, and that some of the masters should be generally 
 amongst them. * * It is, moreover, much to be wished 
 that these poor and unfortunate children should be taught to 
 know and feel, that however dark and cheerless their lot may 
 be, they have a friend who sympathizes with them, and to 
 whom they can unbosom their hearts, and tell their sorrows, 
 trials, and temptations. But if we would have them in after- 
 life act upon these principles, and realize the blessedness of 
 spiritual advice and guidance, we must begin the training of 
 them whilst under our own immediate care. We must teach 
 them that we are their friends, who love them, and whose 
 whole heart's desire it is to do them good in every possible 
 sense of the word ; and to this end we must employ every 
 means by which we can gain confidence and win regard. 
 Now, however kind we, the chaplains, may be, when giving 
 our lessons, we can never persuade them that we are their 
 friends, unless we show that we are so in reality and in truth, 
 by mingling with them at other hours than those of mere 
 professional intercourse." 1846, II. 297, 298. 
 
 *'The word 'education' has been misunderstood, its original 
 meaning lost sight of, and its full and solemn import scarcely, 
 or ever, realized. Heretofore, those who could read and write, 
 and cast up accounts, deemed themselves fully competent to 
 undertake the office of schoolmasters ; and when children had 
 been taught these things, and that, too, in a strangely unsatis- 
 factory manner, they were sent forth into the world as fitted 
 for the stations they were to fill in after-life. Noble exceptions, 
 of course, there have been many, but I am now speaking of 
 general facts, and more especially schoolmasters for the child- 
 ren of the poor. Light, however, has been gradually breaking 
 in upon us, and at length a conviction has seized bold of men's 
 
HIGH STANDARD 313 
 
 minds that education is something far higher and holier than 
 this ; that it is, in a word, the formation of the moral and 
 religious character, the training and discipline of the heart, 
 and not the mere cultivation of the intellectual powers. As 
 these opinions have gained ground (and though the progress 
 of truth be slow, conquer it must) more correct and scriptural 
 views of the schoolmasters' office have obtained. Too high a 
 view cannot be taken. The making or marring of a nation is 
 in the hands of the instructors of the youth of the land." 
 
 Mr. Flower adverts to several other useful topics of reflexion, 
 and reminds them that " 'A holy life is the best teacher.' Your 
 example cannot be lost. It will have an influence we cannot 
 over- value. For if it be true that Christians at large are the 
 salt of the earth — lights of the world — with how much greater 
 intensity do these passages apply to you, seeing that your whole 
 time will be spent among these children, and your every action, 
 word, and look carefully watched and weighed by them. And 
 be well assured that, if there be not the closest possible agree- 
 ment between your principles and practise, it matters not how 
 skilful and indefatigable you are, all your labours will be as 
 water spilt upon the ground. Children are quick- sighted, 
 and will not be long in detecting hypocrisy, and discovering 
 inconsistency, however slight. Fix deeply in your minds 
 these noble statements of two wise men : * Your teaching can 
 take no deep root, unless you first practise what you teach.' 
 * Moral instructions have no weight nor influence, when they 
 are supported neither by clear principles nor good example.' 
 And remembering this, and acting thus, rest your souls with 
 trustful hope upon that most comfortable promise, 'Train up 
 a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will 
 not depart from it.' " * * 
 
 "You must prepare your minds to receive many under your 
 care who have become apt pupils of vice and immorality 
 before they arrive here; the off'spring, in many cases, of 
 parents steeped in ignorance, in misery, and perhaps in vice, 
 reduced by squalid poverty, and want of common necessaries, 
 to the lowest degradation. You must not, therefore, feel 
 surprised if they appear to lack many of the more refined 
 sympathies and aff^ections of more favoured humanity. Having 
 been daily practised in habits, and accustomed to scenes the 
 very reverse of what should be presented for their imitation. 
 
314 RAGGED AND PAUPER SCHOOLS 
 
 what wonder if they are neither virtuous nor moral ? Their 
 early associations have been of the worst kind, — their educa- 
 tors have been the youthful denizens, immature in age, but 
 mature in vice, of the wretched courts and alleys of their 
 birth-place. Should we judge them by the same standard we 
 should apply to those who have enjoyed from their earliest 
 years the advantage of the tenderest parental care and nurture, 
 and who have had but to imitate the example set them to 
 become wise and virtuous ? Should we not rather make every 
 possible allowance for the follies and vices of the unfortunate 
 beings I have described ? Should we not attempt their gradual 
 recovery and reformation by the most gentle means, and with 
 all patience and forbearance, ever remembering that, sunk and 
 vicious as they are, they are yet children of a common parent, 
 objects of the compassion and love of the Father of all ? * * 
 
 " In carrying out such views as those I have stated, I would 
 make every department of the Institution a separate training 
 school. The field, the garden, the stable, the farm yard, the 
 kitchen, the laundry, equally with the school-room and the 
 play- ground. In the unrestrained intercourse of the place of 
 recreation, and amid the daily labours of the workshop, the 
 watchful care of the trainer must detect, and kindly point out, 
 violations of the principles inculated in the Bible lesson of the 
 school ; enforcing the necessity for self-examination and 
 watchfulness. Every boy must be taught to make and mend 
 his own clothing, to do a little carpentry, to cultivate success- 
 fully a plot of ground, groom a horse, and rear a pig. His 
 body should be inured by athletic sports and exercises, as well 
 as by periodical labour proportioned to his strength, to the 
 life of toil which is to procure for him his daily bread. In 
 the intelletual department of the Institution, his judgment 
 should be formed, and his reasoning powers awakened and 
 expanded. * * 
 
 "The legitimate object of all punishment is the reformation 
 of the offender. That correction fails which does not accom- 
 plish this ; and I cannot help believing that there are few 
 cases where kind and conciliatory treatment would not be 
 more successful than an appeal to physical force. Some of 
 our children have been accustomed to no control, or have 
 been intimidated into something approaching to obedience by 
 violent measures. It is easy to see that these will not at first 
 
PUNISHMENT 
 
 315 
 
 appreciate the new principles on which they are treated ; they 
 will perhaps misunderstand your unwillingness to punish for 
 inability to do so, and will annoy you by repeated acts of 
 insubordination and insolence. This may, it is true, distress 
 and weary you in no slight degree, but yet my earnest advice 
 to you in such cases is this ; by all means maintain unruffled 
 serenity of temper, bear long their annoyances with perfect 
 coolness ; labour to impress them with the conviction that all 
 your restrictions and regulations are for the general good, 
 that disobedience to them would injuriously affect the welfare 
 of their little community ; above all, inculcating the true 
 principle of Christian obedience, that to rebel against those 
 set over us by Divine Providence, is to rebel against God. 
 By perseverence in such means as these, although you may 
 not so rapidly produce the state of discipline you desire, you 
 will succeed in obtaining, eventually, a sound and healthy 
 tone of feeling, the effect of which will be, a cheerful recog- 
 nition of your authority. * * 
 
 **In order to elevate the character of your children, you must 
 be much with them, must mingle your Ksympathies with theirs, 
 enter heartily into their little pains and pleasures, bear long 
 with the froward, gently chide the erring, kindly cheer the 
 weak, instilling by degrees, as opportunity may serve, correct 
 views and principles of action, and labouring incessantly to 
 produce a healthful habit of thought among them.*' 1846. II. 
 303—309." 
 
p. p. Carpenter, Oberlin Press, Warrington. ^ ft 
 
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