No. 90.

PAPERS FOR THE SCHOOLMASTER.

AUGUST 1, 1858.

A Lecture

Read before the Worcestershire and before the Bath Associations of Schoolmasters, by Rev. C. H. Bromby, M.A.

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 104.)

The same remarks will apply to the study of grammar as a mental exercise. To speak generally, it should follow and not precede the subjects we have mentioned. Let my hearers observe that there is implied far too much the powers of classification, induction, and abstraction, to allow of its introduction at those earlier periods when these faculties have scarcely begun to be developed. Nevertheless the teacher who has studied the laws of mental science may be trusted with this subject of instruction by appealing to scarcely higher faculties than that of observation. As in arithmetic, he must be concrete in his teaching. He may enable his children in the second period of school-life to understand the function of a noun as the groundwork of the simplest proposition-the subject of the simplest thought. He should begin by selecting material objects such as the senses can apprehend, and such as the children can see. He may proceed to exercise them in classification by grouping nouns in columns, pointing out the variety of meaning corresponding with variety of termination. The adjective should follow, as the powers of perception will assist in regard of colour, size, shape, number This chalk is white. This marble is round. The church is large And even afterwards let me lay down the rule strongly that the teacher must neglect all references to inflexions, and all exceptions to general rules. He must keep himself, as it has been said, to the great broad road, and leave the lanes till the children know their country better.

Our subject would be imperfect if we did not apply its principles to the most important of all teaching, religious teachin

There is in this great work emphatically a right order and a wrong order of presenting religious truth. In matter and in manner we must remember the periods of child-life, both in our schools and in our families. If we would do more than crowd the memory with texts or dry abstractions, if we would awaken the consciousness of a new life, and as an instrument for this end, the consciousness of God's presence and of God's love, His power, His providence, His hatred of sin, His love of goodness,-then it is of the most supreme importance that we bear in mind all along the child's age, his mental capacity, his modes of thought. In other words, we must follow the example of the Great Teacher, sit at his feet, and see how He shewed to us of the Father. Now of His teaching I have to observe this twofold fact-first, that it was uniformly illustrative, and, secondly, that the illustrations were borrowed from only such objects as upon which the conceptions of his hearers were defined and distinct. We, too, must not mount higher in our illustrations than the distinct conceptions of our children. While they are still infants and learn through the outward senses, we must shew what God is from what He does. We point to the green fields, and the beautiful woods, and the blue sky, and shew His love. We listen to the storm and wind, and feel His power. In the Bible I would select the account of the Creation, the Deluge, and the scene at the Red Sea, as well as some of the simple miracles in the lives of David and Daniel in the Old Testament, and of our blessed Lord, to illustrate the power and the Providence of God. And if the successful master should acquaint himself with the natural laws which regulate the human mind, it is as essential that he should know and feel the Scripture testimonies to its corruption and alienation from God. But above all, during the first or perceptive period, for the reasons given all along, because then children are taught by observation, it is of highest importance that in your reverential way of dealing with sacred subjects, while engaged in lessons on Scripture, with an habitual and yet natural reference to those lessons in the daily life of the school, and vice versa, and, more than all, evincing in your own behaviour that constant sense of God's presence which is the alpha and omega of a child's religion, you should thus appeal to their observing powers.

I have not time to pursue the subject in detail with reference to the later periods. The same passages of Holy Scripture should be handled differently in different classes, and I would recommend that you should require your pupil teachers to prepare notes of lessons for different ages, requiring a marginal statement as to the particular faculty which would be appealed to in each division. If the subject were the Good Samaritan,-with the earliest stage I should make that parable simply teach a lesson upon kindness; with

a later age, when the conceptions of Jew and Gentile were defined in the mind, I should expect the teacher to show that the Jew was wrong in cherishing feelings of estrangement towards the Gentile; and again, at a later period, when the reasoning faculties were more developed, and the pupil could grasp inferences from the fact that Jesus does not make the Samaritan a debtor to the Jew, but the Jew to the Samaritan, I would draw out the harder lesson that every man is every man's neighbour. A lesson on the Prodigal Son, or on the Transfiguration, would embrace inferences very different to children of the third period from that which would be given at an earlier period.

If you enter a school which has been taught doctrinal truth through hard theological terms, you will find that however glib the replies to your questions may be, no clear conceptions have been obtained, and all is sound instead of meaning. Ask a child what is faith, and he will answer belief. And what do you mean by belief? I mean faith. Eut appeal to their imaginative and conceptive faculties; draw a picture of a sick man calling in the physician because he believes in him, e. trusts him, and drinking the prescribed draught because he knows it to be the proper remedy, and you leave the right idea that faith is trust-trust in a proper object.

I heard a lesson lately delivered before a similar Association on the Brazen Serpent, in John iii. I could not help criticizing it upon the principles laid down in this paper. It appealed to the power of imagination in aid of conception. If the children had been younger, and had no previous idea generally of a desert, and of this desert in particular and of the scene, the lesson might as well have been given to the wind. He therefore refreshed the boys' memories by first requiring the children to read the scene in Exodus, and then called in the aid of imagination to realize it. The great object of the lesson was to explain the meaning of faith-what it is,- -a sentiment, but a sentiment involving moral training; a feeling, but a feeling producing action. To have faith is to trust; to trust is to act. Το have faith in Christ is to come to Christ. When the prodigal believed in his father's compassion he arose and went to his father; and our Lord said "he that believeth shall never hunger, and he that cometh unto me shall never thirst," thus showing that believing and coming were convertible.

By a similar method, the meaning of the terms justification and sanctification may be brought out and made intelligible to the mind and consciousness of the young, but we have allowed ourselves no time to illustrate our meaning.

I have ventured to make these remarks to day, not because I thought that the subject was necessarily one which would prove the most interesting, nor because they are particularly seasonable at the present time, but because they are connected with principles insepa

rable from our common nature. A regard to them will save you from fatal errors in your mode of dealing with the tender intellect of a child. "By discreet appeals to their imagination you can add great impressiveness to those doctrines and precepts which tend to godliness; and you may guard them against some fatal errors. Results remain with God; but certainly His blessing may be expected with no small degree of confidence, upon such judicious, earnest, devout representations of the truth as it is in Jesus. May our teaching, my friends, be characterized alike by faithfulness to the written Word, and by suitableness to the minds we deal with, and then we may humbly expect that accompanying grace, through which alone the wisest educational efforts can succeed."

THE PRACTICABILITY OF PERIODICAL EXAMINATIONS IN NATIONAL SCHOOLS

My purpose is not so much to lay down any particular plan to be implicitly carried out in conducting school examinations, but rather to briefly suggest the main ideas, and to draw the attention of my brethren towards the subject in question, leaving to each the opportunity for carrying out the object according to his own particular arrangements, and answering to the particular circumstances under which he may be placed.

The practicability of conducting these examinations is an accomplished fact with any one who will devote the extra labour to their accomplishment.

I think they should happen, as ordinary examinations, once every fortnight, and as extra-ordinary ones, once a quarter.

Preliminary to making arrangements for these examinations a book should be carefully made containing courses of lessons by gradations for each class on all subjects; a copy of this is extracted for the use of each pupil-teacher, and a given quantity is settled upon and required to be worked up in the given time, the teachers understanding that their separate elases will be examined there

upon.

During the various times for working up, the master will, in the ordinary course of his duties, be able to assist both teachers and boys in preparing their work.

For a school of five classes the master might fix upon Friday as the day for examination: on the first and third Fridays per month he might take classes 1 and 2, and on the second and fourth Fridays classes 3, 4, and 5.

The

A mixed examination-oral and written-is best employed as saving time: home lessons may be embraced, and I would strongly urge the necessity of taking up some good portion of the time in publicly pointing out errors and excellencies to the class. quarterly examination returns would require perusal by the master and teachers after school-hours; lists of names should then be made out and posted.

Thus much for the boys. I will only state that I have found much good arising from the adoption of a similar plan with the pupil teachers.

An account is kept of the work gone over per day with each boy; the list of home lessons which are repeated is entered per day, as well as the various home exercises in the shape of questions to be worked. A strict examination on the same is then given per quarter, and is found a capital test of the progress and diligence of each pupil. Coupled with this, too, there is an oral examination per month, embracing most of those text-books committed to memory, as, Scripture Proofs of Church Catechism," Faith and Duty," "McLeod's Palestine," "Hughes's Colonics," Chronology, etc.

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Thus I have feebly endeavoured to point out the importance of the subject, and have hinted at the modus operandi. Trusting it may be useful, I have much pleasure in submitting it to the attention of my fellow-labourers.

Educational Intelligence.

L. W. P.

BATH DEANERY CHURCHI SCHOOLMASTERS' AND SCHOOLMISTRESSES' ASSOCIATION.

The second annual meeting of this Association was held at Tiverton, on Friday, June 25, when the members attended Divine Service in the Parish Church. The meeting as afterwards held in the Girls' Schoolroom, and was numerously attended by the members and friends of education from Bath and its neighbourhood. The Secretary read the report, from which it appears that the Association is steadily increasing in numbers and in usefulness. Papers have been read during the past year-by the Rev. G. Buckle, on "The Relations which ought to exist between the Schoolmaster and the Parents of the Children;" by W. McLeod, Esq., "On the Methods of Teaching Geography;" by Mr. Davies, on " Notation;" and by Mr. Wright, on "The Method of giving Religious Instruction in Schools." Lessons for criticism have also been given, by Mr. Humphreys, on "Mace and Nutmeg," and by Mr. Spary, on Grammar." A presentation of books has been received from the Rev. the Rural Dean, and Dexter's Cabinet of Objects has been purchased for the use of the members.

The report having been adopted, officers were elected for the following year, viz.,-President, Right Rev. Bishop Carr; Secretary, Mr. Dingle, Weston, near