HOME LESSONS A TEST OF TEACHING.

251.

Rules of spelling. I have already referred to the next partto the rules for spelling; and it is unnecessary to add here more than that the rules should be thoroughly explained, and that the children should know fully why any word is an example, and why another is an exception.

The remaining portions of the book are very rarely taught, but, when taught, the proper plan may be collected from what I have already advanced.

Home lessons a test of teachers' excellence. In all home lessons the teachers should show by their manner, by their earnestness and zeal, that they look upon them as equally important with any other part of the day's duty. If they do not do this, the children and parents will soon grow as remiss as they are themselves. I know that there is great difficulty in carrying out these

lessons effectively; but I know that an intelligent painstaking teacher will always succeed, and, when he does succeed, I think there can be no better test of excellence.1

Record of answering. It is very useful to mark the character of each boy's answering, noting each miss and each correct reply. This is usually done on a slate specially ruled for the purpose, the entries being intrusted to the head boy of the class. Sometimes the other boys dissent from the marks recorded, and an unpleasant feeling is thus created. The following means of marking the results is found to give satisfaction to all :

Place a small box containing about a dozen iron wires of four inches in length at the head of the draft (the cheapest kind of knitting-needles cut in twos will answer admirably, or, when wires are not easily got, ordinary pen-holders and pencil-cases). The first boy, if he answers, takes one from the box; this he passes to the next who answers correctly, and the boy who receives the mark goes above all who have failed; in the same way, this boy passes the mark quietly to the next who answers, and so on. At the end of the first round of questions the last boy who has answered retains the mark, and the boys who have missed have passed down below him. All the pupils above him in the class have credit for the mark he holds. In the second round another mark is lifted at the head and passed as before. Suppose a boy who had answered in the first round missed in the second, he passes down below the boys who have made both answers, but takes the mark which circulated at the first round, when he comes to the end of those who are answering. Again, if the boys who missed the first round answer in the second, the mark representing the first is passed to the end. Children very soon come to understand this method in practice, and it goes on almost imperceptibly to the end of a subject; when those holding marks are requested to show, and each pupil takes credit for the number he holds in his hand, as well as all the marks below him.

For remarks on Home Lessons, see Min. of Council, 1845-6, vol. ii. p. 334; 1847-8, vol. ii. pp. 254, 369 and 374; 1848-9, vol. i. p. 130;

1851-2, p. 916; 1856-7, pp. 374, 537, 557, 644; 1857-8, pp. 519, 592 and 679; 1859-1860, pp. 30, 190, 195.

CHAPTER IX.

GENERAL HINTS.

1. Programme of proficiency for each class. There should be in every school a Programme of Proficiency for each Class. The following document (pp. 254, 255) will explain its nature.1 In it, reading is taken as a standard, as it is the only subject which all must learn, and do learn, from the first day of their attendance until the last. There are nine different degrees of efficiency, corresponding to nine different divisions of readers; and although in some subjects the progress expected is more than what is generally attained, yet it is not more than what I know to be possible, provided the methods of teaching are made use of which I have sketched out in the previous pages, and provided also that each subject is commenced at the proper time. It is only by beginning early that the true point of excellence will be reached.

Children of each class should know what is required from them. That part of this document which refers to any one class should be copied out neatly on a tablet, or painted on a board, and suspended in the draft space of the class to which it belongs. The children should know it as well as the teacher, for it is equally for the guidance of both. It should be the guide to direct the questions of the one, and the studies of the other. Many children object to be placed in certain classes, and to learn certain things; this document will show to them the grounds of their classification, and the exact amount of information which they must possess before they can seek for a higher position. They will, therefore, be more easily induced to devote their energies chiefly to the points in which they have not yet reached the defined standard, and to pay less attention to the others. It will thus not only make their progress more uniform, and check improper wishes for hasty promotion, but it will induce them to make stronger efforts for their advancement, while, at the same time, it will guide these efforts.

For other programmes, see Min. of Council, 1846-7, vol. ii. p. 232; 1852-3, p. 626; 1856-7, p. 529; and

also the programme of proficiency in use in all the National Schools of Ireland.

NOTE 1.-In each class the children must be expected to spell all the words of their reading-books both singly and in groups.

the Do. and ori

Bookkeeping, &c.

Do. with or- To analyse easy To know

dinary mar- sentences, and maps of all the ginal comketing and to parse fairly, continents, with position. shop trans- quoting rules of

actions.

syntax.

the text-book of
Great Britain

and Ireland.

To know the To parse and ana-To know local More diffi

rules of,

and to be

able to frame them, &c.

lyse well to
change from
poetry to prose,

and to para-
phrase, &c.

geography well, cult compo-
and to have a sition, with
fair knowledge letter writ-
of mathematical ing, forms
of address,
geography.

&c.

NOTE 2.-They must also be expected to give the meaning of the words and phrases in connection with the reading, as already explained.