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PREPARATION FOR THE PREPARATORY SCHOOL.

It is not proposed in the limits of a short article to cover the wide field of the moral, mental, and physical education of young children, but rather, with a view to the much-desired continuity of education, to show how the mental training of the child destined to go to a Preparatory School may be best harmonised with the existing conditions of those schools. It is not intended, however, and it is necessary to say this at the outset, to set up the mental training of the Preparatory Schools as an ideal education for the young boy. In the opinion of many competent judges it is too exclusively linguistic and mathematical, and takes little account of other important sides of education. Into the reasons for this it is unnecessary to enter here; it is enough to say that any wise system of home education will aim at supplying these deficiencies to some extent.

It will be best to fix the limit of home training at nine years, and this for many reasons. On the one hand, few boys are sufficiently independent in their habits to leave home before this age, nor is it desirable that they should be removed earlier from the immediate influence of the mother; on the other, it is highly important that a boy's education should be broken by as few changes as possible, and that the second stage, from nine to fourteen, should be at one school and under one system of teaching. Now the forms of a Preparatory School are invariably graduated on a Latin standard, and the course of teaching is made continuous from beginning to end. In many schools it is found advisable to have a beginners' class for boys who have been insufficiently prepared in elementary subjects; but the well-prepared boy of nine can take his place in the lowest Latin form to begin the language then, and with five years before him can, if he be of average ability, secure sufficient time in the highest form to ensure a good position in any Public School Entrance Examination, or, if he be a clever boy, to win an Entrance Scholarship.

It rarely happens that an older boy is able to qualify for a higher form, and if he does, he labours under the disadvantages of a change of teachers and probably a change of text-book and system. It has been shown by recent statistics that the actual age of entry is on an average rather over nine and a half. Boys enter from eight to eleven, roughly speaking; that is, some exceptionally independent or less amenable to petticoat-government come earlier, others come later, either because they have been kept at home for reasons of health, or because parents prefer a preliminary

breaking in at a day school or at one of the pretty numerous boarding schools for little boys which are conducted by ladies. There are not a few excellent Preparatory Schools which receive day boys, and where such a school is available nothing can be better than this combination of home training with the wholesome influence of corporate school life-a system, moreover, by which continuous education may be secured from a very early age till the boy goes to his Public School; but these advantages are not to be had in country districts, while in great towns such schools are often hampered by the difficulty of securing open spaces for playgrounds and providing for the organised school games which are so important a factor in a boy's education.

The question then for our consideration is this, "How may a young boy be best educated up to the age of nine for his school career?" The first and last essential is that he should be interested in what he learns, and should be put in the way of acquiring good mental habits and good methods of work. What he has learnt is of no importance whatever, compared with how he has learnt it. The interest that a boy takes in his work is very little affected by the nature of the task before him, but is always in exact proportion to the power of achievement which is awakened within him by clear, judicious and stimulating teaching. He must be taught from the first to aim at a high standard of thoroughness and accuracy and a habit of concentrating his attention on the work in hand. Nothing is more useful to a boy, when he goes to school and takes his place in a class of eight or ten boys, than the power of thoroughly mastering a given piece of work in a given time. Every lesson should therefore be short and should be required to be known perfectly within a reasonable time. If the child cannot do it, shorten the lesson rather than extend the time. It must be confessed that these general principles, sufficiently obvious to an experienced teacher, are too often neglected in home training. The position of a governess in a private family is one of much difficulty and claims our fullest sympathy. Unless the heads of the family are persons of exceptional knowledge and discrimination in educational matters, the temptation may be overpowering to push on as fast as possible and show by results' that the pupil is getting on, that is, is doing more advanced work. From this springs a whole crop of evils, especially in the case of the less quick-witted children, difficulties are skimmed over, the teacher following the line of least resistance; to save friction injudicious help is given, the boy learns no standard of thoroughness or accuracy, and loses interest, because he loses (or has never gained) that sense of power which enlivens the dullest subject and is the mainspring of mental progress. To the Preparatory School is left the heaviest of all heavy tasks-the unteaching of bad methods and bad mental habits. I am putting an extreme case to illustrate a tendency and a danger. I am far from suggesting that this is confined to home teaching or to lady teachers. The same tendency may be observed in University men who are learning their work in Preparatory Schools, but it is more quickly corrected in the organised system of

a school where the teacher profits by the experience of his colleagues and the frequent examination and criticism of his work. The true remedy is only to be found in the frank recognition of the fact that the teaching of the young is a difficult art, demanding patient study as well as natural gifts, on which no one should be permitted to embark without careful preliminary training. This truth is far from being generally accepted by the headmasters of either Public or Preparatory Schools, who share between them the responsibility for the education of young boys. In the sphere of home education much good work has been done in this direction by the Parents' National Educational Union, which at its House of Education at Ambleside is turning out a supply of welltrained governesses; and it is only fair to admit that women teachers have hitherto shown a far greater appreciation than men of the value of training, and far greater readiness to avail themselves of opportunities of obtaining it.

Until

It remains to be said that besides having learnt good methods and habits of work, but little equipment in actual knowledge is necessary for a boy entering a Preparatory School at nine years of age. It is necessary that he should have learned to read fluently, to spell easy words correctly, and to write with fair ease. these difficulties are surmounted, progress in other subjects can only be very slow. In arithmetic it is well that he should have acquired real facility in the working of the four simple rules both orally and on paper; experience shows that the boys who have once gained this facility have little trouble with more advanced work. In view of the fact that these boys are to get their main grammatical training from Latin (and perhaps Greek) it is not necessary or desirable to attempt more English Grammar than the elementary principles which serve as an introduction to the study of all languages, and which are most easily learnt in English. These principles will be (1), the meanings of the parts of speech and the parsing of English words; (2), the construction and analysis of the simple sentence. With this foundation a boy may, if he have time and opportunity, begin Latin, and it will be to his advantage to have learned by heart the conjugation of the Regular Verbs and the declension of Substantives and Adjectives. Unless skilled teaching is available it would be better not to proceed further than this. The time for beginning French will depend much on opportunity. The young boy will hardly be able to give much time to both French and Latin in addition to other necessary subjects. He should, therefore, give more time to French or to Latin, according as in the one or in the other the better teaching may be available. In teaching French, pronunciation should be carefully studied from the outset the pupil must have regular drill in the commoner of those sounds which do not come naturally to an English mouth. Very easy reading, learning very easy poetry by heart, and, if possible, conversation, are more useful to the beginner than grammar rules. The French learnt from French nurses is not, as a rule, worth much, The teacher must be an educated person with a good knowledge of both English and French.

Considering the predominant part that is played by memory during these early years, great care should be taken to insist on the intelligent use of it. No lesson should be given to be learnt by heart until it has been thoroughly explained and understood. Among the best exercises are the learning of easy English poetry and the oral (or written) reproduction of a story that has been told on the preceding day.

It will be seen that the actual amount of knowledge required for a boy entering a Preparatory School at nine years old is not large, and that his fitness will depend rather on careful training in good methods. Nothing has been said so far, of the training of hand and eye, but this is a most essential part of early education, and the more so, for the very reason that it is lamentably neglected in Public and Preparatory Schools. It must not be forgotten that the curriculum of the Preparatory Schools cannot claim to be ideal. It is imposed upon them from above by the Public Schools and is dominated and vitiated by the system of Public School Entrance Scholarships, which are still given, not to the best educated boys (taking education to mean the harmonious development of all the faculties), but to those who at the age of fourteen reach the highest standard in the Classical Languages and Mathematics. This tends to undue specialisation in the subjects thus rewarded, and consequently to the elimination of others hardly less important. Among these is drawing, which, if it finds a place at all in the Preparatory School, is seldom represented by more than one hour a week. The importance of manual training is fully recognised by the Parents' National Educational Uuion, and generally by such schools for young children as understand and follow Froebel's principles. There are many spurious Kindergartens, but the writer has found nowhere better material to work upon than the product of the true Kindergarten which is distinguished by its careful attention to the formation of character and habit, the harmonious development of all faculties, and the power of awakening interest and intelligence.

The time-tables of two schools are appended, both of which the writer has reason to know have been eminently successful in the work they profess to do. School A is a Kindergarten, pure and simple, differing from the German model only in beginning to teach reading at an earlier stage. School B is on much the same lines, but carries on the work with an upper form to the age of eleven. As we have taken nine as our age limit, only the two lower forms are given here.

E. D. MANSFIELD.

SCHOOL A (KINDERGARTEN).-Four to Seven Years (Boys and Girls), 12 hrs. 30 mins. per week.

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12.

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Thursday.

Hymn and Prayer
Scripture Stories

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Set A, Sewing
Sets B & C, Reading
Set A, Reading
Sets B & C, Sewing
Recreation in Garden
Set A, Dictation
Sets B & C, Writing

K.G. Games

Object Lesson

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