and is done quicker-both great points in an examination. These are small matters, and may be by some considered unimportant, but neatness as well as accuracy should always be aimed at.

Geography. Do not be content with the class simply knowing a pretty full list of the capes, bays, mountains, rivers, &c., but take especial care that they know also their position, and can point them out, or name them when pointed to, on a blank map. A real knowledge of geography consists in having the shape of a country, with all its important physical and political features, printed on the mind. After physical facts are well known, political and industrial geography (agricultural, mining, and manufacturing) should have great attention paid to it. Chief towns and what they are noted for, seaports, health and pleasure resorts, should all be known. The why and the wherefore of everything should be explained. What is often a dry labour to both teacher and pupil thus becomes an intellectual pleasure-a training of the mind as well as of the memory. By examining the specimen questions given it will be seen "That nothing like learning by rote will be accepted as sufficient for a grant. Subjects taught to children by definition and verbal description, instead of by making them exercises of their own powers of observation, will be worthless as means of education." (Note at foot of Fourth Schedule.) It is by an intellectual knowledge of the district in which the school is situated, and of the rest of the county, that children can be taught to see the practical use of what they have to receive, as it were, by faith, and to understand what they cannot see by reasoning from the known to the unknown.

Standard IV.

Reading, Writing, Spelling.-As in the previous standards s0 now, these three will occupy a great deal of a teacher's time. "Practise and imitate" is the chief rule to be observed in teaching reading and writing. Spelling is quite as much a matter of the eye as of the ear and memory. Hence transcription should still be continued. One of the best exercises a class can have is to take a page of their reading-book and pick out every word (or 50 words) containing five, six, seven, &c., letters, write them neatly in their exercise books, and learn them. Question orally at end of lesson, and every word not spelt correctly to be done 40 times over, on slate, after school. Wonderful progress is made in this way. At the same time great attention should be paid to the writing. Never let it get small and "scratchy," as though a lad had been using a fine needle instead of a pen. Large, round, and upright, with short heads and tails, not too black, and good space between the words, will produce a style of writing which a youth may turn to the best account when he gets out into the world.

Composition, though not required for this standard, ought to have considerable practice. Read a short tale, fully explain the matter and meanings of the words; write on blackboard, in tabulated form, the chief facts, and then require the class to make, from this skeleton, a connected narrative. It is impossible to write composition without a store of material to work upon; and although you give the materials by reading and explaining a story, this is not enough for children who are just beginning to place their thoughts on paper. They want assistance in arranging the facts and placing them intelligently and intelligibly before you. Let them make short and complete sentences, use full stops, and of course capitals after them, freely. On examining each exercise read it to the class, and help it to correct bad grammar, clumsy expressions, or mistakes in facts. Show how a slight alteration in a phrase or sentence will often make an almost unintelligible passage "read like a book." A class taught thus makes rapid progress. It is a wise plan to limit the class to time in writing their composition exercise, and also to the number of lines or space to be occupied-not more than so-and-so, or less than so-and-so. Whilst most inspectors give what may be called an unlimited time for paper work, it is well to be prepared for having to do it in a hurry.

Arithmetic.-By no means limit the standard to the work specified in the Code. It requires very little more time and trouble to teach all the compound rules (both money and weights and measures), and by thus doing you insure thoroughness in the work to be examined upon. Long and square measure, on account of the 5 and 301, will require great attention, both in multiplication and division. After avoirdupois weight is thoroughly known, from addition to reduction, the rest becomes little more than a question of thorough grounding in the tables. To insure this requires frequent simultaneous repetition, varied by individual repetition from dull, careless, or idle lads. Five minutes every day, after assembling, and the same before dismissing, both morning and afternoon, devoted to the repetition, by the whole school, of some of the tables-multiplication, farthings, pence, shillings, pounds, weights and measures is all that is needed, and they should be said backwards as well as forwards.* Problems should be complex, and frequent use of the rules of reduction should be made in setting them, since the standard more often fails in properly working this rule, together with multiplication, than any other.

*Most of the tables given in Table-books are not full enough. See the ables at end of John Heywood's Complete Series of Home Lesson Books, by the author, Standard IV. Multiplication should also be repeated thus, so as to teach division at the same time: Twice one is two, twos in two, one; twice two are four, twos in four two, &c.

Grammar.-Every word should now be parsed fully, and any class able to do this well has received no mean mental training. The verb will be found to be the most difficult part of speech to get satisfactorily done. Children, too, forget what they have to say about each word, and the order in which it should come, whilst if they are asked for each particular separately they can readily give it. A parsing table placed before the class is a great help.* It insures nothing being forgotten, and in time becomes so familiar--so imprinted on the mind's-eye of the children—that it can be dispensed with. A definition of each part of speech, and its various subdivisions, should be well known, and may be learnt by constant repetition. It is a good plan to devote the last lesson on a Friday afternoon to the repetition of grammatical and geographical definitions, and the whole of the tables, by all the school.

Geography. Whether Standard IV. is taught separately, or with V. and VI., as one class, it is equally necessary that something more than a mere list of names be learnt. Position, and an intelligent knowledge of industrial as well as physical geography must be known, and whilst text-books are a great help in learning facts, the teacher's oral lessons must make these bare facts living realities. Map drawing should at least have one lesson per week. If maps are simply drawn on slate, the mere fact of having to look carefully at the map, before a single line can be made, is of great benefit. Lads should be encouraged to buy atlases, and study them at home, for nothing helps to give such an accurate knowledge of places as finding them out on the map. Hence, no geography lesson should ever be given or heard without a map, blank (if possible) or lettered, before the class.

History.-In History, as in Geography, a mere knowledge of dry facts is of little educational value. In every instance cause and effect should go together. A child, for instance, who knows and understands why the barons made John sign Magna Charta, and the results, immediate and in the future, which flowed from that signing, is really educated; whilst one who simply knows the fact, date, and place, and even all the chief provisions of the charter, is only instructed, and misses half the benefit which should flow from the knowledge of the event. Of course dry facts have to be masteredthe names, in order, with the dates of accession and death of each sovereign, their relationship, and the dates of at least one or two leading events in their reigns. The progress of the country, socially and intellectually—the origin and rise of Parliament-the growth of

*John Heywood's Parsing Table, arranged by A. Gardiner, size 60in, by 40in. 7s. 6d. The Penny Parsing and Analysis Table contains the same information, on a card 8in. by 6in.

power amongst the people-are all things children should know something about, and this is the kind of knowledge an inspector will appreciate.

Since several inspectors give history as a written examination the standard must be well practised in paper work. Two or three questions, to be answered in half an hour, will be a good test and get the children used to the work.

Standards V. and VI.

Little need be added as to what preparation should be made in these standards for the examination. Reading, writing, and spelling should, with lads of fair ability, no longer be a drudgery to the teacher. As far as my experience goes analysis* is much easier than parsing, and children taught to break up a piece of prose or poetry into sentences will soon be able to pick out the subject, predicate, completion or object, and extensions; and to resolve a complex sentence," as required by Standard VI., is simply carrying the process a little further. In composition it will still be advisable to frequently give help towards the "theme" or letter, by stating a few heads under which the subject is to be arranged, or a few facts to be mentioned. A teacher should ever remember "Ex nihilo nihil fit," and more especially is this the case in composition. In arithmetic children should always be taught how to make out their bills of parcels properly, and to stamp and receipt them. Postage stamps from old letters do well for this exercise. Such teaching is practical, and therefore of real use. Long division of decimals and circulators will require attention, and proportion sums involving the working ont of both vulgar and decimal fractions should often be given.

Repetition. This subject is frequently put off until about the end of the school year, and such an unbusiness-like plan of doing necessary work too often brings its own reward. If you do delay commencing, by no means begin later than four months before the examination is due. It is true a hundred lines may be learnt in a week, and frequently has been done, but to have such a thorough knowledge of text, words, meanings, and allusions as the Code requires, is a long and arduous work both for teacher and pupil. Let the class read the piece simultaneously several times, having its scope and drift explained each time, and paying great attention to the proper inflection of the voice. When a whole class can read the

*The class should use John Heywood's Analysis Table, arranged by A. Gardiner, size 60in. by 40in., 7s. 6d. The Penny Parsing Analysis Table contains the same information, on a card 8in. by 6in.

piece correctly with one voice, tone, and accent, following the teacher's example, then they may proceed to learn it by heart and say it, in short pieces, individually. After the lines are learnt, composition exercises on the subject matter are valuable aids to getting a thorough and exact knowledge of the piece-and frequent parsing, paraphrasing, and analysis lessons should be given from it. The learning and repetition of so many lines of standard poetry has several uses and objects: (1) To strengthen the memory; (2) To store the mind with good and beautiful thoughts and language; (3) To teach a good style of delivery, and thus be a great assistance to reading aloud; (4) To be a vehicle by means of which a teacher may give a great deal of instruction in the English language. The derivation and meanings of words, word-building, a practical application of the rules of grammar, will all have attention from a good teacher, and be a material help and assistance in teaching composition. It would have been impossible for the Council Office to have put into the hands of tutors a more powerful instrument for teaching children "how to speak and write the English language properly," as the old grammars used to say. But whilst 75 or 100 lines is too small a quantity to furnish a year's work, it does not preclude a teacher from taking a specified course during the year, of which part shall be specially prepared for H.M. Inspector. I would strongly urge teachers to try the effect of a year's thorough good work in English Literature, and I am convinced that ample repayment will be found in the greatly improved knowledge of words, their meanings, powers, and uses, the better style of composition, and the more practical acquaintance with grammar, as it applies to our everyday speaking and writing. The vocabulary of children, and especially children of the poorer classes, is exceedingly limited. Hence the failure to understand and appreciate what is read, and the inability to express clearly on paper what the mind may even thoroughly understand.

To sum up these few hints on preparation for examination which to many experienced teachers may appear almost childish, but which I trust may be of some use to younger teachers, who, having a standard given them to prepare for the annual examination, are really in earnest and wishful to do their best-I would say, map out the year's work into specified portions, to be done in stated times, and examine thoroughly on each portion when done; remember a test-examination is of no use unless it is thorough, and in the style children may expect to have at the final examination; vary your questions as much as possible, so that an unusual manner of requiring work to be done on the examination-day may not disconcert the children; and above all, let whatever is attempted be done thoroughly.

B