Education; its That which we term the fourth period of School-life, commences about the age of ten or eleven years. "The tenth and eleven years" says Isaac Taylor, are the times when internal revolutions often take place, as well in the dispositions, as in the intellectual conformation. By internal changes, I mean such as seem to arise from occult causes, probably of a physical kind, and which are to be distinguished from modifications of the character plainly attributable to known external influences......It is about this time, if ever, that remarkable faculties, and those rare endowments which constitute genius if they have been latent during infancy and childhood, begin to make themselves perceptible........Again, this period is not unfrequently marked by a sort of thoughtfulness, or pensive tendency, to muse upon the conditions of human life. It is as if the mind, in reaching the first hillock on its journey, were halting a moment to ponder the landscape before it. Children of this age, constitute in ordinary cases, the first class of elementary schools; of which, in general, they form not more than one fifth-part. But though forming such a small fraction of his entire charge, they are frequently found to monopolize the chief portion of the teacher's time and labours. To such an extent is this the practice, that we have never yet met with a Queen's scholar who was not thoroughly indoctrinated with the notion that it should be so In all the answers to questions on organization which we receive, it is broadly stated that the first class is the teacher's class and should receive the greatest portion of his attention. This is wrong. Not to speak of the injustice to the other fourfifths of his school, who at least have equal claims, it is injurious to the children themselves. The teacher whose practice this describes, would do well to consider the design of all instruction. Is it not to lead children to depend on themselves and not on the exertions of others? Should it not be our ambition to send from our schools children, who, when all external aid and stimulus are withdrawn, will, of themselves, pursue those studies and that mental culture, which the school began? Instead of this, do not lads of greatest promise, when removed from the constant aid of the teacher, give up all intellectual pursuits, and sink into the habits of the masses? And from this may we not inter that the common practice does not realize its design? We think that a better plan would be to throw the children of the upper class as much as possible, in all the ordinary exercises of the school on their own resourses, only giving them such assistance and adopting such expedients as will secure constant progress and continuous labour. Let it not however be conceived, that we would leave them entirely alone. On the other hand, they require a special culture and if properly treated will demand the most strenuous intellectual labour on the part of the teachers. All those mental faculties which were the subjects of development in the other period must have now an invigorating culture. No power of the mind should be lost sight of, but suitable aliment should be provided for the nourishment of each. There should be such an employment of observation and experiment, as will leave the impression that one means of acquiring knowledge is in the constant and well-directed use of the senses. There should be such a search for facts amid the regions of nature and art as will store the mind with bright images. There should be such an investigation of the resemblances and differences which abound in the natural world, as will associate with such investigations thrilling feelings of delight, and there should be such a pursuit of the more abstract generalizations and natural laws as will call into exercise to some extent the power of abstraction. One aim of the Educator in all this, should be to form in the children, certain valuable intellectual habits, and amongst these we may name first that of patient investigation, without which no mental results of any worth can be secured. Another which should be fostered is that of indifference to drudgery. He should be accustomed to long, vigorous, and it may be irksome employment. He should be trained to look with scorn on the idea of shirking work, because it is distasteful. The business of life presents much irksome employment. In every situation there is labour exacted that is not at all desirable, yet must be done. For such employment school ought to prepare him, and it can only be done by exacting from him continuous labour, to the drudgery of which he is perfectly indifferent. He should also be encouraged and stimulated to the most strenuous exertions of his mind, on all the subjects which are brought before him. Such habits as these ought to be formed in all who remain in the elementary school to the period of boyhood. Another aim of the Educator in this period, and in fact as the result of his labours throughout school life, should be to send forth his children to the business of life with full minds. Let us not be misunderstood. We do not approve of the cramming system. We do not wish the minds of children to be filled with information drawn from books, repeated in rote style, whenever an opportunity for display presents itself, yet existing in their minds as a mere mass of verbiage, having no life-power in it. No! we want the mind to be full of the knowledge of things, imbibed during those processes of mental culture which we have endeavoured to mark out in these papers. The lessons given at this period should embrace such subjects as admit either of ocular demonstration, or of ready illustration. Such as practical proofs of the 47th proposition of the 1st book of Euclid. Finding the height of a church steeple or other building by means of a looking glass, working out the result by proportion; finding the height of a tree by comparing its shadow with the shadow of your walking stick; or drawing a meridian line by means of the shadow of your stick marked at a given period before and after mid-day. Lessons will answer their purpose better at this period if they are given in series, so that at the commencement of one you may revise those that have preceded it. A good winter's series might be based on the atmosphere and its phenomena. It might begin with lessons on its properties and their manifestations in the Pump, Barometer, Sucker, Pop-gun, Soap-bubble and Balloon. These to be followed by others on the atmosphere as a conductor of sound, as a reflector of light, and as a supporter of flame and life. Other atmospherical phenomena would follow, such as Evaporation, Dew, Clouds, Rain, Hail and Snow, while these would lead to lessons on Ice, Springs and Rivers. A summer's series might take up Light and luminous bodies-embracing Rays of light and their laws, Shadows, Reflection, Mirrors, Twilight, Transparent Media, Refraction, Rainbow, Colours. Why Sky is blue, &c. A more general course might embrace the following: I. Forms of Matter. Solids, Liquids and Aeroids; and how these may be changed. II. Properties of Matter including Attraction, Gravity and specific gravity. III. Motion including Inertia, Forces, Action and Reaction, Accelerated and Retarded Motion, Central Forces and the Pendulum. IV. Mechanics. (a). Work in overcoming gravity-Idea of Virtual Velocity and use of Machines. The Lever-transmission of Motion. (b). Work in overcoming friction and gravity. Machines adapted to this, Wheel, Pulley, Plane. (c). Work in overcoming Cohesion. Wedge. (d). Strength of Materials. In addition to such courses as these, such lessons as the following might be given in Natural History. Idea of Inorganic and Organic. Varieties of Vegetable Life. Parts of Plants and their use. Leaves and their use. Growth and Preservation of fruit. Preservation and Dissemination of seed. Varieties of Animal life. Animal growth, protection and power to obtain food. How form is preserved, motion secured, growth promoted. Adaptations to habits and localities in clothing. Adaptations to differences in food, &c. &c. Teachers may get great assistance in such subjects from Duncan's Philosophy of the Seasons, Ray's Wisdom of God in the Creation, Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History, Arnott's Elements of Physics, Comstock's Natural Philosophy, and the Natural Philosophy of the Scottish School Book Association. In concluding these observations on the intellectual culture which each period of school-life demands, we would urge on teachers, attention to the power of language as an instrument in mental culti-vation. The subject is too vast for us to enter upon here. Isaac Taylor in his admirable "Home Education" has devoted several pages to it with an ability which leads us to desire that he would pursue the subject, and thereby confer an invaluable boon on all Educators. All that we can now do is to urge teachers to obtain his book, and master all he has to say on words in relation to intellectual culture. The process of Mental Culture, cannot be pursued in lessons to a mixed gallery. If the results at which we aim be at all accomplished in the elementary school, it must be by lessons addressed to sections of the school, formed according to the different periods of schoollife. The mixed gallery system, that in which a lesson is addressed to all ages and states of mental development, is fatal to our whole scheme. To this system therefore we have strong objections amongst which might be urged; that it affords no opportunity for providing suitable aliment for every mind; it precludes the possibility of a teacher having any definite aim in his lessons; it requires an expenditure of energy in keeping up the semblance of attention without its reality which four distinct lessons to sections would not demand; it fosters habits of inattention and listlessness; it lowers the intellectual character of the entire school; and it drives the teachers to prepare sweetmeats to secure anything like attention, and thus fosters in the elder children a dislike to severer mental exercises. Even in Infant schools this mixed system seldom succeeds. "Another subject for consideration," says the Rev. H. W. Bellairs "is the present plan adopted in infant schools, of giving simultaneous instruction. My own impression is, that the difficulty of giving a simultaneous lesson to infants ranging from 1 to 7 years is so great, that the most efficient teachers rarely succeed in it. The elder children are kept back for the sake of the younger, and the younger lose the greater part of the instruction addressed to the elder. On this ground, I am disposed to think that every infant school should be arranged for gallery instruction, in two or three groups, with separate galleries for each." G. 66 Notes of a Lecture au Teaching Geography. In teaching geography you have specially to guard against making it merely a matter of memory-your efforts mere fact-teaching. Geography acquires its full value as a branch of education only when it loses the character of an accumulation of facts, undigested by the child's mind, but heaped up in his memory, linked by no association with the world of thought and of action which immediately surrounds it, or with that which is within it." It is true, the memory must be cultivated, but its culture may and should be aided by natural associations, comparisons, and inductive generalizations. When geography is taught in this way the circumstances of one country suggest those of another; and the latitude and general features of a district being given, the climate, productions, and habits of the people will be generally known. Associations of place with celebrated events, personages, circumstances, or physical features, even though the full particulars may not at the time be given, will yet rouse the intellectual appetite, curiosity; a result of considerable importance as likely to lead to some extra effort for its gratification. That your teaching may be really valuable, because permanent in its results, seek in every lesson to develope mental energy, and train it to skilful action; evolve general principles, rather than communicate individual and isolated facts. A little well taught in this will in the end yield large and profitable results. way, The approved course of geographical instruction is thus briefly described by Dr. Bache. "At the Orphan house at Halle, the geographical instruction, founded upon the method of Pestalozzi, proceeds strictly on inductive principles, end is an example of how much may be done by making the pupil proceed from the known to the unknown. The following was the course of recitation which I attended on the subject. The teacher drew first from the children their knowledge of the term body; then led them to define extension, dimension, &c., and thus furnished them with ideas of space. "Sun-rise and sun-set were used for establishing the position of the cardinal points, and that of the class-room was determined with reference to them. Then commencing with home, with a map of the city of Halle, they gave an account of its localities, and the history connected with them. Widening hence in circles, the natural and political features of the surrounding districts were described; always indicating the real direction of places. The pupil thus grasps every step of geographical knowledge; begins with his own house, rambles through his own town, makes excursions in its neighbourhood, sets out on his travels through his fatherland, visits |