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CORRESPONDENCE.

SIR,If the following method of giving a Dictation Lesson, is worth putting in your Periodical, you are quite at liberty to use it; I would add that I have found it very successful, and that it curtails the time generally used for the correction of mistakes; I would advise that the children be allowed to take home the book containing the next Dictation Lesson before that Lesson is given.

First a passage is given out as distinctly as possible (and the shorter it is the better) to the whole class, to write it on their slates; then follows another and another until sufficient is given out; when the whole class change their slates with each other i.e. No. 1 takes No. 2, and No. 2 takes No. 1. &c. Then the whole that has been given out is spelt word for word round the class exactly as it is on the slate which they have in their hands; if a word is spelt wrong the Master or Monitor tells the whole class that it is wrong, when the children put a mark thus - under that word; if a word is left out a mark thus | will come between the words where that word should come in; if a capital where there should not be one, a line is drawn through it; if there is no capital where there should be one, a mark thus under it. Thus the children are made to correct their fellow scholar's mistakes, and ultimately their own.

As soon as the whole lesson has been spelt through, they show slates; and at one glance the Master or Monitor can see the mistakes without taking each slate and finding out the errors which it contains. If I am not sufficiently understood by your correspondent I shall be glad to answer any questions through your valuable Periodical.

Maenturog School, Merionthshire.

W. P. WARNER.

SIR,-Seeing that your Periodical (which I have taken in from its commencement) is made a channel for correspondence, may I be permitted to send the following report for insertion, which I have no doubt will be serviceable to many "Pupil Teachers" in the first period of their apprenticeship, or to Masters with Pupil Teachers under their tuition, as it comes from one who has already passed that period.

SPECIMEN OF SCHOOL REPORT.

The school consists of a large room 50 ft. by 21 ft. adjoining, to which is a smaller one, called the Class Room, about 12 ft. square, in which there is a gallery. It has a very healthy situation, is pretty well ventilated, and surrounded by a Play Ground, in which are two poles, one for swinging, the other for Gymnastic Exercises. The boys at nine in the morning and two in the afternoon are assembled in lines in the Play Ground, unless prevented by the weather; and being orderly arranged, walk quietly in to the school, after which are prayers, singing, &c.

The average attendance of the boys is about 140 (the total No. on the books being 170) and they are divided into six classes. The first four do their work in parallel desks and are separated by curtains.

The school is conducted by a trained and certificated Master, assisted by four Pupil Teachers. The first class consists of 32 boys, and is generally taken by the Master, who at times takes the others. The second and third classes each contain 32; the fourth 30; and the fifth and sixth about 44, which are generally taken together by one of the Pupil Teachers. Scripture, Grammar and Geography, are taught to the first four classes;-English History to the first and second ;-Arithmetic, Reading and Writing to all.

To these particulars might be added many others respecting school management, books, apparatus, &c., if you should consider them worthy of insertion.

T. H., A PUPIL TEACHER.

SIR,-I was very much pleased and edified in reading the second article on "Education; its province and instruments," in the last number of your truly valuable Papers for the Schoolmaster; inasmuch as my own mind has lately been awakened to a livelier consideration of the subject from the perusal of the following passage in Archbishop Whateley's little book on English Synonyms.

"Education includes the whole course of moral and intellectual teaching. One who gives occasional lessons is not said to educate. To educate agreeably to its derivation from educo not in duco, includes the drawing out of the faculties, so as to teach the pupil, how to teach himself; which is one of the most valuable of arts. Moral training, considered by itself, is called teaching; its object is to enable us-not to know-but to do what is right, we see an example of this in Bishop Kenn's well known evening hymn,

"Teach me to live, that I may dread," &c.

I transcribe the passage, in the hope, that, should you deem it of sufficient importance, to appear in the next number of your paper, it may awaken a wish in the breasts of some of my fellow teachers to become indeed, Educators of the children committed to their

care.

Gloucester.

F. T.

SIR,-Being a subscriber to your excellent Papers, might I take the liberty to request through them a brief explanation of the different methods of teaching designated respectively by the terms-individual, class, simultaneous, and collective teaching. Öld Cleeve, Taunton.

A. C. KEEN.

SIR,-Would you, or one of your correspondents, favour me with the title of the work on Mental Science, most suitable for a schoolmaster's study.

E.

SIR,-Would one of your correspondents furnish me with some suggestions on the best mode of organization for a school of 80 children, very young, exceedingly irregular in attendance, with only one Pupil Teacher, and not one other capable of acting as MonitorI should be glad to be informed also which is the best historical and explanatory treatise on the Common Prayer Book.

Kingsbridge, N. S.

W. MILLER.

SIR,-Permit me to lay before you the following method of teaching Grammar which I have for some time past successfully pursued in my school, and which, should you think it likely to prove beneficial to my fellow labourers, I will thank you to insert, in your valuable "Papers for the Schoolmaster."

Having prepared two boards A. and B. the one blank, the other divided into sections numbered, &c., as under :

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I proceed to take some subject for consideration e. g. a portion of History, or an Object, and proceed to give a lesson upon it.

Perhaps I shall render my method of proceeding more clear by illustrating it with an example take for instance a shilling.

Teacher. Now, children, I have a piece of money, can you tell me what it is made of?" Child: "Silver." Teacher: "Now I will write the word silver on the board A. and you tell me to which of the classes in the board B. it belongs?" Child: "1." Teacher: "Why?" Child: "because it is the name of a thing and the names of all things are nouns." Teacher: Now children you have told me that silver is dug out of the earth and is therefore a-mineral. (Teacher to write it on board A. and remove it when told by children to B.) Teacher: Now children you must tell me some of its qualities. Child: "White, hard," &c. (These words to be written on board A. and removed to B. as before.) Teacher: Now children from what particular place do we obtain it? Child: A very little from the mines in Cornwall, from Austria, but the greater quantity from America. As soon as these answers are drawn out, take the words "obtain," "from," "very," and "but," and place them as before under their respective heads.

This being done write the subject Silver at the head of board A. and cause your pupils to dictate the lesson to you from board B. whilst you write it on A. and then proceed to parse it.

The following are the advantages which I expect the pupil to derive from the adoption of this system; first, a knowledge of the subject referred to; secondly, a practical knowledge of Grammar; and thirdly, assistance in that all important work-composition, by causing them to give in a connected form the detached portions which had before been drawn

from them.

Rowley Regis, N. S.

S.

GENERAL EXAMINATION OF TRAINING SCHOOLS,

ARITHMETIC.

CHRISTMAS, 1851.

SECT. I.-Work one of the following sums so that the reason of each step in the working may be apparent: 1. Multiply 4507 by 3006.

supposing them to work by the piece, and to divide their earnings equally?

3. A manufacturer having a capital of £5000, on which he can realize by hand labour 10 per cent profit, buys a

2. If 9 things cost £13, what will 48 machine for £1000, by which his profit cost at the same rate. ?

N.B. This sum is to be so worked as to be intelligible to children who have no knowledge of fractions.

3. What is the value of of of § of 6, and what decimalis 3s. 6d. of 8s. 9d. SECT. II.-1. How many pieces of cloth, 9 yd. 2 qr. 3 nl. long, can be cut out of a piece 52 yd. 1 qr. 1 nl. in length?

2. Find by the rule of practice the value of 227 qr. 3 bu. 2 pk. of wheat at 36s. 8d. per qr.

3. How many ounces of silver, at 5s. 6d. an ounce, are equivalent to 6 oz. 12 dwt. of gold at £3 17s. 101d. an ounce?

SECT. III.-1. The sun's diameter is 111-454 times the equatorial diameter of the earth, which is 7925.648 miles. Required the sun's diameter in miles. 2. Extract the square root of 7 to five places of decimals.

3. Extract the cube root of 517 to four places of decimals.

SECT. IV.-1. A shopkeeper who sells sugar which cost him £2000 in a year at a profit of 10 per cent., and tea which cost him £1000 at a profit of 20 per cent., finds at the beginning of the next year that he must reduce the profit on his tea 5 per cent. By how much per cent must he raise the price of his sugar to cover the loss, supposing him to sell tea and sugar of the same cost in that year?

2. There is a division of the labour of a certain manufacture between two sets of men, neither of which can do the other's work The one set consists of 30 men, and the other of 5; and when they work in this proportion, both sets are just fully employed. One man of the first set stays away for a week: by what fraction are the earning of each man thus diminished,

on the remainder of his capital is raised to 20 per cent. This machine lasts 5 years. How much is he by that time the gainer, supposing him to draw £300 a year for the support of his family?

SECT. V.-Prove one of the following rules of mental arithmetic in such a way as to make it intelligible to a class of children:

1. To find the value of 144 things in shillings. Multiply the price in farthings by 3.

2 To find the interest of any sum of money for any number of months at any rate per cent. Count one penny for each £10 in the principal; then multiply by the number of months and by donble the rate per cent.

3. To find the interest at 5 per cent for any number of days. Multiply the principal by the number of days; cut off the right-hand figure of the product, and consider the other figure as pence, deducting 1d. for each 6s. in the result. BOOK-KEEPING.

What are the books commonly used in the keeping of a tradesman's accounts, and for what purposes?

Give examples of the entries in these books severally.

HIGHER MATHEMATICS. SECT. I.-1. Find the 7th term of the series-, - }, — }, &c. 2. What is that arithmetical series having 29 terms, whose first term is 3, and the last 17?

3. Given the first term, the last term, and the sum in a geometrical progression; it is required to find an expression for the number of terms.

SECT. II.-1. In how many different ways can the letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g be written after one another? How many of these begin with f, g?

8. A farmer proposes to lay out

£88 10s. in purchasing two kinds of sheep, the average price of one kind being 21s., and of the other 31s. per head. In how many different ways can he make up his flock of these two kinds of sheep so as just to lay out that money?

3. Expand

1+x

of the Roman troops. The establishment of the Heptarchy. The accession of Alfred. The Norman Conquest. The accession of Edward the VI., of Queen Anne, and of George the III.

2. State what sovereign was reigning in England at the commencement of each century from the eleventh to into a series to the nineteenth.

(1-x)3 ascending by powers of x, by the method of indeterminate coefficients.

SECT. III.-1. What will a capital of £a, invested at r per cent compound interest, amount to in n years, supposing £b to be taken from it annually?

2. A usurer lent 600 on good security, on condition of being paid back £800 at the expiration of 3 years. What interest did he take per cent., allowing compound interest?

3. Prove the binominal theorem in the case in which the index is a positive integer, and apply it to determine the middle term of the expansion of 1

(a + b)8.

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SECT. II.-1. Give some account of Britain under the Romans.

2. What were the dominions of Canute? Who divided the sovereignty of England for a time with him? Who was Edgar Atheling? Under what circumstances did the claims of Harold and William of Normandy to the throne of England respectively arise? In whom, and through what line of descent, were the Norman and Saxon races of kings united?

3. What institutions of the ancient Germans, brought to England by the Saxons, remain ? What was the Whitenagemot of the Saxons? State some particulars in which it differed from our present Parliament. In whose reign, for what reason, and by whose influence, were Knights of the_Shire and Burgesses first sent to Parliament?

SECT. III.-1. Give some account of the reign of Edward I.

2. Give some account of Lord Strafford. What principal_battles were fought in the reign of Charles I., and under what circumstances?

3. What wars was England engaged induring the reign of George III., and under what circumstances? Give some account of the Peninsular Campaign.

SECT. IV.-1. Under what circumstances was Canada acquired by the English?

3. What is the history of the settlement and progress of the British colonies in Australia?

3. Give some account of the lives of Lord Clive and Warren Hastings.

SECT. V.-Give some account of one of the following eminent persons of antiquity: 1. Miltiades. 2. Hannibal. 3. Cicero.

No. 15.

PAPERS FOR THE SCHOOLMASTER.

Edacation; its secund Period.

MAY 1, 1851.

The second period of school life includes the term between the ages of five and seven. The child at this period, whether found in the upper class of the Infant School-which, perhaps, is his proper place or in the lower class of the Juvenile School-where, as schools are now organised, he should never be―is an important object of regard. For the teacher of the one must seek to discover at what he should aim with some likelihood of its attainment; and the future success of the other depends on right culture bestowed at this period. Ignorant of the requirements of this stage of school life, the Infant teacher too often aims at results which the child cannot produce; while the Juvenile teacher as frequently neglects him altogether. By the one he is subject to misdirected energy; by the other he is regarded as an intolerable nuisance. To force him is the labour of the one; to neglect him is the practice of the other. Either process is unwise. The intellectual character of the man depends on right treatment in these early periods. Undue development may still prove injurious to the brain; while complete neglect may make the conceptions of the child so vague and indefinite as to modify or impede future intellectual advancement. We should steer a middle course. We should ascertain what faculties are now in course of development, and adopt suitable means of culture.

During infancy the senses are incessantly conveying impressions to the brain, and the young mind, gradually acquiring power from experience, begins to perceive the association between these and external objects. But soon an effort of a more purely mental character succeeds; an idea, recalled by some means, is recognised as not altogether unfamiliar; and we have the budding of the conceptive faculty. This exercise is purely mental. It is the recall and recognition of ideas previously formed in the mind by perception.

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