Origin, Training, Studies, &c., of Pupil-Teachers. 91

bers, leave them but little room for independence of action, or moral responsibility, and deprive them, at an early age, of the charities and amenities of a home." Mr. Cook's Report for 1849 contains some excellent suggestions as to the means of preserv ing their health under these exertions, which every master should be careful to read. The standard of attainments required from candidates is designedly not high, but it rises in every year of the apprenticeship by steps which require exertion, both from the teacher and his pupil. This progress is tested by an annual examination on subjects prescribed in the Minutes. The object of this course is to give them the most thorough acquaintance with the ground-work of elementary instruction, and to prepare them, by the technical accuracy of this knowledge in every branch, for the more comprehensive and theoretic instruction of the Training School. The Inspectors state that the "standard", at the end of each year, is one which they can all reach without any distressing exertion. It embraces no subjects that are not practical and necessary for teachers, and requires no peculiar talents in the pupil." The Reports of their progress, by the Inspectors, have been very encouraging. The number of moral and intellectual failures has been small. While, on the other hand, though the first indentures of apprenticeship were dated 1847, and could not expire before the end of five years, unless the pupilteachers passed the examination of the later year at an earlier period, yet, thirty-nine apprentices had gained Queen's Scholarships in 1850, and been admitted into Training Colleges; and this number increased in 1851 to one hundred and forty-four.

Rather than encumber these pages with too much. detail, I have deemed it expedient to put in the Ap

92 Influence of Apprenticeship on Schoolmasters.

pendix1 passages from the Reports of her Majesty's Inspectors, which afford most satisfactory evidence that the pupil-teachers are religiously brought up, make salutary progress in religious knowledge, and which state, in detail, what are their attainments in each branch of their studies, their experience in school-keeping, their tact and skill in the manage

ment of classes,

their general demeanour,-and their preparation in all respects for the completion of their training in Normal Schools. These Reports leave no doubt of the almost universal success of their education. I cannot refrain, also, from calling attention. to some remarkable testimony from Mr. Cook2 on the beneficial influence which the training of the pupilteachers has had, not only on the attainments and skill of the masters, but on their knowledge of the principles of teaching as a science, and of its "method" as an art, as well as of the higher aims of their profession. I now turn to the influence of this system on the schools.

A School which was previously to 1847 under the charge of one Master, assisted by unpaid Monitors, all under thirteen years of age, may now be conducted by the same master, and several apprentices, varying in age from nineteen to thirteen, whose education and training in the art of school keeping have been his daily care. The consequences are so well described by Mr. Cook, that I transcribe some important passages from his report for 1852. 3" With regard to the effects on the schools, produced by the employment of Pupil Teachers, I can scarcely express too strongly my conviction, that of all the measures that have been devised, this has been incomparably the most efficient. Independently of future results, to which allusion has already been made, these youths have rendered precisely that

1 See Appendix A.

2 Minutes, 1848-49-50, Vol. I.

3 Minutes, 1851-2, Vol I. pp. 39, 40, 41.

p.

63.

Influence of Pupil-Teachers on Efficiency of Schools. 93

assistance, which every master in a large school needed, and, without which, he had no alternative but to select a few clever children, leaving the mass to care for themselves, or to reduce all to one low level of mechanical attainment. I have taken pains to compare schools very carefully, which have been instructed by young monitors on the one hand, and by pupil-teachers on the other, under the superintendence of masters nearly equal in mental power and force of character, and, with scarcely an exception, I have arrived at one uniform. result. The quantity of work done throughout the school has increased, and is still increasing, at an accelerating rate of progress. The master is relieved, to a great extent, of that pressure upon his animal spirits and mental faculties, which was inevitable when he was not only the sole superintendent, but also, in point of fact, the sole instructor, of his children; and he is, therefore able to teach those subjects, and that portion of the school which he undertakes in person with far more energy and systematic completeness. The result of this is a marked improvement in the higher subjects of instruction. The elder pupils learn much that was scarcely attempted in former years, and understand much better what was formerly taught upon a superficial and mechanical system. Algebra, geometry, and some branches of natural philosophy form the subjectmatter of interesting lessons in schools, where instruction was formerly limited to the merest elements; and a great improvement which I have observed in English composition is, in my opinion, a not less satisfactory proof, that dormant faculties have been awakened, and a direction given to the course of study, which, if properly encouraged, may tend to that cultivation of good taste, good sense, and right judgment in which, as it has always appeared to me, the children who attend our schools are most deficient. It is, however, in the middle part of the schools, in those classes which contain the mass of children in regular attendance, that I have ob

94 The Improvement of the middle Classes of the Schools.

served with pleasure the most striking improvement, owing to the employment of pupil-teachers. I am enabled to state, and should have no difficulty to prove, that in large schools of equal size, classified on the same principles, boys and girls in the fourth class, under good pupil-teachers, are equal in all subjects, and superior in many, to children of the same age, and under instruction during the same period, in the second class, where the old monitorial system was carried out. This is a fact of immense importance. A vast number of children leave school without rising to the first division, and, in that case, formerly left without having acquired so much knowledge of the elements of reading, writing, and cyphering as would enable them to discharge the duties of any station where such qualifications are needed. At present, a fair proportion of these same children would write neatly, and not incorrectly, from dictation, read the Holy Scriptures and common secular books with tolerable ease, work elementary rules in arithmetic with facility, and have some acquaintance with geography, the history of their own country, and not unfrequently with the rudiments of natural history. The general result of the examination shows, that nearly one-half of the children have made some progress in writing from dictation, and in geography, and that sixty per cent. read easy narratives, the Holy Scriptures, or more difficult books of general information. And this summary includes some infant schools, some schools conducted upon the old and inefficient system, as well as schools which have been reported upon unfavourably by the inspectors. I have no hesitation in asserting, that if 100 large schools, not under inspection or not having availed themselves of the annual grants, were examined, on precisely the same system, and compared with 100 conducted by masters with pupil-teachers, the disparity would even exceed that which I have affirmed to exist in my district."

In the lower classes the pupil-teachers have not the

Necessity of employing Assistant Teachers.

95

same opportunity to influence their scholars. Mr. Cook reported, in 18501, "that in nine schools, with an ordinary attendance of 3769 children, 5367 had been admitted, and an equal number had left, within twelve months. These enormous changes take place principally in the lowest classes of the schools; while the average time during which the children attend school,' in the first division, may reach two years, and, in the middle, one year, the children in the lowest division altogether average less than two or three months, sometimes as many weeks. Moreover, the proportion of children in all the schools together, under eight years of age, amounts very nearly to 50 per cent. It is evident, that a very vigorous system indeed is required to produce any result on such a mass. I cannot affirm, that the pupil-teachers are competent to deal with it successfully." "A second adult teacher of great energy and practical skill should be constantly employed." I shall have hereafter to speak of the necessity for the introduction of adult assistant teachers, as in the Dutch schools.

These effects commonly occur from the introduction of pupil-teachers into a " National School" which had been conducted on the monitorial system. The late Mr. Fletcher accurately described (1848-9)2 the improvement of the organisation of the Wesleyan schools of simultaneous instruction on the Glasgow plan, and in the British monitorial schools, and adds, "there is ground only for unmixed satisfaction with the progress made in the pupil-teacher system, in the class of schools which comes under my inspection." "The natural effect of 'the system of apprenticeship' in the large monitorial schools," says Mr. Morell, "is to consolidate the drafts into larger divisions, and to supersede, as far as practicable, mere monitorial agency by their superior activity." In this Report 5 on the Central Schools in the

4

1 Minutes, 1851-52, Vol. I. pp. 41, 42.

2 Ibid. 1848-9-50, Vol. I. pp. 266, 267.; Vol. II. 1850-1, pp. 556. 558.

3 Ibid.

p.

276.

3 Ibid. 1851-2, Vol. I. pp. 408-9-10.

4 Ibid. p. 476.