many schools? Spelling clans called, and made lesson; answers questions upon the subject to toe the scratch, or crack in the floor. Then matter of the lesson, thereby getting clearer the teacher begins to "put out" words from a views of the definitions of words than he could spelling book; words of three syllables, we will obtain by referring to a definer. It occupies all suppose. Number one spells at the first word; his time and attention during recitation, and "misses it," and then guesses at it once, comes causes him to associate the form of a word with farther from it than before, and the word goes its sound; and is not this just what he wants in to number second. Number one pays no more after life? By this process he learns to write a attention to the matter until it comes his turn letter and spell all of his words correctly. By to guess again, when in all probability he ac- any other method than writing he never learns quits himself no better than at first. The exer- the forms of words; hence he may "spell down" cise closes with a little censure, a little advice, schools and yet be unable to spell correctly when and a vague promise of a general flogging if the he writes. Our limited space prevents us from lesson - which is reassigned the class is not saying anything upon the subject of writing better prepared for the morrow. For one we compositions. We only wish to impress the would never use a spelling book in school for importance of having students write a good the purpose of teaching spelling. Students deal more in connection with their studies.should hear words, and spell them in the order Michigan Journal of Education. in which they read them and use them. Wel would assign half a page or less in a school reader for a spelling lesson. the lesson, in order to see that it is understood. Then read a sentence, or a part of a sentence, and require the members of the class to write it upon their slates as rapidly as possible. Continue in this way till the whole lesson is written; have the pupils exchange slates; then "put out the more difficult words and have them spelled by the class as follows: Let it Go. 66 A good parson had been preaching, upon a Have this read and copied by the class upon certain Sunday morning from a text including their slates preparatory to recitation. When the parable of the two houses, one of which the class is called, ask a number of questions stood upon a rock, and the other upon the sand; upon the meaning of the sentences composing a parable which we may reasonably assume is not unknown to any reader of these pages. He warmed with the force and beauty of his theme, until, in the ardor of his discourse, he carried away the wrong house! The rains beat, the floods came, and the winds blew" upon the house that stood upon the rock, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof: " a mere accidental transposition, of course, and doubtless not noPronounce, we will suppose, the word sylla- ticed by one in fifty of his congregation. Uncle, ble; then designate a member of the class to said the narrator, as the two were walking home spell it as it is written upon the slate which he from church, did you not make a mistake in holds. If he is dissatisfied with the spelling, your sermon to day? Did you not, in one inlet him say Error. Those of the class who stance, reverse the meaning of the beautiful agree with him will raise a hand. Then have parable which formed its subject? I looked to him spell the word orally as he would have it. see you re-reverse it." "You are right, my Those who think his correction an error will son; I did make a mistake; I am glad you then raise his hand. Let a mark be drawn un- were so attentive and watchful as to remark it; der each word misspelled, and the word correct- I carried away the wrong house, but I did not ly written under the mark, by the student hold-make a mistake in not stopping to correct it. ing the slate on which the mistake has been Suppose I had done so ? Both houses then would made. have been gone, and not one would have been left to illustrate the parable. Few saw the error, I think: and this leads me to say, my son, that when you find you have made a mistake, let somebody else discover it." Now this is a maxim worthy of heed.-Knickerbocker. Finally, let the whole number of errors be marked on the slates, and the slates again ex changed, so that each gets his own. Then call your class roll and have each answer by giving the number of errors marked on his slate; this is your record of the standing of the class. The advantages of this method of teaching spelling are many. The pupil writes and spells every word of the a lightning rod to attract trouble. SORROW Comes soon enough without despon. dency; it does a man no good to carry around For the Schoolmaster. TO BE ANSWERED BY BOYS AND GIRLS LIVING WITHIN SIGHT OF NARRAGANSET BAY. SUPPOSE that we are seated in a sail-boat, near a wharf, at Bristol, R. I., ready to start on a an excursion to Rocky Point; -the wind is blowing strong from the south west. What is that rope hanging from one end of the boat? The skipper is pulling it in, and see, up comes something made of iron tied to one end of it, - What is it? What is the anchor for? What are its parts? the tiller, (called also the helm), and the rudder. Here are a few phrases whose meaning I wish you to learn, -"port the helm," "ease the helm," 66 right the helm," "starboard the helm," "larboard the helm." Can you tell me now how "to tack?" When boat is sailing on the larboard tack, what order should be given to the helmsman to lay the boat to windward, so as to take a reef? We are now returning from the Point to Bristol. Which is the lee shore of the harbor, and which the weather shore? Which is dreaded What is the shank by sailors in a storm, and why? of the anchor? What is the stock for? Of what use are the flukes? Here our excursion ends. NOTE TO THE TEACHER. should ever go hand in hand. But the skipper now pulls at another rope The above is offered as an exercise in developand the sail rises, - What is that rope called? ing the child's powers of observation and of exWhat is the large, long pole in the middle of pression, the training of which two faculties the boat? Now the halyard is coiled like the figure 8 round a curved piece of wood nailed to the side of the boat, What is that way of fastening a rope called, and what the name of the piece of wood? - There are two classes of phenomena which can be perceived and described, those pertaining to mind and those pertaining to matter. To the latter, chiefly, should the attention of pupils in the grammar schools be directed, mental operations and emotions being of too subtle a nature for them as yet to analyze. The skipper has just used the words "gaff" and "boom," Please to show the gaff and the boom to me, and tell me what they are for. There are little cords, all of a length, hanging Neither do you wish to turn their attention, in two or three rows across the foot of the sail,- frequently, to the roots of words; for to this What are they called, and what is done with class of scholars it would be an element obscure them? What is it to reef a sail? When is a and confusing. sail" double-reefed," when "close-reefed ?" I would propose as a subject for another exerIs a sail, usually, reefed in a light wind or in a stiff gale? What are the bows of a boat? What is the stem of a boat, or what the stern? What is the meaning of the phrase "from stem to stern?" Of "fore and aft?" cise, The Plough, some of the parts of which are the beam, clevis, colter, wrench, mouldboard, share, point, land-side, handles, bolts, nuts and screws. The pupil should tell the use of each part, and the material of which it is made; also, when describing the metallic porNow stand in the stern and face the head of tions, whether they are of iron or of steel, of the boat. Can any one tell me the name of the cast iron or of wrought iron, hard or soft, and right side of the boat, and of the left side also: why. We are sailing down Bristol harbor; - Is Bris- If now he can describe the plough as used tol to leeward" or "to windward" of us? thirty years ago, the different kinds of ploughs Please now to look "a-head," a-stern," "a- of the present day, including the subsoil and weather," and "a-lee" also. Is the wind the side-hill ploughs, his exercise will be so blowing on our larboard or star-board? much the better. K. WILLIAM DEAN, D. D., in his "China Mission," gives the following interesting description of a Chinese school: "Look out for heads," shouts the skipper, and now the sail swings to, flaps a moment, now fills again, and we change our course, as we have done several times before. What is it called to change the course of the boat in this "The boys commence their studies at six or manner? But why do we not go from the seven years of age. In China there is no royal wharf straight to the Point? What is beat- road to learning, but every boy, whatever his ing? Is the boat now on the "larboard tack rank, takes the same class-book, and submits or on the "starboard tack?" Let us now look at the helm; see its parts, shed, or a back room in some temple, or some " to the same training. The school-room is a low attic in some shop, where each boy is supplied ical career. Could you with the bodily eye sce the with a table and stool, and the teacher has a moments of it as they fly, you would see them all more elevated seat and a larger table. In the pass by you, as the bee that has rifled the heathcorner of the room is a tablet or picture of Con-er bears its honey through the air, charged with fucius, before which each pupil prostrates him- the promise, or, it may be with the menace of self on entering the room, and then makes his the future. In many things it is wise to believe obeisance to his teacher. He then brings his before experience until you can know, and in book to the teacher, who repeats over a sentence order that you may know; and believe me, or more to the pupil, and he goes to his place when I tell you that thrift of time will repay repeating the same at the top of his voice till he you in after-life with a usury of profit beyond can repeat it from memory, when he returns to your most sanguine dreams, and that the waste his teacher, and laying his book on the teacher's of it will make you dwindle, alike in intellecttable, turns his back upon both book and teach-ual and in moral stature, beyond your darkest er and repeats his lesson. This is called back-reckonings. I am Scotchman enough to know ing his lesson. In this way he goes through that among you there are always many who are the volume till he can back the whole book; already, even in their tender years, fighting with then another, then another, till he can back a a mature and manly courage the battle of life. list of the classics. The boys in the school, to When they feel themselves lonely amidst the the number of ten or twenty, go through the crowd-when they for a moment are disheartened same process, coming up in turn to back their by that difficulty which is the rude rocking cralesson, and he that has a defective recitation re- dle of every kind of excellence when they ceives a blow on the head from the master's are conscious of the pinch of poverty and selfferule of bamboo, and returns to his seat to denial, let them be conscious, too, that a sleepperfect his lesson. The school teachers are us-less Eye is watching them from above, that their ually unsuccessful candidates for preferment honest efforts are assisted, their humble prayers and office, who, not having habits for business are heard, and all things are working together or a disposition to labor, turn pedagogues. for their good. Is not this the life of faith, They receive from each of the pupils a given which walks by your side from your rising in sum proportioned to the means of the parents, the morning to your lying down at nightand varying from three to ten or twelve dollars which lights up for you the cheerless world, and a year from each pupil. The schools are opened transfigures all that you encounter, whatever be at early dawn, and the boys study till nine or its outward form, with hues brought down from ten o'clock, when they go to breakfast, and af- heaven? These considerations are applicable to ter an hour return and study till four or five all of you. You are all in training here for edo'clock in the afternoon, and then retire for the ucated life, for the higher forms of mental expeday. In winter they sometimes have a lesson in rience, for circles limited, perhaps, but yet cirthe evening." cles of social influence and leadership. Some of you may be chosen to greater distinctions and heavier trials, and may enter into that class of which each member while he lives is envied or admired -- Good Habits Indispensable. In the course of an address delivered by the Hon. Mr. Gladstone on the occasion of his installation as rector of the Edinburg University, to the students, he thus spoke of the life of faith: " And when he dies he bears a lofty name, "DIFFICULTY is a severe instructor, set over us "The mountain-tops of Scotland behold on by the supreme ordinance of a parental guardian every side of them the witness, and many a one and instructor, who knows us better than we know of what were once her morasses and moorlands, ourselves, as he loves us better, too. He that wresnow blossoming as the rose, carries on its face tles with us, strengthens our nerves and sharpens the proof that it is in man and not in his cir- our skill; our antagonist is thus our helper." cumstances that the secret of his destiny resides. "GIVE thy children a sound education," says a For most of you gain that destiny toward evil or writer, coupled with some useful trade, and you toward good, not from the information you im- thereby give them a fortune. Give them to underbibe, but from the habits of mind, thought and stand from the beginning, that labor is honorlife, that you shall acquire during your academ-able." For the Schoolmaster. An Extract from an Unpublished Ironical Poem, Entitled, The Golden Era. BUT Education claims a flaming share Ye ancient bards, lend all your wonted fire And thoughts that burn upon an angel's tongue. The parchment oft a worthy name proclaims, Though hosts we see content by riding on the tail. The noblest aim that fires their glorious soul No name so sacred of the race is found But now with slander it must oft resound, I saw a hill, and down its rugged side 'Tis thus with men a thousand torrents roll, In wild harangues and speeches from a stump. F. THE TEACHER AND ETERNITY.-Let the teacher consider well what lines he traces upon the susceptible minds committed to his care, for the light of eternity will give distinctness and permanency to the image. THE actions of a man tell of what kind he is, as do the fruits of a tree. From "Education: Intellectual, Moral and Physical," that they successively become the premises of by Herbert Spencer. Intellectual Education. * further conclusions, - the means of solving still further questions. The solution of yesterday's problem helps the pupil in mastering to-day's. And that lead A few paragraphs must be appended in fur- Thus the knowledge is turned into faculty as ther inculcation of the two general principles, soon as it is taken in, and forthwith aids in the alike the most important and the least attended general function of thinking - does not lie to: we mean the principle that throughout youth merely written in the pages of an internal libraMark further, the imas in early childhood and in maturity, the pro- ry, as when rote-learnt. cess shall be one of self-instruction; and the portance of the moral culture which this conobverse principle, that the mental action induc- stant self-help involves. Courage in attacking ed by this process shall be throughout intrinsi- difficulties, patient concentration of the attencally grateful. If progression from simple to tion, perseverance through failures. these are complex, and from concrete to abstract, be concharacteristics which after-life specially requires; sidered the essential requirements as dictated by and these are characteristics which this system abstract psychology, then do these requirements of making the mind work for its food specially that knowledge shall be self-mastered, and plea- produces. That it is thoroughly practicable to surably mastered, become the tests by which carry out instruction after this fashion we can we may judge whether the dictates of abstract ourselves testify; having been in youth thus psychology are being fulfilled. If the first emled to successively solve the comparatively combody the leading generalizations of the science plex problems of Perspective. of mental growth, the last are the chief canons ing teachers have been gradually tending in this of the art of fostering mental growth. For direction is indicated alike in the saying of Felmanifestly if the steps in our curriculum are so lenberg, that "the individual, independent acarranged that they can be successively ascended tivity of the pupil is of much greater importance by the pupil himself with little or no help, they than the ordinary busy officiousness of many must correspond with the stages of evolution who assume the office of educators;" in the in his faculties; and manifestly if the succes- opinion of Horace Mann, that " unfortunately sive achievements of these steps are intrinsically education amongst us at present consists too gratifying to him, it follows that they require much in telling, not in training;" and in the no more than a normal exercise of his powers. remark of M. Marcel, that "what the learner But the making education a process of self-discovers by mental exertion is better known evolution has other advantages than this of keeping our lessons in the right order. In the Similarly with the correlative requirement, first place, it guarantees a vividness and perma- that the method of culture pursued shall be one nency of impression which the usual methods productive of an intrinsically happy activity,— can never produce. Any piece of knowledge an activity not happy in virtue of extrinsic rewhich the pupil has himself acquired, any prob- wards to be obtained, but in virtue of its own lem which he has himself solved, becomes by healthfulness. Conformity to this requirement virtue of the conquest much more thoroughly not only guards us against thwarting the norhis than it could else be. The preliminary ac- mal process of evolution, but incidentally setivity of mind which his success implies, the cures positive benefits of importance. Unless concentration of thought necessary to it, and we are to return to an ascetic morality, the the excitement consequent on his triumph, con- maintainance of youthful happiness must be spire to register all the facts in his memory in a considered as in itself a worthy aim. Not to way that no mere information heard from a dwell upon this, however, we go on to remark teacher, or read in a school-book, can be regis- that a pleasurable state of feeling is far more tered. Even if he fails, the tension to which favorable to intellectual action than one of inhis faculties have been wound up insures his re- difference and disgust. Every one knows that membrance of the solution when given to him, things read, heard, or seen with interest, are better than half a dozen repetitions would. better remembered than those read, heard, or Observe again, that this discipline necessitates seen with apathy. In the one case the faculties a continuous organization of the knowledge he appealed to are actively occupied with the subacquires. It is in the very nature of facts and ject presented; in the other they are inactively inferences, assimilated in this normal manner, occupied with it; and the attention is contin than what is told to him." |