VI.

GRADES RESULTS.

(b) COURSE OF STUDY -(c) PRACTICAL

(a) Grading.

Grading, as understood in America, is the arrangement of children of about the same age, and of as nearly as may be similar attainments, in separate schools or departments, under separate teachers, so that the kind of instruction and discipline suited to individual scholars may be adapted to the whole class or grade. The advantages of such a division are that time is saved, distraction is avoided, and, by the introduction of a greater degree of method, efficiency is secured. The extent to which the system of grading can be carried with advantage depends upon circumstances very much upon the size of the school, and much also upon the adaptability of school-houses.

Some of the benefits which the application of the principle secures are obvious. Under a system which aims to give something beyond the merest elements of instruction

there are certain broad and natural lines where grading may be advantageously adopted. Studies adapted to the capacity of more advanced pupils cannot be successfully pursued where primary classes are under instruction. There are different methods of discipline and teaching suited to children of different ages and developments. The quietness and attention necessary to the progress of an advanced school, if enforced amongst primary scholars, would be injurious to them, mentally and physically; and, conversely, the change of attitude and the noise attendant upon primary instruction cannot be permitted in more advanced classes without an amount of distraction, and a relaxation of discipline detrimental to progress.

In most States the instruction of the youngest children is principally oral. The objective method is in very general use, and the mode of teaching is entertaining and varied. The restraints of discipline are gradually applied and frequently relaxed. The learning of letters and of numbers is relieved by alternate singing, marching, and playing. "The proper teaching of little children is a busy and rather a noisy affair, because little children are busy, noisy creatures; and when a class is under appropriate instruction, there can be no studying in that room by other children. It is out and in, up and down, saying and singing." (1) The necessity for the separation of these scholars is at once apparent, and experience has shown that the further the principle is carried and the more perfect the classification of scholars on the basis of age and attainments, the more appropriate may be the instruction given, and the more thorough and efficient will be the success of the system. The wide recognition of this fact has resulted, in the United States, in the adoption of the graded system wherever practicable.

1 Virginia Report, 1872, p. 51.

The economy of the graded plan is also another strong recommendation, enabling, as it does, a specified number of teachers to superintend a larger number of schools. This is most evident in large cities, where, in proportion to the numbers educated, the cost is diminished. To give one illustration: "In Richmond (Virginia) it costs $43.29 cents. on an average to send a child to an ordinary school for nine months. The cost in the public schools, which are all graded, is $13.41 cents. for the same length of time. To educate the 4,600 which were taught last year in this city would have cost, at private rates, 199,134 dollars. The actual cost was 61,686 dollars, an annual saving to the city of 137,448 dollars. The sum thus saved is sufficient to educate all the children of the city on the public graded system." (1)

But the economy of time is even more apparent. On the graded system, not only can one teacher do the work of two, but the pupils of similar studies and acquirements can be gathered into classes of such numbers that a much longer time can be spent in drilling and explanation at each recitation. The teacher's labour is simplified, the classes are diminished, and there is much greater regularity and thoroughness of labour, and freedom from confusion and friction. Time is again saved in organising classes and adjusting studies and recitations, and the number of separate schools is reduced, while their worth and efficiency are increased.

A very healthy effect of distinct grading is that the emulation of the pupils is excited, and effort is created. The higher grades draw up the lower ones. The scholars are stimulated to greater diligence, which only requires to be wisely directed to produce most valuable results. When, however, it is not judiciously controlled, it culminates in

1 Virginia Report, 1872, p. 57.

what is known as "high pressure

or over-study-an evil of which we seldom hear in the elementary schools of England.

The system of grading is also advantageous to the teacher. In a badly classified school is found every abuse; teachers hurried and fretted beyond measure; some pupils shuffling from one thing to another with such haste and irregularity as to occasion bewilderment; others, having excess of time to prepare for lessons, inclining them to listlessness or mischief. (1) Each teacher's work being laid out for the year, the comparative merits of teachers come out more decidedly under the graded system.

On the other hand, too strict grading has its drawbacks, The class is everything; the individual scholar is merged. Herein lies a danger of diminished individual development. When pupils are advanced by classes from one grade to another in regular order, there is a lack of flexibility or adaptation to individual requirements. Some pupils are likely to be advanced too fast, others to be kept back too long, and some to be cramped and hindered by the course of study. This is especially the case where promotions are made only at stated intervals-in some cities once, in others twice a year. Scholars who do not pass are kept back, sometimes too long, and there is loss of time as well as discouragement. This is guarded against in many cities by having frequent examinations for promotion. To promote the advancement of all, to force none beyond their capacity, to encourage the best scholars, to meet the case of irregular attendants, grades should be near together, and promotions frequent. While no pupil should be permitted to enter on higher work until the lower grade is completed, none ought to be compelled to wait for others. It is maintained that graded systems,

1 Virginia Report, 1872, p. 44.

properly arranged, are capable of sufficient flexibility to meet all cases.

The larger the school the more perfectly can the system be carried out. It follows that the principle of grading is best adapted to large towns. The rural schools in the United States commonly consist of less than fifty pupils. A high degree of organisation under such circumstances is not possible. Yet, by means of "union" schools, the graded system is being gradually introduced in towns formerly under the district system, and having numerous small district schools. Large buildings, capable of holding all the children of the township, are now erected. The plans of American school architects are commonly adapted for a high school and schools of a lower grade in the same building. These "union school-houses" are now amongst the most familiar objects of the country.

It is, however, in the large cities that the practice of grading is most perfectly developed. "Six hundred elementary pupils of both sexes in one building, divided into ten grades, with a teacher and a room for each grade, now constitute the preferred type of a public school." (1)

Bishop Fraser says: "The 'grades' correspond somewhat to our standards' of examination under the revised codepromotion from one grade to another taking place at fixed periods, seldom oftener than twice a year, and always as the result of examination." (2)

The plan of teaching classes or grades in separate schoolrooms has been adopted in some of the Birmingham Board schools, and also in London, I believe, and has given great satisfaction.

In New York city the elementary course is divided into primary and grammar departments. The primary schools

1 Virginia Report, 1872, p. 60.

2 Fraser's Report, p. 87.