instruction is giddy, perhaps he is generally so, but at that time he seems to be fuller of levity than at any other time, and to be so on purpose too; in short, he is then all that a bad boy can be; and again, this boy lords it over the whole school both intellectually and physically; this one and one or two others, it is true, occasionally question his sway a little, yet they always give in-sometimes willingly, and sometimes unwillingly. In short, one will find in a school amiability and quarrelsomeness, delicacy and roughness, craftiness and straightforwardness; and all the qualities that are to be found among the up-grown members of a community. Words and telling alone will be enough for this pupil; that has more of the animal in him. He must first be softened by vigour; he then becomes tractable, like a faithful spaniel, which is so much the fonder, in proportion as it was at first vigorously treated. With another perhaps comparatively little harshness from his teacher would sour his temper, and estrange him from him for ever. And whence then originates all these differences? Is it not in a great measure, from the varied circumstances in which the children are severally placed? The children of this family are almost all noted for their fluency of speech, and therefore distinguish themselves in answering. This fluency they have acquired from their mother, who, although she has the character among her neighbours of being a great gossip, is a good nurse to her children, for she will scarcely let any thing pass that comes under their notice, without talking about it with them. Yonder boy, who, regards you with such a forbidding look, is the son of a man who looks upon the clergy and teachers only as persons to whom he must give, and hates the whole of them. Observe yonder boy whose aspect at once bespeaks languor and good-nature; alas! a severe fever has shattered his nerves. He is neither quick at learning, nor active in his motions. He seems to look with displeasure upon the better face of his neighbour. But judge him not harshly nor rashly. His parents themselves are in a state of comparative destitution, and are unable to supply him with the proper necessaries of life. Thus then these several goods and evils, a spirit of revenge and a spirit of forgiveness, industry and laziness, &c., though often the creatures of education, are also frequently the results of physical constitution, and the effects of a thousand indirect and seemingly trifling causes-effects produced by wheels within wheels. The field which here opens to our view is very extensive, yet it is necessary to have mastered the chief points which it presents, before one can say I possess a knowledge of children. Indeed a perfect knowledge of this kind is what no one possesses. He is most perfect who errs seldomest.

The gardener and the husbandman can accomplish nothing without a knowledge of the soil; so too the teacher can effect nothing without a knowledge of his pupils. This knowledge is necessary to him for the moderation of his expectations, for the determining of his treatment, and for the confirming of his satisfaction. For the moderation of his expectations. For whence comes it that so many teachers expect and require from children of from twelve or thirteen years of age all the earnestness of manhood, and vex themselves because a boy of this age does not recognise so fully and feel so deeply as they do the importance of this or that branch of instruction? Such teachers know not

the child, and know not what they ought to expect from him; they know not what to him is natural, and what is unnatural.

It is just as little desirable to see a manlike child, as it is to see a childish man. Whence comes it that so many teachers have their individual favourites? They know not such children aright, and perceive not the conceit which they thus foster in them, and thus convert their industry itself, one might almost say, into a vice. Whence comes it that so many teachers expect from all children an equal facility in committing to memory, in thinking and expressing their thoughts? Such teachers would have all mankind formed after one model, whereas God in his infinite wisdom endows men with faculties and capacities almost infinitely varied. Whence comes it too that many teachers inflict chastisement on the child with extreme rigour for faults which are, perhaps, rightly attributable to its parents or to the situation in which it is placed? Is it not because they know not the child and are ignorant that under the circumstances in which he was placed it was almost impossible for him to have acted otherwise?

And again, what a multitude of faults in our treatment of children originate in our want of a proper knowledge of them. Thus it is we often mistake nascent wickedness for childish frolic, and know not, or forget, that "the child is father of the man." Thus one is often inexorably rigorous, where a word or a hint would have perhaps effected more than severe punishments. One does in the presence of children this or that, and thinks they will not observe it, imitate, or misuse it. But the child, in this respect, is often sharper than seven wise men; and be it remembered too, that the purer the paper is, so much the more indelibly does that remain which is inscribed upon it. The teacher, who is ignorant of his pupils, commits every day, though unknowingly, a multitude of faults, which his pupil will probably pay dearly for in afterlife. Any one may attempt to dispense the secrets of the healing art, but if he does not know the nature and wants of his patient, he will do him more injury than good.

Little need be said in order to show that a knowledge of his pupils is indispensably necessary to the teacher's own personal comfort and satisfaction. His satisfaction is, or ought to be, the offspring of his usefulness; and whatever diminishes this must disturb that. Many teachers and these not always the worst-seem to strive in vain to acquire faith in their labours, because they see not in their children the fruit which they expect. The teacher, however, who possesses such a knowledge of children as a series of years of observation will give, is aware that all is not lost which some may deem to be thrown away. A seed-corn which may have been thought to have been sown in vain, remains concealed under a clod of earth. The rains and the frosts of winter soften, and the warmth of spring fructifies the soil. It springs late, but still it always bears its fruit. It is impossible, says one, that this youth can ever turn out well. The example which he sees at home frustrates the salutary influence of his school instruction. Judge not so hastily, brother. He who knows children extensively will be able to point out to you examples of many such men, who, though at a late period, have remembered and profited by their early instructions. From vice springs misery, and from misery remorse, and this, alas!

often softens the hardest soil, that which has been longest trodden under foot; then the yet undecayed seed-corn still unfolds itself, and bears living fruit. Thus he who knows children, and waits in patience, will not speedily say, "I have laboured in vain ;" and much less will he be morose and discontented, like him who knows not the nature of children. In short, there is no other plan of teaching which affords the teacher equal facilities with the catechetical method for acquiring this intimate and individual knowledge of his pupils. The answers which he receives to his questions, give him a clearer insight into their habits of thinking and mental peculiarities than anything else can do, and so enable him to shape and accommodate his lessons and questions to the condition of his pupils.

1. The catechetical method has also advantages as it respects the pupils. The teacher of an elementary school may impart his instruction by other methods than the catechetical one; but by no other will he, we believe, so speedily, and with so much certainty, accomplish his object. The very tone of the catechist's voice, it has been observed, and his colloquial manner, have their important results.

2. The catechetical method is eminently calculated to awaken and preserve the attention of the pupil throughout the lesson; for to many of the questions it will be impossible for them to give correct answers, unless they have closely attended to, and rightly understood, the previous questions and their answers. In a catechetical lesson, which is conducted as it ought to be, the questions will be intimately linked together, and but comparatively few isolated questions will occur. The previous question and its answer pave the way, as it were, to the subsequent question and answer, which thus in their turn become a kind of supplement to those that went before, and an introduction to those that follow after. Each step, too, in the process contributes more or less to the correct and full knowledge of the subject ultimately to be elicited. The pupils, therefore, must be attentive not merely to one or two, but to the majority of the questions and their answers, in order that they may be able to answer correctly the questions asked them.

3. By the catechetical exercise both the reason and the memory are called into exercise. When the pupil is questioned he must not only attend closely to the question in order to fully understand it, but he must reflect on what will be a correct answer to it. In doing this, it will be necessary for him to carry back his mind to a series of questions previously asked, and to preserve unbroken the chain of thought running through the lesson. When the teacher conducts the catechetical exercise skilfully, and puts his questions with sufficient rapidity, it must obviously form for the pupils an excellent intellectual training. Indeed, it may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that there is no other plan of teaching which at once beneficially exercises so many of the faculties of the human mind as the catechetical method does.

4. No greater benefit can accrue to the pupils of our elementary schools, from the instruction they receive in them, than the power of expressing their thoughts orally with facility and correctness. What an immense disadvantage in this respect do the illiterate, and foreigners

* Quarterly Review, No. CXLII.

imperfectly acquainted with our language, labour under, when they attempt to convey to others what they themselves think or feel! An adequate, a comparatively adequate knowledge of language, what an important acquisition this is! And of how general application! It deserves preeminently, in reference to all, to be called "useful knowledge." But to give a practical knowledge of this kind of language, grammar rules or precepts respecting what constitutes correct language are not enough. As in other cases, so especially in this, practice is indispensably necessary, and no school exercise affords so good an opportunity for such practice as the catechetical method.

"Nobody," observes Locke, with much point, "has made anything by the hearing of rules or laying them up in his memory. Practice must settle the habit of doing, without reflecting on the rule; and you may as well expect to make a good painter or musician extempore by a lecture or instruction in the arts of music and painting, as a coherent thinker or strict reasoner by a set of rules showing him wherein right reason consists." The faculties of the soul are improved and made useful to us after the same manner as our bodies are. Would you have a man perform any mechanical operation dexterously and with ease, let him have ever so much vigour, suppleness, and address, yet nobody expects this from him unless he has been used to it, and has employed time and pains in fashioning and forming his hand, or other parts to those motions. Just so it is in the mind.

Now there is no plan of teaching pursued in our elementary schools, as we have already observed, that is so well calculated, as the catechetical method is, to impart to the pupils a familiar and practical acquaintance with language. By this method, besides having their attention directed to the subject brought before them as a whole, they are also accustomed to discriminate, and speak of, in correct language, the points of difference, of resemblance, or of analogy, that may subsist between the subject or object and others with which they are familiar. When a mistake does occur, either as it respects fact or expression, an opportunity is afforded in the catechetical instruction of correcting the mistake in such a way that the correction is likely to be permanently

retained.

5. The success of the instruction depends, in a great measure, on the interest and pleasure which the pupils take in it. There are some branches of instruction which, from various circumstances, are more pleasing and interesting to children than others. The power, however, of investing with a proper degree of interest subjects in themselves dry, is an important secret in efficient elementary teaching; and the catechetical plan of teaching affords peculiar facilities for giving such interest to the subjects of instruction. By the question, when properly framed and put, the mind of the teacher acts, as it were, directly upon the mind of the pupil; and every one conversant with the subject knows, that it is the direct action of mind upon mind which in a special manner gives interest to the instruction, and produces some of the best and most valuable fruits of instruction. There is a variety, too, in the catechetical process, when rightly conducted, which does away with the uniformity, monotony, and tediousness felt in some other plans of teaching. From the attention of the whole of the pupils being kept up

344 THE PREMIER'S VIEWS ON THE POSITION OF THE SCHOOLMASTER.

simultaneously, and each individual being required to take a part in the instruction, they can hardly avoid feeling a lively interest in the subjects thus brought before them.

Öther advantages belonging to the catechetical plan of teaching will, no doubt, occur to the mind of the experienced teacher. Those we have here mentioned will, however, we trust, be sufficient to convince all of the value of this plan of teaching, and the special claims it has upon the attention of the elementary teacher.

W. R.

THE PREMIER'S VIEWS ON THE POSITION OF THE

SCHOOLMASTER.

THE following extract is from Lord John Russell's speech on the occasion of the Education Grant being voted, July 11, 1851.

"He thought they could not do too much, either as members of that House or as individuals, to improve the condition and honour the situation of schoolmasters. There was no class of men whose employment was more useful to the community, and it was deeply painful to reflect what small salaries many of these persons received for the constant application of much ability, much learning, and much science to the laborious work of education, so beneficial to all, yet so little appreciated.'

All who are practically engaged in the business of the school, and every promoter of sound education for the masses of the people will hail the foregoing expression of opinion on the part of her Majesty's chief adviser as indicative of the appreciation with which the office of the educator is beginning to be regarded in influential quarters. We congratulate the schoolmasters on this public tribute to their usefulness, sympathy with their condition, and anxiety for its improvement. The favour with which the expressions we have quoted were received by the House, taken in connection with the circumstance that no opposition was offered to the augmentation of the grant from £125,000 to £150,000 for the current year, affords most reliable proof that due value will ere long be attached to the office of the elementary teacher.

In another portion of his speech his lordship remarked that "The great point to be gained was not so much the number of children going vaguely to school, as the securing a sound quality of education for those who did go there." "This improved quality of elementary instruction can only be imparted by duly qualified teachers, who must be more liberally remunerated than has heretofore been the case, except in rare instances." We are glad to have such an authority in favour of the increase of schoolmasters' salaries, and the improvement of their condition. Education will never be estimated at its proper value while the instruments of its dissemination are lightly regarded. Managers and promoters of schools will do well to assist to improve the condition and honour the situation of deserving masters, who will thus be more strongly impressed with a sense of the responsibility of their office, and be supplied with additional incentives to exertion in their important work.