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CHAPTER XV.

SCHEDULE II.: CLASS SUBJECTS (STANDARD III.).

ENGLISH.To recite with intelligence and expression sixty lines of poetry, and to know their meaning; to point out nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and personal pronouns, and to form simple sentences containing them." (New Code, 1883.)

"The extracts should be simple enough to be pleasing and intelligible to children, yet, in Standard III. and upwards, sufficiently advanced to furnish material for thought and explanation, to improve the taste, and to add to the scholar's store of words. In testing the memory lesson it may suffice to call on a few of the children— not less than one-fourth in each class-to recite each a few lines in succession, and occasionally it may be useful to require the verses to be written down from recollection.

"From the first, the teaching of English should be supplemented by simple exercises in composition; e.g. when a word is defined, the scholar should be called on to use it in a sentence of his own; when a grammatical principle is explained, he should be asked to frame a sentence showing how it is applied; and examples of the way in which adjectives are formed from nouns, or nouns from verbs, by the addition of syllables, should be supplied or selected by the scholars themselves. Mere instruction in the terminology of grammar, unless followed up by

practical exercises in the use of language, yields very unsatisfactory results." (Instructions to Inspectors.) GEOGRAPHY." Physical and Political Geography of England, with special knowledge of the district in which the school is situated." (New Code, 1883.)

(For Elementary Science, see previous Standard.)

ENGLISH.

The following remarks by Professor Whitney, on the essentials of Grammar, will be found useful to the young teacher:

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Among the first essentials in the study of English Grammar is the distinction of the Parts of Speech. If that is not learned, and with a living, practically workable knowledge, then nothing is learned.

"There is, of course, no way of giving this knowledge except along with the analysis-or, as it may be better called, the synthesis-of the sentence. That all speech is made up of sentences; that the parts of speech are constituent parts of the sentence, each having its own office, each recognizable and definable only by that office,-these are the first truths of Grammar.

"The distinction of the noun and verb, as the two essential constituents of the bare sentence, the one naming something, the other asserting something about it, is the basis of the first classification.

"This can be brought out and impressed only in connection with examples of the bare sentence, and with definition of its parts, the "subject" and the "predicate." These words, so dreaded by many grammarians, and shunned and deferred till far on in the study, I should not hesitate to bring in rather at the very outset. They are, to be sure, hard and ugly terms, yet really no harder than

pronoun and adjective, if taken hold of as early and made familiar; and they are quite indispensable.

"Having the nucleus of the sentence well understood, it is easy to go on and teach the other parts of speech and their offices; the substitute for the nouns (pronouns), the two kinds of qualifying words (adjective and adverb), and the two connecting words (preposition and conjunction), and with such clearness as to cause them to be thoroughly comprehended. Dealing as we do with a known and familiar language, we can accomplish all this before we proceed to take up the several parts of speech themselves for a more detailed treatment."

We think that the above indicates the true lines to be adopted in teaching Grammar in Standard III. In this, as in all other respects, the Code requirements are the minimum of the Government, not the maximum of the teacher's possibility. In no other way can the noun, pronoun, etc., be properly understood except in connection with the preposition; while the teaching of the conjunction is a matter of the merest simplicity.

GEOGRAPHY (STANDARD III.).

This will be mainly based either on the Geographical Reader, or on oral lessons used instead; or the latter can be still more usefully conjoined with the former.

The more difficult part has been already done in Standard II.; the geography of England will require memory rather than reasoning power.

A good plan would be to first give half a dozen conversations on the Map of England. These would bring out (in no logical sequence) facts to be afterwards arranged in order in the minds of the class. Thus the seas and channels around the country, and the relations of England to Scot

land, Ireland, and France, should be pointed out; then some of the more prominent capes, estuaries, and islands. The meaning of the colours, as marking counties, should be explained; the positions and names of some of the great mountain ranges, a few of the rivers, etc.

After this, the Physical Geography of England can be taken up systematically. This should begin with the mountain systems, as on these depend the configuration of the land, and the drainage by rivers. In teaching the Physical Geography, it is best to use a physical map, to supplement this with blackboard sketches, [and outline maps published by Sonnenschein, and to allow the class to draw outlined sketch maps on their slates and exercisebooks.

Another section would be the river basins, separated by watersheds; and to show the class that the country consists of the sum total of these. In connection with the

rivers, the towns situated on them should be taken.

The lake system next follows in order.

The division into counties, and grouping of these into six northern, etc., should subsequently be taken up.

A special subject is given by the coal-fields of the country, and another by the manufacturing towns taken in groups, so far as can be, as the woollen manufactures,

etc.

The seaports-naval, commercial, and "watering "-also form a group of lesson subjects; as well as the great trunk lines of railway proceeding out of London.

Last of all should come the coast-line.

In taking up the geography of the special county, the teacher should start from the school as a centre, and build up the geography from this point synthetically. If the county has a river in it, the valley and watersheds should be well learned, and the physical geography of the county illustrated by it.

The special industries and history of the county should be learnt in more detail than that of the country generally; but history should be well associated with the geography throughout.

Map drawing of the country and county should be encouraged. This is an exercise which the children enjoy, and it improves neatness, strengthens patience and accuracy, and is a powerful help in fixing situations of towns, etc., upon the memory.

Until recently the teaching of "Geography" consisted too much in the mere learning by rote lists of capes, etc., taken in order from a map; the text-books were mere dry bones. At the present time there is a tendency of the writers of some Geographical Readers to make the subject more pleasant than instructive; reasoning and information are sacrificed to pictorial illustration, and the "text" is written up to the publishers' previously existing plates, rather than the illustrations made auxiliary to the main purpose of the subject.

The new regulations ought to be a great inducement to Head Mistresses of Girls' Schools to take up this subject, so much neglected in Girls' Schools, for there is no other which will so increase the intelligence of the school.

COLLECTIVE LESSONS ON GEOGRAPHY (STANDARD III.).

(Continuation of Scheme in Standard II.)

(1) The county.-Position, and physical features. (2) Industries, climate, towns, landmarks of former conquerors, in the county.

(3) Internal communications of county, railways, etc.; relative positions of chief places.

(4) River basins, and drainage of the county.

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