HOW TO INCREASE THEIR UTILITY BEING SIX LECTURES DELIVERED TO THE MANAGERS OF THE LONDON BOARD SCHOOLS IN 1889 AND 1890 WITH A PREFACE BY WILLIAM BOUSFIELD CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE OF REPRESENTATIVE MANAGERS OF THE LONDON LONDON SCHOOL BOARD ON THE SUBJECTS AND MODES OF INSTRUCTION IN BOARD SCHOOLS PERCIVAL & CO. KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN London PREFACE THE following lectures form a series organized by the Committee of Representative Managers of London Board Schools, and were, by permission of the Board, delivered in the Board Room of the London School Board. They represent, in all cases, the opinions and experience of writers of knowledge and weight on the subjects with which they deal, and it is believed that at the present moment, when public attention is so much directed to the improvement of elementary schools, and many new forms of development of school life are appearing, they will prove valuable, and of interest to a circle of the public and of the teaching profession wider than that to which they were originally addressed. It is becoming recognized, and not in this country alone, that it is a narrow and short-sighted view of elementary education to hold that it includes only the subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic, or even, in addition, the filling of the child's memory with facts, however useful they may be. In preparing any instrument for its functions, it is necessary to remember what these a 3 |