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the farmers and middle classes at the expense of the labouring classes, I believe they will have a decidedly contrary effect, and that the establishing separate ones for sons of farmers, &c. would be in every way detrimental in the end, and bring about such a state of things in the schools exclusively for the poor, that in a very short time the character of such schools would be in no way better than it has been, and that as places of education they would entirely fail.

One resolution of the meeting proposed by the Bishop of Litchfield was, that it was expedient to provide from the training schools or institutions at Battersea* fit and proper masters for the national schools, and that those masters should be qualified to communicate religious instruction and teach arithmetic, geography, the lower mathematics, and the sciences applicable to agriculture; and I believe they have since sent six young men to the institution there for the purpose of being educated as masters.

In the present transition state of the country as to education, such meetings have a more than ordinary interest attaching to them-in fact at this moment in some measure a national one-as much depends upon what is done in the next

*This institution owes its origin, and for many years nearly its whole support, to Mr. Key Shuttleworth and Mr. Edward Tufnell, and in 1842 was transferred to the National Society.

The Rev. Thomas Jackson, the principal, has lately printed a statement of its views and prospective objects, to which is appended testimonials of the masters and condition of the schools to which the Battersea masters have been sent.

These statements afford a very gratifying proof and are strong evidence of the good which must result from establishments of this kind, conducted as Battersea is. The education of the country must necessarily and in a great measure take its tone, and assume its character of usefulness, from the sources from which the teachers are derived; and if the opinion of one who has paid considerable attention to the educational wants of the present time, and the way in which those wants can best be supplied, were likely to be of any weight, he would strongly recommend Battersea and similar institutions to those who have the means and the wish to aid the cause of national education. Much more good, in an educational point of view, is likely to arise from bequests and from gifts to institutions of this kind under efficient public control, than in any other way; and it is greatly to be hoped that the efficiency of good training institutions, both for schoolmasters and schoolmistresses may not be checked for want of

means.

few years as to the direction which the education of the country will take,-a question of no small importance to the rising generation, although one, to which many of the present are perfectly indifferent.

KING'S SOMBORNE;
April 7, 1849.

SUGGESTIVE HINTS.

HAVING taken a considerable interest fore some years in the daily teaching of my own village school, I am, from the success which has attended it, induced to offer the following outline of what is taught, and the manner of teaching it, to the attention of teachers in our elementary schools, -as being likely to be of some assistance, at all events to the less experienced among them, and perhaps not altogether useless to those whose qualifications and training in our Normal Schools may have better fitted them for their work.

And first, it is of great importance that the teacher should be able to interest the children in what they are doing; and this, if he takes a lively interest in it himself, he will find no difficulty in, even when teaching what is looked upon as the mechanical part of reading; particularly if he knows how to mix with it a little oral instruction of a conversational kind, and has any judgment in selecting subjects to talk to them about, such as the domestic animals, birds, &c., and other things, with which they are brought in contact in their earliest years—the cat and dog, how they differ in their habits, manner of living, and how useful to man, the one attaching itself to places, the other to man; then perhaps relating some short and amusing anecdote of the dog or other animal, for which a good teacher would be at no loss, and would always see, if he has any tact, from the countenances of the children, whether he was interesting them or not, and would go on, or leave off, accordingly.

And again, if a cow or horse is mentioned-drawing them into a description of it-a child will perhaps say, a cow is a four-footed animal. Teacher: yes, but so is a horse; and then will point out something in which they differ. The child will then try again-a cow has got horns, but a horse has not: then the teacher will point out that some cows have no horns,

and will lead them on into things, in which the cow and horse really do differ-such as the hoof: the cow having a cloven foot with two hoofs on one foot; what other animals have the same?-difference in the way of feeding; a cow chews the cud-ruminating: does the horse?—what animals do? sheep, deer, &c. What difference in their teeth? has a cow front teeth in the upper jaw? a sheep? a horse? &c. What do you call a number of cows together? what of sheep?-of deer?of swine?-of bees? What are the habits of animals going many together? mention those you know which do so. The flesh of the sheep called what?—of the ox? The particular noise of the sheep, cow, horse, swine, &c.? bleats, bellows, grunts. The young of a cow? a calf; and its flesh? veal. The young of the horse, what? a foal. Spell calf, calves: write them down on your slates. And in this way children may-be led into a tolerably correct idea of the thing in question, and will be partly able to describe it themselves; all this they tell again at home, which has its use.

There is something extremely pleasing and interesting to children in having their attention called to the habitsdifference in structure-in covering-in manner of feedingin fact, all possible outward differences, a knowledge of which can be acquired by the eyes and by the hands (seeing and feeling) of the beasts and birds about them; and of this a very strong proof is given, in what I have related in connexion with my giving to a class of boys a lesson of the following kind, which was suggested by some observations in a book on Natural History, by the Rev. L. Jenyns, on the difference of the way in which animals with which they are acquainted rise. How does the cow get up?-hind-feet or fore-feet first? how the sheep? how the deer, &c.? some will answer right, some wrong, but all think and are alive to the question. Then pointing out to them, that all these animals rise with the hindlegs first, and that they belong to the class of ruminating or cud-chewing animals-and, that if it is true that in one, two, three, four, &c. particular cases of animals which chew the cud, that they rise in this way; whether it would not be likely to be true in all cases-showing them the way of getting at a general rule, from its being true in a number of individual instances.

Then again: How does the horse, the pig, the dog, &c., rise? hind-feet or fore-feet first? do they ruminate? have they

front teeth in the upper jaw? The teacher would point out how they differ from the ox, the sheep, &c.

Children living in the country are very much alive to this kind of instruction, and I found that several of them in going home from school had observed the animals when rising, and gone out of their way to make them get up; thus bringing to the test of experience what they had been taught, and commencing, at this early period, habits of observation on things around them; which, in after life, may add much to their happiness, and open out sources of enjoyment to them, to which they have hitherto been strangers.

Happening to mention that some observers of the habits of animals thought that sheep more frequently lie down on the left side than the right, I find that many of them count a flock of sheep, as to the side they are lying on, when they see them lying down in the fold or in the field; and I have no doubt will, in time, have counted such numbers as may balance their opinions one way or the other.

Mr. Jenyns says, that he mentioned to a farmer, who had passed all his life among animals belonging to the farm, this difference in the mode of rising in the horse and in the oxthe sheep and the pig-and generally in the cud-chewing and non-cud-chewing animals, but that he (the farmer) was not aware of it; and I recollect myself many years ago in college combination-room, a conversation arising, as to whether a sheep had a double row of teeth in front, similar to the horse (and in the same way the cow), when, strange to say, although every one seemed to know that it was the case with the horse, yet not more than one or two were aware that the sheep had not; and so many doubts were started about it, that two young men of the party walked a considerable distance to a field where there were some sheep, and caught one of them in order to examine it.

When able to read with tolerable ease, and when they have acquired some idea of reckoning up small numbers, which they very soon do, it will be found extremely useful occasionally to call their attention to the number of letters in a word— pointing out which are vowels, and which are consonants; for instance, the word number-how many letters? six. How many are vowels? two. Then how many consonants: some will reckon by looking at the book; others, and these are the

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