CHAPTER XX.

ELEMENTARY COURSE.

In the illustrations here given of several elementary branches, additional to reading and elocution,* we present the manner in which the rudiments only are communicated; for, when properly commenced, there is little risk of subsequent failure in the advanced stages. The foundations of any subject are the most essential parts to be attended to.

WRITING.

In acquiring the art of writing, certain rules must be attended to,—the children must be taught and shown how to sit, hold the pen, etc., but still the things must be done by the pupils themselves, therefore it always was, and ever must be, training. There is therefore nothing peculiar in the method pursued in the model schools, which other masters do not present, if we except the attention paid to the physical movements to and from seats, taking out and putting away pens, copies, etc., which cultivate a habit of order and obedience.

Training lessons, however, are given simultaneously on the elements of the letters, both small and capital, from the black-board, besides lessons as to the use of blottingpaper, mode of taking out ink with the pen so as to avoid blotting the copy, etc. It is recommended, after the example of some of the most successful writing-masters, that the pen knuckles point perpendicularly to the *See Chapter 14.

be held so that the

ceiling. We believe this secures the greatest uniformity of style of any other position, the little and ring fingers resting easily on the paper, not merely on the tip of the little one; left arm nearly close to the side, as a rest for the chest, and right elbow angled outwards (not in, as of old); shoulders and spine pretty nearly erect. The old method of the right elbow being kept close to the side, naturally tended to form curved or divergent lines, instead of parallel ones. A bold, round hand at the commencement is of course the best security for acquiring a distinct legible current hand, and the mode of sitting and holding the pen now recommended, we believe, easily secures this. We have seen a school of sixty boys on these principles trained to write so nearly alike, as that, at the distance of two or three feet, sixty sheets appeared as if written by one individual. Writing books and copy texts with faint lines, are a more natural method of commencing to teach the art than books of plain paper. It lends, as it were, a helping hand, as in walking, but so soon as the pupil can proceed alone, give him plain paper.

ARITHMETIC, MENTAL AND BY PEN.

MENTAL ARITHMETIC is an interesting and improving exercise to the young, and presents many advantages to persons engaged in business, which the highest power of calculation by pen fails of accomplishing. Some persons, possessing the power of mental calculation, seldom use a pen except in very complex questions. Mental arithmetic ought to precede that by pen, accompany it at every stage, and also succeed it. It holds a similar place to arithmetic on the slate that mental composition does to that on paper.

Mental arithmetic may be commenced in the initiatory department, and is an excellent preparative for the simple rules - by pen, which were wont to be the dullest and most unintellectual of all exercises, if we except the A B C, or the committing to memory of the rules of English grammar.

?

These exercises may be conducted with the whole scholars in the gallery, or half the number, or in divisions. It is only because in youth the mind is not sufficiently capacious and retentive that arithmetic by pen is at all necessary. There are a variety of publications with examples of mental arithmetic.* In the initiatory and even the junior departments it is preferable-instead of merely asking such questions as, How many are one and one and two? how many are two and one and three? etc. etc. - that objects be mentioned, e. g., one duck and two sparrows-how many Two horses and one hen-how many feet? etc. Two horses, one cow, and one hen-how many? Five chairs and fourteen spoons how many articles? etc. etc., proceeding onwards slowly step by step. The mention of the objects, in addition to the simple numbers, adds interest and exercise to the young mind. Each question must be repeated very slowly and distinctly, giving the pupils time to think, while you are putting the question in order that they may be prepared to give a ready answer. The most interesting mode of conducting mental arithmetic is the addition, in the first instance, of articles with which the children are familiar, the subtraction of some, and the multiplication and division of others, in regard of which both trainer and pupils acquire by practice a facility of proposing and answering questions.

ARITHMETIC ON SLATES.-This branch is now conducted so well in some of the best schools, that we do not presume to have any very distinct peculiarity. This is found more efficient when a dozen or twenty children are exercised by the master at one stage, the account being given by dictation, or from the black-board. This excites emulation; and, as is well known, some naturally possess the faculty of calculation in a much higher degree than others. Those who are generally most correct in finding the answers may be removed to

* Those principally in use in this seminary are 'M'Leod's First and Second Books.'

a higher class, and their place supplied by the equally deserving of the class under them. This can be accomplished without taking places, and while it retards none, it secures that all progressively advance in this department of education, úp to the amount of their capability. As an exercise of moral honesty or training, our masters frequently accept the statement from each child as to which is first, second, third, fourth, etc., in the answers, and it is rare that any attempt is made to deceive. They are treated as gentlemen, and they maintain the honour. The moral trainer will, of course, take pains to encourage the timid in this, as in every department, and discourage the physical boisterousness of the forward. This may be done by putting individual questions to the one, and occasionally passing by the others. The practice of showing off before visitors, only three or four of the duxes, is subversive of moral training. It may gain applause to the master, but it depresses many who are truly meritorious, and generates in the few, feelings of pride and vanity. In a large school on this plan there might be four classes for the simple, four for the compound rules, and two for the rules next in order. Admitting that there is one master and one assistant-trainer to a school of about 120 children, monitors might be employed at this branch with less injury to themselves and the scholars, than at most other branches; and unless these monitors are greatly advanced in age and acquirements, above those of their classes, so as to present the character of assistants, they ought to be frequently changed, for the sake of preventing injury to the monitors themselves. One of the masters ought always to take one or other of the classes either in the simple, compound, or advanced rules, and the head-master would do well to superintend the whole, and either he, or the second master, as may be more convenient, ought to collect all the classes in the first division, into the gallery at one time, and drill them well in one or other of the simple rules; at another time, those in the compound rules; and,

again, those in the more advanced rules-proportion, practice, etc. These frequent revisals are of great importance. Fractions, etc., may be conducted on the same principle. We believe children will become the most thorough arithmeticians where the master revises the simple and compound rules frequently; indeed, every alternate day ought to be a revisal in the gallery. In the more advanced rules of fractions, etc., the principal mistakes occur from not being thoroughly familiar with the simple and compound rules. A very frequent revisal of large classes by the head-master, from questions by the black-board, is therefore of paramount importance. In fact, it is the want of being thoroughly grounded in the common rules that accounts for so few persons being good arithmeticians, and so it is in every other branch of education.

Whenever the principle of the sympathy of numbers, which the gallery affords, can be introduced into any branch, there the greatest amount of knowledge is infused, how widely soever the natural powers of the children may differ. The vigorous need not be retarded, and the weak and timid are encouraged to persevere.

These principles are pursued in the juvenile and senior departments of the Normal Seminary; but as many of the scholars had been previously at other schools, and had been accustomed to the old mode of each working out his own account at a desk, and then showing it to the master; and as many who were practising proportion, or the compound rules, could not work an account quickly or correctly in the simple rules, rather than turn the whole back at once, to simple addition, a middle course was taken of alternating the classification, as previously stated, and permitting them, every second day, to work out accounts alone,—each child getting on 'through the book,' as of old, without, we fear, getting 'into it.'

BOOK-KEEPING ON THE TRAINING SYSTEM.-Book-keeping