thrown. I believe myself to be one with you in this respect. When the disciple of Truth is willing to be even crucified, in all the opinions he holds dear, those in which he most glories, even then, and then only, need he certainly hope to be raised by her power in the likeness of her own image.

THE OBJECT OF ARITHMETICAL INSTRUCTION.

BY J. C. GREENOUGH.*

The first thing to be settled by the teacher, in any department of instruction, is the object to be secured by that instruction. The chief object of the study of arithmetic is the development of the reasoning faculties of the pupil. A secondary object is to fit the pupil for the transaction of that business in which a knowledge of the processes of arithmetic are required. If the teacher considers the last named the more important object, he will strive to form traders rather than men, and may be satisfied to have his pupils memorize rules and proceed to their application, without any clear understanding of the principles upon which those rules are founded. But if the teacher strive to secure the mental development of his pupils, and considers arithmetic chiefly valuable as a means to this end, he will adapt his teaching to the mental wants of his pupils.

The fault of too much of our teaching is, that it endeavors to prepare for certain specific applications of knowledge rather than to secure intellectual and moral culture. Any narrow view of his work must tend to dwarf the mind of the teacher, and to render the results of his teaching meagre. Having in mind what is to be accomplished, the teacher will readily find how to proceed in the study of arithmetic. The mental condition of the pupils will furnish a guide.

Since our first knowledge of numbers is occasioned by means of material objects, the pupil should receive his first lessons by means of objects. Numeral frames are convenient, but many teachers are unsupplied with these, and pebbles, blocks, or squares of card paper will do almost as well. In learning to name numbers from one to twenty, objects should be used by the pupil, and analyzed before the name is given.

*Normal School, Westfield, Mass.

The teacher having called the attention of the pupil to one thing and to a collection of things, and having in this way taught the meaning of the expressions, "a unit" and "a number ", is prepared to teach the names of the numbers, two, three, etc. Let us notice minutely how this is to be done. We will suppose the pupil has had a lesson upon two and three, and is ready to advance. To save space, I will abridge the statements of what the teacher and of what the pupils do and say, during the time of teaching. Both teacher and pupils should be in position to note upon the blackboard.

Teacher presents four things. Pupils. "A number."

Teacher separates into one and three. P. "The number is made up of one with three."

Teacher pronounces, spells, and writes "four." Pupils do the

same.

T. What is four? P. "Four is a number made up of one and three."

Teacher against the word "four" writes the figure 4. Pupils do the same.

Teacher gives oral questions, using or referring to familiar objects to give interest to the questions, until one and three will ever after suggest four, and vice versa.

Teacher then separates the four objects into two and two; 4 leads the pupils to state the result of the analysis, and to 1+3 note as before. By questions and answers the result of this 2+2 analysis is then fixed.

Teacher then separates the four objects into three and one, and proceeds as before. The mode of teaching for every number from one to twenty inclusive, would be similar.

The order indicated is this: A number of objects presented as a whole; analysis, oral name written, the figure or figures expressing the number named; analysis and synthesis of the number, mode expressed and fixed in mind by the pupil.

In these elementary exercises the teacher should be careful to have the pupil distinguish between numbers and the mere expressions of numbers. Even some of our bookmakers fail to do this when they give us rules directing us to "add figures." In

order to fix in mind the results of the teaching, many review exercises will be needed, both oral and written. These should be diverse and varied in form that the interest of the pupil may be maintained.

At another time I may indicate some of the different modes to be pursued by the pupil both in learning and in reciting.

PRIMARY READING.

BY JOHN D. PHILBRICK.*

There is, I believe, no branch taught in the Boston schools in which the progress during two or three years past has been more satisfactory on the whole than reading. This is true of all the classes from the sixth where the first step has to be taken, up to the first where the pupils receive the finishing touch, preparatory to admission to the Grammar School. The Edgeworths, in their admirable Essay on Practical Education, which was written more than half a century ago, say: "As it is usually managed, it is a dreadful task indeed to learn, and if possible a more dreadful task to teach to read. With the help of counters and coaxing, and gingerbread, or by dint of reiterated pain and terror, the names of the four and twenty letters of the alphabet are, perhaps, in the course of some weeks, firmly fixed in the pupil's memory. So much the worse; all these names will disturb him, if he have common sense, and at every step must stop his progress." They then describe a method of teaching the first steps of reading, by which they think that "nine-tenths of the labor and disgust of learning to read may be saved, and that instead of frowns and tears, the usual harbingers of learning, cheerfulness and smiles may initiate willing pupils in the most difficult of all human attainments."

The method which they recommended is substantially the same as that now practised by most of our primary teachers. It is what we call the phonic method. It consists in teaching the pronunciation of words by means of the sounds of the individual letters and of certain combinations of two or more letters. The phonic print, invented by Dr. Leigh, is an ingenious contrivance

* Superintendent of the Public Schools of Boston, Mass.

for facilitating the teaching of this method. Leigh's phonic charts and readers have been used in the schools of several districts with marked success. In one school I found extraordinary results produced by a skillful application of the phonic method. I visited the school after it had been under instruction four months it contained about sixty pupils, whose ages ranged from five to six years; the whole number did not begin together; they were dropping in during the period of four months. I examined about forty-four of the class, embracing those who had been longest in school. By the programme they were only required to read to the thirtieth page in the First Reader in six months, but so rapid had been their progress, that in four months they could read the whole book with facility, and they read too with a proper modulation of voice. They could spell remarkably well both by letter and by sound. The teacher had prepared them for examination in spelling only to the thirtieth page, but I found that they could spell beyond that limit about as well as they did within it. But the most surprising thing these children did, was to print a short sentence on their slates from dictation.

This is the school referred to in my last report, from which I had received several compositions, with an anonymous note from the teacher. It is in East Boston and is taught by Miss Elizabeth A. Turner, a graduate of our Training School. She made much use of the blackboard in teaching, and carried out the phonic system very thoroughly, using a system of marks to indicate the sounds of the letters, invented by herself. In beginning with a new class in March, however, she adopted Dr. Leigh's books and charts, as a means of saving some labor. I mention the results of this experiment, not with the intention of advising other teachers to try to advance pupils so fast as to print sentences from dictation, and even write little compositions during the first four months of their schooling, but merely to show what results can be reached by first-rate skill. This teacher does not profess to have any special taste for teaching little children, but finding herself in the lowest grade of a primary school, she bravely undertook to see what she could do in such a class. And she proved beyond a doubt, that it is not necessarily a "dreadful task," either, "to learn or to teach to read"; for the results I have described were not produced by the help of "counters," or "coaxing," or "gingerbread," or "by dint of reiterated pain and terror." Good teaching and management made the children willing and cheerful and smiling, and very successful. I do not mean

by presenting this case to be understood as intimating that every teacher ought to be expected to come up to the same standard. In fact, I am inclined to think that to write sentences from dictation is quite enough, if not too much to require even of the first class. The programme certainly does not require it, and, therefore, neither committee man nor master has the right to demand it. But if a teacher can accomplish it without overworking her pupils, and chooses to do it, of course no one ought to object. But I refer to this marked example of success as an illustration of what conscientious and intelligent teaching can do, and to show that the capacity of the human mind to learn is not to be measured by that of unskillful teachers to teach.—Semi-Annual Report.

METHODS OF TEACHING FOR DISTRICT SCHOOLS. No. II. Writing.

BY PROF. W M. F. PHELPS.*

In a preceding paper an attempt was made to suggest a rational plan for teaching reading and spelling to the primary classes of our district schools. A very common defect in the usual methods of primary instruction in the country schools, is the omission to connect other exercises with those heretofore described. The children are confined almost exclusively to two branches, reading and spelling, while these branches are taught in a most barren and uninteresting style. It should never be forgotten that a child has eyes and hands as well as ears and a tongue. Hence he should be taught to see and to do, as well as to hear and repeat. It may be laid down as a safe maxim, that the primary teacher who succeeds best in giving pleasant and profitable employment to the eyes and hands of her pupils, approximates nearest to the standard of perfection in her noble art. In accordance with this principle, writing should always be associated not only with reading, but with every other lesson given in a primary school. Hence lessons in writing should be among the first to be taught, and they should be given daily. The slate and pencil should be exclusively used.

The subjoined plan of teaching has been employed with suc

* Principal State Normal School, Winona, Minn.