"5. ...... National School.-When I entered, a monitor was reading from a book entitled, The Truths of the Christian Religion, and each sentence was repeated after him by the whole class. I stopped him at the passages, 'calculated to advance his own honour, the happiness of mankind, to banish idolatry.' I then successively asked the meaning of the words 'calculated,' ' advance,' 'banish,' 'idolatry,' but I could get no reply to any one of them, and the whole class and the master seemed aghast at my questions. The latter said, they had not been accustomed to that sort of questioning. They could not tell me who 'his,' in the phrase 'his own honour,' referred to. I then asked them to repeat the second commandment, which they did fluently; but after much questioning, I found they had not the slightest idea of what 'graven image, or 'likeness of anything in heaven above, or in the earth beneath,' was intended to convey.

National School.

'6. The boys' school appears very bad, as the explanatory system is almost unknown. I heard the second class instructed in Ostervald's Abridgment, by a monitor of the first class, who could barely read himself. The children, having read a chapter from Ostervald, were questioned by the monitor from printed questions referring to the chapter, but only some of the answers were printed. One question was, 'who constrained Joseph to go and sojourn in Egypt?' The answer was 'compelled, forced,' which I could not comprehend till I found that the next question in the book was, 'What is the meaning of the word constrained?' 'Answer, compelled, forced.' The children had annexed the wrong answer to the question. Another question was, "Who lived about this time?' The children answered, 'Jesus Christ;' the time alluded to being that of Joseph. But the monitor did not appear to perceive the absurdity of the answers, and went to another question. The above is a fair sample of what I have continually witnessed in National Schools,' in which all improvement seems to be impossible, as long as so close and servile an adherence to Bell's system is persisted in.

.........

......

"7. National School. On questioning the children in Arithmetic, they replied, after much difficulty, to how much 6 and 3, and 10 and 4 made; but none could tell what twice 2 amounted to. The majority of National Schools have no Bibles in them, but generally Trimmer's Abridgment, and not unfrequently a much smaller abridgment than Trimmer's, is the only part of the Scriptures contained in National Schools. I have frequently, in these schools, asked the children if they have been baptized, when the usual answer is a flat denial; but every child will allow that it has

been christened. The fact is, in common conversation, this rite is invariably alluded to under the term of christening,' the word 'baptism' being very rarely used. The former term, however, is nowhere used in the Catechism, where this sacrament is always called 'baptism:' the children, however, according to the almost universal plan in National Schools, never having been taught to understand what they read, are unaware that the sacrament of baptism, about which they read almost daily in the schools, most of them probably having repeated the answers in the Catechism above a thousand times, is the identical ceremony which they have all undergone in their infancy."*

I make no apology for the length of this extract; the facts which it contains show most conclusively the absolute necessity of a vigorous and impartial inspection of all schools assisted by public money.

But there is another important point involved in this scheme of inspection, which is thus noticed in the instructions already quoted:

"The reports of the inspectors are intended to convey such further information respecting the state of elementary education in Great Britain, as to enable Parliament to determine in what mode the sums voted for the education of the poorer classes can be most usefully applied. With this view, reports on the state of particular districts may be required, to ascertain the state of education in such districts, and how far the interference of Government or of Parliament can be beneficially exerted by providing additional means of education."+

Necessity general enquiry into

of further

Notwithstanding the great mass of evidence of various kinds which has been collected on this subject, there is undoubtedly great need for further enquiry. And this mass of evidence itself is so much in want of education

* State Education, &c., by the Rev. Baden Powell, App. No. 3, pp. 96-103.

+ Extracts from Minutes, § 9.

the state of

in Great Britain.

3. Training schools for

arrangement as to be at presen of comparatively little practical use. What the Commissioners for enquiry into the Poor Laws did for the important question of Poor Law Reform needs to be done for the still more important question of Education Reform. But can the discharge of this duty be reasonably looked for at the hands of the school-inspectors under the committee of council?

The best consideration that I have been able to give to this question has led me to the conclusion, that the required information would be most satisfactorily obtained by the appointment of a commission of enquiry, whose duties should be expressly limited to this one object. And I have the satisfaction of knowing that this is the opinion of Mr. Leonard Horner,* whose experience, as one of the inspectors of factories, gives increased value to his judgment on the subject, and that the same opinion was expressed by my lamented friend, Mr. B. F. Duppa, in his observations on Lord Brougham's bill of 1838.+

The first step towards the general and permanent masters. improvement of our schools, consists in the improved education of schoolmasters. What Cousin describes as the great educational maxim of Prussia, "As is the master so will be the school," has at length become tolerably familiar to English ears, but as yet it has wrought little change in English practice.

It is true, we no longer hear persons officially connected with popular education asserting that three months is a sufficient period for the acquisition of all

* In the preliminary remarks to his translation of Cousin's Report on Education in Holland.

† See the second publication of the Central Society of Education, p. 159, seqq.

the special knowledge necessary to a schoolmaster;* but it is still a reproach to us that England does not possess one training-school which affords anything approaching to an adequate course of study and preparation for the masters of popular schools. And there is probably no other country in Europe in which the profession of education is left so much at the mercy of ignorance and quackery.

Nearly five years since, the sum of £10,000 was Parliamentary grant, voted by Parliament towards the erection of 'normal 1835. or model schools,' for training schoolmasters. This sum, from whatever cause-but chiefly, it would seem, from the want of some central authority, able efficiently to watch its appropriation,—remained wholly unexpended until the present year.

1840.

Proceed

ings of the

of Council

On the formation of the Educational Committee of the Privy Council, the appropriation of this grant be- Committee came matter of immediate consideration; and it appeared of to the committee that its object would be best attained blishment by founding "a school in which candidates might ac- normal quire the knowledge necessary to the exercise of their school. future profession, and be practised in the most approved methods, both of moral training and of instruction.......

"Such a school" (in the opinion of this committee) "necessarily included a model school in which children might be taught and trained, and it appeared expedient that it should comprise children of all ages, from three to fourteen, in sufficient numbers to form an infant school, as well as a school for children above seven. A considerable portion of the children were to board and lodge in the establishment, in order that the means

of a central

* See the evidence of the Rev. W. Johnson, clerical superintendent of the schools of the National Society, before the select committee of the Commons on Education.

of moral training might be proportionately more complete, and opportunities be afforded to the candidate. teachers for acquiring a knowledge of the method of regulating the moral condition of such a household, greater than any which could be obtained in a school attended solely or chiefly by day scholars.

"The model school, thus formed, would have afforded examples of approved methods of instruction in each stage of proficiency, and in each department of knowledge. The earliest information of all improvements would have been obtained; they would have been systematically examined, and introduced when approved, in that form which might appear to render them most easily applicable to the wants of the country. Industrial and moral training were to be developed, so as constantly to give a practical tendency to the entire instruction of the school, supplying the future handicraftsman, or domestic servant, with the knowledge required in his station, and reducing precept to habit.

"The model and normal schools were to have been beneath the superintendence of a rector, acting under the regulation of the Committee of Council. The selection of teachers and of candidates for the office of teacher would have been a subject of great difficulty and importance. Diligent enquiry, under direction of the committee, concerning their previous habits and associations, an examination of their attainments, evidence of gentleness of disposition, and a fondness for the duties of an educator, together with a sense of the secular and religious responsibility of the office, would have been essential preliminaries to the admission of a candidate.

"The internal organization of the model school indicates the method of instruction which was to have been adopted. The Committee of Council proposed to arrange the classes in separate rooms, or in sections of