engaged with his junior division on the floor; the assistant has the copies or slates, or pens or pencils, distributed in the desks, and his division is soon in full work. Every body is engaged. The change of place has relieved the minds of the pupils, the change of subject and position has protected the teachers from tedium or fatigue. Already much solid business has been done, much permanent good accomplished. The assistant has now time to turn for a moment from the desks to the junior division, and to cooperate with the monitor in instructing his drafts. He controls and directs the monitor whilst he aids him, keeps an eye to the general order of the room, and reports to the head master how matters proceed during his absence in the gallery. If the lesson which is being given in the gallery, admits of a break or rest in the middle, or in any part of it, the head master may take a brief glance at the principal school, have a word with the assistant or the monitor, and return to finish the lesson with his division, or, in order that he may occasionally have an opportunity of examining the pupils of the junior division in their drafts upon the floor, and those of the middle division whilst they are engaged at some desk occupation, he may change places with the assistant master, having previously given him notice of his intention, allowing the latter to give the gallery lesson to the senior division, whilst he himself takes charge of the divisions in the principal room. And thus in a quiet orderly rotation of this kind, in a life-like series of changes, with every body busy, every body happy; the head master guiding and inspiriting his assistant and his monítors; his influence every where; the instruction progressive; results, sterling and impressionable, produced at every lesson, is a school conducted on the tripartite system of organization. Bipartite System. By the Bipartite System the school is arranged in two divisions, the junior and the senior; and even without the assistance of a paid monitor, a teacher following the system laid down by the organizers could conduct a school with the same energy and effect, as that which I described in the case of the school organized on the tripartite system. The master of a bipartite school has always one division in the desks, another on the floor; the rotation is from desks to floor, and floor to desks. It does not require the same exertion to teach and superintend a bipartite, as a tripartite school. The master has a limited number of chil dren; the operations of the school are concentrated into one room; he never quits the gaze of the main body of his pupils; the changes are easily made; and he has but to labor assiduously to insure success. The pupils of a tripartite school have the advantage of gallery instruction, which is not embraced in the bipartite system; but in other respects, the latter is just as effective as the former. By omitting what relates to the gallery, from the illustration which I gave of the tripartite system, and by substituting an intelligent paid or unpaid monitor for the assistant, the description would answer just as accurately for the simple operations of a bipartite school. I need not, therefore, describe the order of procedure in a school of the latter kind. The golden rule of either system is, that the teacher as well as the pupil is constantly employed; that he has a special duty for every moment of the day; and that he discharges this duty in such a way that he can superintend the whole of the operations of his school. Modified Monitorial Teaching. The Commissioners of National Education have always encouraged monitorial teaching; they have seen that a child who is employed, at stated times, in the teaching of a class of his fellow-pupils, is rendering most valuable assistance to the master, is improving himself in knowledge, and is obtaining a taste, and undergoing the best possible training for becoming a teacher. They approached the consideration of the question with the greatest care. They never contemplated conducting a large school solely by monitorial assistance; nor did they ever permit their monitors to forget that they are pupils. The first regular monítors in the service of the Board, were those in the Model Schools, Dublin, so far back as March, 1833. Some were paid, and others acted gratuitously. One of the greatest prizes and highest distinctions in the school was to attain to a monitorship. At one time during school hours the monitors taught some of the classes, and at another time they were themselves instructed; and, before school hours, there was a special course of instruction always given them. The Commissioners, in their Report for 1837, refer to a new system of remunerating this class of young persons, in the Model Schools they were intending to establish throughout the country, which shows the permanency of the monitorial system at that early period in the history of the Board. They say, "that the money, so paid (in school fees), shall constitute a school fund, and that it shall be divided into such proportions, as we may determine, between the head master, his assistant, and the most advanced of the monitors whom he may employ." The system was always worked with moderation; it was free from the wild pretensions of the plans of Bell and Lancaster; and the pupilary and the monitorial functions were happily coalesced. It was the first rational trial, in my mind, which was given to monitorial teaching in these countries. In their Report for 1846, the Commissioners refer to the fruits of the system; they develop its organization, and they announce their determination to extend it to the Ordinary National Schools throughout the country. Each monitor was to serve for a period of four years; at the end of each year there was a sifting examination as to his proficiency; his teacher was required to employ him moderately as a monitor, and freely as a pupil; and his income increased each year up to the last of his service. The system received a further development by the institution of a small staff of pupil-teachers in each of the Model Schools, who, in most cases, were the elite of those monitors who had completed their fourth year of service. It should be remembered, that the functions of the pupil-teacher and the monitor are very different; the former is more fo a teacher than a pupil; the latter more of a pupil than a teacher. In 1855, the monitorial system received a still further extension of its usefulness, by the appointment of a number of junior paid monitors, commencing at eleven years of age, and serving for three years; to receive £2 for the first year, £3 the second, and £4 the third. If the conduct and attainments of a junior paid monitor be satisfactory at the end of his period of service, he is then drafted into the ranks of the senior paid monitors, to serve for four years more, and receiving respectively each year, £5, £6, £8, and £10. The paid monitor is now eighteen years of age, and should he persevere in his intention to become a teacher, and exhibit the necessary qualification, he may then be appointed to a pupil teachership in a District Model School, in which he remains for twelve months or two years. In this last stage, his professional education is carried to such a degree, as to qualify him in the most superior way for the offices of teaching; and at the expiration of his stay in the Model School, he is very likely at once nominated to the charge of an Ordinary National School. After serving a year or two as teacher of a school, and becoming acquainted with the difficulties and the responsibilities of the position, he is then brought up to Dublin to receive a final course of training in the Central Institution, Marlborough Street. Elaborate and well designed as each step in this gradation of monitorial training really is, and superior as have been the results flowing from it, there yet remained a gap in it, the want of a regular scheme of unpaid monitors, which has been filled up by the system of organization, and which has tended to make our monitorial system still more comprehensive and perfect. When a school is being organized, the organizer selects a class which is called "the monitor's class," from amongst the most deserving and intelligent children of the school; he admits as many as possible into the class, in order that the duties may be distributed amongst them and be light upon each; he impresses upon them the importance of their new position and the extent of the distinction which is conferred upon them; and he then arranges that in lieu of the hour a day during which, on the average, they will be called upon to teach, they shall receive an hour's extra special instruction before or after the regular school business. Wherever practicable, it is better that the instruction should be given before school hours, as the minds of the children are fresh and the teacher himself is vigorous. The subjects which are specially taught during the time for extra instruction, are those which bear most upon the duties of the monitor, the preparation of notes of the lessons, and the art of teaching; and care is taken that this instruction supplementalizes and completes the course of business of the day. In order to encourage the teachers to take an interest in the instruction of their monitors, and as a recompense for the additional duty imposed upon them, the Commissioners grant an annual gratuity of £1 for each paid monitor of the first year, £1 10s. for each paid monitor of the second year, £3 for each paid monitor of the third or fourth year, and £4, as I have already stated, for the careful instruction of an unpaid monitor's class in any school which is organized. Every school that is organized will thus have its staff of unpaid monitors. Some of them, in the course of time, will be placed on the list of junior monitors, be again drafted into the class of senior monitors, and be finally appointed as pupil-teachers in a District Model School. During each stage they are pupils one hour, monitors 391ith the studions · rising in powers of thought No. 1.-BOYS' SCHOOL. — TRIPARTITE ORGANIZATION. No. 2.- -GIRLS' SCHOOL. - TRIPArtite OrganIZATION. 10 30 to 1055 Geography and Gram- Dictation and Drawing. Home Lessons. Floor. mar. Gallery. Desks. 10 55 to 11 20 Dictation and Drawing. Home Lessons. Floor. Geography and GramDesks. mar. Gallery. 11 20 to 11 45 Home Lessons Floor. Geography and Gram-Dictation and Drawing 11 45 to 12 15 12 15 to 12 45 Reading. Gallery. mar. Gallery. Desks. Writing. Desks. Arithmetic. Floor. General Les son and Recreation in Playground. 12 45 to 115 Writing. Desks. Reading. Floor. 115 to 145 145 to 215 2 15 to 230 230 to 3 0 Reading. Floor. Arithmetic. Gallery. Slate Arithmetic. Mon., Arithmetic; Tu., Work and Natural History, or Domestic Economy.. Religious Instruction from 10 to 101⁄2 o'clock. Home Lessons and Reading. Writing Reading and Spelling. Recreation. 10 45 to 11 15 10 15 to 11 45 11 45 to 11 50 11 50 to 11 55 11 55 to 12 30 12 30 to 12 40| 12 40 to 110 110 to 130 130 to 2 0 2 0 to 230 Home Lessons. Dictation. Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, &c. Rolls called and attendance entered in Report Book. Lesson Exercise. Arithmetic. Writing. Geography and Grammar alternately. Drawing and Composition alternately. Reading and Explanation. Arithmetic in Desks. Religious Instruction from 2 to 3 o'clock. No. 4.- MIXED SCHOOL-ATTENDED BY BOYS AND GIRLS. — BIPARTITE ORGANIZATION. Religious Instruction from 10 to 101⁄2 o'clock, and from 21⁄2 to 3 o'clock. SYLLABUS OF LECTURES ON METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. I. — METHOD IN GENERAL. a. Definition. Literal meaning: true method is a way of transit from one to the other of related things- a unity with progression: a mental act: relations of things are its materials: it is never arbitrary: the habit of method results from education: arrangement or order is not method: its great principles are union and progression: it leads to thoughtfulness, understanding, learning, and application. b. Importance. In domestic affairs: agriculture: construction of a watch: discourse, private or public: poetry-a play: meditation-science: education-starting point, object to be attained, and course: in this course the teacher should assist and direct, develop facts, prevent idleness, and advance gradually. e. Necessity for. All is chaos without it: no convenient arrangement: no natural disposition of things: no solid progress can be made: the rambling, incoherent character of ordinary teaching. d. Divisions. The two great methods are Synthesis or Induction, and Analysis or Deduction: the subordinate methods are the Socratic, Didactic, Elliptical, &c. II. THE TWO GREAT METHODS. By these every subject may be treated. a. Synthesis. Literal meaning of the term: is a putting together the parts or elements of any subject, step by step: also called Induction proceeds from the simple to the complex the particuler to the general · it in thanut is purely synthetic: letters taken by twos to form such words as an, ox, &c. : in the next section we have distinct lessons on ă, ě, I, ō, ú: then a mixture of all these in the next five lessons: the next five lessons are on ǎ and a, é and é, í and i, õ and ó, ŭ and ū, respectively in the concluding lessons of the section we have a mixture of these several sounds: the first five lessons of the third section give the short sounds of the vowels followed by two consonants, as act, elm, &c.: then a mixture of these: next a as in ball: o in love: a combination or mixture of long and short sounds and double consonants, as in cheese, shell, &c.: diphthongs: digraphs: silent consonants: peculiar sounds: combinations of three consonants: the beauty and method of this arrange ment. WRITING affords another example of synthesis: straight lines: curves: crotchet letters: capitals: Mulhauser's system; not his invention; he reduced the number of elements and arranged them synthetically: his merit lies in this. DRAWING, another illustration of synthesis: straight lines |- \/: curves : combinations of these with straight lines: the circle: the ellipse: combinations, &c. GEOMETRY-definitions, postulates, axioms, and propositions. CHEMISTRY-the formation of water by detonating by means of the electric spark, the proper mixture of oxygen and hydrogen. MUSIC affords another illustration of synthesis: Hullah's system of teaching music is an admirable example of pure synthesis. b. Analysis. - Literal meaning of the term: the separation of a compound into its component parts: also called Deduction: proceeds from the complex to the simplethe general to the particular: the opposite of synthesis: Jacotot its great supporter in modern times. ILLUSTRATIONS: — LANGUAGE-sentences, clauses, words, and letters: CHEMIS TRY- the decomposition of water by means of the galvanic battery: GEOMETRY— the deducibles: bread. c. Application.- Analysis has been compared to the efforts of a traveller proceeding from the mouth of a river to its source, and synthesis to the efforts of the same traveller in retracing his steps to the mouth: both methods used in the discovery of truth: hence, they may be mutually employed: exclusive use of either unsuccessful: the analytic more used in the discovery of truth, the synthetic in conveying instruction: he who would teach synthetically must first analyze: the method to be used depends on the subject, and the pupils, and the teacher: every teacher should be an expert analyst: analysis cannot be used in teaching signs to children: they get their knowledge synthetically: they do not analyze: hence, synthesis must prevail in every subject: consistent facts only should be stated: avoid analysis till the mind is considerably developed: it is not to be used in teaching the junior classes: “ Easy Lessons on Reasoning"-the first eight chapters analytical, and the remaining ones synthetical. III. - SUBORDINATE METHODS. a. Socratic consists of a series of questions logically or methodically arranged: also called Catechetical or Interrogative: either analytic or synthetic: teaching may be catechetical without being Socratic: this form prevails in ordinary schools: the remedy: directions for questioning: 1. The question, both in matter and language, should be within the comprehension of the pupils. 2. It should be precise, so as to admit of a definite answer. 3. It should be such as not to admit of a simple "yes" or "no" for the answer. 4. It should not require a very long answer. 5. The questions should be methodical - a progressive order or chain of questions: simple to complex, or vice versa. 6. The questions should be interspersed with explanatory remarks from the teacher. The uses of this method are two:- First, for examination: second, for conveying instruction: " Instruct the pupils by questioning knowledge into them, and examine by questioning it out of them: " the catechetical consists of three stages: preliminary questions, questions of instruction, and questions of examination: a good plan to let pupils question one another. Cautions:- simultaneous answers: defective answers: wrong answers: correct them indirectly: random answers: good answers- approbation: answers in a pupil's own language: to arouse the listless pupil: thinking time: suggestive questions: book or author: "Is he right?" b. Elliptic Method. -What is it: used during the progress of the lesson, that is, in teaching, and in examination: particularly applicable in examining upon an anecdote: its advantages-does not interrupt the continuity of the lesson, is more concise than the catechetical, and relieves it: directions for forming ellipses: 1. A good ellipsis is equivalent to a good question. 2. The elliptic method should be associated with the catechetical. 3. The ellipsis should be adapted to the capabilities of the pupils. 4. It should be adapted to their attainments. 5. It should not admit of an ambiguous answer. 6. It should not end with "what," "how," &c. e. Dogmatic.-What is it: neither analytic nor synthetic: becomes analytic when accompanied by explanation. d. Didactic. e. Explanatory. f. Picturing out, &c. |