85

H.—l

English history is indispensable to a liberal education, and that the subject admits of being so taught as not to make great demands on the pupil's time. In fact a strong pressure is being constantly brought to make history part of the course of our primary schools. There is a feeling that it is disgraceful for boys and girls to leave school without some idea at least of such epochs as the Norman Conquest, the wars with France, the Reformation, the Great Rebellion, and the Revolution, or without some acquaintance with the histories of Alfred, William the Conqueror, Henry VIII., Cromwell, and William 111. In reply, I would beg my readers to ask themselves what knowledge worth having a boy of fifteen can acquire about times and persons thoroughly unlike his own. Let us take one of the illustrations I have used—the Great Rebellion. The England of that day was not the mining, manufacturing England of this century, a country covered with railways and studded with large towns. It had no newspaper press worth speaking of; its Houses of Peers and Commons held quite different relations from those which exist at present; its taxation had been or was independent of excise, and property-tax, and assessed taxes ; its people were influenced by religion in the conduct of their daily lives and in their political struggles to an extent that can scarcely be understood now. Its Courts were governed in their procedure and decisions by precedents of the Middle Ages, while its ripest thinkers anticipated the ideas which have been embodied in the American Constitution. Thanks to Macaulay, Hallam, Carlyle, Sandford, and Gardiner, any man of average education may study these times with insight and understanding. But the cleverest boy or girl can learn nothing that is really worth knowing about them from such text-books (excellent of their kind) as Edith Thomson's and Bright's histories, the books now in use in our schools. What they learn is a farrago of dates and technical names (like ship-money and Star Chamber), and names of battles and names of statesmen and generals ; and what they remember is an anecdote here and there, or a striking incident—the execution of Charles 1., or the concealment of his son in an oak. They fail to learn more, not only, or chiefly, because their text-books are meagre, but because their minds are undeveloped. It takes some knowledge of the world, or a high imaginative faculty, to transplant oneself back into past ages, and understand the character and springs of action of a different time. So far as I can judge, very few acquire the knowledge, or develop the imagination, or feel an interest in history proper till they have reached the first year of an University course." The views so forcibly stated in the above extract are, in my judgment, as true as they are happily expressed, and I hope that they will have some weight in excluding from the elementary school course a perusal, at the best superficial and probably devoid of interest or appreciation, of the whole length of English history, and in directing the attention of teachers and pupils to the events and circumstances of the British Empire for the last two hundred years at the most. To this should be added the history of New Zealand, with some account of our Constitution aud mode of government; but on this subject we shall have to await the composition of a suitable local work. Discipline. In attention to orderly movements and class-drill, the past year has witnessed considerable improvement, and this improvement has helped to raise the standard of quietness, attention, and diligent application among the pupils generally. In the exercise of the moral governance that constrains to a careful, painstaking, and conscientious performance of whatever is in hand—a gift which is the noblest a teacher can possess —there has been little change to chronicle. The general tone continues to improve, but there are not many schools in which it is entirely satisfactory. As an indication of the true tone of a school, I know of no better guide than the manner and bearing of the pupils while engaged at the desks in answering tho questions set. In a high-toned school, one is struck by the air of earnestness pervading the classes, by their look of seriousness or even anxiety, and by the diligence with which the answers are revised and improved, until the expiry of the time allowed. Such a sight as this gladdens the heart, and forces on one the recognition of the momentous importance of the moral training, in the widest sense of the term, which is being imparted in every school. But it is seldom that one can indulge in the luxury of so grateful a sight. The reverse of the picture may be seen commonly enough. In such cases, haste and want of care, a look of oracular confidence, indifference to revisal or correction of answers, and a manifest feeling of relief when the ungenial task is done and the pen can be laid aside, are all too observable. These indications of an unsound tone are, I regret to say, far too prevalent, though they have certainly been less conspicuous than formerly. In a very few schools the spirit of insubordination showed itself in wilful and deliberate annoyance and interruption of the school work ; but, on the whole, fewer cases of incapacity to rule came under my notice than in former years. In connection with discipline, there is one important matter that craves a few remarks : I allude to the manners and behaviour o£ the pupils in the playground, and on the way to and from school. The marked want of common politeness which characterizes the pupils of many schools must be a matter of frequent remark. In vain do you wish them " Good-morning," or " Good-day," for they are sure to disregard your civil salutation, and probably laugh rudely in your face or stare you out of countenance. There are even villages in which I account it an honor not to have my name called out as I pass along the street. Now I feel sure that such barbarous behaviour as I have been describing is, in most instances, the result of not knowing any better, and that the trachers of the public schools could, with a little attention, check it and improve it off the face of the land. More than this, I think every public teacher is in duty bound to watch closely the general behaviour of his pupils, and to point out, as occasion may offer, cases of gross and improper conduct. By remonstrance and a good example, he could do a great deal to foster in them feelings and habits of politeness and courtesy to all they come in contact with, and to train them to give a civil response to the recognition of friends or strangers. lam well aware that many parents are indifferent to these matters, and that home influences and examples are not unfrequently adverse to the acquisition of good breeding and courteous "behaviour. No doubt some allowance must be made on this account in judging of a teacher's wider influence, but tho differences in point of behaviour between schools placed in similar circumstances is so pronounced, that I must believe that the influence of a teacher of weight and earnestness much more than counterbalances the hostile influences of home training aud example, and that, wherever there is serious cause for complaint on this head, the teacher fails to discharge one of