66

E.—ls.

demonstration, on the blackboards and so forth, is done by them also, the teacher acting simply as chairman. The questioning and answering in arithmetic, and the criticism of the methods used by those children who demonstrated the work to the class, were very good, especially the criticism, in the 4th, sth, and Bth classes. The method pursued was this : One child proposed a question to the class, and, if necessary, wrote it on the board ; the class worked the question mentally while the questioner was thinking how he was going to demonstrate the method presently; then the latter picked out a boy or girl to give the answer. Those who got the same answer and those who got other answers were asked to stand in succession; the questioner demonstrated the working ; others sometimes proposed better methods, and, being challenged, demonstrated them to the class, who expressed their opinion, perhaps, that this method was shorter, but hard to understand ; that that method was better to teach to beginners ; that this method was better for mental work, that for pencil-work, and so forth. All sums were worked mentally, but every pupil made brief notes, showing merely the question, the outline of the method, and the answer. The teacher sometimes criticized the form of the question as wanting in clearness, and it had to be re-stated ; or the class objected to it because it was not practical, and the objection was upheld in one case, but disallowed in another ; or both class and teacher objected to a question as merely repeating something done already, or as not leading to any point. The attention to order, and conformity to courtesy in debate was as strict as if the class had been working under parliamentary rules. The first question given in the Bth grade was : Find the simple interest on 336 dollars for 9 months 10 days at 6 per cent, per annum. (In America, in calculating interest, a month is counted as equal to 30 days.) This was done correctly by five-sixths of the class, methods were discussed, and, finally, notes of three ways of doing it appeared in the children's books. The result of a fiftyminute lesson in that class was as good a revision of work in direct percentages —dealing with population, weights and measures, as well as money — as one could wish to see in the course of a lesson. There was no priggish - ness or oversharpness ; the slightest inclination thereto would be checked by the class or by the teacher. All pupils seemed fully employed throughout the lesson. I heard a pupils' lesson in history, which was half discussion, half mutual examination (two of the pupils had evidently, in preparation, made themselves masters of the state of England at the death of Edward VI). The teacher finally summed up the discussion, and the pupils were set to write a precis of the facts. A lesson in geography was not quite so successful, probably because one of the pupils, out of compliment to the visitor, began with a question on the industries of New Zealand, and, class and teacher soon getting adrift in their facts, the visitor was called upon to put the matter right. A lesson on the same lines in English in the Bth grade, however, formed a final good impression, as pupil after pupil, girls and boys, showed by question and answer a fine appreciation of the meaning and beauty of Bryant's " Forest Hymn." I should like to be able to say that most of our Standard VI classes, to which this corresponded, could do half as well in English. The questions were as good as the answers, and the notes made as good as either. The teachers do not do more than generally supervise the notes. In ten minutes I saw one lady correct the notes of the previous lesson in English for a class of thirty-five. It must be remembered that the pupils' notes are, in most schools, one of the chief factors determining promotion from class to class. The school, like others in Boston, has recently given up the division into primary grades and grammar grades, nine in all, and has formed eight grades for the whole of the elementary work above the Kindergarten—that is, for children of the ages six to fourteen. Dull children will still take nine years, but children of average ability will pass through in the eight years allotted. Single desks are used, but of a much larger size than the so-called American models that have been adopted, unfortunately, in some New Zealand schools. Indeed, nowhere in the United States did I see single desks so short as 22 in. in use in the Grade Classes ; the usual length was nearer that which the Education Department has always recommended— 28 in. or 30 in. The class-rooms are roomy, the allowance perjpupil being apparently about 15 square feet of floor-space, with good height —say, about 14 ft. As it was the first school I had visited in the United States, I was struck by the ample allowance of wall-board space for the use of ; .>pupils and teachers, by the electric lighting, and the telephones in every room for communication between the headmaster and his staff.