C]

LIII

E.—2.

young teachers are themselves particularly weak. Most of our pupil-teachers and probationers take up their positions three or four years after leaving Standard VI. They seem to have lost the deliberate and clear reading that characterizes our Standard VI pupils. These naturally go to the infant departments to assist in the training of the junior classes, and the despair of the mistress may be easily imagined when she finds her helpers unable to read well, ignorant of the importance -of" lip drill, and untrained in the use of the organs of speech so as to produce a pleasant tone. The remedy is in the hands of the head teachers. Let them give the pupil-teachers and probationers regular and systematic training in phonics. Five minutes daily will work wonders in a very short time. Written composition continues to improve. In those schools where teachers realize that every lesson is, and should be made, a composition lesson, oral composition is rapidly improving, and in these schools the teachers are meeting with their reward in the increased interest of their pupils and in the more easily maintained discipline. In many schools, however, there is a tendency for answers to take a stereotyped form, and to be given even in the upper classes in simple sentences. This tendency may be checked if the teacher keeps before the class a list of suitable connective words that lend themselves to the formation of picturesque sentences. With such helps even the pupils of Standard I soon get into the habit of expressing themselves in easy complex sentences. We are pleased to report that grammar is gradually coming to its own again, but we must urge upon teachers the necessity for insisting on making it what it should be, the handmaid of composition, both written and oral, especially the latter. The quality of recitation is being well maintained in the schools, and we seldom have to complain that pupils do not have a good knowledge of the thought-contents of the pieces learned. The picture work showing the child's interpretation of the piece is in most cases exceedingly creditable. Arithmetic—This is perhaps the best-taught subject in the whole curriculum. To the improvement in mechanical accuracy must in part be attributed the high percentage of proficiency certificates gained at the end of the year. Teachers have been giving more attention to the memorizing of tables and to systematic practice in long tot work. In connection with the memorizing of tables much time is lost, especially in the smaller schools. The writing of tables should always be supplemented by oral repetition for a few minutes two or three times a day when the pupils are quite fresh. Even the assembly and dismissal might be effectively used for this purpose. The success that has followed the systematic work at long tots should induce teachers to give some attention to similar practice in other mechanical work in which short rational methods of great practical value may be applied. 'Ihe general practice of treating arithmetic as a textbook subject still holds, but we are pleased to record an increase in the number of teachers who act in accordance with the idea that applied knowledge is power. These teachers, by requiring their pupils to weigh and measure objects, and by utilizing their environment as an area for the application of the rules and principles taught, have invested the subject with an interest and a reality productive of the best results. Geography and Observational Work.—Many of our teachers, uninfluenced by modern educational aims and methods, still allow the text-book too prominent a place. With these the school ramble, having for its object education by means of observation instead of instruction by definition, is seldom undertaken, with the result that the treatment of geography and nature-study lacks reality. Where opportunities of getting first-hand knowledge by observation are utilized the observational faculties are quickened, the accumulation of isolated facts is avoided, and the power to apply the knowledge possessed to the acquisition of further knowledge is strengthened. In nature-study the formal lesson is too common. If this were supplemented by short talks on matters that come within the daily experience of the children the result would be a mental alertness and a facility of expression that would react favourably on every branch of school-work. History.—Recently the position of history in the schools of the Dominion has been severely commented on, chiefly by University men, and the matter is one that demands serious consideration. Inspectors throughout the Dominion have repeatedly directed attention to the fact that history has not received its due. We assert most unhesitatingly that the responsibility for this rests not with the teachers of the primary and secondary schools of the Dominion, but with tho University authorities and the Education Department. The work of the secondary schools is largely guided by the requirements for the University Scholarships examination, and for that examination the subject has not been a "paying" one. In the past it has carried only 425 marks, while the marks for other subjects have ranged from 600 to 1,500. Again, if a student takes history as a subject for a degree, he has to couple it with another, such as jurisprudence or constitutional history, thus presenting himself in seven subjects, while by avoiding history he may get his degree in six. With regard to the history of the primary schools the Department is entirely to blame. History has not been a compulsory subject for teachers' certificates, and no provision has been made for it in the training college course. Until the Department realizes its responsibility in this respect, and staffs our training colleges with competent lecturers in history and geography, by whom every student without exception shall be trained in the best methods of studying and teaching these subjects, it is futile to look for more than we are getting in the schools at present. So little importance has the Department attached to history in the primary schools that its regulation on the subject expressly states that " the requirements of this subject shall be held to be satisfied by the use of reading-books embracing the topics named." A more direct discouragement to the intelligent teaching of the subject it would be difficult to find. In most of our schools some form of handwork or manual training is undertaken, and in most cases deftness and mechanical accuracy are being developed very satisfactorily. The various subjects taken up lend themselves admirably to the cultivation of the power of oral expression,