REPORT by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, T. W. M. Number of students. Staff of teachers. MY LORDS, THE number of students now in this institution is twenty-four, of whom ten are second and fourteen first-year students. All are Queen's scholars. I anticipate that about twenty-five candidates will seek admission in December next, and it is probable that the total number of students in residence will not at any time much exceed fifty, the great advantages offered at this college being, in some degree, neutralized by its geographical position. It is, however, extremely satisfactory to me to know, from personal observation as well as from the recorded opinions of more competent judges, that the larger number of students who will naturally be attracted to Liverpool on account of its more convenient situation will enjoy at that admirable institution the highest privileges during the whole course of their training. When, therefore, a student from my own district elects to pursue her studies in the northern training college, it is impossible for me to oppose any objection; because, whatever her choice may be, it is certain that she will enjoy all the advantages which she can desire to secure in preparing for her future profession. It is indeed a subject of congratulation, as well as a complete guarantee for the efficiency of female Roman Catholic teachers, that two institutions in different parts of the kingdom are now in active operation, in both of which the teaching is of so high an order, so conspicuous for breadth, minuteness, and accuracy, that the students in each consider themselves especially privileged, and perhaps in both cases with equal reason. The staff at the St. Leonard's Training college is composed exactly as in former years, and the ladies who hold office in it continue to discharge the duties which they have so generously undertaken with the same energy and animation, the same patient devotion and assiduity, and certainly with undiminished practical skill. Perhaps the most useful report which I can offer on the present state of the institution will be found in a brief outline of the system pursued in the various branches of instruction, for details of which I am indebted to the considerate kindness of the superioress, by whom the principles which regulate the whole course both of teaching and discipline have been defined, and the effect of whose prudent counsels and intelligent supervision is manifested in every department and in every feature of the college. tion. In the lectures given to the students on the theory of school Organizakeeping the following order appears to be observed. After some general instruction on school fabrics, their proper dimensions and proportions, the most suitable sites for urban and rural schools respectively, and other points immediately connected with these-with respect to which, although they are perhaps not likely to exercise any personal influence, they should at least possess definite notions-they are brought to the consideration of— Internal Arrangements.-Under this head is included all which properly belongs to the subject of school organization; the different ways in which schools may be fitted up, with the advantages and disadvantages peculiar to each, and the simplest and most effective method of removing the latter; the proper use of parallel desks, circular groups, and galleries; the subjects to be taught to the classes assembled in each, and the reasons which recommend a special kind of organization for certain branches of instruction. Finally, the students are exercised in drawing plans of school-rooms for any number of children under given circumstances. The apparatus of a school forms the subject of one or more special lectures, and the students are assisted to adjust and apply the experimental knowledge which they have acquired during the period of their apprenticeship. They are exercised on this subject in the practising school, and I am glad to learn that it is proposed for the future to secure a more practical and familiar knowledge of it by giving each second-year student the entire charge of the elementary school for certain portions of the year, under as many different circumstances as possible. It is to be regretted, however, that the number of children composing this school is, and probably will continue to be, inconsiderable; a disadvantage which is not altogether counteracted by the excellence of the methods employed and the skill of the teacher. On the other hand, it is worthy of observation that twelve of the students at the recent examination were marked "good" in school management, and that eight out of ten of the second-year students, a remarkably large proportion, obtained that distinction. Discipline, which may perhaps be deemed the most critical Discipline. and effective test of the real character of a school, is a point to which the attention of the students is urgently directed; Method. training college with remarkable power, and a thorough knowledge of the principles which ought to guide a teacher in her attempts to secure this great object, the beginning and end of all educational efforts. It is impossible to indicate within reasonable limits the very minute and careful treatment which it receives, and the results of which I think I have already observed in several students who have quitted the institution. They are instructed that this fundamental point of school management depends more than any other upon the mistress herself and her own gifts, natural and acquired. The work of discipline must begin therefore with herself, and on this first principle the whole subject rests. By self-discipline alone she gains the power of establishing and maintaining her authority, of securing prompt and cheerful obedience, of rewarding without weakness and rebuking without intemperance, of acquiring permanently the esteem and confidence of her pupils, and above all the difficult art of convincing even the most sensitive that her punishments are acts of love, I must add that I have seen such conclusive evidence of the results of this teaching in the case of students now in charge of schools as to leave no doubt of the practical effect which it has produced upon them. The lectures on method, arranged under the two general heads of collective and individual, with the usual subdivisions of analytical, elliptical, etc., and enforcing the proper combination of these various methods in given cases, include, as they ought to do, every subject taught in elementary schools. The students appear to appreciate the value of these lectures, which are entrusted to a teacher unusually competent to treat such a subject, and distinguished for clearness, simplicity, and power of illustration. Several notes of lessons are now required weekly from the students, and they are examined and corrected with all the care which this important subject demands. It is in the highest degree improbable that feeble and ineffective methods should be employed in schools which may hereafter be committed to teachers trained in this institution. Some will derive more and some less benefit from the instructions of the mistress of method, but all will have learned to appreciate a course of instruction too remarkable to be ever wholly effaced from their memory, and will have been impressed with the conviction that success in teaching depends absolutely, and in every subject, upon the employment of true methods. * All the students were marked either "good" or "fair" in this subject, at the last examination. and English Considering that at least the great majority of pupil- Grammar teachers, owing to the conditions of their previous life, have literature. possessed neither leisure nor opportunity for general reading, that they have acquired no facility in composition, and are, therefore, wholly incompetent to discriminate characteristics of style, students are wisely examined on admission in orthography, syntax, and the logical analysis of sentences. It is only when these elementary subjects have received sufficient attention that they are encouraged to study more systematically the structure and history of the English language, and, at a still later period, as far as the brief duration of student life permits, to form some acquaintance with the principal English writers, viewed in chronological order, and as types of characteristic styles of composition. There is no more conspicuous defect either in pupil-teachers or students in training colleges than feebleness of composition. The history of their lives is a sufficient explanation of their want of power in this respect. They have acquired, for the most part hastily, and under the pressure of conditions which do not admit of modification, a considerable number of facts in various branches of elementary learning, and, in favourable cases, some knowledge of principles, together with a certain amount of mental energy, displaying itself chiefly in analysis and comparison. But they have been too much hurried throughout the whole course of their apprenticeship, except in comparatively rare cases, to concern themselves much about the manner in which this knowledge is produced and exhibited. They attach importance only to the idea which they seek to express, but not to the grammatical form in which it is shaped. Purity of diction, harmony of sentences, the skilful choice and arrangement of words, by which the sober and measured accents of prose are made to rival and not unfrequently to surpass the music of poetry: these are graces which it would evidently be irrational to expect in students of such a class. When they do attempt independent composition the result is usually not encouraging. Still it is essential, with reference to their future usefulness as teachers, that they should be led from the study of grammar to that of literature; and to succeed in effecting this further progress is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks which a training school proposes to accomplish. The books chiefly relied on with this object in the St. Leonard's Training College appear to be Milton and Shakespeare, and a selection of figures of speech from Pope's Homer. To these are added the analysis of some of Cicero's translated orations, extracts from Addison's essays, and select pieces from Gibbon's History of the Roman Empire. I do not venture to express an opinion on this choice of authors; but I may be allowed to. say that a sound discretion seems to have been exercised in Geography. The scheme of geographical lectures in this training college appears to be judicious in its aim, which is rather to establish sound general views and correct scientific ideas than to load the memory with a mass of unimportant and unconnected facts. The first lectures in the course give a simple outline or popular astronomy, so far as is required to fix in the mind a clear idea of the relative position of our world in the planetary system. The text books are chiefly Humboldt, Herschel, and Moseley, and illustrative diagrams are used sometimes with good effect by the aid of a large magic-lantern. The students are next introduced, as it seems to me with great propriety, to an elementary history of the crust of the earth, in the course of which they derive at least so much knowledge of the leading facts of geological science, illustrated by the best maps, as may enable them to refute the arbitrary and inaccurate conclusions which are sometimes deduced from it. They learn that the discoveries of science in this field of knowledge may be accepted without uneasiness by the Christian student; and that even it it could be demonstrated, as some geologists insinuate, that supposing the retrograde movement of the Niagara Falls, and the disintegration of the limestone rock over which it passes, to have been uniform, it must have been in existence at least 35,000 years, there is nothing in this very probable assump-. |