A MANUAL OF METHODS FOR A GRADED COURSE OF INSTRUCTION: EMBRACING THE SUBJECTS USUALLY PURSUED IN PRIMARY, INTERMEDIATE, GRAMMAR, TO DISCIPLINE AND SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. FOR THE USE OF TEACHERS. BY HENRY KIDDLE, A.M., City Superintendent of Public Instruction, New York. First Assistant Superintendent of Grammar Schools, New York City; and Pro- N. A. CALKINS, First Assistant Superintendent of Primary Schools and Departments, New York OF THE LIBRARY OF CAT IFORNIA Saturday Normal School. NEW YORK: J. W. Schermerhorn & Co., 14 BOND STREET. 1875. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by J. W. SCHERMERHORN & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. LANGE, LITTLE & Co., PREFACE. THE system of graded instruction, which has become so general in this country, requires for its successful application, the constant use, on the part of the teacher, of a guide, or chart, to which he may refer in order that his present work may harmonize with that which preceded, and that which is to follow it. The ground to be covered in a complete course of school education, however elementary, is quite extensive, and hence needs to be divided and subdivided according to certain established principles, so that the mind of the instructor may not be diverted from that which should engage his immediate attention, by the necessity of considering and choosing the best means of supplementing it. Such a graded system of teaching can best be prepared by those who have had not only a long experience in the practical business of teaching, but whose field of observation has been sufficiently comprehensive to enable them to give to the scheme an adaptability to a great variety of circumstances. The system laid down in the work here offered to practical educators, whether teachers, superintendents, or school officers, is designed to afford such a guide as 108940 is above indicated. It is essentially the system which has been in use in the city of New York for some years, only differing from it in the number of grades into which the course is divided. This difference is, however, rather nominal than real, since the number of grades into which course of study is divided is entirely arbitrary, except so far as it may be dictated by special circumstances. Where schools are very large, and the attendance of pupils is fluctuating, as must be the case in so populous a city as New York, the necessity of constantly reorganizing classes, renders frequent promotions, or transfers from class to class, indispensable, and, hence, a large number of grades becomes a convenience. In schools having a smaller and steadier attendance, the number of grades need not exceed what is requisite for a proper classification and division of subjects for simultaneous study. The order of studies -the main point in every course of instruction-corresponds, as here arranged, precisely with the New York plan; the time requisite for its completion is also about the same. This course, with its division into grades, constitutes, however, only the frame-work for the series of practical suggestions designed to assist teachers in the performance of their professional duties-that is, in some degree, to show them what to teach, as well as how to teach. All the precepts and directions here given have been dictated by an earnest desire to aid in the effort now universally put forth by the ablest and most intelligent |