General Directions. the Primary Department, brief concert exercises should be introduced, as often as once a day, in connection with reading, spelling by letters, spelling by sounds, arithmetical tables, etc.; but they should in no case occupy more time than the individual exercises. They are only means to an end; not the end itself. Their proper use is to aid in securing the success of individual efforts. Frequent concert exercises should also be introduced in connection with reading, in the upper divisions of the Primary Department, and in all the divisions of the Grammar Department. Great care should be taken, in all concert exercises, to secure free and natural tones of voice. It is always better to dispense with exercises in concert, than to have them become a means of forming bad habits in modulation and inflection. These 85. Rapid Combinations in Arithmetic.-Classes in Arithmetic should have frequent extemporaneous exercises in combining series of numbers, involving the principles which they have gone over. numbers should be given by the teacher, slowly at first, and afterward with more and more rapidity, as the pupils are able to carry forward the computations. The following is an example: Take 5, add 3, add 10, subtract 9, multiply by 8, add 20, add 8, subtract 40, divide by 10,-result? Those who are prepared to answer raise the hand, and the teacher calls on one or more of them individually, for the answer, or on all together. Exercises of this kind should be commenced as soon as pupils are able to Good Language. add simple numbers together, and continued through the entire course. Similar examples may occasionally be carried rapidly round a class, each pupil giving in turn the result for one step of the process, with as little delay as possible. § 6. Good Language. Composition.-Teachers should be watchful on all occasions, and especially during recitations, to secure habits of readiness and precision in the use of language. Every question should receive a complete and grammatical answer. Teachers should be clear and accurate in their own expressions, and impress upon their pupils the importance of selecting at all times the best words and phrases, and forming the habit of using good language in early life. As fast as new words are learned in the various oral exercises, the children should be required to embody them in spoken or written sentences, and thus fasten their meaning and uses securely in the memory.* Reference. 6. Manual of Elementary Instruction, vol. 2, article, Language. "Great attention should be given to the language used in the school-room, both by teachers and pupils. It should be pure English, free from all provincialisms; and the construction of the sentences should be grammatical. It is of the utmost importance that the teachers of our Primary scholars should be accurate in the use of language; quick to notice, and prompt to correct all "bad grammar' heard in their school rooms. No slang, no useless expletives, no unnecessary repetitions, no obsolete words, no violations of orthography or syntax, should, at any time, or under any circumstances, be allowed to pass without careful correction. The power of expression may be cultivated by "Object Lessons" and General Directions. Exercises in composition may be introduced in such a manner, that pupils will never regard them as irksome tasks. With proper care and skill on the part of the teacher, they may be made as interesting and attractive as any of the exercises of the school. The following are some of the first steps that may be taken to secure this object: (1.) Let the pupil take his slate to a window during a recess, and write down any thing that he hears from the children in the play-ground. At the close of the recess, let him read before his class what he has written, and he will be interested to learn that the conversation. Pupils should also be advised and required to write much. Recitations may sometimes be conducted by writing, and will be found mutually profitable. Questions should be pointed and precise; answers should be concise and exact. Every answer should embrace a complete proposition. Frequently the pupil gives the answer only in part. Every exercise, and every recitation should be so conducted as to habituate the scholars to correct, terse, and elegant modes of expression. All indistinctness of utterance, all clipping of words, all hesitancy of speech, should at once be noticed and the proper remedies faithfully applied."—J. G. McMynn. "Conversational Lessons.--One great object in early education should be to awaken the mind of children to activity, and to furnish them with language. Conversational lessons are well calculated to effect these objects, inasmuch as they accustom children to speak of things they daily see and use; leading them to make their own observations upon such things, and in their turn to ask for further information. "These lessons are of course conducted without any formality, and do not require any particular hints. The subjects chosen are very simple, and the teacher ought to be quite easy and familiar, letting the children take the lead; merely stimulating them by judicious questioning."-Manual of Elementary Instruction. Morals and Manners. sentences from the different scholars are so many little compositions. He will then understand, that every time he speaks a sentence, he makes a composition, and if he will only write it on his slate or on paper, it will be a written composition. (2.) Select a common and familiar subject, as a horse, and ask the pupil various questions respecting it. As he gives his answers, let him write them down on his slate. He will soon find that he has written an original composition, almost without effort. (3.) At the close of an object lesson on any familiar subject, let the pupils write or print on their slates every thing they can remember of the description that has been given, and read their exercises in turn before the class. These different exercises should be examined carefully by the teacher, and the errors that occur in language, orthography, punctuation, etc., should be kindly pointed out and corrected before the class. The pupils should then be required to rewrite their exercises correctly. The establishment of a school paper, sustained by the pupils, under the general direction of the teacher, is one of the best means of cultivating this import ant art. 87. Morals and Manners.-Love to parents and others, friendship, kindness, gentleness, obedience, References.-7. Calkins's Object Lessons; Cowdery's Moral Lessons, and Cowdery's Primary Moral Lessons; Barnard's Object Teaching, arts. 7, 9, and 12; Hooker's Natural History, chap. 36; Willson's Third Reader; Barnard's Journal of Edu General Directions. honesty, truthfulness, generosity, self-denial, neatness, diligence, etc., are cultivated in children, not so much by direct exhortation and formal precept, as by resorting to expedients that will call these affections and qualities into active exercise. Lead a child to do a kind act, and you will increase his kindness of heart; and this is the best of all lessons on kindness. Let teachers ever remember that the exercise of virtuous principles, confirmed into habit, is the true means of establishing a virtuous character. Little anecdotes and familiar examples, illustrating the love of brothers and sisters, the respect due to the aged, kindness to animals, mutual love of companions and associates, benevolence, etc., are among the best means of cultivating these virtues. Such a work as "Cowdery's Moral Lessons," teaching mainly by examples, will accomplish far more than the same principles when abstracted from the narratives in which they are found, and embodied in a formal catechism of moral instruction.* Teachers should frequently read to their divisions short, entertaining narratives, and make them the subjects of familiar and instructive conversations with their pupils. So also in lessons on animals, trees, and all the works of nature, opportunities should be constantly improved to show the wisdom, cation, vol. 1, art. 10; Dwight's Higher Christian Education; Hall's Manual of Morals; Mayhew's Popular Education, chap. 8. * "Nature, reason, and experience proclaim this order, example before precept."-Marcel. |