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Morals and Manners.

power, and goodness of the Creator, and to inculcate the reverence that is due to Him, and a sense of dependence upon Him.

Every case of quarreling, cruelty, fraud, profanity, and vulgarity, should be made to appear in its true light. The selfishness of children is the greatest obstacle to moral training. To moderate this strong instinct, to teach self-denial and self-control, must be the constant care of the teacher.

There is no time when the watchfulness of the teacher is more necessary than during the recesses and other hours of relaxation at school. This is the time when little differences are most likely to spring up, and bad passions to gain the ascendency. No parent's eye is upon the children, and yet they should constantly feel that some kind guardian is near-not to check their cheerful sports, but to encourage every kind and noble act, and to rebuke every departure from the path of virtue and honor.*

*"Let the play-grounds never be left without the supervision of a teacher when the pupils are there. To accomplish this, they should not be opened to pupils till a fixed hour, when the teacher should be present. If the recesses, also, be given to both sexes at once, the teacher may go with his pupils on to the play-ground, and while he encourages the cheerful hilarity of the games, his presence will hold in awe the quarrelsome spirits or profane lips, which will otherwise work so much evil. It is the unwatched and unrestrained association of the pupils, good and bad, upon the play-ground, that forms one of the most fruitful sources of moral corruption. Remove this, and we have abated, at one blow, more than one half of the dangers that attend our schools."-J. M. Gregory, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Michigan.

See also Young's Teachers' Manual.

General Directions.

Good morals are intimately connected with good manners, and teachers should improve every opportunity to inculcate lessons of civility and courtesy. In the Primary divisions, especially, the teachers should give frequent and somewhat minute directions respecting the ordinary rules of politeness. Let the pupils be taught that when a question is asked them, it shows a lack of good breeding to remain silent or shake the head, even if they are not able to answer it. They should receive some general directions respecting the manners of younger persons in the presence of those who are older. They should be taught that well-bred persons seldom laugh at mistakes, etc. The manners of the children in their intercourse with each other before and after school, and at the recesses, and in going to and from school, should receive the constant and watchful care of the teacher.

§8. Oral Exercises.-The oral lessons of the course are not intended to be exhaustive and complete; but they present a pretty full outline of most of the exercises that should be introduced. This outline should be filled out, and, in most cases, extended by the teachers; but none of the subjects introduced should be omitted.

"In every exercise, it is of the highest importance that there should be some definite aim and purpose,

References.-§ 8. Calkins's Object Lessons, pp. 291-348; Barnard's Object Teaching, arts. 2 and 12; Hailman's Object * Teaching.

Oral Exercises; Reviews, etc.

and that the teacher should work with reference to obtaining certain results."*

The oral lessons of the Grammar divisions are designed to occupy an amount of time equal to about fifteen minutes a day. This will be found more than sufficient to present all the topics introduced.

An outline of each oral exercise should be written out and preserved for review. This may be done by the teacher on the blackboard, or by the pupils on slates or paper, as the exercise progresses; or the pupils may be required to write it out from memory immediately after the close of the lesson.

89. Reviews and Abstracts.-The time devoted to reviews, both oral and written, should be very much increased.t

Each lesson should be made, to some extent, a review of the previous lesson, without, however, consuming very much time, except in cases in which the previous recitation has been unsatisfactory. Pupils should understand that they are liable to be called on to recite any portion of the previous lesson,

"Oswego Report."

"The order in which the various impressions of objects and other facts connected with them should be considered, depends, to a great extent, on the knowledge which the pupil has already of the object.

"The following are the principal facts to be considered, though not always in the order given, in the various objects: 1. Name; 2. Place; 3. Touch, Sound, Odor, Taste; 4. Color; 5. Shape; 6. Size; 7. Material, Uses, etc."-Hailman's Object Teaching.

+ "The great secret of being successful and accurate as a student, next to perseverance, is the constant habit of reviewing."-Todd's Student's Manual.

General Directions.

and questions enough should be asked in review to make it necessary for them to read over the last lesson before coming to the recitation, unless their previous preparation has been sufficient to fasten it in the memory.

The oral lessons should, in most cases, be reviewed more than once, and in all cases till they are thoroughly learned and remembered.

In most of the studies in which the recitations occur daily, one lesson of each week should be a review of the four preceding lessons. Classes reciting only two or three times a week may have a review every second week; and there may be a few exceptional cases in which it will be best to have these reviews only once a month.*

In the Primary divisions, the reviews will necessarily be oral; but in the Grammar divisions they should be both oral and written. In the 1st, 2d, and 3d grades, most of the classes should have at least one written review in a month, besides the oral reviews.

It may be well, occasionally, to devote an hour to a written review of all the different branches, in one exercise, selecting ten or more questions promiscuously from all the studies of the class.

In the five upper grades, all the classes should have occasional exercises in writing a few lines of

"The regulation recently adopted by the Board, requiring a weekly review of every class by its teacher, without the use of books, can not fail to accomplish much good, and encourage a more intelligent system of teaching."-New York Report.

Reviews and Abstracts.

prose or verse, dictated orally by the teacher, as a test of their proficiency in spelling, punctuation, use of capitals, penmanship, etc. In the 4th and 5th grades, the pupils may use either pen or pencil, at the discretion of the teacher; but in the 1st, 2d, and 3d grades they should be required in all cases to use a pen. These exercises should be strictly extemporaneous, and every paper should be passed to the desk at the close of a specified time.

In conducting written reviews, great care should be taken to remove from the pupils, so far as possible, all temptation to seek assistance from books, or papers, or classmates. When two pupils of the class are seated at the same desk, it is often desirable to have two sets of questions of about equal difficulty -one set for all the pupils sitting at one end of the desks, and one for those sitting at the other end.

Written reviews are among the most successful means that can be employed for securing thoroughness and accuracy of scholarship. They afford a reliable test of the pupil's knowledge of the subject, cultivate habits of freedom and accuracy in the use of language, and afford a valuable discipline to the mind, by throwing the pupil entirely upon his own

resources.

In addition to the written reviews, teachers of the higher divisions should require frequent written exercises in connection with the daily recitations in history, grammar, arithmetic, etc.

All written reviews, abstracts, etc., should pass under the critical examination of the teacher; the

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