Tenth Grade.

useful exercises in describing objects.

Children should also be encouraged to bring to the school various articles representing as many different shades of color as they can find.

21. Flowers.-Flowers are among the first objects that attract the special attention of children, and they furnish desirable subjects for some of the earliest object lessons of the school-room. The pupils should be encouraged to bring flowers to school, and exercised in distinguishing their names, colors, forms, etc., but all the lessons in this grade should be strictly rudimental. Flowers afford some of the best illustrations of the different shades of color, and may be studied profitably in connection with the study of color.

8 22. Animals.-Lessons on common domestic animals, as the horse, the cow, the dog, and the cat, are among the most entertaining and suitable exercises for pupils in this division. These lessons should be made very simple, extending only to the most familiar and obvious points, as form, color, size, speed, strength, food, covering, habits, uses, etc. The prominent object of these lessons should be to excite observation and cultivate feelings of humanity. Short anecdotes respecting the different

References. § 21. Child's Book of Nature, part 1; Manual of Elementary Instruction, vol. 2.

§ 22. Barnard's Object Teaching, art. 9; Willson's Third Reader; Carll's Child's Book of Natural History; Manual of Elementary Instruction, vol. 1. Also selected articles from the different school Readers.

Verses and Maxims; Reading, etc.

animals should be presented by the teacher, and, when practicable, drawn from the pupils. Pictorial illustrations and outline sketches should be employed in connection with these exercises as far as practicable; and the animals themselves should in some cases be brought to the school-room, if it can be done without materially interrupting the exercises. Morals and Manners.-See & 7.

*

§ 23. Verses, Maxims, etc.-A few simple, easy verses, embodying moral sentiments or useful information, will help to furnish an agreeable variety in the exercises. The children may also be taught to repeat a few brief maxims and sentiments, as, “What is worth doing at all is worth doing well;" "It is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong;" "A place for every thing, and every thing in its place;" "Never leave till to-morrow what should be done to-day."

§ 24. Reading and Spelling.-The first lessons in reading and spelling should be taught from the blackboard. First, present an object to the class, as a hat, and have the pupils pronounce the word hat. They already understand that the word which they hear represents the object which they see. Other illustrations of seeing and hearing, as applied to the same object, may be introduced by the teacher, or drawn from the class.

References.—§ 23. Sanders's Third Reader, lesson 50; Parker & Watson's Third Reader, lesson 30; Chambers's Information for the People.

* See Manual of Elementary Instruction, vol. 1.

Tenth Grade.

Next, print the name hat neatly on the blackboard, and teach the class that the word which they see represents the same thing as the word which they hear; and that both represent the object which they see before them. The word should now be pronounced by the class individually and in concert, with their attention directed to the board, till each member is able to call the word at sight. Similar exercises, with other words, may be continued for several days; but no word should be introduced which the pupils can not be made to understand. Each new word placed upon the board, should be made the subject of familiar conversation, and, if practicable, of illustration, so that it may convey to the mind of the child a clear idea of the object represented.

As the spoken language consists of sounds, the teacher should now commence teaching the pupils to analyze these sounds and utter them separately. The words already learned should be employed for this purpose, so that the child may be required to learn only one new thing at a time.

As soon as the pupils have learned to analyze all the words they have gone over, they may next learn the names of the letters, using the same words as before.

After the class have learned in this way from five to ten words, so that all the children are able to call each word at sight, and spell it correctly, both by letters and by sounds, the teacher may introduce Primary Cards containing simple monosyllabic words

Reading and Spelling.

and sentences. The teacher should continue to print simple exercises on the blackboard, as before, and use them in connection with the lessons on the cards. See also §§ 1 and 2.

§ 25. The pupils should now be required, at stated hours, to print every lesson neatly on their slates; and they should receive a mark of credit for every satisfactory effort. As often as once a day, they should be called on at recitation to read or spell a lesson from their slates.

26. From this time forward, let it be regarded as essential to the completeness of every lesson that each scholar shall be able to define all the words introduced, and spell them both by letters and by sounds. Teachers too often accept definitions that are exceedingly vague and defective, not to say erroneous. The construction of a simple sentence embodying a word, is often the most satisfactory definition of it that can be given by the young learner.† Let it also be regarded as a rule of paramount importance, that every lesson learned shall afterward be made the subject of frequent and thorough reviews, so that the pupils may not fail to retain what they have once acquired.

"Each difficult word should be uttered clearly, first by its elements, and then by their combination."— Wm. H. McGuffy.

"More attention should be given to defining than it now receives. The knowledge of the meaning of words possessed by most pupils in our schools, is exceedingly limited. It is by using words that we best learn their meaning; hence one of the first exercises in a well-conducted Primary school is forming sentences which shall embrace the words of the reading lesson."-John G. McMynn.

Tenth Grade.

§ 27. An important direction to be observed from the commencement, is to give constant and special attention to articulation. There can be no good reading without correctness of articulation, and it is far easier to form good habits at first, than to correct bad ones at a later period.*

§ 28. Numbers.-It is highly important that the first exercises in counting and adding should be illustrated by the use of the numeral frame and various convenient objects, such as pebbles, beans, kernels of corn, etc. Let each number or addition named be illustrated by a corresponding number or addition of objects. Let the children count around the class, each giving a number for himself in turn; let them count the number of children in the room; the lights of glass, the seats and desks, etc.

See, also, §§ 4, 6, 10, 12.

References.-§ 28. Calkins's Object Lessons; Barnard's Object Teaching, art. 12; Manual of Elementary Instruction, vol. 2.

# Every faculty of the mind, as well as of the body, with regard to its mode of action, has a strong tendency to take a set, according to the first impressions made upon it, or the character of its first observations. It becomes, as it were, preoccupied by the first impressions, to the exclusion or diminished force of succeeding impressions."-Reid's Principles of Education.