The Journal of Education

NOTES ON EDUCATION IN 1908.

By AN OLD FOGEY."

EN years have elapsed since the first occasion upon which you invited me to express opinions on educational affairs. I do so as one who, if I may quote the conclusion of Mr. Punnett's attractive essay on Mendelism," is "troubled with the suspicion that hygiene and education are fleeting palliatives at best, which in postponing but augment the difficulties they profess to solve." The study of Nature-in these days, I understand, encouraged with excessive zeal in elementary schools-is disregarded by legislators in a hurry, and also by sapient permanent officials who translate the Parliamentary hint into the administrative volume. And yet "our good and our evil hath no dependency but from ourselves." You do not, I am aware, sympathize with my point of view. You are, I imagine, an enthusiast of some discernment, ever ready to sift from a bewildering assortment of contradictory manifestations the tokens of progress. I do not quarrel with your mission, provided I am not expected to subscribe to it. I might, in fact, find some consolation in these closing days of active service by emulating your cheerful optimism, your faith in the Education Board, your loyalty to the Birrells, the Mc Kennas, and the Runcimans, who add tangles to the tangled problem and retire; your unremitting support of innumerable societies and associations who have so much to say; your determination to make the best even of the Parish Council !

BUT, whether one adopts the attitude of the sanguine reformer to whom change is synonymous with progress, or the point of view which distrusts the efficacy of national salvation by hasty legislation, the past ten years must be recognized as singularly momentous in our educational history-more so, perhaps, than any previous decade. The different offices of the State concerned in education have to some extent suffered the process of "co-ordination." The break-up of the departmental feudal system, though still incomplete, has been inaugurated, and, as I remarked in 1899, the least progressive of "Old Fogeys" can applaud the reform. Codes have been revised and correlated, the inspectorate reorganized. spectors-elementary, secondary, technical, and specialwander from school to school seeking material for appropriate reports. The President of the Education Board, I observe, remarked recently that he thought inspection might become too much of a detective matter, and perhaps the anxious schoolmaster regards these ubiquitous representatives of Government as policemen in plain clothes. Occasionally I am courageous enough to consider how far the office of inspector is a necessary constituent of the educational hierarchy. That which appears best in teaching traditions and institutions is not the result of inspection. An Inspector is powerless to modify, in any essential, any important influence of the school. The school is what the teacher makes it. If the teacher is capable and giving the best of himself to the children, the intervention of an Inspector is superfluous; if not capable and not disposed to give his best, the visit of an Inspector will not make him either capable or willing. At least 50 per cent. of the inspectorial work of the Education Board, I imagine, is of no value to the public, to the teachers, or to the children.

We are

THAT Inspectors may gather material for something more entertaining than appropriate reports is to be observed in Mr. Sneyd Kynnersley's Passages in the Life of an Inspector of Schools." The "Passages" here and there lead to persons and incidents behind the scenes which, in the interests of the Civil Service, might be left to the mercy of oblivion. not unthankful to the permanent official who, we are told, occupies the "exalted position of head waiter" at Whitehall. "He arranges the tables, and gives to his chosen friends corner seats by the fire or choice spots in the bow window commanding a rich prospect; but to the ungodly a draughty place near the door." This, to adopt Mr. Sneyd-Kynnersley's definition

tailless fox" variety,

of Mr. Acland's zeal, is also of the yearning to bite the well-tailed ones." Was it the author of the "Passages" who, in sight of pension and emancipation, and one may imagine with garrulous intent, visited Whitehall to bid his chief a long farewell. The Head Waiter listened to the introductory explanation, looked at him, and said: "Ah! well, then, good-day to you; good-bye." Nor are we unthankful that fleeting Presidents and shadowy Parliamentary Secretaries, in the sanctity of their hearts, "admit that the key to the success of the establishment is in the hands of the Head Waiter." He is the man who, like Sentimental Tommy, must find a way,” and, I suppose, labour to deserve the compliment of the Minister who said: "Whenever I am in a tight place I hand on the job to the Head Waiter, who, with Murænideaen agility, wriggles out."

SOME such performance, I gather from the pages of your Journal, has been found convenient in connexion with the formation of a Teachers' Register. Under the Act of 1907 the Education Board arranged to relieve itself of "any obligation to frame, form, or keep a Register," and provision was made for the constitution by Order in Council of a Registration Council representative of the teaching profession. I cannot claim to understand the merits of this question, nor do I share the enthusiasm which you have exhibited in advocating it. Registration will not make good teachers better, and may provide a misleading label for bad ones. A perusal of White Paper 4402 leads me to the conclusion that the Head Waiter is also an anti-registrationist. The plumbers of this country have long desired, I am told, the protection of registration ; but their desire is still unfulfilled because of the opposition of ironmongers. Those engaged in the systematic education of youth may be regarded as the plumbers of the teaching profession; the teachers of drawing, the musicians, the gymnasts, the bookkeepers, and the shorthand writers are the ironmongers. If you had asked me to indicate a plausible way of indefinitely postponing the formation of a Registration Council I should have ventured to recommend the expedient of creating a diversion by fostering the elements of disagreement and extending the area of discontent.

SECONDARY education is progressing. The total of scholars in 689 schools assisted by the Education Board was, I see, at the time of the last report, 115,688. In 1902 there were 35,730 scholars in 341 schools. With heavy and increasing rates for elementary education, the prospect of opening the doors. of new secondary schools was not, I am told, a promising one five years ago. But a way has been found. In an earlier generation the pupil-teacher was described as the backbone of the whole system of modern elementary education, and he was assuredly a useful agent in the establishment of primary schools before they were public institutions. To the pupilteacher belongs the privilege of being the humble instrument of opening the doors of new secondary schools. Some one at the Education Board-like a certain honest tradesman with “a broad, heavy countenance," who, on a memorable occasion, also wanted an open door-has said, in effect to the preparatory pupil-teacher, "Now listen, you young limb, I'm going to put you through there. Go softly up the steps straight afore you, and along the hall to the street door, unfasten it, and let us in."

THE time was when the "pupil-teacher," apprenticed for five years, taught for not more than thirty hours a week and received, in addition to a small wage, the privilege of special instruction during five hours a week (out of school hours) at the hands of a certificated teacher--a strenuous preparation for what then was a strenuous profession. The pupil-teacher, as known of old, has disappeared. Boys and girls are not in these fine days qualified to spend any part of their time in. teaching until, in general, they are sixteen years of age. Before that age they are assumed to receive a general education under the same conditions as boys and girls intended for other professions and employments. During the two years' apprentice

ship from sixteen to eighteen, two-thirds of their time approximately must be devoted to instruction" and one-third to "instructing." The old system, I am informed, produced many excellent teachers-the new system has yet to prove itself. A credible witness of a past generation was impressed with the utter disproportion between the "great amount of positive information and the low degree of mental culture and intelligence" exhibited by pupil-teachers at the close of their apprenticeship.

THE pupil-teacher, like Mr. Bradley Headstone, “had acquired mechanically a great store of teacher's knowledge. He could do mental arithmetic mechanically, sing at sight mechanically, blow various wind instruments mechanically, even play the great church organ mechanically. From his early childhood up his mind had been a place of mechanical storage." In this connexion, the revised conditions for the preparatory education of teachers should make for improvement.

CANON BARNETT, I believe, is the pioneer of the movement for establishing University settlements in the East End and other uncultivated parts of the Metropolis-settlements where enthusiastic young men are able "to dream that they are doing much good-and do a little." It was therefore appropriate for Canon Barnett to preside at a meeting to consider schemes concerning the endowments of Oxford and Cambridge with a view to their being utilized more fully by workpeople. The scheme, he is reported to have said, would "open the door for labour men to enter Oxford," a proposition welcomed by Mr. William Crooks, M.P., as an evident desire on the part of the authorities of the Universities to open their doors to the people and to employ their vast resources according to the real intentions of the founders." The restoration of what are termed “misappropriated education endowments" is, I understand, one of the planks in the Trade Unionists' platform. They demand the State maintenance of children and a system of education-popular, free, and secular-from the primary school to the University. "Labour," it is said, "is at last awake to what has been its chief hindrance and disqualification. . . . Labour has more than begun to realize that in its debates with Capital it is handicapped more by inferiority of educational equipment than by poverty." And the organ from which I quote continues, with tawdry sympathy for the labour man who has not enjoyed the advantages now demanded: "It is not because the root of the matter is not in him, but because the polish is absent; not because he has not sterling value as a man, as a brain, as an executive force, but because he has not acquired the graceful shibboleth which is the passport to the highest places."

"THE graceful shibboleth which is the passport to the highest places"! Is this the result of University settlements in East London or of returning Labour members to Parliament? Is this unmitigated cant the paltry educational ideal of latter-day democracy? In the old ages I read: The working man as yet sought only to know his craft; and educated himself sufficiently by ploughing and hammering, under the conditions given and in fit relation to the persons given; a course of education then, as now and ever, opulent in manful culture and instruction to him; teaching him many solid virtues and most indubitably useful knowledges; developing in him valuable faculties not a few both to do and to endure the grammar of Nature which he learned from his mother being still amply sufficient for him. This was, as it still is, the grand education of the working man."

THE illuminating address by Prof. William Ridgeway to the Anthropological Section of the British Association warns us of the growing tendency in social legislation to disregard the operation of natural laws. "Though the world has been ringing with the doctrine of natural selection and the survival of the fittest for nearly half a century, no statesman ever dreams of taking these great principles into consideration when de

vising any scheme of education or social reform. On the contrary, it is a fundamental assumption in all our educational and social reforms that all men are born with equal capabilities; that there is no difference in this respect between the average child of the labourer, sprung from generations of labourers, and one born of many generations of middle and upper-class progenitors." Yes, Prof. Ridgeway; we have only to enable Dick, Tom, and Harry to acquire the "graceful shibbo leth," and they will occupy the highest places. You need not endeavour to explain to our politicians and administrators that Dick, Tom, and Harry are subject to the same laws as the rest of the animal kingdom! They decline to believe it! The fact that some people appear to succeed while others fail-that some are well-to-do and others indigent-has nothing to do with your heredity and environment. These inequalities will speedily disappear if we diminish the resources of the successful and the affluent for the benefit of the failures and the unfortunate. "One race," you declare, "becomes a master because of its superior physique, courage, brain power, and moral; another sinks in the struggle or lags behind owing to its inferiority in the very qualities which have given the mastery to its rival. What is true of master races in relation to inferior races is equally true of the individuals in each community." Our answer is that by medically inspecting school children, prolonging the life of the mentally defective, and making asylums and eleemosynary institutions comfortable resorts, we shall maintain our superior physique." Our stock of brain power will be speedily augmented by raising the age of compulsory school attendance and arranging for the masses to go to the Universities. As for courage and moral, it is to be effectually cultivated by relieving people of their responsibilities, by doing for others what they ought to do themselves, and by affording generous facilities out of the rates to enable the unfit to survive and propagate.

THE unassuming direction imposed upon Local Authorities, under the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, to provide for the medical inspection of school children has been elaborated by the Education Board into a very considerable business affording permanent employment for innumerable medical practitioners. Manufacturers of weighing machines and patentees of card catalogues are reaping a substantial harvest; thousands of medical records are in process of compilation, and we shall soon know precisely the number of children with verminous heads, carious teeth, or enlarged tonsils. And it follows that, when the rate-payer has paid for ascertaining the defects, he will be required to pay for remedial measures. In London, it is computed, sixty thousand children suffer from defective eyesight. In the majority of cases the parents are apparently unwilling or unable to take remedial action, and in consequence the money spent on inspection is to a great extent wasted." Of course it is, and the establishment of school surgeries and clinics adequately staffed and expensively equipped is the obvious "next step." It is now proposed, I observe, to impose upon the school doctor or other medical official the responsibility for saying whether a child is, or is not, underfed, to empower the "head teacher," pending the report of the Inspector, to make temporary provision for the child, and to annul the limitation of the rate under the Education (Provisions of Meals) Act, 1906. After we have fed, clothed, medically treated, and adequately educated the child, we are still confronted with two problems-the parent and the home.

THIRTY years ago Matthew Arnold-remarking that both in London and elsewhere School Boards were apt to conceive what was requisite for public elementary schools rather as benevolent, intelligent, and scientific educationists in Utopia than as practical school managers-wrote: "I am convinced that our rate per scholar ought not to exceed 35s. at the outside, and that it may be brought within that limit without loss of efficiency." Excluding administration and loan charges, a statement issued by the Education Board shows that in 1907

the average for the country was 64s. 10d. a scholar, while in London the cost reached 94s. 2d., and, as appears from the memorandum prepared for the Conference of Local Authorities organized by the London County Council, elementary education in 1907-8 cost the tax-payer £10,672,000 and the rate-payer £10,231,289.

IN thirty years the cost of educating a child in an elementary school has increased thus: 1878, £1. 15s. 9d.; 1888, £1. 19s. 6d.; 1898, £2. 7s. 7d.; 1907, £3. 4s. 10d. There is grave reason to doubt whether the country is any wiser or better for the larger expenditure. Our benevolent, intelligent, and scientific educationists never have any ideas which do not involve an increase in expenditure. School buildings to be efficient must be costly and elaborate; in the larger schools the head teacher is not to be tied to a class, and the agitation for reducing the size of the class in charge of assis tants is unabating. With the desire for less work and responsibility there comes the demand for more remuneration. With the object of enriching" the curriculum innumerable accessories and requisites of doubtful utility are now required. And yet, as Matthew Arnold declared, the problem to be solved by the master of the elementary school is a simple one; "he has to instruct children between the ages of four and thirteen [now usually five and fourteen]-children, too, who have for the most part a singularly narrow range of words and thoughts. He has, so far as secular instruction goes, to give to those children the power of reading, of writing, and (according to the good old phrase) of casting accounts. He has to give them some knowledge of the world in which they find themselves and of what happens and has happened in it: such knowledge, that is, of the great facts and laws of Nature, some knowledge of geography and history; above all, the history of their own country. He has to do as much towards opening their minds, and opening their soul and imagination, as is possible to be done with a number of children of their age and in their state of preparation and home surroundings." This is common sense. But nowadays, like that most ingenious Architect of Laputa, our idea is to begin our educational building at the roof and work downwards to the foundation.

A SIGNIFICANT tribute to the merits of Mr. Balfour's Education Act is to be observed in the difficulty experienced by those who have attempted to amend it. As I remarked on a previous occasion, the Act was the inevitable consequence of the educational and civic legislation of the past forty years. The Act of 1870, as Mr. Balfour said the other day, was itself only justifiable on historic grounds. The Act of 1902, in so far as it dealt with religion, also was based upon historic grounds and could be justified on no other ground." Incidentally, I hope, in associating the service of education with other public services for which rates are paid, Mr. Balfour may have paved the way to a saner and more reasonable, if less Utopian, administration of the schools. Except where difficulties have been manufactured, no difficulties have been found. And there are signs of peace. Nonconformist objection to the Act of 1902 was mainly the historic one formulated by the National Education League forty years ago, that all schools aided by local rates shall be unsectarian." The Chancellor of the Exchequer, I observe, is now emphasizing the proposition that the tax-payer and the rate-payer are one and the same person." And the champion of civil and religious liberty who, we were told, would be venerated by future generations as the man who stood between the priest and the child, is now in favour of admitting priests of all denominations to some 7,000 schools where they have not hitherto enjoyed “right of entry.” These may be taken as signs of a less uncompromising attitude on the part of the austere men who have spoken in words of unalterable conviction.

of religious teaching is either expedient or wise. It is better, I venture to think, to let the religious grievance manifest itself periodically in the police court and on the political platform, where it does nobody any harm, than to transfer it to the school where it has not existed and does not exist. 'The Government, as the guardian of political and social interests, is bound, upon the principles of civil and religious liberty, to permit nothing that can encourage odious distinctions in any school that it supports." Is it to be imagined that the cause of religious tolerance and peace will be fostered by admitting the shepherds of different denominations to the schools and by segregating the various flocks? Apart from the practical difficulties, which are numerous, I cannot believe it. The President of the Education Board, the Anglican Bishops, and the Nonconformist leaders are apparently united in their desire for peace. Can they not, as Christian Protestants, agree upon a syllabus of religious observance and Bible teaching which can be accepted as a sufficient and unprejudiced preparatory contribution to the religious education of the child. All religion," it has been said, "is a reply to the question, What is the meaning of life?" And the religious answer always includes a suitable moral code. The simple religious observance and Bible lessons of the schools would in no respect conflict with the sectarian teaching for which the denominations ought to make themselves responsible out of school hours. To suggest that teachers, worthy of the name, would not do their duty reverently and impartially-without religious tests and passports-is, I believe, a libel on good men and women.

SENSIBLE people must recognize that, while for Christian Protestants a common basis of religious observance and Bible teaching is a possible-and, I venture to believe, a practicable -solution of the school difficulty, it would be intolerant not to recognize the special prejudices of Roman Catholics and Jews. They are tax-payers and rate-payers and on other grounds must claim consideration. While, however, I reject the right of entry for social and religious reasons, I should oppose "contracting out" on civic and educational grounds. The control of all schools maintained by public funds should be the same. But, whereas the owners or trustees of Anglican schools should receive an equitable rent for their school public funds, with the right of user when not required for premises, and the premises would be kept in repair out of educational purposes, the Roman Catholic and Jewish school buildings should be provided free of charge, all repairs and improvements carried out by the trustees, and a payment made to the Local Authority in respect of the time devoted by the teachers to sectarian teaching.

To Mr. Michael E. Sadler, who was not able, if I remember rightly, to accept the gospel of departmental, if not of personal, infallibility under the new dispensation at the Education Board, commendation is due for efforts unremitting and diplomatic in the cause of educational peace. A valued correspondent of mine described him as the universal referee," and the title, I doubt not, is well deserved. Although, as I have ventured to state, the expedients of "right of entry' and "contracting out" do not appeal to me, I am aware of the difficulties which Mr. Sadler and his friends must have encountered in their patriotic task of attempting to reconcile extreme views. If the Archbishop has good reason for the belief that there is a growing desire for a "balanced settlement upon the lines which have become so familiar to us," and the alternative of an agreed syllabus is impracticable, I hope a way may be found to limit right of entry to single-school districts, and to avoid contracting out" where a choice of schools exists.

'PLACE before children nothing but what is simple, lest you spoil their taste; and nothing that is not innocent lest you spoil their heart." I have thought of these wise words in connexion with many of the problems which divide political parties, stimulate the eloquence of the experts, and form the

subject of congress and conference; and, like Matthew Arnold, I feel disposed to keep perpetually repeating for my own benefit and that of others the one word simplicity. "Simplicity first," he wrote, as to the instruction of the children; and, for the sake of making this as effective as possible, Turgot used to say that, if one taught children nothing but what was true, and if one talked to them of nothing but what they could comprehend, there would be hardly any minds with unsound judgment. We shall not arrive just yet at such a consummation, but to simplify our teaching, to present to our children's minds what they can comprehend, to abstain from pressing upon them what they cannot, is the right way towards it." And this conclusion, I suggest, applies equally to subjects of religious and secular education. The active-minded and highly ingenious persons who interest themselves in religious and educational affairs may in time realize this; and in due course perhaps our legislators and labour leaders, in plotting for the common weal, may recognize that permanent progress' is a matter of breeding rather than of pedagogics."

"I'

666

THE SCHOLAR'S LITERATURE

NOTEBOOK.

NDEED there can be no more useful help for discovering what poetry belongs to the class of the truly excellent, and can therefore do us most good, than to have always in one's mind lines and expressions of the great masters, and to apply them as a touchstone to other poetry. Of course we are not to require this other poetry to resemble them: it may be very dissimilar, but if we have any tact we shall find them, when we have lodged them well in our minds, an infallible touchstone for detecting the presence or absence of high poetic quality, and also the degree of this quality in all other poetry that we may place beside them."

These words of Matthew Arnold explain one of the aims of the literature notebook. The other is indicated by Ruskin in his Crown of Wild Olive." "Taste," he says, "is not only a part and index of morality: it is the only morality. The first and last and closest trial question to any living creature is, What do you like? Tell me what you like, and I'll tell you what you are." In other words, the literature notebook is designed to help, first, in finding out what the scholars in our schools really like; and, secondly, in raising their taste so that in literature, and, through literature, in life, they needs must love the highest when they see it.

The aims are high, and it is not, of course, pretended that the literature notebook can of itself accomplish what is really one of the great ends of education as a whole. But experience shows that it can help, and even the smallest aid towards the attainment of a great object is of value. It is therefore proposed to give here some account of the way in which this aid to literature teaching has been used in school in connexion with the ordinary English lessons.

To begin with the actual book itself. The literature notebook-should be thick, substantially bound, and the paper should be of good quality; for it is intended to last throughout the life of its owner, and its aim will be entirely missed if it is not regularly and constantly used. It is intended to have two clearly marked divisions, and therefore the scholars should be instructed to write inside the first cover School," then to turn their books and write inside the other cover Home," working towards the middle of the book in each

case.

The half of the book headed "School" is intended to be filled under the guidance of the teacher. The aim of this part of the work is to provide a complete, though brief, record of every piece of literature studied in school. This, it is hoped, will help in two ways to render the poem or other work the permanent possession of the pupil. First, the very act of making the record will deepen the present impression; secondly, the re-reading in the future of what has been written

will preserve it in the memory. In order that the record should be as complete as possible, not only should the choice lines and passages from great works which are to be committed to memory be inscribed, but also illustrative passages and personal impressions. Nearly every literature lesson will provide some material for the literature notebook, though the copying out of passages should not be overdone, or it will defeat its own end. The passage copied must not be dragged in, but must assert its claim naturally in the course of the lesson. Often the leading thought of a poem is to be found summed up in one stanza or even in one line.

The use to which it is suggested the literature notebook should be put may be best explained by means of actual examples. The following is a brief account of the way in which it was employed in connexion with the study of (1) Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of Duke of Wellington," (2) George Eliot's "Mill on the Floss."

After the reading of the "Ode" in class, the pupils were asked to read it for themselves at home, and to write out in their literature notebooks the line or lines which seemed to them best to sum up the main idea of the poem. At the next lesson these were read and discussed. The majority of the class were found to have chosen

Not once or twice in our rough island story
The path of duty was the way to glory.

The teacher then read aloud the sixth stanza of Wordsworth's 'Ode to Duty," beginning

Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear

The Godhead's most benignant grace:

and the metaphor contained in it was compared with that used by Tennyson in the passage following the lines which had been written in the notebooks, beginning," He that walks it." Wordsworth's stanza was afterwards copied.

In connexion with the second lesson on the "Ode," when the actual incident on which the poem was founded-the death of the Duke of Wellington-was under discussion. Longfellow's "The Warden of the Cinque Ports" was read, and the scholars were left to copy out any part of it after the lesson if they chose. The following passage, descriptive of the funeral of the Duke, taken from Lord Malmesbury's diary, was copied by all :

November 18th.-The Duke's Funeral. A dreary morning and raining. The signal gun fired at a quarter to nine, and at the same moment the sun broke out for the first time since last month. The cortège proceeded through a countless mass of silent people, almost all in deep black, passing Buckingham Palace, where the Queen and Prince Albert stood on the balcony in deep mourning.... The ministers in their carriages followed. The streets were lined with troops, and no one can forget the solemn silence and unbroken order that prevailed throughout the long route. On arriving at St. Paul's, which was completely full from the pavement to the roof, the same order prevailed. . Anthems by Handel were played, the words of one of which were, "His body is buried in peace, his soul liveth for evermore," accompanied, it is said, by two thousand voices. . . . Guns, fired from different parts of London, saluted the descent of the coffin. The emotion produced upon all was the same-unchecked tears rolled down the cheeks of the oldest veterans :

"Such honours Ilion to her hero paid,

And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade."

This passage was not, of course, selected for its literary merit, but because it was hoped that the plain narrative of an eye-witness would, by means of its contrast with the poetic description given by Tennyson, tend to deepen the impression made on the minds of the pupils. In the final lesson on the Ode" each pupil was asked to write out the passage which he liked best.

In dealing with "The Mill on the Floss," the first lesson, after the book had been read, was devoted to a discussion of the characters. Comparisons with other works of George Eliot were made, and the following passage from the last chapter Romola" copied in the literature notebooks, as having some bearing on the character of Maggie Tulliver. "It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own narrow pleasures. We can only have the highest happiness, such as goes along with being a

great man, by having wide thoughts and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as ourselves; and this sort of happiness often brings so much pain with it that we can only tell it from pain by its being what we would choose before everything else, because our souls see it is good."

In the lesson on the setting of the story George Eliot's poem Brother and Sister" was read as illustrating the autobiographical element of the book. The last fourteen lines, beginning "School parted us," were copied in the literature notebooks.

In preparation for the final lesson, in which the style of the work was discussed, the scholars were asked to write out one 'descriptive passage and one other passage which they considered specially beautiful. These passages were read in class, and by comparison and criticism the chief characteristics of George Eliot's style were brought out. As an exercise which should serve to some extent as a test of the scholar's appreciation of the book, the following questions were given to be answered in the literature notebooks (about three lines for each answer) :-(1) Which of the aunts" would you have preferred to stay with, and why?" (2) What do you think Mrs. Tulliver would have said if Maggie had broken one of the best teacups?-Give the actual words. (3) What do you think of Stephen Guest? (4) What do you consider was the reason why Maggie was regarded as so naughty when she was a child? Do you think she was really a bad girl?

In this way, in the space of at most two pages, the notebook will contain a record which at any future time will be capable of calling back to the mind of its owner the chief characteristics of the poem or novel and the impression which a first reading made upon the mind. The notebooks will also gradually become a storehouse of fine passages which will be a source of delight to the pupil for the rest of his life, which he will probably learn by heart, and which will therefore become a real part of his mental equipment. The introduction of extracts from works other than those read in class will also, it is hoped, serve as an incentive to wider reading.

The other side of the book, headed "Home," is to be filled without any direct guidance from the teacher. The greatest skill and sympathy are necessary to preserve the absolutely spontaneous character of this section. The scholars are to be encouraged to make a kind of record of their own private private reading, to write down their opinions of the books they read, or any question which occurs to their minds with regard to them, to copy out the passages they like best, to comment on their favourite heroes and heroines-in fact, to make the book a kind of literary companion and confidant. From time to time-no stated periods should be given-the teacher asks the class, or a section of the class, to hand in their notebooks for inspection. No marks are given for any work therein contained, either in the " School" or the "Home" division; nor does it count towards prizes, removes, or position in class. The work is not publicly criticized, after the manner of dealing with other class exercises. The teacher simply looks at the books, gathers from them what information and guidance she can with regard to the manner of dealing with individual pupils, and endeavours, in her turn, to give the particular help which seems necessary in each case. Sometimes a word of praise or of caution is written in the notebook, the teacher always bearing in mind the necessity of avoiding anything like a dictatorial attitude and of treating every expression of opinion with respect. No blame should be given, and, above all, sarcastic comments should never appear.

On the first few occasions on which the books are called in the results that they show will probably be poor. Some notebooks will contain nothing at all: the entries in others will be obviously stilted and unreal: in a third class (probably a large one) the criticisms will be obtrusively moral. This will be partly due to the fact that little has been read, and that little of small literary value; partly to the reluctance to express their real thoughts which leads children, as well as grown-up people, to say what they believe is expected of them rather than what they think. But even the criticisms and quotations written under these circumstances are worth something to the teacher in estimating the scholar's intellectual

and moral point of view. Take, for example, the remarks offered by a girl of fourteen on a book entitled, “No Place Like Home":

This teaches us not to steal, as we are sure to be found out in one way or another, and being sent to a police station brings a disgrace to the home, and when at last out of prison, and parents will not have us back and so we are here sent quite away from home, perhaps to a reformatory school or to beg and turned out as a tramp. We feel we know at least something of the inner presentment of the girl who wrote that. Take again: "From it ["Stories of the Tower"] we derive a great amount of knowledge. This is the great reason why I like it "-obviously a sop for the teacher. Others are more natural: "I like this book ["Among the Cannibals"] because it is exciting," one pupil frankly remarks. "It is a very stupid book. Nearly all the people are low and vulgar, and there is a great deal about eating and drinking, and public-house talk," is the criticism of a young lady of fifteen on "Silas Marner." Public-house talk' as applied to the celebrated "Rainbow" scene is a distinctly striking epithet, and the whole gives an almost lightning-flash illumination of the mind of that pupil. "It is a kind of topsy-turvy book. The first time you read it you get all in a muddle, but afterwards it is lovely," is better for "Alice in Wonderland." The extracts copied out, though few in number, are equally instructive, and, generally speaking, show a somewhat higher literary tendency. Sometimes a verse of a popular sentimental song appears, sometimes a morbidly pathetic or jinglingly patriotic extract from the current number of some popular journal; but side by side with these are open to be found extracts of real literary beauty.

After a time the scholars begin to enter into the spirit of the thing, and to enjoy this unusual kind of intercourse with the teacher amazingly. They begin to ask questions, and these, if they show a real desire for guidance, the teacher takes care to answer as sympathetically and wisely as she can. Questions that are simply frivolous, or that proceed from a desire to "show off," the teacher of any experience will probably know both how to detect and how to deal with. The following are examples of questions which have actually been asked by scholars in this way:-"I have read Keats's 'La Belle Dame sans Merci,' and I thought it very beautiful. Will you

tell me what it means? Is the lady a real lady, or is it all an allegory? "I found this verse quoted in my library book ["Mona Maclean"], and I copied it out because I liked it so much. Will you tell me who wrote it, and where it comes from?" (The verse referred to was Oliver Wendell Holmes's "Build ye more stately mansions, O my soul.") "I don't understand the end of Villette' at all. Did M. Paul Emmanuel die, or did he come back? Is it all true?" (This question, " Is it true?" comes many times and in many connexions.) Will you tell me why so many of the nicest stories end sadly? I have been reading 'Evangeline,' and it seemed dreadful that Gabriel should die just when she had found him; so I tried to imagine he got better, and they were married; but it spoilt it somehow."

It may be objected that all these questions would be better asked and answered by word of mouth. The objection is allowed at once: but all teachers know the actual practical difficulties in the way of frequent familiar talks with their pupils on literary subjects not actually connected with school work. Besides, it often happens that girls who are diffident and awkward in speaking of what really interests them will find less difficulty in making their feelings known through some such medium as the literature notebook. The teacher's answers to the questions asked will, whenever she can manage it, be given by word of mouth as well as by a line or so of explanation or guidance written in the book.

An interesting test of the effect of the literary training which is being given in the school is afforded by an examination of the lists of books read at home by the pupils, as given in the literature notebooks. The teacher's heart rejoices when she can detect after months, perhaps years, of hard work a gradual steady rise in the general standard of taste. Books of the weakly sentimental or highly moral type give place to works of a sturdier and healthier character, in which

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