Friday may properly be used for reviewing the lessons of the week, rhetorical exercises, instruction in special subjects, such as vocal music, and for odds and ends. COURSE OF STUDY AND DAILY PROGRAM PREPARED FOR THE COUNTRY SCHOOLS OF

WISCONSIN.

SYNOPSIS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY.

This synopsis can be copied by the teacher or printed on a card, to be posted in the school room or distributed among the pupils for them to consult.

For the primary form.

1. Reading: Primer or chart, First and Second Readers.

2. Spelling: Oral and written spelling of all words in reading lessons and words from other sources.

3. Writing: First by print and then by script letters; write words and sentences from readers and those presented by teacher.

4. Language lessons: Proper use of familiar words, copying and making sentences, observing uses of capital letters and punctuation marks, reproducing stories told, and composing brief descriptions and simple narrations. Telling and asking sentences. Short selections memorized and recited.

5. Arithmetic: Ideas of numbers and decimal notation as far as 1,000; exercises in the four fundamental operations by Grube's method or equivalent; Roman notation to 100; proper fractions and familiar tables of denominate numbers.

6. Geography: Oral lessons on well known physical and other objects, on ideas of location, on uses and construction of maps, and on properties of the globe.

7. Drawing, optional: Straight lines in different positions, divisions of these lines, angles, and triangles.

For the middle form.

1. Reading: Third Reader and miscellaneous works for children; Webster's Dictionary used by pupils; recitation of short pieces.

2. Spelling: Oral, written, and phonic spelling of words in reading lessons or spelling book, and dictated by teacher. Copy selected paragraphs.

3. Language lessons: Continue former exercises; imperative and exclamatory sentences; simple, compound, and complex sentences analyzed; subject and predicate, and parts of speech studied; faulty language corrected.

4. Arithmetic: Processes made familiar; decimal notation as far as 1,000,000; practical examples often introduced; factoring numbers; common and decimal fractions; compound numbers in part; Roman notation to 1,000.

5. Geography: Oral instruction on local geography and the globe, continued; map and text book work in introductory geography on the grand divisions of the earth; instruction in map drawing.

6. History: Remarkable incidents or events in the history of the locality, town, county, and State related; historical stories about this country.

7. Writing: Analysis and combination of small and capital letters; full set of copy books of any system.

8. Drawing, optional: Exercises in straight lines continued; square and oblong, squares with triangles, and combinations of the square; exercises in curved lines and in curved-line figures.

For the upper form.

1. Reading: Fourth Reader and selected reading; declamations and reading essays. 2. Spelling: Mainly by written method; spell words in reading lessons and spelling book; learn rules for spelling and common abbreviations.

3. Language lessons and grammar: Study the ordinary text books; attend to faulty constructions in syntax; parsing and analyzing; write compositions and letters. 4. Arithmetic: Commercial accounts, compound numbers, ratio and proportion, percentage, and square and cube root.

5. Geography: Intermediate or common school geography completed. Special attention to Europe, United States, and Wisconsin.

6. United States history: Study by topic as preparatory to civil government. 7. Constitutions of the United States and Wisconsin: Use ordinary text books and oral instruction.

8. Writing: Business forms, letter writing, and keeping accounts.

9. Drawing, optional: Use text book. Supply materials. Inventive drawing, with straight-lined figures and with complex curved lines. Leaf, flower, vase, and other figures, with duplicates, halves, thirds, &c. Miscellaneous figures.

10. Vocal music, optional: Exercises by all the pupils in singing simple melodies, practising the scale, reading notes, and learning spirited songs.

NOTE.-When a class is formed for the study of United States history or the constitutions in a school where recitations are not conducted in all portions of the other branches there need be no difficulty in assigning it a place in the program. But when the school is organized with all the classes above indicated, that in the history or the constitutions can recite at the afternoon recess.

These programs have been prepared by officers and teachers of large experience in the schools for whose use they are intended; they do not comprise more work or a greater variety of work than is required in the majority of the schools, and they enable us to arrive at a pretty clear understanding of what may be accomplished in the schools under favorable conditions. The Michigan course is intended to cover seven school years; the Virginia, nine five-month terms; the Wisconsin, nine school years.

OBSERVATIONS SUGGESTED BY THE PROGRAMS AND TIME TABLES.

With a scheme of work thus formulated the teacher sees many things at a glance. Evidently the school must be instructed collectively in every branch that admits of it. Writing and drawing can be managed in this way; also, singing, when it is taught, certain language lessons, and brief exercises upon morals and manners, and gymnastics or drill exercises. The plan of bringing the recitations of different classes in the same study into the same hour presents several advantages. With this arrangement the instruction may be given in common, so far as the attainments of the different classes allow; one or two classes may be directed to work at times without instruction, in order that the attention of the teacher may be concentrated upon other classes needing extra instruction. If any occurrence interrupts the routine of the day, less confusion results when the omitted study is the same for all scholars than if several branches of study are affected, and by the arrangement proposed the teacher is saved from the wearing effects of incessant change of subjects and too frequent repetitions of the same subject.

The recitations of the younger classes, it will be seen, occupy only a few minutes, ten or fifteen at a time. This accords very well with the views of those who have made special observations to determine the power of continuous attention in childhood; on the other hand, it will be noticed that these same younger classes must spend much time in assigned work or study without help or oversight.

Thus, by the Michigan daily program, class I is to spend each day as follows: Reading, 30 minutes; numbers, 15 minutes; oral lessons, 20 minutes; writing, 15 minutes; spelling, 10 minutes; total, 1 hour 30 minutes; recess, 30 minutes; assigned work, without teachers, viz, studying, copying, &c., 3 hours and 55 minutes. The distribution of time is about the same for class II and the corresponding classes in the other programs, so that when all the classes provided for on the program are present in the school the younger children must drag out many weary, unprofitable hours. The slate work which is assigned is interesting and valuable, provided the teacher has the time to inspect and comment upon it; otherwise it becomes a mere form of idleness.

Probably every teacher who has been through the experience of teaching a country school of various grades has wished at the end of the

first week that he could lop off the primer class; that done, the work would be manageable. To instruct intermediate classes requiring about the same treatment, and to give a few advanced scholars the help which they need, is not impossible; but add the beginners wanting constant attention, appealing for it with the persistence and confidence of their years, and the situation seems desperate. Unless the beginners are a large majority of the pupils, which is seldom the case, the best that can be done with them is not satisfactory. In this connection the following extract from the last report of the committee of council on education, England, is significant:

The methods of instruction for children over and under seven years of age are very different and cannot be efficiently carried on in the same room. Every school, therefore, except the very smallest, requires a separate department for infants; and the code now in force (1883) contains special provisions for securing that proper arrangements are made for the purpose. Of the 863,817 infants in average attendance during the past year, 565,224 were found in infant schools, 139,746 in the infant classes of mixed schools under school mistresses, and as many as 158,847, we regret to say, in similar classes under the very unsuitable charge of male teachers.

DISTRIBUTION OF TIME AND SUBJECTS IN FOREIGN PROGRAMS.

The following programs show how carefully the work of rural schools in certain foreign countries is systematized and offer some interesting points of comparison with those of our own schools:

FRANCE.

The following program shows the course and hours of study (arranged according to regulations of July 27, 1882) in a school with only one teacher, in the department of Aube:

In the following program the dotted lines indicate the lessons given by the teacher. The white spaces correspond to the work of the pupil alone, like a study or written exercise, or also to a recitation before a pupil teacher in the lower class.

The arrangement indicated is not unchangeable, but is to be followed as far as possible so as not to favor one course at the expense of another. The teacher may, if he chooses, unite the three classes for any one lesson.

The lesson commences always with the correcting of a preceding lesson on the same topic.

Five minutes before entering, pupils form into rank and are inspected. They enter and leave the school room singing.

Saturday is taken up with a review of the studies of the week.

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