six words of an unknown tongue; while his learning them combined in such words as man, girl, or in such sentences as, The boy runs, The sun shines, may be compared to our learn ing to repeat a well constructed sentence composed in our native language.-[J. H. Shaw, New-Orleans. READING. Let the sentences be short as well as simple, and perfectly level to the comprehension of children. And when they utter single words, as well as when they read sentences, see that their pronunciation is distinct and correct. This is a matter of importance. Let the organs be rightly trained, and the pronunciation correct from the beginning. This is much better than first to learn wrong, then unlearn, and then learn right. It will make all the future work of the teacher comparatively easy. But a mistake in the outset will be fruitful of difficulty in all subsequent training. In reading sentences, be careful that the pupils do not acquire a drawling, hesitating, or stammering manner; or a nasal, twanging tone. Let them he perfectly familiar with every word of which the sentence is composed, before you allow them to read it aloud. And when they read, let it be done in their natural, common tone. Let it be as though they were telling it, or talking it over to you without the book. Read it yourself to them several times; and let each one in the class read the same sentence in succession. But be sure they are not repeating from memory or by rote, what they seem to be reading. I have said, let them be perfectly familiar with the words of which a sentence is composed, before you allow them to read it aloud. This is an important point; the neglect of which is a principal cause of the very faulty and bad habits so common in the young classes in our schools. The pupils are put to reading words, combined in sentences, with the form and meaning of which they are not familiar. They know not the meaning of the words they utter, and therefore, cannot so utter them, as to express any meaning, or express any clearly and forci. bly to others. They do not read intelligently, and therefore, they cannot read intelligibly. Reading is not speaking, or talking, exactly. When we speak, the thought suggests the word; when we read, the word suggests the thought. And, if we would express the thought with clearness and force,-if we would read well, the word must be so familiar to us, as instantly to call up the thought at sight. Consequently, when children read sentences made up of words which they do not understand, their reading wants character, significancy, expression, life. The former method may be thus represented, in reading the simple sentence: T-h-i-s,———i—s,- —a—n—i—c-efan. The last word is spoken short, without drawling, because it is the last; there is none to follow, none to find out. is The sceond method thus:-This attempting to read words which he cannot readily call. He cannot call the next word, and so he continues instinctively to dwell upon that which he has just uttered. Drawling and disagreeable monotonous tones are at first acquired in this way, and continued in after life from the power of habit. Nothing is more common than drawling and disagreeable monotonies in our schools,especially in the classes of young readers. The sum of what I have said is this. In teaching a child to read, begin with words,simple words; such as the names of familiar objects, animals, articles of dress, furniture, &c. Then connect these words, and form very simple sentences, such as children can understand. Let the sentence be perfectly understood and the words be perfectly familiar to the pupil before he is pat to reading it aloud. Let the teacher first read it to the child or to the class, two or three times, and then the pupil, taking care to preserve his ordinary natural tone, and give to each word a distinct and correct pronunciation.-[Pierce. (To be continued.) IMPORTANCE OF CLASSIFICATION. Endeavor to lead the pupil through such processes, that he will arrange knowledge for him self, and arrive at general principles. After you know that he understands any general principle, be careful to see that he refers to the principle all new acquisitions which come under it. The principle may be compared to a suspended chain, every new fact under that prin ciple may be hung on some link yet unoccupied in the chain. It is not enough for the teacher to state the principle in merely a didactic form, but strive even though the work may be slow and long, to guide the pupil in such a manner, by a hint here, and a question there, that he will do the very thing for himself. Though you are the teacher, aim to have your pupil become a self-educated man, a self-educated woman. You will find that every new achievement thus made gives your pupil hope, courage, strength, discipline. He will learn to direct his efforts to an important end. He will acquire a mental habit of immense value. This is a point of so much importance, and includes so large a part of my subject, that a few familiar illustrations will perhaps be permitted chiefly from my own experience. ARITHMETIC. By a little aid, a class of pupils in arithmetic may be taught to trace out a common principle, where they usually find many, as they think, independent and unrelated principles. For in stance, in one place they find simple addition, in another compound, in another addition of fe deral money, in another addition of common fractions, in another that of decimal fractions ; each having some technical terms, and modes of expression, which seem to separate it from the others. After having examined these sep. arately, give the class for an exercise the construction of a rule which will comprehend them all. The first time I tried this experiment with a class of a dozen it failed. I resorted to the black-board, put down an example of units, tens and hundreds to be added, also of pounds, shil lings and pence, of dollars, cents and mills, of tens, units, tenths and hundredths, of tens, units and twenty-fifths, being careful all the time to use similiar phraseology, saying denomination or column of units, tens-denomination of hundredths, tenths-denomination of twenty-fifths, &c. We added one or two different examples. Almost simultaneously the whole class caught the the principle, and gave the following rule, with no further aid from me except one restrictive clause, "In all cases of addition, collect into one sum all the parts of each denomination, beginning with the lowest, and change the value, if large enough, into the next higher denomination by dividing by as many as make one of that denomination, retain the remainder, and add the quotient to that higher denomination." By a slight modification, the principle may be extended to the other elementary processes of arith. metic, and what is spread over fifty or a hundred pages of the text-book, at last compressed into a few words. This is never forgotten, and rewards all their previous labor. In arriving at this result, their minds have been conducted through a process not unlike that which led Newton to announce the great law of attraction. In various applications of elementary arithme. tic, it often happens that the pupil may be lead to discover a common principle, where on first observation, no resemblance, but seeming dissimilarity appears. Take, for instance, the 24th Section of Colburn's Sequel. How many questions apparently unlike, in all of which the pupil should be led to perceive simply this, a certain part, or number of parts given to find the whole. Do not leave the section, till your pupil can readily perceive, whatever may be his me. thod of operating, that the simple thing to be accomplished in each case is, from some given part or parts of a number or quantity, to deduce the whole. Do not be afraid of the time it will take. It requires time. It is worth all the time it requires. Delay upon it day after day, if necessary, till the thing is done;-till the funda. mental idea is grasped by your pupils. One fundamental idea, distinctly perceived and clearly apprehended, is worth an infinity of hazy, half-formed notions. Such are worthless either as foundation stone to build on, or as materials to be wrought into the superstructure. HISTORY. The great object of studying history is to profit by the lessons of the past. To do this it is indispensable, not only that particular facts should be made quite familiar, but that their relations, causes, and consequences should be traced out; that they should stand, if I may so speak, in the mind of the pupil, in the same relations and juxtapositions in which the facts themselves stand. Take for example, the history of own country. Let the pupil first understand that the thirteen original States were English colonies. Explain the colonial relation. Then let him study briefly, the history of the revolution. which severed the colonial relations, and of the beginning, progress and issue of the war which accompanied it. This is the middle of our subject-the point at which we take our stand. The pupils have learned that a great event occurred, they have fixed its date and ascertained its leading incidents. The natural enquiry of almost every pupil, unless his nature has been unmade by previous bad practices, is to ask for the causes. One of the first primary truths suggested to the mind and acted upon by everybody long before it is embodied in a verbal proposi tion, is, that every effect in the natural and moral world has an adequate cause. The mind naturally reverts to the cause. Proceed in accordance with this strong natural tendency. The American revolution had its causes. What were they? To answer this question the pupil must explore the whole field of colonial history, with the question before his mind. He must look at the origin of the prin cipal settlements, make familiar acquaintance with the great minds among the colonists, which did most to shape the destinies of the country. He will note the influence of the French and Indian wars in rearing soldiers. He will study the frequent and sharp struggles between the local Legislatures, and the Crown. He will look attentively at the habits, the morals, and the religious character and opinions of the colonists. Having done this faithfully, he has no very im. perfect views of the causes of the revolution. He can tell you something more about it, than that "the colonists did not want to pay taxes." Our pupil may now go forward, and trace the consequences of that event,-some of them-not to the end,-for the end is not yet, either on this continent, or the other. Let it ever be remembered that history fur. nishes daily opportunities for inculcating great moral lessons, and of exercising the moral facul. ty of the pupil. Let not the teacher, who omits or overlooks these opportunities, flatter himself that he is faithful to his high trust. Require your advanced pupils to write on subjects upon which you would have them collect knowledge. Suppose, for instance, the question to come up, whether there are facts to sustain the geological theory of a great central heat in the earth. When first suggested, the pupil will, probably, know very little about it. Let him examine the various proofs on which its advocates rest. In doing so, he will collect and remember a vast number of facts having relation to the ques tion. Teach by example. We must ourselves have done what we wish our pupils to do. Conduct your exercises without dependence on the book. Having your own knowledge of the subject so familiar and well arranged, that it will come when you bid it, throw your whole self into the exercise. See your pupils eye to eye. Your own spirit and manner will be contagious to all, with very few exceptions, like those to whom neither inoculation nor contact will communicate the most contagious of all diseases. Show your class, by your own living example that no knowledge of the subject in hand will answer for yourself, but that same familiar well arranged knowledge, which you enjoin it on them to acquire. You will, of course, remember the difficulties you yourself had to encoun ter, and be very charitable to their mistakes and failures, and give them full credit for their successes.-[Adams. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. Having paid some attention in detail to the nature and agencies of heat, might not the teacher propose to his class to bring in the next day, a written report of whatever cases they can collect, in which man employs heat as a helper in works of art? The result would be an interesting enumeration of many artificial processes, in which the agency of heat is employed. The following record may be taken as a specimen. of explanation from the teacher, A. is ready to admit the statement of B. C. has carefully examined the formation of clouds, rain, hail and snow. He reports as follows:-Heat is constantly vaporizing water from the surface of land and sea. The vapor is conveyed away on the wings of the wind. The 1. Man uses the expansive power of heat to warmer the air, the more water it will hold force the particles of water apart, and applies in solution. When any portion of the air is the steam thus generated to propel the steam cooled, the water suspended in an aeriform state engine. In this manner, with almost creative is condensed into globules of liquid, forming fog power, he produces and directs a force, which on the earth and clouds in the air. When sufperforms the most exquisite works of art, or ficiently accumulated they discharge their conputs forth more than giant strength to overcome tents in the form of rain, hail or snow,―rain, the most formidable obstacles on land and sea. when the drops do not pass through a portion of It performs half the work of clvilized man. It air cold enough to freeze them, or sufficiently overcomes wind, and tide, and oceans, and dry to evaporate from the surface of the drops mountains. fast enough to freeze them; hail,-when the drops are frozen in falling, and crystals of snow when freezing takes place at the instant of condensation. 2. Heat is employed for purposes of distilla. tion, separating liquids which are mixed, by reducing to vapour that which is evaporated at the lowest temperature. 3. It is employed to warm houses and ventilate them. The methods of warming them are various; sometimes by radiation, as from the open fire-place, or the heated surface of a stove; sometimes by heating air in an air chamber in the cellar, which by its increased levity will rise through apertures in the floor, and diffuse itself through the room. Sometimes heat is conveyed latent in steam through pipes to all parts of large buildings, and given out again by condensation. It is employed to carry smoke away from fire. A portion of air is heated by the fire and in its ascent carries off smoke. Air flues carried up by the side of smoke flues form an effectual mode of ventilation. An open fireplace is a good ventilator. 4. It is used in baking and boiling food. have the same. Now call upon one and another to recapitulate, in the order in which the facts were stated. This will be a motive, if any is needed, to attention. If you think best, let all record the reports in a blank book; not when given-you want attention only then-but afterwards. This exercise was exciting and pleasant. Habits of observation were strengthened, some of the various ways in which a great natural agent is employed by man, made familiar. If this part of the subject is left here by the teacher, after a few remarks, it will not be left by the class, but will be a subject of conversation and reflection. Within the next twenty-four hours, as many more instances will be collected and garnered up, and remembered. For the next day, direct their attention to a new field of observation. Let them collect phenomena, in which heat exerts an essential agency without the interposition of any human power to direct or to control it. They report as follows, A. The sun heats the air by shining on it. B. I have the same fact but explain it differently. The sun does not heat the air by shining upon it. Air and other transparent media are thought to transmit heat without absorbing it. I have come to the conclusion that the earth first absorbs heat from the sun, and then warms the air in contact with it. After a few words D. has examined the formation of dew and reports: In the night, objects on the earth cool down below the temperature of the atmosphere, by radiating heat into space. The air in contact with colder objects deposits moisture, and thus dew is formed. E. adds, moisture is collected in the same manner on the outside of vessels containing cold water in summer, and on windows in winter. F. says, the frost work on stone and brick buildings, in warms days in winter, is moisture condensed from the air, and frozen by the cold walls, while snow and ice elsewhere are melting. G. reports, that he watched a little fleecy cloud as it floated along in the air, and saw it melt away and disappear. The atmosphere, he said, not being saturated with moisture at the temperature it then had, there was heat and dryness enough in it to vaporize the cloud. Not far off, he adds, another little cloud grew and gradually became quite large. Here the air had not heat enough to keep its moisture in an aeriform state and made a cloud. This report was so rich and various that time was wanting to complete it, and the subject was laid over till the next day. This day the reports were equally interesting and various. We cannot now give them. The subject had been thought of, talked of, and all the powers of observation quickened into exercise, and a great variety of facts connected in their minds with the agency of heat. For the next day a few questions were proposed for solution, such as-1. How does water extinguish fire? 2. Why does the temperature rise at the beginning of a snow storm? 3. Why a sudden fall of temperature during a shower of rain? What effect have large bodies of water upon atmospheric temperature? ORAL TEACHING. "Few branches, and well," should be the teacher's motto. I know one who requires his scholars to read a sentence three or four times over, if a single error is committed in the repetition. This practice will not make railroad readers-those who are praised according to their speed; but, I am confident it will make correct readers, though they should advance only at the humble rate of a man's unaided walking. Scholars, to be accurate, must review their lessons often and thoroughly. Each exercise should be bound by bands of steel to all that precede it. Be not ambitious to carry a pupil over many authors or many pages, but be perfectly certain that there is no line or word he has passed over, which he does not now understand. he must love them, and desire to do them good. Without these feelings, he will find all helps and appliances fruitless. I once knew a teacher, who complained of dull scholars, recommended to procure illustrations, pictures, cabinets, and apparatus. But, valuable as these are, in the true hands, there was one aid omitted in the catalogue, which would have supplied the place of them all; and that was a hearty love of his work. That man toiled in the school-room only to make money. He absolutely hated his occupation, and for children, he loved them only at a distance. How could it be, that he was not beating always up a river, and against a tremendous current? Teaching by conversation with a child, keeps his mind active, and it impresses whatever he is hearing, for the moment. But it is unfriendly to systematic culture, and rigid mental discipline. It is excellent in awakening the attention of the sluggish; it is useful, nay, indispensable, in the explanation of difficulties which spring up by the way, during study or recitation. A question Again, secure the greatest possible concentraoften proves the " open sesame" to a child's tion of mind, while you, at any time, exact mind, effecting an entrance, and throwing light, study, or hear the recitations of the children. into regions of profound darkness. Oral instruc- We lose immeasurably by requiring a length of tion is the more requisite from the poverty of attention to their books inconsistent with severe our school books. Many of these afford only application. A child learns nothing, while in glimpses of the subjects they treat. Instead of that dreamy, half-living state, in which many exciting the interest, by warming the heart of a spend much of the three hours' exercise, Memochild, they not seldom act as complete refrigerary depends on attention; and that can be given tors. Some are so vapid, and show so little unremittingly but for a few moments at once. knowledge of the capacities of childhood, as to Children are volatile and unfixed in their remind one of the green-house built in East- thoughts. We should never forget this, but India by the wife of a British Governor, the allow them perhaps more time than we comeffect of which was to exclude every particle of monly do for their recess, or change their objects heat from the plants. Who can teach geography, of attention more frequently Let the teacher for example, by relying on any manual now in select his own means, but I would earnestly existence ? press the necessity of requiring a fixed, intense application of the mind, when study and exercises are in hand, and of giving proportionate recreations. Still there may be some benefit in the use even of a poor text-book. For it may force the mind into vigorous efforts for correcting the faults of the author. Folly teaches something, as well as wisdom, in this world. In any event, manuals do good by assisting children in selfeducation. They present a kind of facility, on which, in after life, we must often depend. They tend to form habits of systematic, persevering mental exertion. They furnish a reply to that question so often put forth by scholar and parent," What good will it do to study this or that branch ?" They show the good to consist, not in the thing learned, but in the act of learning-in the mental discipline and power that come from indispensable effort. Oral instruction is particularly adapted to early childhood. From six to eight years of age, a scholar learns little from books. The mind is then so volatile and discursive, as to resist at tempts to induce protracted study. It must be taught, not in the abstract, but in the concrete. The method pursued by Carlyle, in his French Revolution-that of giving sketches and pictures, instead of connected essays-is best suited to younger pupils. This is the actual course pursued, indeed, by a large proportion of the adults of our race through life. Self-taught men gain their knowledge and power by fragments, not by the study of long and formal treatises. We all acquire much by conversation, that is, orally, disconnectedly. Probably we gain more information and mental ability by this, than from all our teachers, books, and systematic education. Nature, therefore, sanctions the oral teaching of the young.-Muzzey. INTELLECTUAL HABITS. THE teacher must excite the interest of his pupils in their studies. Before doing this, he must himself feel a deep interest in the children; Teach habits of observation. Children natu rally discriminate. They do it in their sports; the boy always knows who should stand at the goal, and who toss the ball. Make him just as certain in his studies. For this purpose he must watch. He must distinguish between things very nearly alike. Educate him to perceive shades of difference in truth and error. Do not allow him to call a thing yellow which is orangecolored, or that white which is of pearly aspect. Thus only can we train up men, to be accurate in business, to testify intelligibly and correctly in a court of justice, to be true specimens of the symmetrical man. Children should be educated in good habits of expression. They must not only know how a problem is solved, but must be able to state the method clearly and fully. Quite as much is gained by endeavors to communicate knowledge as by solitary study. This habit gives a command of language, which the scholar will hardly otherwise acquire. It shows him the extent of his resources, and where he needs fresh appli cation. It gives him fluency of utterance, and at the same time grammatical propriety. In some schools the teacher is content with guessing out [the ideas and meaning of the scholars. They speak, by hints, in half-formed sentences, and with a tone and manner so loose, disjointed and slovenly, as to savor of any place rather than a school-room. It is quite as important for the education of a child, that we should understand him, as he us. Thus only can we determine, whether he is really acquainted with the subject before him, whether he has just ideas, or is only giving us mouthfuls of words. Aim in all things to secure the utmost accu racy. Do you teach writing, be not satisfied with a scholar's marking over the destined page, or half page, but see that every letter is correctly formed, if but ten be written for an exercise. Are they spelling? Do not judge of their proficiency by the number of columns they can falter through. If each pupil can spell but a single word, let that word be first pronounced, and that distinctly, and then let each syllable be given separately, and each letter with its exact sound.-[Muzzey. PHYSICAL HABITS. Among the regulations of a school of long standing, in one of our larger cities, we find the following requisitions: "Boys are required to scrape their feet on the scraper, and to wipe them on every mat they pass over, on their way to the school-room; to hang their caps, hats, overcoats, &c., on the hooks appropriated to them, respectively, by loops prepared for the purpose; to bow gracefully and respectfully, on entering and leaving the school-room, if the teacher be present; to take their places immediately on entering; to make no unnecessary noise within the walls of the building, at any hour whatever; to keep their persons, clothes, and shoes, clean; to carry and bring their books in a satchel; to quit the neighborhood of the school, in a quiet and orderly manner, immediately on being dismissed; to present a pen by the feather end, a knife by its haft, a book by the right side upward to be read by the person receiving it; to bow, on presenting or receiving any thing; to stand, while speaking to a teacher; to keep all books clean, and the contents of desks neatly arranged; to deposit in their places all slates, pencils, &c., before leaving school; to pick up all hats, caps, coats, books, &c., found on the floor, and put them in their appropriate places; to be accountable for the condition of the floor nearest their own desks or seats; to be particularly quiet and diligent, whenever the teacher is called out of the room; and to promote, as far as possible, the happiness, welfare, and improvement of others. "No boy to throw pens, paper, or any thing whatever, on the floor, or out at a door or window; to spit on the floor; to mark, cut, scratch, chalk, or otherwise disfigure, injure, or defile, any portion of the school-house, or any thing connected with it; to meddle with the contents of another's desk, or unnecessarily to open and shut his own; to use a knife in school without permission; to quit the school-room at any time without leave; to pass noisily, or upon the run through the school-room or entry; to play at paw-paw, any where, or at any game in the school house; to retain marbles won in play; to whittle about the school-house; to use any profane or indelicate language; to nick name any person; to indulge in eating or drinking in school; to waste school-hours by unnecessary talking, laughing, playing, idling, standing up, gazing around, teasing, or otherwise calling off the attention of others; to throw stones, snow-balls, and other missiles, about the streets; to strike, push, kick, or otherwise annoy his associates or others-in fine, to do any thing that the law of love forbids; that law which requires us to do to others as we should think it right that they should do to us " "We occasionally hear complaints that we are too particular. We hope this is not the case. From some experience, it has been found best always to insist upon the performance of duties, however small, in some particular and uniform way that has been found most expedient; for, if any wandering from the fixed standard is allowed, there is no limit to the latitude that may be taken, and order and neatness will usually be dispensed with. We hope, then, that if, in any thing, we seem even notional, our exactness may be borne with, as the best means that has occurred to us for the accomplishment of a desirable end. Our notions may not be the best, but we know no better, and would gladly receive the communication of more efficient ones from any quarter. "In regard to the manners and morals of those under our charge, we presume that no one will find fault with our being particular; and, perhaps, the character and organization of our school gives us more opportunity to attend to these than most teachers enjoy. In regard to good manners, there seems to be no more reason for dispensing with them in the school, than in the drawingroom, or the church. School, to be sure, has its peculiar observances; but they can all be brought within the pale of respect and good feeling. Under all circumstances, we endeavor to enforce those marks of respect which the young owe to their elders, and of kindness and gentleness that they owe to each other; to show them that these are not to be limited to those of their own rank in society, but extended to all, as God's children and their brothers; that they, too, owe something to the comfort of the community at large, and that all municipal regulations must be strictly observed, as intended for the convenience of all; and that school-boys can, if they will, withdraw themselves from the genus bears, and maintain the character of gentlemen."-Thayer. MORAL INSTRUCTION IN SOCIAL DUTIES. NEXT in importance are our social dutiesthose which arise from our relation to our fellow creatures, and which are comprehended in the second great commandment of the New Testament. These should be daily and regularly explained and enforced. The general neglect of this most important part of education seems to proceed partly from a belief that it is sufficiently provi ded for by the instruction of parents, and of the ministers of religion. If instruction in social duties were sufficiently given elsewhere, it would indeed be superfluous to insist upon it in school. The discovery has been made, and in some places men have begun to act upon it, that it is better to prevent the commission of crime, than punish it when committed; that a merciful code of school laws may be made to take the place of a sanguinary code of criminal laws; that good schools are better than bad jails; that a kind schoolmaster is a more useful member of society than a savage executioner; that capital instruction is better than capital punishment; that it is better and easier to teach a boy to love a heavenly Judge, and keep his commandments, than to teach a man to fear an earthly judge, after he has broken the commandments; that it is pleasanter to spend a long life in the service of God and mankind, and the enjoyment of health and prosperity, than to divide a short life between |