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PROGRAMME

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Of the Examination and Classification of Teachers of Common Schools, prescribed by the COUNCIL OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR UPPER CANADA, as required b

chapter 48, section XXXVIII.

..

the Act, 13th and 14th Victoria,

TO BE IN FORCE UNTIL REPEALED OR REVISED BY SAID COUNCIL,

N.B.-Candidates shall not be eligible to be admitted to examination, until they shall have furnished the Examiners with satisfactory evidence of their strictly temperate habits and good moral character.

I. QUALIFICATIONS OF THIRD CLASS TEACHERS.

Candidates for certificates as Third Class Teachers, are required:

1. To be able to read intelligibly and correctly any passage from any common reading book.

2. To be able to spell correctly the words of an ordinary sentence dictated by the Examiners

3. To be able to write a plain hand.

4. To be able to work readily questions in the simple and compound rules of Arithmetic, and in Reduction and Proportion, and be familiar with the principles on which these rules depend.

5. To know the elements of English Grammar, and be able to parse any easy sentence in prose.

6. To be acquainted with the elements of Geography, and the general outlines of the Globe.

7. To have some knowledge of School organization and the classification of pupils.

II. QUALIFICATIONS OF SECOND CLASS TEACHERS.

Candidates for certificates as Second Class Teachers, in addition to what is required of candidates for Third Class certificates, are required :

1. To be able to read with ease, intelligence, and expression, and to be familiar with the principles of reading and pronunciation.

2. To write a bold free hand, and to be acquainted with the rules of teaching writing,

3. To know Fractions, Involution, Evolution, and commercial and mental Arithmetic.

[Female candidates for this class of certificates will only be examined in Practice, and mental Arithmetic.]

4. To be acquainted with the elements of Book-Keeping.

5. To know the common rules of Orthography, and be able to parse any sentence in prose or poetry which may be submitted; to write grammatically, with correct spelling and punctuation, the substance of any passages which may be read, or any topics which may be suggested.

6. To be familiar with the elements of Mathematical, Physical and Civil or Political Geography, as contained in any School Geography.

III. QUALIFICATIONS OF FIRST CLASS TEACHERS.

Candidates for certificates as First Class Teachers, in addition to what is required of Candidates for Third and Second Class certifificates, are required:

1. To be acquainted with the rules for the mensuration of Superficies and Solids, and the elements of Land Surveying.

2. To be familiar with the simple rules of Algebra, and be able to solve problems in Simple and Quadratic Equations.

3. To know the first four books of Euclid.

4. To be familiar with the elements and outlines of General History.

5. To have some acquaintance with the elements of Vegetable and Animal Physiology and Natural Philosophy, as far as taught in the Fifth Book of the National Readers.

6. To understand the proper organization and management of Schools and the improved methods of teaching.

N.B.-Female candidates for first class certificates will not be examined in the subjects mentioned in the first three paragraphs under this head.

By Order of the Council of Public Instruction for Upper Canada.
J. GEORGE HODGINS,

EDUCATION OFFICE, TORONTO.

Adopted the 3rd day of October, 1850.

Recording Clerk,

C. P. I.

GENERAL FORM

OF CERTIFICATES OF QUALIFICATION FOR COMMON SCHOOL
TEACHERS IN UPPER CANADA.

To be granted by County Boards of Public Instruction, in accordance with the foregoing Programme of Examination.

having applied to the BOARD OF Public InstructioN for the County [School Circuit or United Counties] of for a Certificate of Qualification to teach a Common School, and having produced "satisfactory proof of good moral character," the BOARD has carefully examined him [or her] in the several branches of study enumerated in the "Qualifications of [third, second, or first, as the case may be] ...... class Teachers," contained in the "PROGRAMME OF THE EXAMINATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF TEACHERS OF COMMON SCHOOLS, PRESCRIBED BY THE COUNCIL OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR UPPER CANADA," adopted the 3rd day of October, 1850; and having found the said well qualified to teach the several branches therein named, the BOARD, as authorized by the 29th section of the Act 13th and 14th Victoria, chapter 48, hereby licenses him [or her] to teach any Common School in the [If a first class Certificate, here insert the name of the County, School Circuit, Union of Counties, or City; if a second class Certificate, the name of the Township; and if a third class Certificate, the name of the School Section in which the Candidate is authorised to teach,-to be determined, at the discretion of the Board.]

This Certificate of Qualification to remain in force [for one year from the date hereof, or until annulled according to law-to be determined by circumstance, and the class of the Certificate granted.]

N.B.-Each Certificate should be signed by the Chairman of the Board, and must also have the signature of a Local Superintendent of Schools. See 2nd clause of the 29th section of the Act.

[CIRCULAR.]

To the Boards of School Trustees elected in the several Cities and Towns in Upper Canada, September the 3rd, 1850.

GENTLEMEN:

EDUCATION OFFICE,
Toronto, 8th October, 1850.

Your fellow-citizens and townsmen have elected you to a trust the most important, and responsible; and the School Act invests you w with ample powers to fulfil that trust, so as to extend the facilities of a sound education to each child in every city and town in Upper Canada. On you will rest the responsibility if any of the Schools under your charge is inefficient, whether from the employment of an improper teacher, or from the want of a proper School-house, or proper furniture or text-books, or if a single child be unprovided with the means of education; and to you will appertain the satisfaction and honor and gratitude, which shall never die, if each school over which you are placed be a living fountain of knowledge and virtue, and if each child within your jurisdiction have unobstructed access to that fountain. Water and bread and clothing are not more needful for the health and growth and comfort of the body, than are the food and pulsations of knowledge to the vital energy and divine distinction of mind. The uneducated child grows up into a mere animal of bones and sinews, with tastes and sympathies and habits as degraded and pernicious as they might be exalted and useful. The destiny of each child in each city and town -especially of the more laborious classes-is, in a great measure, in your hands. You are its chosen educational guardians; and as such you have the power of training and sending him forth an intelligent and useful citizen, or of neglecting and turning him out both a victim and instrument of the worst propensities of our na

ture.

Our cities and towns are the centres and hearts of large sections of country, and radiate influences, for good or for evil, which are folt over the whole areas of the surrounding circles. This is espeoially the case in Upper Canada, where domestic relations and every variety of social and business intercourse between town and country are so numerous and intimate.

In your new and responsible position, the first subject which will naturally engage your attention is the nature of the work which lies before you. It is to provide primary instruction for children from five to eight years of age-intermediate instruction for those from eight to eleven years of age-and higher instruction for youths from eleven to fourteen. The nature and classification of subjects contained in this course of instruction, need not be here enumerated or stated; but they will at once suggest the proper gradation of schools, and the several departments in the same school, when established upon a large scale and including several teachers.

The providing proper School-houses, furnished with maps, apparatus, and the needful text-books for the pupils, the employment of efficient Teachers, the appointment of an able and active Superintendent, and the selection of an intelligent and faithful local Committee for each School or ward, together with the estimate and provision for the support of Schools, will next engage your earnest attention, and constitute the principal subjects of your future solicitude and labours. A division of labour will be one of the most convenient, if not essential, means of accomplishing these purposes with any degree of facility and success: such as the appointment of a Committee on School-houses; a Committee on the qualifications, employment and salaries of Teachers; a Committee on textbooks and apparatus; a Committee on examinations and discipline; a Committee of Ways and Means, and another on Accounts. In smaller towns and incorporated villages, so minute a division of labour among the Members of the Board of Trustees will not be necessary. Most of these Committees should report once a month at the monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees; the Committee on School Examinations should attend the Quarterly Examinations of the Schools, and should report the result of examination in each School. The local Superintendent (who should be a practical Teacher, a man of virtue, a lover of youth, and an ardent friend and promoter of knowledge) should visit each of the Schools and report on their state and progress at least once a month; and his report should specially include, am ong other things, a statement of the manner in which the School Registers are kept, and the character of attendance of pupils, as well as the character of organization, classification, teaching and discipline in each school. He should have Quarterly Meetings of the Teachers, to interchange views on various points of instruction and discipline, in order to promote har