PAPERS AND CORRESPONDENCE.

[The Committee of the National Society are thankful for any communication likely to assist School-managers and Teachers, or otherwise promote the cause of Church Education; but they do not necessarily hold themselves responsible for the opinions of the Editor's correspondents.]

To the Editor of the National Society's Monthly Paper.

HINTS TO VILLAGE-TEACHERS.

SIR,-I send you for insertion, from time to time, in your valuable periodical a few hints to teachers in village-schools. They are the fruits of some experience gained by working in such schools, and are enriched by the help and matured by the careful revision of one who has laboured in the same cause in a more extended sphere.

In this age of gigantic enterprise, we can scarcely wonder that the village-school is in danger of being neglected and overlooked. Humble and unobtrusive, often mean in appearance, its master or mistress perhaps less perfectly educated than might be wished, its scholars irregular in their attendance on account of their partial employment in agricultural labour, frequently late in the morning in consequence of the vague sense of time which prevails in too many villages, and when at last collected, backward in their attainments and somewhat stolid and heavy in their cast of mind, -it must be owned that this description of school is at first sight less attractive than the well-appointed well-attended town-school. Yet when we bear in mind how large a number of the labourers' children of England are educated in village-schools, and how many of a rather higher walk of life—the sons and daughters of small tradesmen, artisans, and farmers-would be educated in them if the schools were more efficient, and thus would be drawn within the sphere of the Church's teaching,-we shall feel how very important it is to raise in every way, intellectually as well as morally, the character of these places of education: and those who devote themselves to labour in this portion of their Master's vineyard will assuredly find their work far from dreary or hopeless; for though they will certainly meet with many difficulties and discouragements, yet they will, if they set to work in a right spirit, no less certainly find that many of these difficulties may be easily overcome, and that they possess advantages and sources of interest in which the teachers in town-schools have little or no share. There is commonly to be found in small villages a docility and simplicity of mind unknown in towns, while the population is less migratory than in more crowded districts; and from these and other causes, the influence of the upper classes on the poor, so very effective for good in a school, is far greater than in other places. And if village boys and girls do not possess the sharpness and quickness of those in towns, they are often more thoughtful. What can be more gratifying than to watch the mind which has been long dormant gradually awakening? What more hopeful than to elicit the racy, or it may be the quaint, answer which proves that the mental powers, and not the memory only, are actually in exercise?

Trusting that the hints I now send may be found generally useful by the class of teachers for whose guidance and help they were especially drawn up, I am, &c. S. W.

1. The Schoolroom; its Furniture, &c.

This building, the scene of the labours of master or mistress and scholars, should be (1) as well suited as possible for its object, i. e. the containing a number of children for a certain number of hours in the day while receiving instruction; and (2) as much

of interest and beauty should be connected with it as may be.* In country parishes it is often impossible to realise completely all our wishes; but it is well to bear in mind what a schoolroom should be, and what we should strive to obtain for the village in which we are interested.

The schoolroom, then, should be situated near the church, yet out of the main street of the village. It should stand in a playground large enough to allow a good game of play, and should be provided with a garden, in which well-trained boys and girls will delight to work by turns for their master or mistress. It should have a porch, where the late children (for such, alas, there will be even in the best-regulated country school) may be sheltered in wet weather during morning prayers and the registering of names. The windows should be placed high enough to preclude any possibility of the scholars being distracted by looking out through them. Should they unfortunately have been inserted too low in the walls, so much of them as is below the level of the children's eyes must be made to resemble ground glass, either by pasting white or pale yellow tissue-paper over the panes of glass, or by covering them with a single coat of white paint. If the former plan be adopted, the effect of tracing a diaper pattern on the paper in Indian ink is very good. The room should be left as light as possible for the sake of the health and cheerfulness of its inmates.

The schoolroom should be thoroughly ventilated. This (as we are informed by a competent authority) is fearfully neglected in nine-tenths of our schools, to the great injury both of teachers and taught. The heated oppressive air they breathe weakens the children, and disposes them to take any contagious disease to which they may be exposed; and the jaded worn appearance of too many masters and mistresses may in part be ascribed to the same cause.

Should the schoolroom have been built without any arrangement for ventilation, Dr. N. Arnott's contrivance for ventilating rooms must be resorted to. It is very cheap, and has been found effectually to answer the purpose. "The ventilating valve," as the doctor calls it, "is a contrivance placed in an opening made into the chimney-flue near the ceiling (not nearer than nine inches to any timber or other combustible substance, according to the New Building Act), by which all the noxious air is allowed at once, in obedience to the chimney-draught, to pass away; but through which nothing can escape backwards into the room or return. Contraction of the chimney-throat, by the register of a good open grate or stove, aids its action. It is useful in all cases to have the register-door; and when there is no fire in the grate it should be shut. The valve is in principle a small weigh-beam, or steelyard, carrying on one arm a metallic flap to close the opening, and on the other a weight to balance the flap. The weight may be screwed on its arm to such a distance from the axis or centre of motion that it shall exactly counterpoise the flap; but when left a little further off, it just lifts the flap very softly to the closing position. Although the valve, therefore, be heavy and durable, a breath of air suffices to move it, which if from without (that is, from within the room) opens it; and if from within (that is, from the chimney-flue) closes it; and when no such force interferes, it settles in its closed position. It may be obtained at Edwards's, Poland Street, Oxford Street."+

Let the schoolroom, however, be ever so well ventilated, no master or mistress can reasonably entertain a hope of preserving health unless they are careful to take exercise daily in the open air. They ought to consider this not merely a matter of pleasure, but a paramount duty. In these daily walks they may occasionally look in with advantage upon the parents of their pupils, not to find fault, but to say a kind word to them.

The schoolroom should be kept clean within by whitewashing the walls every six months, scrubbing or dry-rubbing the floor every week, and sweeping it daily. Tidiness must be maintained by providing cupboards or boxes enough to hold the books and

"We cannot throw around the education of children too much dignity and grace, provided we do not minister to self-indulgence."-The Rev. Derwent Coleridge (quoted from memory).

This extract, and the substance of what precedes it on the subject of ventilation, is taken from Household Surgery, by J. F. South, one of the surgeons to St. Thomas's Hospital.

work, so that none should ever be left about. It is a very good plan to have a strong solid box in the middle of every class, with a time-table pasted inside the lid. A sufficient and well-chosen stock of books should be contained in these boxes, or in wellarranged shelves.

The walls of the schoolroom should be hung with maps, coloured prints, and other objects of interest. It will please the elder girls, and bind them healthfully to each other and to the school, if they are allowed to mark a sampler jointly, to be framed and hung up in the schoolroom. Every girl might work a verse with her name and the date, and all might join in the border. These decorations should be kept in good order and free from dust. On Saturday, the week-day maps and pictures should be taken down, and illuminated texts and Scripture prints substituted for them. This entails a little trouble; but those who really care for the children will be repaid by the effect on their minds. It keeps up their interest in what surrounds them, marks the difference between Sundays and other days, and helps them to realise the holy and joyous character of the weekly festival.

The mantel-piece or the top of any cupboard or desk should not be made receptacles of copy-books or papers in or out of use, but should be kept clean and clear, and ornamented in any way that may be feasible. Casts of such figures as the kneeling Samuel, or the boy and girl reading and writing, are very suitable. Jars for flowers look well,* and afford great pleasure to the little ones, who will delight to bring flowers, wild or from their gardens, to enrich the school nosegay. Such ways endear their school to them to a degree not often realised.

It is desirable for every school to possess its museum of curiosities, to be shown in connection with certain lessons, or as a treat at other times. The scholars will delight to bring specimens of curious stones, ore, or spar, dug up in the neighbourhood, as contributions; and friends of the school may from time to time add curiosities, which, however simple, will be objects of interest in its little world. A plain wooden box, with glass fitted to one side, will suffice for containing these treasures.

The schoolroom should also contain one or more picture-books for week-day use. The prints or drawings should, if possible, be coloured; but even if plain, they are, however simple, both useful and attractive to village children. Any such may be pasted on stout paper and formed into books at very little expense. They will delight the younger classes between their lessons, or on wet days may be intrusted to those children who, coming from a distance, spend the dinner-hour in school.

[To be continued.]

CAN BOOK-LEARNING AND INDUSTRIAL TRAINING BE COMBINED GENERALLY IN THE SCHOOLS FOR THE POOR?

SIR, The question of industrial training in our schools need not now be treated as a mere theoretical one, since it has been put to practical proof in a variety of ways, by many persons, for several years past. The Government Inspector's reports, especially those of Mr. Norris, are full of such experiments. I think, therefore, that we now possess materials for drawing a fair conclusion as to what can be done and what cannot in this respect. The two main points in the question appear to be, (1) whether by any system of industrial work we can hope to keep our children longer at school; and (2) how far they can be hereby trained and prepared for their future work in life. Now, taking more particularly the case of boys in agricultural districts, I believe it may be safely asserted that no industrial schemes have ever availed to retain them at school, except one of the two following: 1. A sort of half-time plan, such as is mentioned in Mr. Norris's reports as having been successfully carried out at Acton and Saltney in Cheshire, but also as having failed in many other places. On this plan, the elder boys go out to work, under a proper superintendent, for the farmers

* Such decorations are said to be of frequent use in American schools.

during half the day, and return for the other half to school; receiving, of course, fair pay for their work done. This is doubtless a most excellent plan, and involves but little expense; and moreover it is found to satisfy both parents and employers; but unfortunately the latter class can very seldom be got to co-operate in it, without which, of course, it cannot be carried out. The 2d plan is, to take the boys quite away from their homes, and to board and lodge them in a separate house. This is a very effectual plan also, and one that works well, both with regard to keeping them at school as long as is thought desirable, and training them for servants, gardeners, &c.; but it is (I speak from twelve years' experience) very expensive, and never, in my opinion, could be made self-supporting. No industrial scheme that does not, like these two, ease the labourer from the burden of his children's maintenance after a certain age, will ever, at the present rate of wages, induce him to keep them at school after the age of nine or ten years. Mere garden allotments for his boys can never pay him nearly enough to compensate for the loss of their weekly wages; though on other accounts they might always be introduced with advantage in country schools. If properly superintended, boys learn by these to be handy in the use of tools, and to do their work carefully and well; they acquire a taste for gardening, which may be of the greatest use afterwards in keeping them out of much evil when older: only, in order to reap the full benefit of this, they should be allowed the privilege while growing up to manhood of having other larger gardens to cultivate in their spare time. School allotments may also be made useful in furnishing good models of cottage gardening; a point of some importance, as poor people often have but one idea on this subject, viz. to grow potatoes. And last, though by no means least, they furnish a wholesome relaxation both for masters and scholars from the ordinary school-routine for a few hours in the week. With regard to teaching boys other trades at school, such as carpentering, &c., I suspect that little more can be said for it than that they learn thus very little, and that little very imperfectly. Now in school gardening certainly there is very little, if any, training or preparation for a labourer's future work, which is almost always of a different kind; so that it is no wonder if parents fail to see what benefit in this respect their children will gain by staying longer at school.

Such I believe to be the real state of the case with regard to industrial training (as it is called) in our schools; a state of things to be deplored indeed, but one borne out by all past experience, and one which no amount of empirical talk by public speakers at public meetings will be able to alter.

With regard to girls, experience has shown that the mothers usually object to their taking part in any industrial occupation at school except needlework. No doubt this may be overcome; a dinner provided for them now and then, and a set of clothes once a-year, will be, as Mr. Norris suggests, well bestowed for this object. His reports, indeed, contain many valuable hints on this point, and a few records of successful experiments. The expense, he says, need not be great, and some good may certainly be effected; so that there seems no reason why such plans should not be much more generally carried out, especially when there are any ladies to take an interest in them. But a far more effectual plan would be, to receive the elder girls as they leave school-say at about fourteen years of age-into parochial training establishments; whence, having been duly prepared for service, they might go forth into decent and respectable places, and so escape being forced, as they too often are now, into bad and demoralising ones; and thus also they would be kept under careful supervision, and out of harm's way, at a most dangerous period of life. Every parochial clergyman must often have mourned over the rapid deterioration in many perhaps of his favourite children after they have left the day-school, and while they are idling at home or in the streets, before getting out into service; and must have grieved for the work of years thus seemingly undone. Such a plan as the above would quite meet the wants of the case; for the girls would thereby be provided for and properly employed during this difficult period; and society also would be greatly benefited, by obtaining a far better race of servants. The difficulty, of course, would be the

expense; yet this, I think, might often be met partly by taking in washing, and still more by the clergy and gentry in any particular neighbourhood combining to support such an institution. If several parishes were thus to coalesce, it would be no great burden; and money could never be spent in a better way; besides that the subscribers would of course have the first choice of such a better race of servants for themselves. I know that this plan has been tried with success in some places. Why should it not become much more general ?—I am, &c. S. H. C.

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.

SIR, I hope, after the convincing letter of Lord Lyttelton, and the persuasive letter of "Sparks," in your last Paper, that any further correspondence on the want —let me say rather, the downright necessity—of industrial training in our villageschools, "ordinary schools under ordinary circumstances," is needless. I cannot, however, resist offering my testimony to the clear necessity thereof; and I do so because, as a diocesan inspector of a somewhat large country district, the conviction has been forced upon me, that schools which unite useful and practical with literary education take by far the highest standard, and accomplish that in which non-industrial schools will in the long-run fail,-I mean, approach a self-supporting principle.

It is in comparing my district, in this industrial respect backward, with others where industrial training has found a place and established itself, in however humble a manner (the humbler, the less showy, in my opinion, the better), that I have arrived at this conclusion, contrary moreover to ideas previously formed by me.

What first opened my eyes to the extreme necessity of making our school-system useful and practical, and such a one consequently as would lead parents to set a value on the education of their children, was a short pamphlet containing two letters on girls' schools and the training of working-women by Mrs. Sarah Austin, whose name alone would recommend her subject.

I ask all interested in the welfare of the labouring class to read her description of the Norwich girls' school before they decide that the want is not felt, that the machinery for such schools is too expensive, or that the desire to make use of such rational education does not exist in the class to be benefited. Its title is, Two Letters on Girls' Schools, and the Training of Working Women, by Mrs. Austin. Woodfall and Kinder, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London, originally printed it for private distribution; but it is now, I believe, published by Chapman and Hall.

School promoters are beginning to see more and more each day that the usefulness and success and virtue of the labouring class depend not so much on the head as on the skilful and intelligent use of the hands, and that their business is to teach the brain to minister to those hands. Heartily wishing this great cause good speed, I am, &c. DIOCESAN INSPECTOR.

PUPIL-TEACHERS' LECTURES.

SIR,-May I beg the favour of a spare corner in your valuable Paper if the following suggestions I make meet with your approval ?

I think that many advantages are to be acquired by pupil-teachers, if they adopt the plan of giving lectures among themselves on different subjects, embracing either literature, science, or art. I believe that where three or four pupil-teachers are at a school, they would find it very profitable if each in turn were to deliver a lecture to his comrades on some well-chosen subject-say one a week. And that the audience might not be too scanty, some of their friends should be permitted to attend. The advantages to be gained by pursuing this plan are several, both to the lecturer and his hearers. The lecturer has an excellent opportunity of improving his manner of composition and delivery; and his hearers as well as himself are most likely benefited by the information set afloat. If the lecturer chooses some useful topic to discourse upon, the research it requires to gain all the knowledge he can upon that subject, the en