4. To speak correct English and to write readily a wellexpressed letter of business or friendship.

5. To work accurately any plain business questions involving the four rules, common and decimal fractions, and simple interest.

PART II.

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING COMMON

SCHOOL ESSENTIALS.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

I. "THE aim of all intellectual training for the mass of the people should be to cultivate common-sense, to qualify them for forming a sound practical judgment of the circumstances by which they are surrounded." - John Stuart Mill.

II. "The intellectual training to be given in the elementary schools must, of course, in the first place, consist in learning to use the means of acquiring knowledge, or reading, writing, and arithmetic; and it will be a great matter to teach reading so completely that the act shall have become easy and pleasant.

"But along with a due proficiency in the use of the means of learning, a certain amount of knowledge, of intellectual discipline, and of artistic training should be conveyed in the elementary schools; and in this direction I can conceive no subject-matter of education so appropriate and so important as the rudiments of physical science, with drawing, modelling, and singing."-Huxley.

III. “An educational course may be packed so full of work that one piece crushes out another; so many books to be gone over, so many pages to be taken at a lesson, so many exercises of all sorts to be attempted, if not accomplished; and then the pressure is the obstacle against which both teachers and taught beat until they are often pitifully bruised."—Superintendent Eliot.

IV. "Worth belongs to any subject of study if it conveys methods that are useful far beyond itself. The sciences that embody an organization for aiding the mind --whether in deductive method, such as geometry and physico-mathematical science; in observation and induction, as the physical sciences; or in classification, as in the natural history sciences - would on these grounds alone be admitted to the higher circle of mental discipline or training, irrespective of the value of the facts and principles viewed separately or in detail. It depends partly on the teacher and partly on the scholar whether the element of method shall stand forth and extend itself, or whether the subjects shall only yield their own quantum of matter or information. . . . In estimating the value of a branch of study, we must consider not merely what it gives us, but what, through engrossment of our time, it deprives us of."-Bain's Education as a Science.

CHAPTER II.

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING READING.

1. Teach beginners by a judicious combination of the word method, phonic method, and spelling method. After learning to call a limited number of words at sight, the methods practically run together, and the difference is so little apparent that no one method need be made a hobby of.

2. Make use of the school chart, the Primer, or First Reader, and the blackboard: best of all is the blackboard. Make the letters, and let your pupils try to imitate you. Write or print words, and let your scholars do the same.

3. Lessons for beginners should be very short, not exceeding ten minutes in length.

4. Give patient and long-continued attention to the correction of slovenly and incorrect pronunciation, both in spoken language and in reading from the book.

5. Give special attention to drill on the elementary sounds, both vowel and consonant. The sounds of the letters must be taught with their names. Take frequent concert exercises in vocal culture, including drill on force, pitch, movement, and inflection, in order to bring out the voices of timid pupils, and to secure flexibility of the organs of speech.

6. Call out your reading classes into line. Train pupils to stand erect, and to hold the book in the left hand.

7. Train pupils to open the mouth freely. This may be done by long-continued concert drill on the vowel sounds, such as a in arm, or a in all. There can be no good reading with the teeth and lips half closed.

8. Train pupils, not only to call words, but also to think about the meaning of what they read. "The great and almost universal fault in teaching reading," says Superintendent Philbrick, "is the too great neglect of attention to the sense of what is read." "Even long after a child can read," says Bain, "it is unable to extract much information from books." Hence the need of the teacher's assistance.

9. Question pupils upon what they read. By conversation with them upon the subject of the lesson, endeavor to make it interesting and instructive. When they thoroughly understand what they read, and have a real appreciation of the subject, they will read naturally and with correct emphasis and inflection. The teacher may read a piece to let his pupils perceive how, by a natural tone and correct emphasis and inflection, he brings out the meaning; but he must carefully avoid training his pupils to imitate him. They must read well of themselves, because they understand and appreciate the subject; they must never read as parrots.

10. In order to secure close attention to the readinglesson, require pupils to copy one paragraph, at least, of every lesson. Continue this even in the higher grades, as an aid in punctuation and spelling as well as in reading.

11. When the lesson is a suitable one, let pupils close their books, and tell from memory, in their own words, the substance of the piece. Occasionally require a writ ten abstract of some suitable story.