observe for themselves. Superintendent Eliot says, “We teach best when we seem to teach least. Tell the child a fact, and it is all your telling. Lead him to find it himself, and it seems to him all his finding. Because it seems so, he is interested in it, and his interest secures his mastery of it."

12. Stimulate and encourage curiosity. Faraday says, "I am indebted to curiosity for whatever progress I have made in science. There are common experiments which I perform now with as much glee at the result as when I was a boy." Lead your pupils into the practice of proposing questions in the class. "If not snubbed and stunted," says Huxley, "by being told not to ask foolish questions, there is no limit to the intellectual craving of a young child, nor any bounds to the slow but solid accretion of knowledge, and the development of the thinking faculty in this way."

13. As to methods in specific lessons, the following directions by Superintendent Harris are to the point: "Prepare yourself beforehand on the subject of the lesson of the week, fixing in your mind exactly what subjects you will bring up, just what definitions and illustrations you will give or draw out of the class. All must be marked and written down in the form of a synopsis. The blackboard is the most valuable appliance in oral lessons: on it should be written the technical words discussed, the classification of the knowledge brought out in the recitation, and, whenever possible, illustrative drawings. Pains should be taken to select passages from the reference books, or from other books illustrative of the subject under discussion, to be read to the class with explanation and conversation. Wherever the subject is of such a nat

ure as to allow of it, the teacher should bring in real ob jects illustrative of it, and encourage the children to do the same. But more stress should be laid on a direct appeal to their experience, encouraging them to describe what they have seen and heard, and arousing habits of reflection, and enabling the pupil to acquire a good command of language. Great care must be taken by the teacher not to burden the pupil with too many new technical phrases at a time, nor to fall into the opposite error of using only the loose, common vocabulary of ordinary life, which lacks scientific precision."

III. QUOTATIONS FROM EDUCATORS.

I. "For discipline as well as for guidance, science is of the chiefest value. In all its effects, learning the value of things is better than learning the meaning of words. Whether for intellectual, moral, or religious training, the study of surrounding phenomena is immensely superior to the study of grammars and lexicons."-Spencer.

II. "The processes by which truth is attained-reasoning and observation-have been carried to their greatest known perfection in the physical sciences. As classical literature furnishes the most perfect types of the art of expression, so do the physical sciences those of the art of thinking. Mathematics, and its application to astronomy and natural philosophy, are the most complete example of the discovery of truths by reasoning; experimental science, of their discovery by direct observation."-John Stuart Mill.

III. "In childhood there is a vast capability of accumulating simple facts. The higher forms of mental activity not having come into exercise, the whole plastic

power of the brain is devoted to the storing-up of perceptions, while the vigor of cerebral growth insures the highest intensity of mental adhesiveness. When curiosity is freshest and the perceptions keenest, and the memory most impressible, before the maturity of the reflective powers, the opening mind should be led to the art of noticing the aspects, properties, and simple relations of the surrounding objects of nature."— Youmans.

IV. "But if scientific training is to yield its most eminent results, it must, I repeat, be made practical. That is to say, in explaining to a child the general phenomena of nature, you must, as far as possible, give reality to your teaching by object-lessons. In teaching him botany, he must handle the plants and dissect the flowers for himself; in teaching him physics and chemistry, you must not be solicitous to fill him with information, but you must be careful that what he learns, he knows of his own knowledge. Don't be satisfied with telling him that a magnet attracts iron. Let him see that it does; let him feel the pull of the one upon the other for himself. And, especially, tell him that it is his duty to doubt, until he is compelled by the absolute authority of nature to believe, that which is written in books. Pursue this discipline carefully and conscientiously, and you may make sure that, however scanty may be the measure of information which you have poured into the boy's mind, you have created an intellectual habit of priceless value in practical life."-Huxley.

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CHAPTER IX.

WRITING AND DRAWING.

I. HINTS ON WRITING.

1. MAKE a judicious use of whatever series of copybooks is officially adopted for your school. Penmanship is essential as a mechanical means for acquiring and conveying information. But do not make your pupils slaves to "elements," "analysis," "proportion," "harmonies," and an endless series of engraved lessons. Penmanship is learned, in the main, by imitation and practice.

2. With beginners, during the first school year, put your copies on the blackboard, and let your pupils imitate them on the blackboard. Little children like writing with chalk in large-hand, because the teacher and the class see their work. Follow these lessons by slate-work.

3. Do not drill beginners on elements, principles, or analysis, but put them at once to writing short words, and then short sentences, as in reading. In fact, reading and writing ought to be carried along pari passu.

4. Bear in mind that many of the capital letters are no harder to make than are the small letters.

5. In blackboard lessons, see that your pupils form the habit of holding a crayon properly, and give a drill lesson occasionally on large ovals to secure freedom of arm

movement.

6. In slate writing, use only long pencils, and train

your children to hold them as a pen is held. Give fre quent drill movements in making ovals, running m's, etc., in order to secure freedom of arm - movements and an easy way of holding the pencil.

7. Give attention at every lesson to the manner of placing the slate upon the desk, and to the position of the pupil in writing. It is exceedingly difficult to break bad habits of holding a pencil, when the pencil is followed by a pen.

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8. Do not sit down in a chair behind your table, as some teachers do, but go about among your scholars, place their slates or books properly, take hold of their rigid fingers, and show them how to hold a pen easily and properly. It is not enough to do this once, it must be continued for years.

9. Train pupils from the beginning to write with a free and ready movement, not the slow, constrained, rigid, snail-like tracing that is often current in school.

10. The use of engraved copy-books is indispensable in school, but they must not be relied on exclusively. Let copy-books alternate with blank-books in which to write maxims, rules of health, choice selections of prose and poetry, compositions, etc. When pupils are able to write a fair business hand, drop all copy-books, and rely on the written school exercises. Require weekly or monthly specimens from every pupil.

11. Upon the lowest line of each page of the copy-book, require the pupil to write his name and age, the name of the school and class, and the date when the page was finished.

12. Train your more advanced classes on the elements, and the analysis of forms. Point out the defects of bad