than too high. It is always easy as well as pleasant to promote him afterwards, if you have at first under estimated his powers; and it is neither easy nor pleasant, to degrade him if you begin by making a mistake in the other direction. I do not think it desirable to have separate classification for different subjects, except for special subjects such as drawing or music in which the individual gifts and tastes, of children otherwise alike in age and standing, necessarily differ considerably. But for all the ordinary subjects of class instruction, language, history, reading, writing, and lessons on science, it is well to keep the same scholars together. A little latitude may perhaps be allowed for scholars in the same class, who have made different degrees of progress in Arithmetic, and it will not always be possible or desirable that all the scholars in a class should be working exactly the same sums. Yet even here we have to ask ourselves what we mean by progress? It does not mean hurrying on to an advanced rule; but a fuller mastery over the applications of the lower rules. I would therefore resist the very natural desire of the more intelligent scholars, who may have got on faster, and perhaps finished all the exercises in the text-book under a particular rule, to go on to a new rule before their fellows. It is much better to let them occupy their time either in recapitulation, or in doing exercises you have specially selected from a more difficult book, and in dealing with rather more complex exemplifications of the lower rules. When a new rule is taken the whole class should begin it at once; because as we shall hereafter see the oral exposition of a new rule is an essential part of class-work; and it is one in which you cannot dispense with that kind of intellectual exercise which comes from questioning, crossquestioning and mutual help. And if this be true of

Fees.

Arithmetic then certainly it is true of every other subject which is usually taught in schools.

A word or two may be properly added on the subject of fees. They will have a necessary tendency to increase, as the value of money alters, and the public estimation of good teaching rises. Already the sums mentioned on p. 48, which were recommended by the Schools' Inquiry Commission in 1867, have often proved to be insufficient for the satisfactory conduct even of schools provided with good buildings for which no interest has to be paid. Much will depend on the size of the schools-for the cost per head is reduced when numbers are large,and much also upon the character of the place and its surroundings, and upon the value, if any, of the endowment the school possesses. But whatever the fees prescribed, they should be inclusive of all the school charges, and of all the subjects taught in it. There is no harm in graduating fees by age; or in imposing a heavier charge on those who come into the school late. But there should be no graduation by subjects,-no extras; except perhaps for instrumental music, or other special subject requiring quasi-private instruction. Nothing is more fatal to the right classification of a school, and to its corporate unity, than the necessity of appealing to the parent at each stage of a pupil's career, to know if this or that particular subject can be afforded or sanctioned. A school is not a mart, in which separate purchases may be made for each scholar at discretion of so much French, or Latin or Mathematics; but an organized community for the purposes of common instruction; in which no other distinction should be recognized among the scholars than the fitness of each to enter a particular class, or to commence a new study. And of this fitness the principal teacher should be the

sole judge. There may be in special circumstances good reasons for reducing the fee to the holders of scholarships or exhibitions; but the fee prescribed by regulation for those who have no special privilege should always be such as shall honestly avow to the parents the true market value of the education imparted, and as shall place within the reach of every scholar who is admitted, without exception, the full advantage of all the instruction which the school can furnish.

III. THE SCHOOL-ROOM AND ITS

APPLIANCES.

The physi

We may fitly devote one of our meetings to the concal conditions of sideration of the physical conditions under which school successful work should be carried on; and the merely material teaching equipments and appliances, which are needed in teaching.

Space.

Such considerations are of great importance. No effective teaching is possible when children are in a state of physical discomfort. We cannot afford to despise one of the artifices which science and experience have adopted, for making our scholars more at ease, and putting them into a more receptive attitude for instruction. What then are the most favourable external conditions under which the work of a school can be carried on?

There is first the necessity for sufficient space. In the elementary schools it is an imperative requirement that at least eight square feet of floor area shall be provided for every child, and this in a room ten feet high means a total space of 80 cubic feet. This is the minimum; and in schools provided by the rates it has of late been the practice to require a larger space-ten superficial feet or 100 cubic feet. But a more liberal provision still is needed in good secondary schools. For you have not only to provide sitting-room at a desk for each scholar, but room for each class to stand up and means

room.

Space and its arrangement.

65

for combining two or more classes for collective lessons. It is obvious that the space-requirement must be mainly determined by the nature of the organization of the school, whether in separate class-rooms, or in one large As a general rule there is no harm in providing an isolated class-room for every class for which you are also able to provide a responsible adult teacher who does not need constant supervision. And many modern schools are constructed on the theory that all the work is to be done in class-rooms, and that all the space needed is a sufficient number of such rooms, to seat all the scholars. But there are occasions on which it is desirable that all the scholars should assemble together; for morning or evening prayer, for singing, or for collective addresses. Without a central hall large enough to contain the whole of the scholars, the corporate life of a school cannot be properly sustained and many opportunities are lost of making the scholars conscious. of their relations to each other and to the general repute and success of the school. And it is manifest that if such a central hall is used for these public purposes alone, and not for teaching, much space is wasted, and the estimate of area already given must be multiplied by two. In some modern schools the various classrooms are arranged in the four sides of a quadrangle which is covered in, and which serves the double purpose of a central hall and of a common entrance to all the rooms. In this way you economize space and dispense altogether with the necessity for a corridor. Moreover such an arrangement renders the assembling of all the scholars from their separate rooms, and the dismissal of all to their work after the roll-call or the prayers of the morning, a simpler and easier process. On the whole, experience shews that in a well-planned, lofty

F. L.

5