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velopment mentioned, are reading, spelling, elementary composition, numbers, linear drawing, singing, and gymnastic exercises.

Reading should be taught as a means of acquiring knowledge, of reproducing it, and of expressing it to others.

Spelling should be taken up, as necessary to the construction of words in written composition, but not as immediately connected with reading.

Exercises in numbers in the lower elementary schools should be confined to the application of the four fundamental rules to integral units. The pupils may be taught to construct as well as to solve their own problems.

Elementary composition may be introduced into the primary schools from the first. Oral and written composition, with reading, may be classed under the topic Language Lessons. The pupil is to be prepared for exercises in constructing compositions by objective teaching, that has for its object a real knowledge of what is to be described. Careful and persistent instruction should be given in the selection of words and construction of sentences. A few marks of punctuation may be introduced. Pupils in elementary composition should be taught to use figurative language, and that use of language which constitutes a good style, all to be taught as facts without referring to principles.

Linear drawing should be introduced for the training it gives to the hand and eye, and the effect it produces on the habits of observation. Drawing may be made also a means of cultivating the taste, by leading the pupil to turn his attention to the beauties of nature and of art.

Gymnastic exercises have for their object the health and grace of the body. They should therefore be planned and conducted by those who have a knowledge of the physical constitution of the children, and the conditions necessary to its proper development. All that which is presented to primary pupils must be taught objectively.

In addition to the topics peculiar to primary work, a series of lessons should be given on the properties of things. These are to prepare the pupil to take up the work done in the grade of schools above his own, where the pupils are put to comparing things with one another for those marks in them by which they are known to be either alike or unlike.

The second grade of development will require the following course of studies: Reading, Spelling, Composition, Numbers, Singing, and Drawing, which studies are a continuation of the primary course, but more advanced; also facts of History, elements of Geography, elementary lessons on plants, animals, and minerals, and elementary lessons in Chemistry and Physics.

Reading is to be conducted after the same general manner as in the primary course, except there may be more practice in silent reading, Selections from both prose and poetry may be read. The attention of the pupil should be called to the figurative language to be read, and to some of the properties of style.

Let the spelling exercises be conducted in the written form. The words spelled may be taken from the reading-lessons, or from any lessons given in the course. The pupil will have a large amount of spelling in connection with his written composition.

Written compositions are now to be constructed in accordance with a plan which is to be illustrated by the teacher. The subjects of the compositions may be natural objects or historical events, or the creations of the imagination. The teacher should correct the spelling, the grammatical and rhetorical structure of the compositions, and to a slight degree their punctuation.

The fundamental operations in arithmetic may be applied to both integral and fractional units, and to compound or denominate numbers. The metric system of weights and measures may be introduced, and all the arithmetical knowledge gained may be applied to the simple forms of business-life.

Some of the events of history may be taught to pupils in their second grade of development. Let these events, for the most part, relate to the United States, or to the State in which the pupil lives. They are the facts of the discoveries, explorations, and settlements made; of the revolutionary and constitutional periods of our history, and facts pertaining to our Civil War. The same topics that will apply to the whole country will apply equally well to each one of the States.

The elements of geography which it is proper to introduce into this grade of instruction include object-lessons that have for their end a training of the pupil to learn from illustrations. They include, also, a knowledge of that which is expressed by geographical terms, and a knowledge of those geographical objects with which it is desirable the pupil should become acquainted.

Elementary lessons on plants, animals, and minerals should direct the attention of the pupil to the parts and qualities of these things, a knowledge of which will enable the learner to compare the different kinds of natural objects for their resemblances and differences, and prepare him for a future classification.

By experiments, made with proper apparatus, those changes in bodies which do not affect their identity, may be presented for an observation of facts in physics, and those changes in bodies that do

affect identity, for facts in chemistry. The facts taught through a reproduction of phenomena by experiments should be such as will be useful for the pupil to know, and such as will be used in scientific study, if the pupil should desire to pursue his work beyond that taken up in the elementary schools.

The third grade of development, that which relates to the special cultivation of the reflective powers, will require the teacher to present the subjects of study already mentioned in their more advanced forms, and finally as sciences. Reading should be taught as a means of gaining information, and of forming a correct taste.

Composition-writing should be taught in accordance with a method. in which the rules of grammar and rhetoric, and some of the prin ciples of logic, may be applied.

The study of numbers passes to the study of arithmetic, and the pupil is taught to apply general principles to the operations of business-life.

Practice in the use of language passes to the study of grammar for the principles of construction.

Geography is taken up as a science. Geographical facts are taught and referred to their causes. A method of classifying plants, minerals, and animals may be taught. Not much time should be spent in this work,-simply time enough to teach a method of classifying. The pupil can use the method after leaving school, and without a teacher. Chemistry and physics may be taken up in a similar way. The laws of health may be taught under the topics Physiology and Hygiene. Penmanship may be taught in connection with written composition, and book-keeping with arithmetic.

If the pupil remains in school through the course marked out for his third stage of development, he may take some lessons in geometry and algebra, and devote some time to the study of ancient and modern languages. As language holds the relation of signs to our knowledge, and is the means by which we preserve our knowledge and communicate it to others, language should be taught and learned in connection with the acquisition of knowledge. All the lessons taught may be called language-lessons; for a complete knowledge of the forms and use of language implies a knowledge of all that which is to be known.

It should be the aim of the teacher in all his teaching to communicate knowledge, by which is meant to lead the pupil to acquire knowledge for himself; to teach a good method of study, and to give a proper training to the whole nature of the child.

The industrial element of education should be introduced in some

form, so as to turn the attention of the pupils toward work while they are passing through the schools, and so as to make it appear most honorable in their eyes. Moral lessons should be constantly given by presenting examples of good conduct, and by calling attention to the moral quality of actions.

Signed by the Committee:

J. W. DICKINSON.

N. A. CALKINS.

D. N. CAMP.

S. S. GREENE.

BEARINGS OF FROEBEL'S WORK.

BY W. N. HAILMANN.

There can be no doubt in the minds of calm observers that foolish exaggerations and extravagant claims concerning the character and nature of Froebel's teachings on the part of over enthusiastic friends, have done much to injure his cause in the eyes of sober, thoughtful people, who, while eager for progress, distrust revolutionary proceedings. A careful study of his teachings in the light of the history of educational thought and practice, will convince the earnest seeker that Froebel is the logical outcome of his time, that he rests firmly and closely on the attainments of his predecessors, that his aims lie fully within the possibilities of the race, and coincide completely with the aims of a rapidly advancing humanity. There is nothing in his teachings that is mystical or mysterious, or so complex that only a few gifted natures can ravel it; nothing that had not been thought of in some cruder form by earnest educators long before he organized the scattered thoughts into a living, beautiful whole.

I need scarcely insist that this intimate connection of Froebel's thought on education with the best thought of all times, this continuity of his work with the best work of the past, instead of lowering his merit, rather proves it and insures its permanence. Is Galileo's glory lessened by the fact that Aristarchus taught nearly 2,000 years before him that the earth moved round the sun? Does the fact that Plato had notions of universal gravitation diminish the noonday light of Newton's discovery? Is our debt of gratitude to the great Watt reduced by the fact that Hero of Alexandria used steam as a motor, or even by the fact that his steam-engine is but an improvement of the Newcomen engine? Or is the name of Herbert Spencer ren dered less illustrious by the speculations of Democrites of Abdera, in which we find a strangely clear insight into the laws of evolution?

Similarly, it is one of the chiefest glories of Froebel's name that his truth is foreshadowed, that his coming is heralded, as it were, by all great thinkers on educational matters from Plato down to Comenius, Rousseau, and Pestalozzi. Confining our view only to the last two, we are struck with the continuity that runs through their work and Froebel's. Rousseau asserts the individuality of man, and bases all education upon it; Pestalozzi teaches that for education, individuality

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