it is because, while I feel how important it is, as one of the best means of making the elementary school a really civilizing institution, I fear that it is much more common to neglect this rule of having lessons prepared at home, than it ought to be. A very great responsibility rests upon inspectors and managers of schools in this generation. It is in their power to secure, at all events in the case of a vast number of elementary schools, throughout the country, that the habit of study shall be introduced into the homes of the labouring class, by insisting on this method of teaching subjects, such as history and geography, which are suitable for such home study. If the inspectors insist, at their annual inspection, and at their visits without notice, that subjects which can be, shall be taught in this manner in the schools of their districts, and if School Boards and managers of voluntary schools support the inspectors in this matter, the practice will soon become general.

54. The Text-book to be learnt by the Children, and amplified by the Teacher.-As he passes catechetically through the portion of history which his class has prepared from the text-book, the teacher will lose no opportunity of correcting and amplifying the brief narrative of the text-book, and of bringing out from his stores new details and things of interest, which shall breathe a life and reality into the subject. Most class textbooks treat of little but wars and insurrections, battles and sieges, and brief characters of kings and queens. The teacher will introduce to the children's notice, while questioning them on what they find in their text-book, things which they do not find there; the lives, characters and works of

persons less conspicuous than kings and queens; the inventions, the arts, and the literature of the period; the social condition of various classes, and many other matters which may tend to make the children think, and may destroy ignorant prejudices. He will dwell particularly on any period of the history, or any events, in which the men of the county or town in which the school is situated have played a prominent part, or in which the town, village, or neighbourhood of the school was the scene of action; and will encourage the children, as far as possible, to notice carefully the topography of any country in which they may find themselves living or travelling, and to try and associate its features with events which have happened there. But it will not be till he has questioned the children thoroughly on the text which they have prepared that he will give them anything like a lecture or a connected narrative.

I

55. Dates must be learnt by the Children.— Besides requiring the children to read over, and, as far as possible, to prepare for him the period of history on which the lesson is to be, the teacher will insist on their learning the leading dates. am aware that many teachers pooh-pooh dates, and maintain that it is a waste of time to make children learn them; but I cannot agree with this view. The doctrine that dates need not be learnt is a consequence of the reaction against the old-fashioned method of teaching history, which used to be pursued in many schools and families, by making the children learn little else than dates. This method, of course, was unsatisfactory enough; but the contrary method of not requiring the children to learn any dates at all is quite as unsatisfactory.

Dates are to the study of history what the multiplication-table is to arithmetic. They are an essential frame-work on which to build up, and keep sustained, all the scholar's historical learning, without which much of what he reads and hears will always be unmeaning and unfruitful. And dates, like the multiplication-table, should be acquired in childhood, while the memory is still vigorous and retentive. Some system of memoria technica for dates, metrical or otherwise, should be used in every school in which history is taught, and should be frequently recited in the upper part of the school just in the same way in which the multiplication-table is recited in the lower classes.

56. Summary of Points in a History Lesson. -Bearing in mind, then, these general principles as applicable to the teaching of history in elementary schools, the inspector, in proceeding to hear the history lesson of the assistant-master (see § 20), will consider, in addition, of course, to those points upon which I have already dwelt in speaking of the lessons given by the pupil-teachers (see § 21), so far as such points are applicable to the case of a history lesson, such points as the following, viz. :—

First, whether the lesson is catechetical, or merely a lecture.

Secondly, whether any and what system is adopted for making the children well versed in dates.

Thirdly, whether the children appear to have prepared well for the lesson, and whether the results of such preparation are well drawn out from them by the teacher; and,

Fourthly, whether the teacher has carefully prepared the lesson, and shown resource in such preparation.

And if the assistant-master was not a pupilteacher in this school, but passed his apprenticeship in some other school, the inspector will note carcfully any differences which may be observable in his manner of teaching, and make them a matter of favourable or unfavourable comment to the principal teacher when speaking privately to him at the close of the day's work.

He

57. Close of the Inspection.-The inspector has now, at half-past two, gone through all the inspection of the school properly so-called. has heard and criticized the teaching of the whole of the staff of teachers, except the principal teacher; he has noted the discipline and order of the school, and, by his observations, combined with a study of the log-book, he has made himself acquainted with the whole system pursued in the school. He has taken careful notes, which he can amplify as soon as he has leisure, and which he can compare with his notes of last year, and with those of other schools. By making a programme of proceedings in his own mind he has got through the maximum of work with the minimum waste of time, and, so far as the business of inspection is concerned, he is now in a position to report to the Education Department, and to discuss the school with the staff. The only part of the work of inspection as distinguished from examination, which he has not done, is the conference with the teachers. There remains, therefore, now, the examination of the scholars to be effected; and, on the hypothesis with which I started-that, while he is engaged in inspecting the boys' school, his assistant is examining the girls' school in the elementary subjects, and that he will have the next

day to give to inspection of the girls' school, while his assistant is engaged in examining the boys school in elementary subjects-he proceeds next, after hearing the lessons of the teachers, to examine the school in geography, grammar, and history (see Appendix I.), and to conduct so much of the examination of the scholars in the upper part of the school in the higher subjects (see Appendix II.) as there is time for.

58. Examination of the School in higher subjects: Advantage of conducting it Orally.-An inspector who is thoroughly conversant with these subjects (Appendix II.) will generally avoid written examinations, and will examine in them orally as much as possible; because he can cover much more ground in a much shorter space of time by means of an oral than of a written examination; because he can, in an oral examination, have the advantage of making the teachers take a part in it; and also because he can, by means of an oral examination, set the teachers an example of the right course to be pursued in handling a subject. But, then, in order to make such an oral examination really valuable and effective, the inspector should not only possess in himself the qualifications for handling a class which he expects to find in the teachers, and be in fact himself a good practical teacher, but he should also be thoroughly conversant with the subjects in which he is to examine. It is by no means sufficient that he should have such a general knowledge of modern geography, English grammar, and English history as is ordinarily possessed by an educated English gentleman. He should have gone more thoroughly into the matter than this. He should not only have