RESUME OF LECTURES ON EDUCATION, DELIVERED BY C. C. HOWARD, ESQ, F.R.G.S., AT THE NORMAL SCHOOL, CHRISTCHURCH.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 163, 8 February 1878, Page 2

RESUME OF LECTURES ON EDUCATION, DELIVERED BY C. C. HOWARD, ESQ, F.R.G.S., AT THE NORMAL SCHOOL, CHRISTCHURCH.

-• Second Course—Methods of Teaching and Organization. . Lectures IV to Vl.—Subject—Time Tables. Registers and other useful school records. Reading: Preparatory stage; the Alphabet. Methods of teaching. The subjects treated of in : lectures IV. ami V., though very important and useful to the teacher, are nevertheless dry and somewhat uninteresting as themes for the lecturer. Every teacher, to make his work successful, must provide himself with a carefully prepared time table, constructed with a view to the particular features of his school work, the size of his school, and the staff of workers, and having once done so, should not too readily make alterations i in it, or be continually endeavoring to " improve " it. It should be constructed so that the principal subjects, such as Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, may obtain prominence, and follow one another in a regular sequence, and all other subjects of instruction be subordinate in their order of being taught. Teachers should carefully adhere to j.hQ specified work at the specified time, and so accustom the school to regularity and punctuality. Special attention should be paid to any subjects .which-may have been found weak during the Inspector's A'isit. The time table should be neatly drawn up, framed, and hung up in a conspicuous place for continual reference. A thorough system of Registration is indispensable to the proper working of a school. Every school should contain three registers, viz., Admission, Daily, and Summary. Many of the English Registers are very faulty, and ill adapted to the requirements of New Zealand schools, and it is greatly hoped that a New Zealand Register, specially prepared, will supersede those at present provided. Teachers should attach more importance to admissions,- and require parents to enter into an agreement to observe with respect the rules of the school, and co-operate with the teachers

efforts in promoting • the welfare of the children. Mr Howard strongly insisted upon the register being called, and not merely marked, early each morning and afternoon during the working days, in order to promote punctuality among the ■ children. Very great care should be taken to obtain strict averages by dividing the total number of attendances by the total number of half days of school work during the week or the quarter, as the case may be. ' Monthly summaries are preferable to quarterly summaries, and Binns and Cromwell's kind of registers are, perhaps, the best to be obtained to suit our necessities. The use of absentee notes and printed circulars drawing the attention of the parents to their children's irregularity, with formal notifications of dismissal if persisted in, were strongly recommended. Reading.—Two lectures were devoted to this subject, the treatment of which embraced two stages—elementary and advanced. The chief methods which from lime to time have been advocated for teaching reading in its most elementary . stage were dwelt upon, and the merits or demerits of each pointed out. The lecturer allowed that no method would be equally applicable under all circumstances. The old dame's school method was wearisome, uninteresting, and unprofitable, but had the advantage of teaching something without burdening the infant mind. The phonic system, advocated bo strongly by the Edgeworths, aimed at dispensing with the names of.. letters,: and teaching only the sounds they had in, combination. The plan failed.because of the different sounds possessed by the same letter, or the same sound being possessed by different letters, &c, though the idea • itself was good. The " look and say" system, suggested by M. JacotSt, endeavoured to dispense with the alphabet altogether, and teach words and'syllables whole instead of letters, but it was found, impracticable, as an . analysis ,of the words learnt was found necessary, and the ; plan of teaching the alphabet was considered most desirable *as the. first step towards successful instruction •in reading. Two methods of doing this were then dwelt upon — Ist, teaching the use of letters as well as their names; 2nd, combining reading with alphabetical instruction, endeavouring always to make tbo lesson interesting and enjoyable, /./seriea of lessons should be prepay,.'dealing prominently with one sound. Th& words should be first taught as wholes, the children repeating them after their teachers. Pupils should be led to recognise the similarity in sounds and in forms existing , between different letters. Another method which has often been found useful and interesting, ia to teach, the rowels and straightlinedd letters first, commencing* c with those letters formed with one and tw& lines only, as I r L, T, which, wheti should be formed into words and phrases. These can be easily drawn upon the blackboard, and combined into simple easy words, and afford valuable interesting lessons before being increased by others. All the letters of the alphabet may thus be taught gradually, : not in the usual alphabetical order, but in choosing those most simply made, and affording theeasiest combination into words, and the rapid propress of the child, in the art of reading, made almost certain. Mr Ho%yard , recommended " Cassell's Reading Sheets!,"',. Jarrold's " Learning to Read," and " Read-' ing Disentangled." by, the. Home,, and Colonial School Society. The subject of the next lecture was Reading, in its more advanced stages.