E.—lb.

Act, and the number of appointments should now return to the normal. Further results of the Act are that the number of pupil-teachers has been considerably reduced, and that in some schools the staffs have been weakened owing to an undue proportion of the pupil-teachers being of the lowest grade. Except in handwork, the work of the year shows no marked advance on that of previous years, nor in any subject was there a very noticeable falling-off. In a few schools the object lessons received more rational treatment; and I was pleased to see that the text-books that have from time to time been recommended are displacing the older unsatisfactory ones, though the extreme conservatism of some of the teachers is very astonishing. At the visits to the schools I found that many teachers seemed not to have seen the clause in last year's report which stated that " when giving a syllabus of work undertaken in science, teachers will be required to hand in also a list of experiments performed, and a large proportion of the questions will be on these." I recommend teachers to read "Notes of Lessons on the Herbartian Method," by M. Fennell (Longmans, Green, and Co.), for they will there find many valuable hints and suggestions as to placing the lessons before the pupils in a more presentative manner than is generally adopted. For methods in science I recommend " A Graduated Course of Natural Science," by Loewy, and "Elementary Physics and Chemistry," by Gregory and Simmons (both published by Macmillan and Co.) ; but the procedure and methods exemplified in these books are applicable also to the whole range of school-work. And this brings me to a defect very common in the general instruction given in schools : it is too didactic, and not " heuristic " —an addition to educational terminology which has met with general approval and acceptance as expressing, probably better than did " inductives," the modern ideas as to what teaching should be. No doubt Archimedes' cry of " Eureka ! Eureka ! " suggested the term ; and though we hear it used most frequently in connection with modern methods of teaching science, the method by which a child is led to discover the truth for himself is applicable to every lesson. Take, for instance, lessons in the reading-books, which in very slight degree seem to lend themselves to this method. Many of the lessons are illustrated by pictures by means of which much of the subject-matter can be taught heuristically. I will give an instance. In one of the lower reading-books there is a lesson on " sugar." In the matter we are told the kind of climate best suited to the cultivation of the cane, the height of the cane, about its being cut down, and so on. As the lesson proceeds one teacher may note essential points on the blackboard, recapitulate these at the close of the lesson, and adopt the usual devices for impressing the memory. A better teacher will see that all this can be taught heuristically and without any cram. Before the lesson is read the pupils would, if possible, be shown a piece of sugar-cane, and would be asked to state what they see in the picture. They see that (1) the workmen are dark-coloured, and pupils " discover" that the cane grows in hot countries; (2) the cane is between two and three times the height of a man, and therefore the height of the cane is " discovered " ; (3) the tops are cut off and thrown aside, therefore it is "discovered" that they do not contain the sweet sap; (4) the stems are cut into pieces and made into bundles, and therefore it is " discovered" that they have to be conveyed some distance (to mill or factory); (5) the canes grow in regular rows, and therefore it is " discovered " that they have to be planted and attended to, and so on—the pupils " discovering " nearly the whole of the matter of the reading lesson, the teacher, being a philosopher, serving merely as a guide to the effort. There can be no similarity between the educational values of the two methods contrasted. In the first case the teacher finds the lesson difficult, and, though he works hard and does his best, he is not satisfied with the result; the pupils find the lesson irksome, and cannot remember the matter ; and both teacher and pupils would prefer that at the examination that lesson were not chosen by the Inspector. In the second case the teacher does not find the lesson fatiguing, for there has been no necessity for " working hard," as is said, and he knows that his lesson has made similar lessons in the book easier to deal with; the pupils do not find the lesson irksome—indeed, they are interested ; and if at the examination the Inspector questions on the lesson he can tell immediately that there has been no cram in the treatment. Not only in such lessons as I have described, but also in all lessons, do many teachers " work hard," feeling quite worn out at the end of the day, and yet feeling that the educational results are not satisfactory, and are not commensurate with the energy expended. They fancy they are teaching—in reality they are not, the fault lying in the way the work is done. The art of teaching lies in making the pupils do the work, or, as I have so frequently told the pupil-teachers at their criticism lessons, "in doing only so much as will enable the pupils to discover the truth for themselves." This is brought about by skilful questioning ; and if a teacher be skilful in questioning, and can use his blackboards well, there should be no hesitancy in predicting as to what should be his measure of success. But in the use of the blackboards there is much room for improvement, for very seldom are they really well used. There is not a lesson in which the board cannot be made of the greatest assistance, yet I have seen lesson after lesson of half an hour's duration and the board has not once been used. Any point that requires to be strongly emphasized should be written down, explained, and recapitulated at the close of the lesson. What is heard is not so well remembered as what is seen, but if both the ear and the eye are utilised the impression is correspondingly deeper, and is rendered still more so by the recapitulation, without which no lesson should be concluded. A few of the infant teachers use the boards very skilfully during the object lessons, but in geography, science, &c, the efforts are often very disappointing. Again, many lessons are not educative because the teacher omits to derive from them generalisations, or to formulate general principles that in other similar lessons will be of value to the pupil. Not only so, but the opportunity for valuable mental training is lost, for the pupil is not led to reason from one thing to another, and, though he may have been instructed—not educated—in any isolated fact, at the end of the lesson he is mentally no better equipped than he was at the beginning. Take an example, a lesson in elementary composition. The following sentences have to be combined in one: " John walked to the railway station, John's sister walked with him. His

2—E. Ib.

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