47

E.—lb

English, satisfactory : arithmetic, fair; drawing, good; singing, satisfactory; physical instruction, good; geography, satisfactory; history, satisfactory; mean of compulsory subjects, satisfactory. Additional subjects: Nature-study and science, satisfactory; handwork, satisfactory; geography, satisfactory; history, good; needlework, very good; mean of additional subjects, satisfactory. In explanation of the terms used it may be mentioned that " fair " indicates 50 to 59 per cent, of the attainable marks; "satisfactory," 60 to 67 per cent.; "good," 68 to 75 per cent. ; " very good," 76 to 80 per cent. What we said in our last general report about too easy promotion from Standard IV to Standard V and from Standard V to Standard VI still holds, especially in arithmetic and English, weakness in which continues to press very heavily on the teachers of Standard V and Standard VI in large schools, and to be a hindrance to pleasurable and efficient work in small. The number of schools presenting a Standard VII class continues to decline. In 1905 it was 70; in 1906, 46; and in 1907, 37. Of the thirty-seven classes, seven were absent on examinationday, and six had been instructed only in Standard VI work. The following indicates our judgment of the efficiency of the remaining twenty-four : Very good, 3; good, 6; satisfactory, 7; fair, 7 ; weak, 1. It is probable that, had the absent classes been present, they would have found themselves placed in the category " weak." Our reports on the work done in the secondary classes of the district high schools are given in a separate paper. There is in most of them room for improvement in the treatment of English. We preface our remarks on the subjects of instruction with one or two maxims that seem to us not to be sufficiently respected : In every department of work both teacher and taught should have a clear realisation of the end sought to be attained, and the end should be worthy. A definite aim is necessary to the teacher for purposes of preparation and presentation, and a worthy aim to the pupils for purposes of motive and interest. Without definite aim there is no well-ordered presentation of work, without motive no interest, without interest no adequate stimulus to exertion, without exertion no adequate training. What, for example, is the end sought in the teaching of English? It is to develop capacity to understand and enjoy the expressed thought of others, capacity to express one's own thought adequately in spoken and written speech, and capacity to explore and exploit the accumulated experience of the ages in the language in which it is enshrined in our literature. This is the end to be kept steadily in view by teacher and taught, and the end is worthy. To what extent our methods tend to realise this ideal will appear as we proceed. We say " tend to," for we recognise that with children who leave us at about fourteen the complete realisation of the. ideal is out of the question. Still, unless we reach we shall not grasp, and our grasp will be in proportion to our reach. Reading in the sense of power instantly to associate groups of printed symbols with their spoken sounds is generally good, but reading in the higher sense of associating printed symbols with what they symbolize, though improving, still lags behind what is attainable. Nevertheless, this power is the chief end of teaching the technique of reading. Infinite pains are taken to secure " expressive " reading, but the expression is too often attained not by the personal effort of the children to find by a study of its sense the mode in which a passage should be expressed, but by imitating the too abundant " model reading "of the teacher. A good thing overdone or done out of season may and often does become a bad thing. " Model reading "in moderation is no doubt a good thing, but it should invariably follow the effort of the child to render the sense as he conceives it, and only when the pupil's reading shows misconception of the sense. Understanding withiin the limits of the reader's power must precede interpretation, and therefore the pupil should not be expected to read a passage aloud before he has tried to determine its meaning; and, in the senior classes, this silent preparation for reading aloud will occupy much more time than the actual reading to the teacher. It is, however, useless to tell a pupil to prepare a passage (as many teachers do) without showing him how and what to prepare. The essential elements of good reading are correct pronunciation and distinct enunciation, correct phrasing and emphasis, and such voice-modulation as will express the intellectual or the emotional effect intended to be produced by the thought expressed in the passage set for preparation. Correct pronunciation, distinct enunciation, and suitable voice-modulation will give little trouble if the teacher is careful in his own speech, and insists upon clear and well-expressed utterance in the oral composition of his school. The latter is fundamental, for no one can become a good reader without first learning to express himself well in spoken speech. Correct phrasing and emphasis depend on understanding, the determining factor being the "picture element" or the "idea element" of the passage read. Pause between the mental pictures is the general direction, with the further direction that the length of the pause must be determined by the degree of closeness of connection between the pictures and the massiveness of the pictures. Here the appeal is not to the printed stops, which have little to do with reading, but to the intellect, the child's power to visualise the images symbolized by words and groups of words, and to see them in their relation to each other. When this result is achieved the question of phrasing and emphasis is easily determined, and the child is prepared to read aloud to his teacher —that is, to express aloud in the author's words the meaning or emotion he thinks the author intended them to express. Here and there his interpretation may be wrong; but it is his own, honestly come by and honestly expressed, not a showy pretence, but a genuine intellectual performance. In most schools spelling is very good, but it is generally regarded not as an instrument of written expression, but as an end in itself. Since it is only for the written expression of thought that the forms of words are worth learning, it is surely irrational to make children learn the spelling of words they are unable to use in written expression. The realities of things are more

B—E. Ib.