SUBJECTS AND METHODS OF SECONDARY SPECIAL INSTRUCTION.

PRIMARY INSTRUCTION in France embraces moral and religious instruction, reading, writing, the elements of the French language, the four fundamental rules of arithmetic, and system of weights and measures. Some schools add to these elements a little geography, sacred history, and the measurement of the simplest plane figures, but these schools are in very small number, and the supplementary instruction which they impart is taken in by a few select pupils only. A child would, therefore, run the risk of not being able to follow with profit the new course of instruction, if, on leaving the primary school, he were at once to enter the first year's course in the special school. It will, therefore, be proper to institute, wherever there is such a school, a preparatory section, in which, in addition to having the instruction received in the primary school more firmly impressed on the mind, the children shall study one modern language, a little geometry, and linear drawing, which is in reality the practical carrying out of the course of geometry. During this year, the pupils, whithersoever they may come, who will form the preparatory section, will be fused into a homogeneous whole, because they will acquire knowledge almost uniform, and good scholars will be secured to the first normal course of special instruction.

PREPARATORY SECTION.

SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION.

French dictation and reading....

Modern languages..

History of France, (simple narratives).

Geography: tracing of the map of the Department, and summary
study of France...

Mathematics: exercises in calculation and commencement of plane
geometry...

Natural history, (preliminary notions)..

Dictation and Reading.-The instruction in French grammar should be limited to repeating the paradigms, the declinations, and the conjugations. As to the syntax, that is to say the synthetical laws which rule the language, the master should merely point out the practical rules each time an opportunity occurs, avoiding all abstract formulas, which children have great difficulty in retaining, which they understand imperfectly, and which they forget speedily.

At the age of twelve or thirteen the child has already mastered, by use, the natural grammar of the rules of which he is ignorant, though, without knowing it, he daily applies the most important of them. In order to enable him to make enlightened practical use of the language, it will be sufficient to draw out, as it were, this natural grammar, and to engrave insensibly and without effort on the mind of the pupil, principles and rules, which he will more readily retain, because he has in a manner found them for himself, and understood them by himself.

The principal exercises will be dictations and reading. Select passages from history, ethics, mythology, natural history, should be dictated to the pupils, and

explained by the master, with reference to the meaning of the contents and of the words. These passages should be short, simple, and consisting of ideas clearly defined and circumscribed within the limits of one or two lines. Imme diately after the dictation the pupils should exchange their copy-books, and after having reciprocally corrected them, they should deliver them to the master, who should return them the next day, after having noted in the margin the errors committed by the pupil who has written the copy, as well as by the one who has corrected it.

The dictations should occupy the first part of the lesson, the second part should be devoted to reading, which is an important study, inasmuch as only that which is well understood can be well read; it is besides very useful in the ordinary course of life to be able to read aloud intelligently, distinctly, and with taste. Besides, in special instruction the reading of a French passage is to hold the same place, and is to be of the same service, as the expounding of a Latin or Greek passage in the classical schools.

The professor should himself read out aloud a well-chosen extract, should explain it so as to make the pupils well understand the ideas of the author and their sequence; should point out the most important passages, and the most striking expressions, and should deduct from them the principles of orthography, and some grammatical rules. At the conclusion the pupils should be made sometimes to read the same passages, sometimes to repeat from memory the principal thoughts contained in them, as also of the commentaries on them made by the master.

he task to be prepared for the next lesson should be the reproduction in writing, and always from memory, of the passages that have been read and explained, to which the pupils must endeavor to add, unaided, the thoughts to which the extract would naturally give rise. The length of this task should be in proportion to the amount of time at disposal, in order that it may be, not only an exercise in composition, but also in orthography and in caligraphy.

MODERN LANGUAGES.

The study of languages ought to commence early, because the memory of children retains words with great facility. The method to be followed is the maternal method, which is practiced with so much success in Germany, and in Switzerland, and which is being introduced in the lycées; little or no grammar, except perhaps the paradigms, but a great deal of oral practice; after this, sentences dictated by the master, and written on a blackboard by a pupil, who should at the same time translate them; further on, anecdotes should be learnt by heart, and repeated aloud, a few passages should be read aloud by one pupil, and immediately translated into French by his fellow-pupils; subjects should be given in French, and be treated in the language which is being learnt; finally, when the pupils are sufficiently advanced, they should converse in that language with the master, being strictly forbidden to use one word of French.

During the very first lessons the pupils may become possessed of elements sufficient to form short sentences. With the two articles, the two verbs "to be" and "to have," some nouns and adjectives, the number of which would increase with each lesson, the practice of the foreign language may commence.

The professor ought never to forget that he may also extend the knowledge of the children, and contribute to develop their faculties by the selection of

thoughts and facts which be may combine with the study of a language. From the very commencement he ought to introduce into conversation (which is to be the usual form of his lessons) details borrowed from history, commerce, geography, industry, sciences, natural history, etc. The study of a language be comes thus not only a study of words, but a study of things; and the words penetrate into the mind of the pupil with the facts calculated to awaken his interest, and to furnish an incitement to his curiosity. The memory is not alone called into play, as would be the case by the abstract study of grammar, which is not suited to children, whose intelligence ought to be stimulated by a first sight of things belonging to the outward world, and whose nascent powers of thought ought to be fortified by concrete notions, the causes of which they will afterwards seek for with eager curiosity.

HISTORY OF FRANCE.

Simple Narratives.—Everybody knows how fond children are of listening to narratives, to the accounts of hunting or traveling adventures, of storms and battles. They wish them to be repeated; they follow the story with inexhaustible interest, and if the narrator forgets the smallest incident, they at once call him back to the accuracy of the first narration. Availing himself of this natural curiosity to develop at one and the same time the moral and the intellectual capacities of his pupils, a skillful teacher well knows how, by means of the study of history, to exercise a most salutary influence on their intellect and their heart, at an age when the agitating events of life have not yet disturbed the calm transparency of the soul. But, if this double result is to be ob tained, the study must be made interesting, pleasant, animated, and consequently the system of textual rehearsals must be abandoned. A course of history for children of the age referred to, is not to be a critical course. It should consist of isolated facts and detached biographies, which the master should narrate with simplicity, but with art, taking care to give great prominence to the noble qualities of the celebrated characters, and to leave in the shade their faults and their vices. He should not fear to enter into minute details, for these interest children; but he should dwell on the grand traits that will strike their imaginations, and leave a deep impression; finally, he should wind up with some good thoughts, which will by degrees form in the hearts of the pupils a fund, as it were, of practical morality.

In order to accustom the pupils to connect their thoughts, and to speak fluently, the master should, during the lesson, make them repeat his narrative aloud; in order to accustom them to express themselves in writing, he should request them to write a short abstract of the narrative, in which they ought not to omit the observations to which it has given rise. This abstract should, as has already been mentioned, serve at one and the same time as a writing copy, and as an exercise in spelling.

GEOGRAPHY.

Tracing of the map of the department, and summary of the Geography of France,-Instead of beginning with definitions and general considerations of the form of the earth, and the divisions of the globe, the pupils should in this, as in the grammar lesson, proceed from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the complex; should start from their village in order to arrive at a knowledge of the entire globe, studying first the geography of the canton, the

arrondissement, the department, then of the whole of France, and then of the surrounding countries.

The teacher, setting aside all scientific data, should endeavor to make his pupils understand how a geographical map is really constructed, and what is its use. For this purpose he should trace upon the blackboard the largest streets in the village, or the town in which the school is situated, and should mark with a dot the relative positions of the principal buildings. Then, representing the town itself by a dot, he should place in their respective positions the surrounding villages, beginning with those best known, and going on successively, till the limits of the canton be reached. He should indicate by lines the different roads leading to them, the rivers that run past them, and should fill up his outlines by introducing the most important or remarkable buildings, or the physical features of the country, such as woods or forests, hills or mountains.

Next, the canton should be represented by a dot, as the village was in the first instance, and around this dot should be traced the outlines and features of the arrondissement. The same method should be applied, but with fewer details, to the department, and then to the neighboring departments, and finally to the whole of France, which should then be studied in its ensemble. The principle traits of its general configuration; boundaries and mountains, rivers and watercourses, great cities and celebrated places, should be marked on the blackboard, or shown on a wall map, which the pupils should be exercised in reducing.

To these graphic studies the master should add practice in finding the points of the horizon, which is indispensable for understanding a map thoroughly. He should teach the pupils to find the points by the sun, by the polar star, or the compass; should point out that on maps and charts, the north is generally represented at the top, the east on the right hand side, the west on the left, the south at the bottom, &c. To such purely graphical exercises the course of geography in the preparatory division should be limited.

MATHEMATICS.

The instruction herein consists during the preparatory year far more in practical exercises than in theoretical lessons; all the pupils execute simultaneously on the slate with which they are furnished, the calculations and graphic operations indicated by the master.

Practical Arithmetic.-The four operations by whole and decimal numbers; numerous exercises in mental calculation; application of calculations to the solution of ordinary questions. As tasks, some problems.

Plane Geometry.—1. The straight line.-Drawing a straight line on paper; means of verifying whether a rule is quite straight; use of the metre. Drawing a straight line of a certain length; means used by carpenters for drawing straight lines on beams which they have squared; drawing a straight line on land (sur le terrain); how gardeners, trenchers, masons, &c., draw straight lines; proceedings employed in making plans and surveys; the surveyor's chain, &c., &c.

2. The Circumference of the Circle.-Drawing the circumference, use of the compass, examples of circles, wagon-wheels, millstones, &c., examples of semicircles, the arcades of many buildings, two circumferences of equal radius

or equal diameter are alike, &c., division of the circumference into degrees, example, the dial of watches, &c.

3. Angles.-Use of the protractor, its verification, relation of two angles, angles opposed at the summit, &c.; to make two equal angles, application to drawings, to the plans of architects, &c.

4. Perpendiculars and Obliques.—Drawing of perpendiculars with the simple square, the T, and the compass, to raise a perpendicular on the middle of a plane, carpenter's and stone-cutter's square, joiner's and designer's square, their verification, each point of a perpendicular in the middle of a plane is at an equal distance from the two extremities of the plane, &c., oblique lines (obliques), at equal distances from the foot of the perpendicular, drawing equal obliqe angles (obliques égales), unequal oblique angles, verification of the perpendicularity of a straight line by means of equal oblique angles, &c.

5. Parallels.-Drawing parallels with the help of rule, square, and compass, two straight lines perpendicular to a third are parallels, to draw through a given point a parallel to a given straight line, &c, the instrument for measuring tenons, its use, and its verification, equality of alternate internal angles and alternate external angles.

6. Proportionality of Straight Lines (des droites).—To divide a given straight line into a certain number of equal parts. Construction of the scale of a plan, a fourth proportionate to three straight lines, the compass of proportion, its use, proportional mean, &c.

Before commencing the explanation of theorems, the master should make the pupils understand the truth which he is about to establish, by quoting numerous examples from industry or the arts, and by the side of each proposition he should always place the most useful applications which have been made of it.

NATURAL HISTORY.

Preliminary notions. It is from nature that industry and art draw their means of action; natural history addresses itself to all minds, as to all ages, and to nearly every profession, a taste for it should, therefore, be given to children at an early age.

This science may be taught in various ways, but it should never be forgotten that in the special school the object is not to form consummate anatomists, learned geologists, or botanists and zoologists acquainted with the entire nomenclature and all the problems of physiology, but men who, meaning to devote themselves to the intelligent culture of practical affairs, and the industrial arts, have a great interest in learning to observe correctly, and to fix their attention seriously on the processes of nature.

In order to develop the powers of observation of the children, the master should induce them to avail themselves of their walks to collect insects, plants, shells, and other like objects. He should devote two or three of the class hours each month to the examination and classification of these little collections, and should add a few explanatory remarks within the comprehension of the pupils. He should insist on the logical use of certain characteristics for determining the objects, and thus gradually and practically familiarize the children with the use of the natural methods; finally, he should endeavor to habituate them to reason correctly according to the facts which they have well studied, and always to submit their reasoning to the test of experience.