Middle-Class Education. 25 



The means, then, being to a certain degree ready to our hands, 

 let us see how they might be made available. 



To show what might be done with endowed grammar schools, 

 perhaps the best practical course will be to state briefly what in 

 some instances has been done. I will therefore describe a system 

 which has been carried out in one grammar school with which I 

 am connected, and adopted as a model by several other schools 

 of a similar kind. 



On my first appointment to that school, about fourteen years 

 ago, I found that practically it had sunk to the lowest possible 

 ebb. The school Avas represented by a commercial school of the 

 character which I have above described. The system of edu- 

 cation was barelv equal to that of the Avorst kind of parochial 

 school ; it was two centuries at least behind the age, and utterly 

 unsuited to the neighbourhood. 



The first thing to be done, then, Avas to make the study of the 

 dead languages compulsory on no boy Avhose destination in life 

 was to be purely commercial or agricultural. The next step was 

 to introduce a large element of purely English instruction. 

 English grammar, English history, and some acquaintance with 

 English literature, together with a large amount of arithmetic, 

 were made the staple subjects of teaching, and were taught to 

 all boys. 



The study of modern languages Avas next encouraged in CA'ery 

 possible way by offering numerous prizes for proficiency, and by 

 reducing the rates of payment to the smallest possible sum. 

 Shortly after, a master Avas added to the staff for the especial 

 purpose of teaching the elements of natural science. Particular 

 attention Avas paid to chemistry as applied to the useful arts, 

 manufactures, and agriculture ; and a laboratory AA'as constructed, 

 Avith every convenience for enabling boys to carry out practically 

 the lessons they had learned theoretically, particularly Avith 

 regard to agricultural chemistry and the analysis of soils, ma- 

 nures, (Sec. 



In addition to these subjects, book-keeping was taught 

 thoroughly, as also land measuring. " Practical classes " were 

 also formed of senior bovs, Avho, under the superintendence of the 

 natural-philosophy master, Avent out and measured Avith their OAA'n 

 hands all the land in the immediate neighbourhood of the school. 

 The accuracy to which this class attained in a short time was 

 surprising, and many of the neighbouring farmers availed them- 

 scIa'cs of the serA'ices of the boys, for the purpose of ascertaining 

 the area of lands in their holding, AAhich had before been doubtful 

 or disputed. The " mapping out " of these surveys was afterwards 

 most carefully executed. 



Such a system of education, at a \-ery trifling cost, seems to 



