28o 



NATURE 



{Jan. 19, 



from those who superintend their work. It is not easy to 

 say whether this poor teaching or defective early training 

 is at the root of the evil. It is worthy of remark that the 

 metropolitan candidates, in their answers to the questions 

 on Euclid, far surpass their provincial competitors. Many 

 amazing blunders are quite common in the algebra papers, 

 ■such as subtracting the terms of the numerator from 

 those of the denominator, and completely ignoring the 

 signs, and it is stated that the pupil-teachers at Chester 

 at the end of their apprenticeship were unable to work a 

 simple sum in algebra or to write out an easy proposition 

 Mr. Fitch has a very able report on the Training Colleges 

 for schoolmistresses, and from him it is plain that the 

 same defects exist among the female as among the male 

 pupil-teachers. At the admission examination the work 

 in the arithmetic is satisfactory in point of accuracy, but 

 it displays want of method, failure to appreciate the 

 meaning of the question asked, and ignorance of princi- 

 ples. Thus very few of the candidates were able to give 

 an intelligent explanation of simple arithmetical processes, 

 such as subtraction or division. With them, as with the 

 male pupil-teachers, book-work and memory are wholly 

 relied on, and little attention is paid to the intelligent 

 application of principles. "Scarcely three per cent, are 

 able to do much more in the teaching of arithmetic than 

 work sums more or less correctly on the black-board." 



With such material to work on, it is not surprising that 

 the results of the work at the colleges are not what they 

 otherwise might be. Those who are below the average 

 at admission rarely succeed very well in the array of 

 subjects to be learnt in two years' training. With regard 

 to the male students the reports at the close of the first 

 year's training record that the answering of the questions 

 set on the first book of Euclid was disappointing. The 

 students appear to have learnt their propositions by rote, 

 and to have displayed great want of neatness and accuracy. 

 Though the riders were joined to the propositions on which 

 their solution depended, and though all these riders were 

 easy, very few of the papers were satisfactory. This 

 inability to solve the easiest geometrical deductions is 

 commented on again and again, and proves beyond doubt 

 that either the students are negligently taught, or that they 

 commit the book-work to memory without understanding 

 it, and consequently are quite incapable of applying their 

 knowledge to solve the simplest riders. The report 

 for the second year is rather better ; few candidates 

 answered very well, and few answered badly, and the 

 majority made a fair percentage of marks ; but the same 

 inability to apply their knowledge to the solution of easy 

 deductions in Euclid is recorded. With regard to the 

 answering in algebra and mensuration, there is nothing 

 noticeable except that some students show a discreditable 

 ignorance of the most fundamental questions, while the 

 papers were generally satisfactory. 



Summing up the results of the working of our male 

 Training Colleges, Mr. Oakeley gives it as his opinion that 

 the students are over-lectured at some of the colleges, 

 and that the lectures are mechanically reproduced, and 

 transferred as closely as possible to the examination 

 papers. This, of course, is due to the defective early 

 training of the students, and to lectures injudiciously 

 delivered on subjects about which students know abso- 

 lutely nothing. For instance, one lecturer delivered a very 

 excellent discourse on the corrupt form of Latin used by 

 the Roman soldiers in Britain, its causes and its effects, 

 to a class of which few, if any, of the members knew 

 anything whatever of Latin. Mr. Oakeley also points 

 out one of the greatest defects in the present system of 

 training pupil-teachers when he says that as a rule pupil- 

 teachers see but one school at work ; they have no 

 opportunity of comparing the mode of teaching in other 

 schools. This is, however, obviated at Homerton, and 

 partly at Durham, by visiting neighbouring schools during 

 school-hours. 



The reports of the examiners on the progress made by 

 the students of the female Training Colleges tell us that in 

 arithmetic, questions on theory and principles are not well 

 done ; long problems are inaccurately done, and, as a 

 whole, it is seen that there is yet much remains before 

 it can be said that our present system is satisfactory as 

 regards the knowledge given and the methods adopted. 

 There appears to be among the students a very narrow 

 view of their future work, a desire to regard the obtaining 

 of their certificates as the goal and aim of their existence. 

 The views on science of one of these maidens is worth 

 recording : — "If I am successful in obtaining my certificate, 

 I intend (D.V.) going in for two sciences. At the same 

 time I propose attending a tonic sol-fa class to get my 

 advanced certificate. Should the two sciences ' sound, 

 light, and heat,' and ' electricity and magnetism ' prove a 

 success, I shall probably take up the science of hygiene." 

 If the Training Colleges tend to remove the impression 

 that the technical qualification is the end of the pupil- 

 teacher's work, if they awaken a spirit of emulation among 

 the students, and enable them to teach more thoroughly 

 and intelligently, then they will have fulfilled a large 

 portion of their duties. 



This being the stuff of which our elementary teachers 



are made, let us now glance at the reports of the work 



done in the schools under their guidance. With masters 



the majority of whom know little or nothing of even the 



elements of science the pupils cannot be expected to 



pass well in these subjects. Thus it is seen in the return 



of the number of pupils sent up on "specific subjects" 



(most of which are scientific), that only i6*5i of those 



eligible for examination have been so examined, and of 



these nearly one-half were from the London School Board 



District. One-half of the passes were in algebra and 



animal physiology. By a new arrangement the ten chief 



inspectors present biennial reports, five each year, and in 



the present volume the five divisions reported on are : 



the North-Eastern, the North Central, the Eastern, 



the South- Western, and Wales. All these agree that, 



with the exception of some of the cities and large towns, 



throughout the elementary schools science is untaught. 



This we can well imagine, when we have seen that the 



average teacher is completely ignorant of any of its 



branches, and it is the average teacher who is sent to 



the country schools. The explanation of some of the 



inspectors, that in the country for a great portion of the 



year the attendance of the children who are fit to be 



taught these subjects is very irregular, does not meet the 



question ; for, even were the children most regular in their 



attendance, the subjects could not at present be taught, 



and until our average elementary teacher is altered they 



will not be taught. Following the individual reports 



on the subject, we find in the North-Eastern Division 



that arithmetic is accurately but unintelligently studied. 



So utterly mechanical is the teaching that in many 



schools mental arithmetic is regarded as a separate 



subject, and not as the adjunct and preliminary of all 



arithmetic. Having seen the complaints made by the 



examiners of the quality of the study of the pupil-teachers, 



it could only be expected that the same defects would 



show themselves in the scholars under their charge. 



Elementary science is unknown in the North-Eastern 



schools, except in Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Newcastle, 



and Sunderland, where algebra and animal physiology 



are taken up with fair results. But the inspector remarks 



that physiology is seldom so taught as to be of any 



practical benefit, and in the teaching of algebra there is 



a great want of thoroughness. In the North-Central 



Division, specific subjects are seldom taken ; and about 



one-half the pupils sent up for examination on them 



passed. These subjects, taking them in the order of the 



number of pupils sent up on each, are algebra, magnetism 



and electricity, physiology, agriculture, and mechanics. In 



this division " arithmetic is always the most unsatisfactory 



