THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 19 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

 LECTURES ON TEACHING, 



Delivered in the University of Cambridge in the Lent Term, 1880. 

 By J. G. FlTCH, M.A., Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools. 

 Crown 8vo. cloth. New Edition. 6s. 



" The lectures will be found most in- the teacher's aim and life pure and good . . . 



teresting, and deserve to be carefully studied, The volume is one of great practical value, 



not only by persons directly concerned with It should be in the hands of every teacher, 



instruction, but by parents who wish to be and of every one preparing for the office of a 



able to exercise an intelligent judgment in teacher. There are many besides these who 



the choice of schools and teachers for their will find much in it to interest and instruct 



children. For ourselves, we could almost them, more especially parents who have chil- 



wish to be of school age again, to learn dren whom they can afford to keep at school 



history and geography from some one who till their eighteenth or nineteenth year." 



could teach them after the pattern set by Tlie Nonconformist and Independent. 



Mr Fitch to his audience But perhaps "As principal of a training college and as 



Mr Fitch's observations on the general con- a Government inspector of schools, Mr Fitch 

 ditions of school-work are even more im- has got at his fingers' ends the working of 

 portant than what he says on this or that primary education, while as assistant corn- 

 branch of study." Saturday Reiriew. missioner to the late Endowed Schools Com- 



" It comprises fifteen lectures, dealing mission he has seen something of the ma- 



with such subjects as organisation, discipline, chinery of our higher schools. . . . Mr 



examining,langua'ge, fact knowledge, science, Fitch's book covers so wide a field and 



and methods of instruction; and though the touches on so many burning questions that 



lectures make no pretention to systematic or we must be content to recommend it as the 



exhaustive treatment, they yet leave very best existing vade niecum for the teacher, 



little of the ground uncovered; and they . . . He is always sensible, always judicious, 



combine in an admirable way the exposition never wanting in tact. . . . Mr Fitch is a 



of sound principles with practical suggestions scholar; he pretends to no knowledge that 



and illustrations which are evidently derived he does not possess; he brings to his work 



from wide and varied experience, both in the ripe experience of a well- stored mind, 



teaching and in examining. While Mr Fitch and he possesses in a remarkable degree the 



addresses himself specially to secondary art of exposition." Pall Mall Gazette. 

 school-masters, he does not by any means "In his acquaintance with all descrip- 



disregard or ignore the needs of the primary tions of schools, their successes and their 



school." Scotsman. shortcomings, Mr Fitch has great advantages 



"It would be difficult to find a lecturer both in knowledge and experience ; and if his 



better qualified to discourse upon the prac- work receives the attention it deserves, it 



tical aspects of the teacher's work than Mr will tend materially to improve and equalize 



Fitch. He has had very wide and varied the methods of teaching in our schools, to 



experience as a teacher, a training college whatever class they may belong." St 



officer, an Inspector of schools, and as James's Gazette. 



Assistant Commissioner to the late En- " In no other work in the English language, 



dowed Schools Commission. While it is so far as we know, are the principles and 



difficult for anyone to make many original methods which most conduce to successful 



remarks on this subject Mr Fitch is able to teaching laid down and illustrated with such 



speak with authority upon various contro- precision and fulness of detail as they are 



verted points, and to give us the results of here." Leeds Mercury, 

 many years' study, corrected by the obser- " The book is replete with practical 



vation of the various schemes and methods sagacity, and contains on almost all points 



pursued in schools of all grades and cha- of interest to the teaching profession sug- 



racters." The Schoolmaster. gestive remarks resting evidently on a wide 



"All who are interested in the manage- and thoughtful experience of school methods, 



ment of schools, and all who have made the There are few teachers who will not find 



profession of a teacher the work of their lives, aids to reflection in the careful analysis of 



will do well to study with care these results the qualities required for success in teaching, 



of a large experience and of wide observa- in the admirable exposition of the value of 



tion. It is not, we are told, a manual of orderly, methodical arrangement both for 



method ; rather, we should say, it is that instruction and discipline, and in the pains- 



and much more. As a manual of method taking discussion of school punishments 



it is far superior to anything we, have seen. contained in the earlier section of the 



Its suggestions of practical means and me- volume. . . . We recommend it in all con- 



thods are very valuable; but it has an ele- fidence to those who are interested in the 



ment which a mere text-book of rules for problems with which the teaching profession 



imparting knowledge does not contain. Its has to deal." Galignani's Messenger. 

 tone is lofty ; its spirit religious ; its ideal of 



London; Cambridge Warehouse, 17 Paternoster Row, 



